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A Song of Ice and Fire

2022-09-27T04:08:16Z

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[[image:Game_of_Thrones_Title-DVD.png|300px|thumb|WIENER PARTY! WIENER PARTY!]]

{{Spoilers}}
{{Grimdark}}
{{Sick|Among other things, the books can barely go ten pages without having another rape.}}
'''Warning: This article contains so many spoilers we're ruining books that haven't even been released yet.'''

{{Topquote|If you think this story has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.|Ramsay Bolton, nailing the grimdark theme of this series}}

{{Topquote|It matters not from whence the blood flows. Only that it flows.|George RR Martin, Exalted Champion of Khorne when explaining why so many characters get offed}}

'''''A Song of Ice and Fire''''' (more better known as '''''Game of Thrones''''') is a [[Grimdark]] fantasy book series for people who hate fantasy, or at the very least, have gotten their fill of Tolkien pretenders and want something more "distinct". Its central themes include [[Tzeentch|political Machiavellian scheming]], [[Khorne|ultraviolence]], [[Slaanesh|incest/sex with exposition/tons of rape]], and [[Nurgle|everyone trying to survive in such a Crapsack World of perpetual suffering]]. There is also lots and lots of food. Thus it has become one of the most popular series of our generation and its author, [[George R. R. Martin]], has been praised for his highly realized world and gritty low fantasy style. He was even called "the American [[Tolkien]]" by <s>Time magazine</s> gormless idiots who lump diametrically different writers together for no other reason than that they're both fantasy authors, which would probably explain its sudden spike in popularity following the TV show (at least [[Skub|to a point, anyway.]]) The great joke of an actual World War veteran writing fantasy about heroic knights and elves being compared to and contrasted with a conscientious objector who writes edgy fantasy is not lost on most (though its worth mentioning that Martin is as much of a Tolkien buff as any of us, meaning that he didn't write the series as a "fuck you" to Tolkien's work as some might assume).

The series itself is set on the [[Original character, do not steal|totally not medieval European ripoff]] realm of Westeros as it is wracked by a massive succession war drawing its realms into conflict. Everyone's picking up the pieces from the pervious war until one family's bid for power starts another war (book one), A bunch of dudes declare themselves kings (book two), they're burning the continent down in their scramble for power, and somehow all the fuck-ups managed to lose anyway (book three). Just when the guys who lost the least start thinking they get to rule over the remaining chaos, more fuck ups happen and more dudes show up (book four). Sadly, winter has finally come and, unbeknownst to most people, [[Thousand Sons|evil ice wizards leading soulless undead]] [[Alpha Legion|assumed to be only myths by most people]] are about to invade the continent from the north. By the fifth book, things are going and/or will go to shit even for the bad guys.

According to a leaked fan conversation, George R. R. Martin jokingly stated the series would end with an epic cock-slap fight between Samwell Tarly and Jaime Lannister.

TL;DR: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Roses War of Roses] with a helpin' of <s>cliched fantasy</s> George's old sci-fi writing plots given a fantasy overhaul and [[/d/]]-lite.

[[ASOIAF Miniature Game|Miniature game has their own page now]]

==Characters==
{{cleanup}}
Since these books have some thousand named characters, you won't remember most of them without an obsessive disorder over details.
Here's a relatively shortlist (mostly based on the TV series rather than the books, but seems to randomly switch between the two) for the characters you'll care about. We'll also be making an effort to mostly focus on characters from the main series, rather than historical figures like Maegor Targaryen, the Dance of Dragons Blacks and Greens, and so on. Trust us, given the number of characters we already have to cover, it's for the best.

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===House Stark===

''"Winter Is Coming"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Honourable, bro-tier northerners who always [[Space Wolves|compare themselves to direwolves and have a few as pets]]. They have a tendency towards being so resolutely honorable that proves to bite them in the ass due to naivete about how [[Tzeentch|Westerosi corrupt politics actually works]] (not that dishonorable characters often fare any better, but that's an "Anyone Can Die" setting for you). They're also arguably the protagonists of the setting. Basically Scotland and/or House Lancaster in the War of the Roses (but named after House York).
* Eddard Stark, ''The Quiet Wolf'': Patriarch, lord and POV death-puppet. Not nearly as stupid as everyone tries to pretend...but still kind of stupid, and very much a dead man walking. Honorable to a fault and deeply repulsed by the politicking that goes on around him, which eventually leads to a mild case of death by decapitation.
* Benjen Stark: Ned's ranger/Night's Watch brother (so the Faramir to his Boromir), who disappears later in the story and may or may not be the mysterious "Coldhands" (in the TV show he is).
* Robb Stark, ''The Young Wolf'': Shiny, King Arthur-like hero who veers between being [[Lawful Stupid]] and [[Lion El'Johnson|a brilliant military leader]]. After waging a successful war to avenge his murdered father, he was betrothed to a noblewoman but he ended having comfort sex with a virgin noblewoman which may have been arranged by her scheming bitch mother, while in softcore porno he got the hots for a commoner. Cacks it nastily: he got his head cut off and his pet's wolf's head stuck on his body, which was paraded around while his enemies chanted "HERE COMES THE KING IN THE NORTH!" In other words, he's a Scottish [[Roman Empire|Hannibal Barca]]. In the show his pregnant wife dies with him for added Grimdark, but in the books he (wisely) leaves her behind when he goes to the Red Wedding.
* Sansa Stark: Useless teenage girl extraordinaire at the start of the series with dreams of marrying a prince and "having lots of babies", but gets shat on hard by reality, being a case-study in what happens when you go into a Grimdark world thinking like a Fairy Tale Princess. Becomes Littlefinger's replacement goldfish when Catelyn's no longer around, her father got killed and her best friend was sold as a sex slave, and ended up in the worst relationship we can possibly imagine with King Joffrey. [[Grimdark|Even got deflowered via rape by Ramsey Bolton]] and married to him before managing to escape with the help of others. Currently acting as a co-ruler to her brother/cousin Jon Snow, and has learned much from her suffering, allowing her to kick Littlefinger out of the Great Game via throat slitting. While in the book Littlefinger is/was setting her up at House Arryn to claim the Vale and the North, the show version becomes QUEEN IN DA NORF in the final episode.
* Arya Stark: Little tomboy assassin. Has a kill list, but doesn't get to use it so long as she is an amnesiac apprentice of [[Officio Assassinorum|the Friendly Neighborhood Assassins Guild]]. In the books, she's still training with the Faceless Men, but in the show she's broken away from them and headed back to Westeros to get revenge on a LOT of people, giving her one of the highest kill counts in the series. She goes home to Winterfell when she hears that Jon and Sansa took it back and starts acting as a general "troubleshooter" for Sansa while scaring the hell out of everyone with all her new assassin skillz. Kills the Night King like a fucking champion in Season 8 (though in a way that doesn't actually make any sense), then rides south to add Cersei to her body count. Instead, the Hound talks her out of it and she [[The Lord of the Rings|decides to sail into the unknown west]]. Kind of the [[Mary Sue|writer's pet]] in the show, among other things getting to avenge the Red Wedding in a brutally cinematic manner even though Dumb and Dumber justified giving us a pregnant woman getting stabbed to death on-screen because Game of Thrones is above "cliches" like loved ones getting avenged in just such a way. And her aforementioned killing of the Night King that doesn't actually make any sense, since it required her getting the drop on him in a way that was ''physically impossible without out-of-universe special effects equipment''. Book version is still level-grinding to get to her TV version's skill level.
* Catelyn Stark (nee Tully): A woman who trusts the wrong people at the worst time, causing a lot of misery. Gets killed along with Robb, then comes back (books only) as Lady Stoneheart, an undead witch bent on killing all the Boltons, Freys, Greyjoys, Lannisters... pretty much everyone she thinks was tangentially involved in betraying her and her family, or somebody who just pissed her off (kind of hard to blame her though). The show writers left this part out completely, which caused much [[rage]] and [[skub]] in the fandom.
* Bran Stark: Intelligent little boy, named after the founder of House Stark, Brandon the Builder (basically Tony Stark combined with [[Leman Russ]]). He was crippled in the first sign of major [[GrimDark]]. Has prophetic dreams and becomes a [[druid]]. In the TV series, fucks things up by alerting the Others to where he's hiding, which gets all of the Children, his loyal wolf, the Three-Eyed Crow and Hodor killed. For good measure, turns out to have accidentally ''caused'' Hodor to become, well, Hodor, as he was using his druid powers to figure out why Hodor is only able to say Hodor, resulting in Hodor's gruesome death-by-zombies being beamed directly into young Hodor's brain. He's now the Three-Eyed Raven and likes going around being creepy as fuck and generally weirding people out. Becomes King of the <s>Seven</s> Six Kingdoms in a hilariously nonsensical plot twist in the finale.
* Rickon Stark: Four years old at the start, turning into a real little [[Barbarian]] from not being raised properly, because everyone who would have raised him was dead or missing. In the books, he and his wildling nanny Osha are on the cannibal-infested island of Skagos, and Davos Seaworth is on his way there to pick them up so that the northern lords who are still loyal to House Stark have a figurehead to rally behind. In the show, he ends up hanging out at the Umbers, then is handed over to Ramsay as a prisoner when Smalljon becomes afraid of the Wildlings living north of him (who were invited by Jon Snow to fight the Zombie Apocalypse), and finally dies via arrow in a sick game of "dodge the missiles" courtesy of Ramsey.
* Jon Snow, ''The White Wolf'': A bastard living in the Stark household before leaving for the Night's Watch (basically [[The Last Chancers|Colonel Schaeffer]] with more convicted rapists under his command) and excels there because nearly every one of his fellow recruits are peasants who have never had a formal days of training while Jon has had the serious training afforded to all lords. After he takes over by becoming the Watch Commander secures and alliance with the Wildlings, ancient barbarian enemies of the Night's Watch, because when the end of the world is coming you tend to think outside the box. Also gets a Wildling girlfriend, but she dies. He was taken under the wing by the Lord Commander Jora Mormont and given advice by Aemon (a Targaryen who is so '''old''' that everyone south has forgotten he existed, and unbeknownst to him, his great-great-granduncle), and managed to actually be a competent leader: after a disastrous loss of strength after the failure of the Great Ranging, and then the Wildling invasion, he unilaterally decides to let the Wildlings through in exchange for their aid in securing the Wall against the real enemy; he even impresses Stannis (The Mannis) with his honor and sense of justice. [[Grimdark|And then, all the corrupt exiles from the South (and the rejects who were left behind during the Ranging) banded together to kill him]].
**Though he's currently dead in the books as a result of mutiny, he was revived by R'hllor in the series after being stabbed to death by the senior members of the Watch. Isn't actually Eddard's bastard son, but rather the legitimate son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, meaning that he is, in fact, the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. The new KING IN DA NORF according to his supporters after he killed Ramsay Bolton and took back Winterfell, and is also currently hooking up with his own aunt.
**He turns on Daenerys once he realizes she's lost it and kills her in the throne room, but [[Plot Armor|for some reason her dragon doesn't kill him despite seeing him do the the deed]]. The Unsullied want his head, but instead, King Bran exiles him to the Night's Watch and he fucks off into the far north to live with the Free Folk.
* Hodor: Hodor. Hodor, Hodor, Hodor. <s>An enormous and possibly retarded stable boy, and Bran's faithful steed.</s> Hodor. Ok, in all actual seriousness, this guy is probably one of the most tragic figures in this series (and that's saying something). [[Grimdark|The guy basically received horrible visions of his own death fighting a horde of zombies, buying time for his friends to escape by literally holding the door shut as he was hacked apart]]. This causes him to suffer a mental break, leading him to develop Immature Personality Disorder and making it so the only thing he can say is a garbled version of his friend's last request "hold the door" for all of his adult life; the logic here is that "hold the door" devolves into "hol' th' door" and eventually "Hodor". You now feel bad for at laughing at the guy.
* Osha: A Wildling woman who surrendered to the Starks and becomes their servant in exchange for not getting killed. Now dead in the show thanks to Ramsay's dickery, costing the cast another valued waifu.</div></div>

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===House Targaryen===

''"Fire and Blood"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">The former Dragon kings and rulers of Westeros, [[Eldar|fair-haired purple-eyed beautiful people]] who have descended from the [[Dark Age of Technology|ancient technologically-advanced superpower]] of [[Roman Empire|Valyria]], which collapsed because of [[Fall of the Eldar|their colossal hubris]]. After the anarchic [[Age of Strife|Century of Blood]], the Targaryen patriarch Aegon I, instead of reconquering the lost cause of Essos and of Valyria's former empire, looked towards the rather primitive continent of Westeros, and its squabbling Seven Kingdoms, [[Great Crusade|to establish his own Imperial dynasty and unify the Realm]]. Aegon I is essentially the Low Fantasy version of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror William the Conqueror] and/or the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], with a little dash of [[/d/|incest]].

[[Rules Lawyer|Thanks to a loophole]], the Targaryens were immune to the moral objections relating to incest. Common sense (and common decency) took back seat to a time-honoured policy of [[/d/|catastrophic inbreeding]], which made a number of problems, the most obvious of which was that a whole bunch of them were fucking crazy. Aegon I married his older and younger sisters and had several kids with each, which would be the start of another Targaryen tradition: the occasional succession crisis. Because GRRM can't write a book without going off on a tangent (and because the Targaryens were running things for a good chunk of the setting's history), the Targaryens and their 300ish long legacy is full of rebellions and wars ripped from English History and in turn mined by HBO. Fun interregnums include the Dance of Dragons, where the Targaryens used the last of their dragons in a brutal civil-war against each other (and now a TV show), and the Blackfyre Rebellions, where the fat-fuck Aegon IV (who had Henry VII's opposite problems: he fucked everyone and had many heirs) legitimized all his bastards and even gifted one of them the dynasty's greatest treasure: the Blackfyre sword. Actually, considering how ''much'' of these rebellions were caused by half-Targaryen bastards, [[/d/|maybe they had a point?]]

Eventually, the lineage was banished to Essos after a brutal civil war: Aerys II, a crazy paranoid king that savagely executed many different people, made the wrong move of executing the Lord and Heir of the North; the two men were in King's Landing because Aery's son, Rhaegar, the '''non''-crazy one, eloped/abducted Robert Baratheon's fiance and their sister. Since he was already married and she was engaged, they left together in secret, which caused Robert the Cuck to go wild. Joining with Eddard, the new Lord of the North, and their teacher/foster-dad Jon Arryn, the three Kingdoms rebelled and Robert warhammered Rhaegar because STR > DEX.

The survivors were smuggled out/hidden from Robert, with Viserys and his then-pregnant mother hiding on their ancestral home of Dragonstone first, before fucking off to Essos when the war was truly lost; Rhaegar's ''first'' son and daughter were killed and his wife raped by the Lannister's bannermen, though Rhaegar's best friend [[Gay|who loved him very, very, very much]] claims to have helped sneak him out of Westeros and hides with him in Essos; finally, Rhaegar and Lyanna's son, Jon/Aegon, was adopted by Ned, who was made to realize that the entire civil war was a misunderstanding and that his whoremongering drunk of a foster brother would've probably been a terrible brother-in-law anyway. [[Grimdark]]. Basically, the entire British royal family, but with more incest, and a lot of dragons. Still, they occasionally did have genuinely good people like Aegon V (aka Egg), Jaeherys I the Conciliator, his wife Good Queen Alysanne and complete badasses like Brynden Bloodraven and Baelor Breakspear (too bad Bloodraven is hooked up to Old God wi-fi permanently and Breakspear died before he could become king).
Pseudo-Romans and/or the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Normandy House of Normandy].

* Aerys II, ''The Mad King'': [[Kharn|A pretty fun guy to be around]]. Had a psychotic fascination for fire, which extended to being a psychotic fascination for burning traitors, a category of people that eventually grew to include anybody he disliked for any reason, anyone who disagreed with him, and a few people who were unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. [[Goge Vandire|Teamkilled by his bodyguard Jaime for planning to burn the city down with everyone inside it, and even refused to accept his death until he actually died]].
* Daenerys Targaryen, ''Stormborn'': She was sold by her brother to a barbarian leader [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|Khal (warlord) Drogo]] in exchange for the promise that he'd use his Khalassar (Warband/tribe) to conquer Westeros. She found her self esteem as his wife, then her husband killed her idiot brother Viserys and promised to conquer the world for Daenerys, making her a full-fledged badass barbarian war queen. Unfortunately, her husband died when [[Derp|Daenerys trusted one of the slaves whose town Drogo had pillaged and burnt to heal an infected wound of his]] and his horde fell apart (though the book is somewhat ambiguous as to whether the slave did kill Drogo). Then she hatched three dragons (completely by accident when she tried to commit suicide) bringing them back from extinction, and now everyone wants to marry her because she is now one of the most powerful people around due to said dragons and being good-looking (in the books this is by the age-of-consent in Westeros standards, where girls are women when they start getting their periods and boys are men at age 13). [[Gets shit done]] except the entire fifth book, in which she mopes around about wanting to marry an annoying, flamboyant mercenary instead of saving herself for political marriage. After banging the flamboyant mercenary, she later marries a Meereenese noble who guarantees he can get her some peace (more likely [[Just As Planned|just as he planned]]).
**She also does nothing while insurgents kill her men, a horde of plagued refugees spread disease to her city and standing idly by while an enemy army besieges her walls, all for realistically political reasons because the world is a horrible place. Learns how to train her dragon. In the books she's just encountered another Khalassar after being hauled away from Meereen by Drogo. In the TV series, she takes over all the Dothraki and adds them to her army, then heads for Westeros to invade the place with her army of elite hoplites, massive horde of Dothraki and her dragons. By the time she gets to King's Landing she's taken significant losses, including two of her dragons, and is fucking her nephew (Jon Snow). Officially went Mad Queen as of S8E5, wherein she burned most of King's Landing after the city attempted to surrender and has decided to "liberate" everyone on the planet, whether they want it or not. Jon kills her in the series finale so that she won't go around burninating the rest of the world.
* The dragons: The three dragons that Daenerys hatched. They're wyverns that breathe fire, [[Awesome|have blood hot enough to melt steel]], and [[List of /tg/ Cuisine|cook their meat before eating it]]. Naturally, some of the coolest things in the story.
** Drogon; named for her late husband, Khal Drogo. Black and red, the biggest and [[Gork|most aggressive dragon]]. Starts eating people and then escapes, leading to the other two getting imprisoned. Interrupts a gladiator tournament, killing a lot of people before being whipped by Daenerys into flying her to a Khalassar that broke off from her husband's after his death. In the show, he's the last dragon standing after Viserion bites it north of the Wall and his undead body is put down at Winterfell and Rhaegal gets shot down over Dragonstone. Takes Dany's body, destroys the Iron Throne and fucks off to who knows where after Dany is killed.
** Rhaegal; named for the first of her dead brothers, Rhaegar. Green and gold, the [[Mork|cunning one]] and the loudest (with a roar "...that would have sent a hundred lions fleeing,"). Kills Quentyn Martell when the latter is trying to goad Viserion (see below). After breaking out of jail with Viserion they go "all your base are belong to us" on Meereen, killing people and taking over the pyramid of a loyal family as his lair. Last seen playing "sack the town" with Viserion in the books. Dead in the show thanks to Euron Greyjoy and some Diabolus ex Machina bullshit.
** Viserion; named for her other brother Viserys. White and gold and the [[Vulkan|friendliest]] (as dragons go, he still eats people). Dug cave for himself in his jail then moved into another pyramid after his and his brother's great escape. Gets killed by the [[Vampire Counts|Night's King in the show via a magic spear, then his corpse is reanimated to be the Night King's zombie dragon steed]] and blasts a hole in the famous Wall, allowing the armies of snow elves and zombies to start flooding Westeros. Now perma-dead thanks to the Night King biting it.
* Viserys Targaryen, ''The Beggar King'': Daenerys' physically abusive older brother. Best known for being a bully with incestuous lust for her, and an arrogant and incompetent fuck with a massive sense of entitlement. He eventually got himself killed for being an all-around jerk and whiny idiot, which culminated in him threatening his sister and unborn nephew with a sword while drunk in a sacred Dothraki place where weapons and bloodshed are forbidden on pain of death (execution is done by bloodless death - having a scarf wrapped tight around the neck and being drowned in a barrel). Daenerys' husband [[awesome|poured molten gold over his head and called it his promised crown, also ensuring his death didn't technically shed any blood in their sacred place]].
* Aegon Targaryen, ''Aegon VI'': Daenerys' nephew, the son of her brother Rhaegar. Been hiding in Essos for the entire length of the series, but recently raised an army of Westerosi exiles and threw them all a massive Welcome Home party with rape and pillage. Wants to marry his aunt because she has dragons, ''and might not actually be a member of House Targaryen'' if you believe some fans. He can actually count past 6, can multiply numbers, can read different language and has a minor understanding of geometry thus cementing him as one of the most educated people in this overwrought series. Can also do his own laundry.
**Like Dany, he has his own band of misfits following him around. While Dany has Dothraki and Unsullied, Aegon has '''The Golden Company''', a mercenary company of ten thousand, descended from the forces loyal to the Blackfyre bastards. The Golden Company has a long and storied history of invading Westeros and failing, which has led to the theories that Aegon is really a Blackfyre. Because of their long history and descent from actual nobles, the Golden Company is nothing like the mercenary rabble common in the rest of the series, even having dedicated knight, archer, and War Elephant divisions.
* Brynden Rivers ''Bloodraven'': A Targaryen bastard who came to prominence about a hundred years before the series as a sort of sorcerer, he later became known as the "Three-Eyed Raven/Crow" after encountering the Children of the Forest, and uses his powers to help advert the Long Night and train Bran. He's described as having long, white hair, missing an eye, bound to a tree, knows all and sees all, associated heavily with ravens and omens... [[Vikings|yeah, he's very much Odin, come to think of it. Just a lot more of an asshole than the Warrior King of legend.]]
**In his prime, he was pretty much just Loki. The Spymaster ''and'' Hand of the King during the Blackfyre Rebellions (a rebellion of all Aegon IV's many bastards, [[Troll|who he legitimized on his deathbed because that's how he rolled]]), he was one of the few to remain loyal. He was a sorceror and had a spy network so thorough, it was a commmon-joke that the [[Magnus the Red|one-eyed]] sorcerer had "[[Thousand Sons|a thousand eyes]], and [[Tzeentch|one]]" He had his own elite unit of archers that solved the first rebellion by sticking the claimant, his heir, and finally his twin, full of arrows.
**Exiled to the Night's Watch after assassinating after assassinating a Blackfyre after promising him safe passage, a running theme in ASOIAF.
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===House Lannister===

''"Hear Me Roar"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[Monopoly|Westeros' richest family]], proud, pompous, selfish and fabulous assholes. Not much of a martial tradition but if you cross them [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7t7cnwlOgY they will fucking cut you]. You can tell they are the bad guys because they have an army of sick fucks, including a zebra-riding mercenary band and 7' 8" Khornate Champion <s>not-Goliath</s> Gregor Clegane. House York (though named after House Lancaster) combined with the House of Rothschild and the Mafia. Their unofficial motto is "A Lannister Always Pays His Debts"
* Tywin Lannister, ''The Lion of Lannister'': The Godfather, head of the house, and obsessed with his reputation as a Magnificent Bastard extraordinaire. Lawful Evil Personified. He was a most feared general whose greatest achievement was [[Exterminatus|erasing House Reyne from existence]], which was immortalised in his own sweet-yet-creepy-as-fuck theme song (The Rains of Castamere) that became used as a warning against anyone standing against him. During his tenure as Hand of the King (i.e. Prime Minister), he was a political genius who operated as the true power behind the Iron Throne, keeping the realm stable and prosperous despite the stupidity of Aerys II and Joffrey. However, despite all of his achievements, he's an [[Emperor|absolutely terrible father]], who treats his children as nothing more than tools to further his political agenda. He completely overlooks the incestuous relationship his two oldest children had, and hated Tyrion and made his life a living hell for very poor reasons. He humiliated Tyrion whenever it wouldn't threaten the family's reputation, berated Tyrion for being a whore-monger despite secretly being one himself (this is ''only'' in the show), [[Grimdark|tried to get him killed multiple times]], and as the capstone of awful parenting, he taught Tyrion not to marry commoners after he married one called Tysha - by forcing Tyrion to watch Tysha get gang-raped, forcing him to rape her too and then annulling their marriage. The only person Tywin truly loved was his wife. He eventually gets his comeuppance when Tyrion finds out the truth about the Tysha incident and kills him with a crossbow, all while mentioning that out of all his children, Tyrion was the most alike to Tywin himself. He's based on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick Warwick the Kingmaker].
* Joanna Lannister: Tywin's late wife and first cousin, meaning the next three characters are inbred as well, ironically. Dies giving birth to Tyrion, which is part of why Tywin hates him, though Cersei hates him for other reasons. Caught wind of Cersei and Jaime's incestuous tendencies, but she died before she could tell Tywin. It is implied that her ghost visits Jaime in a dream and mourns the current state of her family.
* Cersei Lannister, ''Bitch Queen'': Tywin and Joanna's first child. Twin sister to Jaime Lannister and wife to King Robert Baratheon. She fucks her brother Jaime all the time and had three of his children, whom she passed off as Robert's to grab power. She is a massive narcissist who thinks of herself as "female Tywin" and hence seeks to rule Westeros as the Queen, and will do anything to keep her power... even when [[Abbadon the Despoiler|most of her plans end up becoming utter failures]]. Crazy as all fuck and prophesied to be killed by the "little brother." This is because of a prophecy made by a witch, Cersei was a child that she'd be a beautiful queen, lose everything, her children would die before her, and the "Valonqar" would kill her. Though that does explain why she hates Tyrion as hard as all fuck, [[Just As Planned|the exact translation of the term]] that was used is "younger sibling", and not necessarily her sibling, which opens the door to all sorts of characters who hate the fuck out of her. Since Jaime is technically younger by a few seconds, him killing Cersei would be an interesting twist not without buildup. Possibly the Witch was messing with her head because of what a bitch Cersei was being to her, something Cersei never grew out of. Cersei is currently alive only because Varys wants her to be, [[Just As Planned|as she's a terrible queen who'll destabilize the realm enough for him to bring back the Targaryens]]. She was completely shaved, stripped of power in all but her royal heritage and forced to do a nude walk of penance throughout the city by the High Sparrow (ASOIAF Pope- equivalent/[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther Martin Luther] except he won the Reformation) after he uncovered her crimes. Now she's waiting for her hair to grow back and maybe thinking of revenge.
**She gets it in the show by blowing up the Great Sept of Baelor (ASOIAF [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral]) with everyone she doesn't like inside it, having her cousin killed near the Wildfire, killing Tyene Sand with the same poison that Tyene used on Myrcella and forcing Ellaria to watch, then capturing the nun who was her jailer and [[Grimdark|leaving her to be tortured to death by zombie Gregor Clegane]]. She is in short [[Thanquol]] disguised as a beautiful blonde woman. Gets anticlimactically squashed by a collapsing ceiling along with Jaime during Daenerys's assault on King's Landing. (her biggest issue? Not dying sooner, for the Seven's sake!)
* Jaime Lannister, ''The Kingslayer'': Younger twin brother (by about three seconds) to Cersei Lannister and commander of the Kingsguard. He loves his sister in every sense of the word and had three children with her. Killed the last king despite his oath, and is widely hated for it, even though everyone agrees that dying was a massive improvement for Aerys. The reason for this betrayal was that Aerys had a huge stockpile of Acme Brand Magic Napalm stockpiled under the city, ready to be set off the moment a siege broke through the town walls, and Jaime's options were to let it happen or kill Aerys before the crazy fuck got ''everybody'' killed. His desire to openly love his sister and win the respect he feels he deserves eventually causes Cersei to reject him. Starts off as an arrogant douche who [[Grimdark|tried to murder Bran Stark, but accidentally crippled him instead]]; as the series progressed he became progressively more bro-tier besides the whole wants-to-fuck-his-sister thing, though he eventually begins to question even this devotion after seeing what a bitch she is when she comes to power. He genuinely loves Tyrion, so much so that he actually went off on his own to get him back after he heard Catelyn had him imprisoned in the Vale. He gets freed by Robb and goes on a journey through Westeros, loses his arm, and gets a lesson in valour and knighthood from Brienne of Tarth. He starts to question his legacy after his son Joffrey makes him Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, a position that was only made available because Joff expelled the Knight who had actually earned it. Since Joff and Cersei had filled the Kingsguard with sycophants and their own thugs, Jaime's role as the Lord Commander has left a bad taste in his mouth because he is now the leader of probably the least prestigious iteration of the Kingsguard ever. Basically, [[Sigvald|Sigvald the Magnificent]] currently in the midst of a redemption arc. In the books, he is currently being lured into a trap by Lady Stoneheart.
**In the show, he has finally told Cersei to get fucked after realizing that she has well and truly lost it, and rode north to help fight the White Walkers. He survived the Battle of Winterfell, hooked up with Brienne, and then rides south [[Derp|because he just can't let Cersei go.]] Winds up getting shanked by Euron Greyjoy and dies [[Fail|via collapsing ceiling]].
* Tyrion Lannister, ''Halfman'': a very intelligent dwarf who is awesome, but hated by everyone, either because of his deformity, or because he's a Lannister. The few people who treat him well is an uncle that went missing, his brother Jaime, Jon Snow who learned a lot from him, and Varys, who at first saw him as an asset, but grew to admire his political abilities and intellect, even declaring him a friend. He seems to do much better when getting drunk with whores, rogues, bastards and barbarians. His silver tongue is one of his greatest strengths (he's witty and good at persuading people) and weaknesses (he's quick with insults and the truth in a city ruled by sociopaths and liars). Tyrion is also one of the only characters with an actual sense of the bigger picture, and an interest toward steering the world toward an outcome that ''doesn't'' involve a [[The End Times|Warhammer End Times]] scenario. **Unfortunately, the world's movers, shakers, and those who generally have the power to make a difference are increasingly either a) dead, b) scattered to the winds or c) hate his dwarf guts. Despite the increasing difficulty and fruitlessness of his task, however, [[Awesome|Tyrion still fights]]. After being framed for killing Joffrey, he killed his own father and fled Westeros. In the books, he is currently in exile in the Free Cities, weaselling his way into leading a merc band and trying to sign them up with Daenerys' forces, recognizing her as one of the few chances Westeros has got of fixing its shit (provided she can get her own shit together, which she's having a bit of trouble with).
**Since characters in this series tend to either be walking tropes, rip-offs of other fantasy characters, or historical people with different names, Tyrion is probably based on the great [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Vorkosigan Miles Vorkosigan] (who was himself based on a few people including Sir Winston Churchill) and is a nod to King Richard III (a deformed but competent king later demonized by historiographers of his era). Even if he is usually the smartest one in the room at any given time, though, Tyrion is still not above having some derp moments. Exhibit A, when Tyrion asked his father what happened to his first wife (right before killing him), he took an ''obvious'' "I don't know and I don't care" response ("Wherever whores go") as if it was the literal truth. (Admittedly he'd just killed his ex and was probably in the middle of some serious PTSD at the time, which is not great for your brain.) The show version eventually meets Daenerys and becomes her Hand only to [[Fail|fuck up a bunch of stuff]] and lose her trust. He sells her out when he realizes that she's gone round the bend and winds up becoming Hand to King Bran.
* Kevan Lannister: Tywin's younger brother, considered "the reliable one". One of the few decent Lannisters, though saying that he is perfectly happy carrying out Tywin's bidding. Tried to talk sense into Cersei and was later called in to try and fix her mess. He did such a good job of it that Varys decided to personally thank him. With a crossbow. And a group of knife-wielding children. In the show he dies with the rest of the crowd when the Great Sept got nuked by Cersei - the manner of his book death was given over to Grand Maester Pycelle at the exact same time.
* Lancel Lannister: Kevan's son, Tywin's nephew and Tyrion, Jamie and Cersei's cousin. A callow, spoilt but well-meaning nobleman. Pretty much Joffery but mentally stable, not sadistic and capable of compassion and honor. Enters a sexual relationship with his cousin Cersei when Jamie is captured, which Tyrion uncovers and uses to blackmail Lancel into spying for him. He later has a religious experience after nearly dying and joins the Poor Fellows of the Faith of the Seven, gives up his incestuous relationship and tries to convert several of his family members (somewhat successfully with Kevan, unsuccessfully with Cersei). Still alive in the books.
**In the show, he reports Cersei to the High Sparrow (rather than the High Sparrow cleverly uncovering Cersei's plan and trapping her) and dies horribly. Cersei deliberately set him up for a particularly agonizing and drawn-out end; he's lured into a catacomb under the sept that contains a massive cache of wildfire, gets his spinal cord severed so he can't walk, and is left where he can see candles sitting in a pool of wildfire just a little too far away for him to reach it in time, so that he [[Grimdark|spends his last moments vainly trying to avert a horrible catastrophe before being incinerated]].
* Cersei and Robert's (actually Jaime's) children:
** Joffrey Baratheon: Spoiled brat and sociopath to the extreme. He's basically [[Sigvald]] during his teenage years (and likely inspired [[Phil Kelly|Kelly]] to make the character Sigvald). "Heir" of the throne, and the technical king of Westeros during the War of the Five Kings since he lives in King's Landing and sits on the throne. Turned out to be worse than Aerys. He died and there was much rejoicing. [[Fail|Except by his mother, who instead had sex on his corpse]]. Fourteen years old at the time of his death.
** Tommen Baratheon: The new king on the Iron Throne. Nine years old. Married to a teenaged shotacon wife who's (unknown to him) the granddaughter of his brother's true killer. Trying to litigate the criminalization of beets. Loves [[Cats|kittens]]. He's pretty well-rounded and non-fucked up, which is a miracle considering his parents, both putative and biological. Also seems to be trying to take kinging seriously, but his mom is trying to quash that in her subliminal attempt to hold power indefinitely, so whether it holds is another matter entirely. Prophesied to die before Cersei, which is doubly tragic due to his age and being a much better person than her.
**In the show, he commits suicide after Cersei blows up the Great Sept (head office of the fantasy knockoff Church of England), killing his godfather, great-uncle, wife, and all his religious friends, because of course her power hunger was more important than his happiness and well being.
** Myrcella Baratheon: Princess, and Cersei and "Robert's" second oldest child. Ten years old. In order to appease the Martells, Tyrion arranges a marriage with her and the youngest Martell, which pissed off everyone. In the books, she had her face fucked up because of Arianne Martell's amateur intrigues, which overlapped with poor planning, general stupidity, and another guy's backstabbing. Before the maiming, she was quite decent and non-evil. Who knows how she'll turn out now with half of her face cut off. Also prophesied to die before Cersei.
**In the show, she had a crush on Oberyn's surviving nephew but was killed by Elia in revenge for Oberyn's death, but alive in the books though missing an ear. Also, the readership all got on George's balls for maiming this girl, mostly because it was a sign that he had run out of ideas and was basically just milking Diabolus ex Machina ([[Just As Planned|or that's what he wants us to think]]).
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===House Baratheon===

''"Ours is the Fury"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Ascended to the Iron Throne after a successful rebellion against the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen. Produces no less than three claimants to the succession, each one very different from the other. Technically a cadet branch of House Targaryen as their founder Orys was allegedly a Targaryen bastard, who took the original Storm Kings (House Durrandon) deer sigil after killing the last one and fucking his only child Argella and then 200 odd years later, King Egg's daughter married their grandfather. They're pretty much the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet House of Plantagenet].
* Robert Baratheon, ''The Usurper'': Fat, old, former badass who led the rebellion, and now the king who married Cersei Lannister. Then he fucked a bunch of other women and had lots of illegitimate kids. He was killed while mixing boar hunting and drinking, but whether this death was planned or not is uncertain. On the surface, a king with a thing for easy laughs and partying; right underneath the surface, he's irresponsible and leaves the actual ruling of a nation to his staff, deeper under the surface he's pretty much a sad, lonely old bro who would rather not have been king. Comparable to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_England Henry IV], in that both were powerfully built military geniuses who overthrew the existing monarchy and later succumbed to an unhealthy lifestyle.
* Stannis '''The Mannis''' Baratheon: Robert's younger brother, an all-around badass who swings between [[Lawful Stupid]] (more so in the show than the books) and [[gets shit done|getting shit done]]. [[Judge Dredd|believes so strongly in the rule of law]] that he feels compelled to take the Iron Throne for himself despite wanting nothing to do with it. Is advised by a priestess of the God of light, Melisandre, and a lowborn smuggler named Davos Seaworth raised to knighthood and nobility. [[C.S Goto|His character is ruined in the show into an incompetent pawn of Melisandre and gets killed off just because one of the showrunners didn't like him]].
** Shireen Baratheon: Stannis's kid daughter. The sweet, charming, and intelligent little lady who was left with a deformity on her face from a disease called greyscale. Teaches Davos how to read, and is probably the most innocent person in the series alongside Tommen, Myrcella and a few others. Being the grim and dark universe A Song of Ice and Fire is, however, this means that she's likely going to end up becoming fuel for a vicious fire god. In the show she does, but in the books, she is safe and sound since Stannis isn't stupid enough to bring him with her while campaigning. His wife, on the other hand, being such an idiotic fanatical pyromaniac... well, her odds aren't exactly looking that great.
* Renly Baratheon, ''That Gay Guy'': Robert and Stannis's youngest brother. Took Loras Tyrell (a.k.a. Knight of Flowers, Pretty Boy, etc.) as his lover. Decided he was better suited to be king, though the bizarre and outdated laws of the land stated Stannis was next in line (though Joffrey and then Tommen were first since they were [[Pretend|officially]] Bobby B's legitimate kids). Was hugely popular since he had Robert's charisma, which led to him getting the most support, but he lacked Stannis's conviction and devotion to the duty of actually doing the work of a king, or even Robert's ability to wage war. Killed by Melisandre with some "help" by Stannis ''The Mannis'' for trying to steal his crown, though in the books Stannis may not have been completely aware of the role he played in Renly's death. He's basically [[That Guy]] of ASOIAF, since quite a lot of shit is his fault, indirectly or otherwise.
*Gendry Baratheon, the Bastard Son. One of Robert's many, many bastard children, and the one who gets the most page and screen time. He starts out as a humble blacksmith in King's Landing, who first comes to Ned's attention when Lord Stark is investigating the death of Jon Arryn. From there, he gets shipped off to the Night's Watch to avoid the imminent purge of Robert's bastards and winds up becoming friends with Arya and Hot Pie. After some adventuring and sexual tension with Arya (at least in the show), he joins the Brotherhood Without Banners. In the show, they sell him to Melisandre so she can use him for a blood magic ritual, while in the books he just goes on being a smith and doesn't get involved in anything particularly weird or shady. He's helping run an inn as a Brotherhood front/orphanage when he reappears in the books, but in the show, Ser Davos sets him free and tells him to fuck off, which he does for a few seasons. He eventually turns up back in King's Landing, where Davos finds him and recruits him (and his comically oversized LARPing hammer) for Team Snow. He helps Jon capture a wight to show Cersei, makes dragonglass weapons for the Army of the Living, hooks up with Arya, and fights in the Battle of Winterfell, after which Daenerys legitimizes him as the new lord of House Baratheon.</div></div>

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===House Tully===

''"Family, Duty, Honor"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> Lords of the central riverlands. Being the obligatory central nation they spend a lot of the series being fought over like a cake in between fat kids. Basically Poland/the Netherlands, given they have so many rivers and how hard they've been fucked over.
*Edmure Tully: Basically the SoIaF universe's eternal butt monkey (because he happens to be a decent fucking person). Despite being an okay guy, he's also a useless ponce with a dense streak a mile wide and a bad habit of bragging about things he shouldn't be proud of. It took hanging in a stockade for a few months to make him experience some growth. When Jaime was brought in to unfuck the situation and end the siege at Riverrun, Jaime's "negotiation" pressured him into convincing his house to surrender, but he made sure [[Troll|that Brynden got out first]]. In the books, he's currently spending his days at the Lannister house as a hostage to make sure that the Tullys don't try to ruin the situation again.
**In the show, he disappears until the final episode, [[Fail|where he tries to make a case for himself as king]] only to get shut down by Sansa.
*Lord Hoster Tully: In GoT the only act he committed of any note was to die. In the books however he is arguably, though inadvertently, the most destructive character once you've delved into his history. The man looked down upon peasants, cripples, bastards, and broken things, which influenced his daughters and primed them for their mistreatment of such through their travels (especially Catelyn's immediate suspicion of Tyrion, [[What|despite the charge and evidence making little sense, but because he's a "Monster" of course he must have done it]]). He denied Tywin's offer to marry Tyrion to Lysa for said reasons, but he also denied Lysa to marry Petyr because of his low birth and her value of being married off to a higher bidder, even if their age differed by at least 50 years and she was pregnant with Petyr's child. He responded to this pregnancy by forcefully aborting the child via drinking Moon Tea, without her knowledge (something he would have nightmares about approaching his death). Not only did this nearly cause her death, but it destroyed her reproductive system resulting in 5 miscarriages and 2 stillbirths (an event that would lead her to aggressive paranoia so fervent that she killed her husband to prevent being separated from her only living child). All of these actions unfortunately spiraled into helping cause The War of the Five Kings.
*Brynden Tully ''the Blackfish'': He didn't catch the memo that he was part of the joke faction, and proceeds to spend the entire series fucking Lannister shit up and generally being a boss. Thought to be the black sheep in a family of fish (Thus "Blackfish", geddit?), but in spite of that status held true to the family, continuing to hold Riverrun for Robb in spite of the war pretty much being lost. When Edmure surrendered Riverrun, he escaped by swimming under the portcullis and escaping into the river, causing everyone to shit themselves because he's totally coming for revenge. Also widely accepted by the fans to be a closeted homosexual.
**In the HBO show, he gets killed when resisting arrest from Tully forces by order of Edmure. [[Rage|And it happens offscreen.]]</div></div>

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===House Arryn===

''"As High as Honor"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Mountain lords turned [[NEET|neurotic shut ins]]. Goes through lords about as quickly as you would expect a castle equipped with a door that opens into empty air. Basically Switzerland/Afghanistan, seeing as how they stayed neutral in the War of Five Kings, their land is covered by nothing but mountains, and they're constantly fighting with the local tribes. They were being entertainingly screwed over by Littlefinger until his death.
*Jon Arryn: Only appears posthumously and is the catalyst for the whole plot. Used to be a foster father of sorts to Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark. Was the Robert's Malcador the Sigilite during Robert's Rebellion. He was killed by Littlefinger via Lysa when he figured out that Robert's kids are bastards of Cersei and Jaime. His death was blamed on the Lannisters to destabilize Westeros.
*Lysa Arryn: Loli bride turned Lady of the Vale after the Lannisters forcibly retired her husband from life, at least officially. In reality, Littlefinger convinced her to poison her husband and blame the Lannisters [[Just As Planned|which pretty much started this whole clusterfuck to begin with]]. A closeted, crazy woman who spends the entire series in her castle "the Eyrie" being useless, breastfeeding her own son at age 10, obsessing over Littlefinger's cock, and [[Derp|refusing to help her sister and nephew in the war she and Littlefinger pretty much started]], which may have guaranteed their eventual horrific murders by their enemies. Finally gets her comeuppance when Littlefinger kicks her out the moon door (post-taunting, of course), putting her out of our collective misery. Long live the Lord Protector.
* Robert Arryn: ''Littlefuck'', Lysa's equally mentally unstable autistic son, who still sucks on his mom's tit and enjoys seeing people "fly" out the moon door to their deaths. He actually seems to be a bit smarter than you would first think and is a really, really good judge of character, except with Sansa. Secretly being poisoned by Littlefinger and Sansa so she can take over the Vale and North. Named Robin in the show because the showrunners were afraid that having two characters with the same name would be too confusing. The show version doesn't get poisoned but turns up in the series finale as the Lord of the Vale.</div></div>

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===House Greyjoy===

''"We Do Not Sow"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[Awesome|A house founded by Cthulhu-worshipping Norscans]]. While not actual Vikings in any sense of the word, there is little other way to describe them. They live on some islands off the coast of Westeros and almost their entire culture is based around raiding and the ocean. Their religion holds it shameful for a man to pay for personal possessions, and states they have to get things either by trade, washing up from the ocean or the "Iron Price": seizing something from the body or belongings of someone he defeated in battle rather than paying or trading for it. Also, only possessions acquired via the Iron Price command respect among the Ironborn. The nastiest form this takes is stealing women as "Salt Wives", [[Emperor's Children|effectively making them a society of rapists]]. As an interesting bit of trivia, their local variety of baptism is to be ritually drowned in seawater and resuscitated by their priests, and they don't see drowning as a bad way to go on the grounds that it means their god/gods have accepted them and they'll go to an underwater Heaven that's basically a more X-rated version of The Little Mermaid.
*Balon Greyjoy: Asshole dad, crappy ruler, and general shithead (all very common things in this world, but still) who rebelled against Robert Baratheon and failed miserably. All of his sons were killed, except for Theon, who was taken as a hostage to ensure his good behaviour. Despite being in a position to join either the Lannisters or the Starks during the War of Five Kings and thereby get whatever he wanted from either (independence and the North, or independence and Casterly Rock, respectively), he does the absolute stupidest thing possible and declares himself independent without support from anyone, attacking the North and the rest of Westeros, thereby virtually guaranteeing that he'll be on the receiving end of another one-sided battle once everyone else has sorted their shit out. In the book he at least tried to make one alliance but it was with the freaking Lannisters and not the other Kingdom seeking independence. Never got that far, though, since he was pushed off a bridge during a storm by an assassin his brother Euron sent.
*Victarion Greyjoy: Admiral of the Iron Fleet. [[Gets shit done]] while wearing [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Lokhir Fellheart's]] armour during boarding actions. Does it for vengeance, the lulz and as a ticket to Ironborn heaven (which they believe men can reach if they die in battle or by drowning). Worships both R'hllor and the Drowned God. For all his badassery, is far too stupid to realize that his black Red Priest sidekick's constant rambling about his "great destiny" is inevitably going to end in his burning to death on a sacrificial pyre. Said Red Priest impressed Victarion by surviving being marooned at sea for 3 weeks and turning Victarion's infected arm into a super-strong volcano arm. Seriously. Isn't in the show, which is lame.
*Aeron Greyjoy ''Damphair'': [[Kostaltyn|A priestly Alan Moore who drank seawater]]. Once a fun-loving party animal, he nearly drowned during the Greyjoy Rebellion and became a dour and devout priest of the Ironborn [[Cthulhu]] religion. Confirmed to have been raped by Euron when they were kids. Planned to overthrow Euron, who bribed and manipulated his way into becoming king of the Ironborn. As of the excerpts from the sixth book, he [[Grimdark|Was captured by Euron and tortured to try and make him renounce his faith, including feeding him spoiled food, drugging him and burning him. Later Euron tied Aeron, naked, to the prow of Euron's ship alongside Euron's tortured, pregnant former lover because she showed Aeron kindness by once giving him proper food]]. He tried to console her by saying their suffering will end in underwater Valhalla, [[Awesome|showing Euron failed to make him deny his faith]]. Also left out of the show.
*Theon Greyjoy: Son of the Lord/King of the Iron Islands. Had the personality of a stereotypical high school jock, being an excellent archer and womanizer and proud of it. He was given to Ned Stark by his father after Balon failed to successfully rebel against Robert Baratheon. Swore an oath to Robb, but then ditched him out of a desperate need to please his father. Ends up castrated and acts as the personal slave of Ramsay Bolton after Ramsay puts him through horrific torture to turn him into Reek. Rescued by his sister, but the psychological trauma meant it took a while before he could stop calling himself Reek and start getting back to normal mentally (physically he's now missing a few parts that don't heal or grow back). He's just been reunited with his sister in the books, but is dead in the show, thanks to charging the Night King by himself while protecting Bran.
* Asha Greyjoy: Theon's older sister and a commander of some renown which is quite a feat - almost every man on the Iron Islands except her father either tried to get in her pants or told her to [[-4 STR|stop playing around and go do some actual women's work]], before she kicked enough ass that they respected her. Rescues Theon after he escapes Ramsay but then loses him to Stannis. Is named Yara in the show because the showrunners thought her name sounded too similar to Osha the wildling chick and is also apparently [[PROMOTIONS|bisexual]]. Eventually becomes Lady of the Iron Islands in the show because she's the last Greyjoy standing. Is more or less the only Ironborn who isn't a complete asshole.
*Euron Greyjoy ''Crow's Eye'': A [[Chaos Warrior|sick fuck Lovecraftian pirate armed with unnatural sorcerous powers]] and so evil that Balon banished him from the Iron Islands. Every member of his crew is a mute because Euron ripped all their tongues out. Many of them are also the illegitimate sons [[Beastmen|of women he's raped around the world during his raids]]. Uses an eyepatch to conceal a pitch-black eye, his personal "obviously a villain" mark. Raped his brother Victarion's wife, then claimed she wanted it so Victarion had to kill her. Raped his younger brother Aeron. Also showed back up in the Iron Islands the day after Balon died, despite having been raping and pillaging in Essos before that, which is suspicious as fuck. Now the new Iron King. Plans to conquer Westeros and has some unknown plan to deal with Daenerys. Revealed in the book ''Winds of Winter'' to be [[Erebus|one of the sickest fucks in an entire setting of sick fucks (and that's saying something)]], including having a god complex while hating religion so much he [[Grimdark|tortures any clergymen he captures to try and make them give up their faiths using ironic tortures themed around their religions - such as preachers have their tongues cut out and burning priests of the fire god to death]]. Euron tried and failed to break his priest brother Aeron's faith so he lashed Aeron to the front of his ship to die [[Grimdark|alongside Euron's own pregnant lover Falia]], in what could be preparations for the [[Betrayal at Calth|ruinstorm]].
**In the show he's just a psycho pirate turned king without any magic powers or gear [[FAIL|who wants to bang Cersei and Jaime kills him in the second-to-last episode in one of the dumbest moments in an already terrible episode.]]
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===House Tyrell===

''"Growing Strong"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Lords of Highgarden and the Reach, backstabbers par-excellence, and owners of a lot of fertile land: of the Seven Kingdoms, the Reach is the "biggest," having the most people, the largest army, and a stable, if not agrarian economy; yes, the Westerlands is richer, yes, the Stormlands have/had the strongest military, and yes, the Vale is the most honor-and-chivalry obsessed, but the Reach and the Tyrells are the only ones who can compete with all three at once. Unlike the current lot of Lannisters they understand the value of good PR, balancing ruthlessness with being somewhat amicable, political savvy and not being stuck-up on honour (which they still have more of than the Lannisters do). They're a bit analogous to France. In the books, it's the Tyrells and their support that keeps the throne aloft post-Robert, first aiding Joffrey, then Tommen. They were "shrewd" enough to stay out of Robert's Rebellion and outside of his court while Tywin was in charge, so their lands are basically untouched by war: the Reach's cities are also the most beautiful, with Highgarden and Oldtown being notable for not smelling like shit and full of garbage. [[Fail|Unfortunately, they've all been wiped out in the show]].

*Mace "The Ace" Tyrell: Lord of Highgarden. Massively fat and overweight, while being stupid, overreaching and constantly mocked by everyone else, he's otherwise known as a friendly man, a good Lord when it comes to management and a good father; in the books, The Throne uses him to print gold and alleviate hunger during the War of the Five Kings, so they give him and his family a bunch of positions to keep them invested. Unfortunately, this isn't enough to save a man in the Game of Thrones. Gets killed with the rest of the noble houses when Cersei blows up the Great Sept of Baelor.
*Olenna Tyrell: The brains behind House Tyrell's schemes. Known as the ''Queen of Thorns'' for being an outspoken, prickly and venomous old lady. Schemed with Littlefinger to have Joffrey killed, but she carried it out with compressed powder "gems" hidden in Sansa's hairnet that poisoned his wine. She is to the Tyrells as Tywin is to the Lannisters, except her daughter isn't a narcissistic sociopath.
**Alive and well in the books (so far), where she's pretty much the same as the show. She has taken Margaery as her successor, which is why she made sure she'd be engaged to Tommen and had Joffrey offed.
**Became a fan-favorite for constantly dropping awesome one-liners and calling out smug and/or unpopular characters like Littlefinger and the Sand Snakes. [[Fail|Killed off in the show]] as Jaime gives her the option of drinking painless poison or whatever Cersei wanted to do to her after beseiging Highgarden. Olenna took the poison, and before she died [[Awesome|revealed to Jaime that she was the one who killed Joffrey and told him to make sure Cersei knows it]].
*Willas Tyrell: Mace Tyrell's eldest son and heir, crippled at a very young age when jousting against Oberyn Martell. Surprisingly, he and Oberyn are still bros, even though the rest of their Houses aren't very fond of each other because of this incident. Probably one of the most pleasant and sensible characters in the books, which might explain why they never included him in the TV show. Very fond of breeding animals, especially horses.
*Garlan Tyrell ''The Gallant'': Second-born son. Badass extraordinaire considered one of the best swords in Westeros, and one of the few people kind to Tyrion. Trains for real combat (often against multiple opponents by himself) unlike Loras, who's a tourney fighter. Single-handedly wrecks many notable knights fighting for Stannis during the War of The Five Kings. And he is the only person other than Tywin to put Joffrey in his place, at his own wedding. Sadly no POV chapter yet and omitted from the TV series (Loras takes credit for his deeds).
*Loras Tyrell ''The Knight of Flowers'': The Tyrell who appears most in the TV series, since his older brothers got adapted out. Considered to be an example of the perfect knight, despite his youth. Is secretly Renly's gay lover and conspired to take the throne with him and his sister. He was elevated to the Kingsguard as part of the Lannister's appeasement of the Tyrells, but also to ensure that Margaery would be safe if it turned out they couldn't kill Joff/Tommen turned out to be a sociopath too. Last seen badly injured in the books attempting to take Stannis' castle in order to to prove his honor after the Faith Militant locked up his sister, but because none of Cersei's sources could visually confirm it, it's likely that the Tyrells ([[Iron warriors|it was ''their'' forces that did the sieging]], after all) fabricated a story to get their boy out of there. In the show he ends up tortured by the members of the Faith for being gay [[C.S Goto|because the showrunners retconned them to hate gay people]], [[Protectorate of Menoth|later joins their ranks of questionable willingness]], then dies when Cersei blows up the Sept of Baelor.
*Margaery Tyrell: The would-be Queen of Westeros, she has married, in order, Renly Baratheon (gay), Joffrey Baratheon (evil), and Tommen Baratheon (8 years old) and has been crowned as queen three times. While she is nice, like Disney Princess-in-a-grimdark-setting-nice, she is still her grandmother's protege , and so is the source of Cersei's paranoia (which is kinda valid as the Tyrells did off Joffrey so that the more-controllable and non-sociopathic Tommen could marry Margy). Cersei was so paranoid about Marge's ascension that she decided to legitimize the Sparrows and allow them to reform the [[Age of Apostasy|Faith Militant]], all because she was afraid Tommen would listen to Margaery more than her.
**In the show, she marries and uses sex to control Tommen, because the show needed to hit its titty quota and because Tommen is a teenager in the show. Was arrested by the resident Chamber Militant The Sparrow and asked for a trial by faith in the books. In the show, this also happens but she tries to be pious in an attempt to save herself but ended up getting killed when Cersei blew up the Sept of Baelor.
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===House Martell===

''"Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken"''
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[[Tallarn|Desert dwelling survivalists]] who [[Dune|pride themselves on having never been conquered]] by the Targaryen dynasty (though they later married in). Moorish Spaniards, kinda. Their entire thing is that they're nothing like the rest of the Seven Kingdoms: they're descended from the Rhoynar, a group of people that used to live along one of Essos' longest rivers who practice absolute cognatic (the oldest child, regardless of gender, inherits the throne) succession and take a very liberal attitude towards sex. House Martell also has a rocky relationship with the rest of the kingdom: The Baratheons don't trust them because they were all Targaryen loyalists, the Reach doesn't like them because of historic wars between the two, and House Martell has never forgiven House Lannister for Clegane's rape and murder of Elia Martell, Rhaegar's first wife and mother of his children.
[[C.S Goto|Their story arc was completely ruined in the show, as Elia and Oberyn's daughters kill Oberyn's brother and nephew for taking too long to avenge him before being captured and killed themselves by Euron and Cersei]].
*Doran Martell: Lord of Sunspear and of royal descent. Still mad at the Lannisters about that whole "murdered-my-sister-and-infant-niece thing". Playing the longest of long games with Varys, which blew up in his face because he told ''no one in his family'' about his schemes (well, maybe Oberyn, but Oberyn is dead).
**[[What|Killed off in the show by Ellaria as part of her plan to avenge Oberyn]]. Even his actor was upset.
*Arianne Martell: One of GRRM's characters who seems to exists solely to fuck everything up at the worst conceivable moment. Still hot as Dornish girls come. See, she is technically the heir of Dorne, being the ''first-born'' daughter, and yet was shut out of most of her father's meetings and plans, which caused her to get upset because even Oberyn treats all of his bastards better than her dad treats her. After Doran ''seemingly'' accepts his own brother's death without any sort of fuss, she decides that her father is weak and plans to start ''another'' front in the War of Five Kings by putting Myrcella up on the throne. However, one of her dad's spies gives them up, and in a huge clusterfuck, Myrcella gets maimed by one of the pro-war knights. She is then taken to her father, who finally spills the beans on his grand scheme: the reason why she was sidelined by her father was because he had secretly betrothed her to her Viserys, but now that Viserys is dead, plans to see if he can broker an alliance with "Aegon," Rhaegar and Elia's son who "supposedly" was secreted away and replaced with doubles.
*Oberyn Martell ''The Viper of Dorne'': Doran Martell's brother, a bisexual swinger, former mercenary, and a drunkard (and also Inigo Montoya in Dark Fantasy). His girlfriend is a spectacularly beautiful bastard named Ellaria Sand and he has many illegitimate children, mostly daughters, collectively called "The Sand Snakes". Crippled the Tyrell heir in a joust, causing a rift between the two houses; despite this, he's actually best mates with the aforementioned heir, due to Willas Tyrell being straight up the nicest and most balanced man in the series and Oberyn being a very decent person. Known for poisoning his weapons, as well as his battle-cry. Died from a mutual kill, with Gregor Clegane crushing his skull in rather graphically, but Oberyn getting the last laugh, since he got Clegane with a horribly painful and slow-acting venom which stretched his death over days or even weeks, during which time he was ruthlessly experimented upon by a mad scientist, meaning he avenged his sister Elia who Gregor had raped and murdered. [[Sanguinius|So to sum it up, he's a spear-wielding badass whose death in battle against a major villain was deeply traumatizing for all in-universe and out]].

*Quentyn Martell: Didn't realize he was in Dark Low Fantasy and thought he was in High Fantasy, poor bastard. A member of House Martell, sent to marry Daenerys to secure an alliance between the families since the original marriage plan to hook Arianne up with Viserys won't work with Viserys dead. Leaves Westeros and goes all the way to the city of Meereen to marry her, but he's too late, as she marries the Meereenese noble Hizdahr, and like Jorah he's not her type (Dany likes her bad boys). Tries to tame two of her dragons to impress her; the attempt goes wrong, he gets horribly burnt and gradually dies in agony from his wounds.
*The Sand Snakes: Oberyn's children. All daughters he had with various women throughout his travels (all consensual encounters, mind you, which actually says a lot about Westeros that it has to be said). Mixed race and all hot with various skills including combat training and mastery of poisons. Working with Doran and Ellaria in the books.
**[[C.S Goto|Ruined in the show where they don't accomplish anything, are given atrocious dialogue (the "you need the bad pussy" line comes to mind), aren't great fighters and get killed by Euron's men, except for the one who poisoned Myrcella; she gets captured and poisoned back by Cersei so an imprisoned Ellaria is forced to watch her die and decompose.]]</div></div>

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===House Bolton===

''"Our Blades Are Sharp"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">The Starks' most important (and most despised) vassal, a former arch-rival made of [[Grimdark]] because their entire theme [[Night Lords|revolves around Torture and they're thoroughly awful, dishonorable, sadistic cowards who can be counted on to do every dirty trick possible before even trying to fight fair]]. Their sigil is a flayed man, their castle is [[Commorragh|a complex of constant suffering called the Dreadfort]], and just look at their House motto...all of which shows how stupid the Starks were for thinking they could control them. Tied with Red Wedding collaborators the Freys as the most thoroughly vile house in the entire setting (no mean feat, all things considered).
*Roose Bolton, ''The 'Leech Lord'': A Lawful Evil sociopathic health nut who's called the Leech Lord because he gets leeched regularly, believing they get rid of bad blood. Second-most powerful Lord in the North with ambitions to depose the Starks. Since the Starks are mostly unable to think like crafty people and are blinded by excessive honour this doesn't prove too difficult. He gets his wish when he stabs Robb Stark in the back, at his uncle's wedding no less, and has anyone associated with Robb killed. He then makes over Winterfell in his bloody image and is currently trolling Stannis. Believes in the abolished practice of "[[Rape|Droit du seigneur]]" (a tradition that allowed a lord to have sex with subordinate women, whether they wanted to or not) and killed at least one man for trying to hide his wife from Roose (before fathering Ramsay with her via rape). Believed that he and his son could be as evil as they wanted as long as no one found out. Killed by Ramsey in the show, which Ramsay tried to cover with a lie despite the witnesses to his actions. May also be dead in the books, since the letter Jon receives from Winterfell in book five is addressed from Lord Ramsay Bolton.
*Ramsay Snow/Bolton: <s>A Dark Elf with shaved ears in the wrong universe</s>. <s>The Joker of Westeros</s>. The Chaotic Evil incarnate bastard son of Roose Bolton and a peasant woman he raped [[Grimdark|(under the hanging corpse of the woman's husband, for fuck's sake!)]]. One of the most fucked up people in all of the Seven Kingdoms (alongside the Mountain, Joffrey, the original Reek, the pedophile marauder Rorge and Euron), because he [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|loves to torture and kill people openly for the lulz]], such as Theon Greyjoy, who he crippled, knocked his teeth out, castrated, and brainwashed into calling himself Reek. Reek was originally a peasant appointed to try and control a young Ramsay, but instead Ramsay warped him into a mentally unstable necrophiliac before killing Reek to fake his death, but Ramsay seemed to hold some twisted affection for him. He also sent Theon's severed appendage to Theon's dad in a cutesy box with a letter mockingly detailing his evilness. Will torture anyone who points out his illegitimate heritage even though now he's legally recognized as a Bolton. Also has a pack of hunting dogs he names after women he hunts, rapes and kills. Married a fake Arya Stark and regularly mistreats her, including forced bestiality. Not a fun guy to be around. The only reason he's gotten away with it for so long (as pointed out by his father) is that no one is strong enough to stand up to him yet, but [[Powder Keg of Justice|when they are]] he's going to be killed (especially if his fate in the show is anything to go by).
**In the show, he killed his father with a knife, fed his stepmother and newborn half-brother to his dogs, then married Sansa Stark and deflowered her via rape. Ramsay was such a monster even Iwan Rheon, THE ACTOR WHO PLAYED THE GUY, hoped he'd die horribly. He got his wish: The consequences of Ramsay's actions catch up with him when Jon Snow shows up with an army capable of threatening him, and after surprise reinforcements from Littlefinger and his own fucked-up teamkilling, the Starks crush the Bolton army, forcing Ramsay to flee back to Winterfell. Despite this, the gate is smashed down, and Jon disarms him and beats him quite brutally before detaining him to await trial. Before the trial Sansa sets his dogs on him, which he had deliberately starved so they would eat Jon. Apparently they found him quite tasty. For all that Season 6 of GoT is Skub, there likely aren't many who would object to this moment.
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===House Frey===

''"We Stand Together"''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> House of weasels who are always grumpy and have a thing for overreacting to perceived slights. Wouldn't be that important except for the fact that they own the only bridge over a strategically important river, and regularly extort anyone attempting to cross it...that, and performing the Red Wedding, AKA the Magnum Opus of Grimdark that single-handedly ensures they're [[Marines Malevolent|the most hated fucks in the whole setting in-universe and out.]] Simply put, there is '''nothing''' good or nice you can say about the Freys. They're ugly inside and out, cruel, treacherous, thoroughly dishonorable, and aren't even strong warriors, being a mix of incompetent dumbasses and sadistic cowards. They'd all make excellent Skaven (especially considering they could stand to be killed by some Lizardmen).

*Walder Frey: The ancient, terrible, ornery old man in charge of the Twins. Universally detested by his peers (and the audience) for being an amoral, sociopathic opportunist, which he returns in kind for said peers "looking down on him" (can't imagine why), and will readily betray an important ally for immediate gain, or if he feels he has been slighted in some minor way, with the aforementioned Red Wedding being the most infamous example of both. His descendants are literally so numerous that no one except GRRM himself has been able to count them all, so we aren't even going to attempt it (not helped by quite a few of them being named Walder as well). Now dead in the show due to getting his throat slit by a vengeful Arya after she serves him two of his sons as meat pies. </div></div>

===Minor Houses and non-Houses===
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'''Night's Watch'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">The Night's Watch are an apolitical force in charge of manning The Wall, a giant ice wall that separates the relative tranquillity of the south from the Lovecraftian fucked-up-itude of the true north. They are chronically undermanned and undersupplied since nobody believes their stories of a barbarian army or the impending zombie apocalypse. Basically everybody else thinks they're in a game of [[Diplomacy]] and the Night's Watch are the only ones who realize they're actually in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], though it's been so long since the last snow elf invasion that even they had forgotten about the undead hordes and focused too much on barbarians. Too add to their problems, they are overwhelmingly comprised of petty criminals who wanted to avoid the hangman, because "taking the black", as it's colloquially known, also brings with it a full pardon for any crime committed, even murder and treason (even rape, though rapists tend to be despised among the Night's Watch). Taking the black isn't also very popular, as a common joke in the Seven Kingdoms is that out 10 people, only would one would willfully take the black, the rest would rather get hanged. They also frequently serve as a convinient catch-all solution for Lords and nobles who fell out of favor, committed treason or were outwitted in the endless Westerosi wheel of politics; lucky for them because said Lords and Nobles are usually the only ones with any fighting experience that are part of the watch and make up their leadership. They've allied with the Wildings and the North, but in the TV show, the Night's King used the undead dragon Viserion to burn a hole through The Wall.
*Jeor Mormont, ''The Old Bear'': 997th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch at the start of the series. Sees Jon Snow as something of a second son (since his own son Jorah was exiled for enslaving and refused to take the black for his crimes). Leads a ranging north of the Wall to investigate reports that the Others have returned. Ends up killed during a mutiny of survivors after the Others wiped out most of his force.
*Alliser Thorne: Prick of a knight who was favourite to be the next Watch Commander, but was passed over by Jon Snow. Unable to accept Jon Snow letting the Wildlings live on the other side of the wall in an alliance against the zombie hordes, he staged a coup against Jon. It failed because Jon was brought back to life. He is now dead in the show, having been executed for his treason by Jon Snow. Despite of his many personal failings, he's one of the very few capable fighters (and a pretty good one, even) of the Watch and a skilled commander. Took the Black after siding with the Targaryens during the Sack of King's Landing in the civil war.
*Aemon Targaryen: Maester of the Citadel at Castle Black. Despite being the third born son of King Maekar I Targaryen, he declined the right to sit on the Iron Throne. One of the few people in the series to die of old age, at 102.
*Samwell Tarly, ''The Slayer'': Fat bookworm who was forced to take the black after his father Randyl threatened to murder him for being unmanly. Jon Snow's best friend among the Night's Watch, and knows everything because he "read it in a book". Despite being a self-professed coward, Sam became the first person in thousands of years to slay an Other with an obsidian dagger. George Martin himself said Sam's based on Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings. Since then, he has started improving his combat skills and balls (in more ways than one for the latter, finding his spine and losing his virginity). He abandons the Night's Watch to help fight the dead and tell Jon who he really is, and winds up becoming the new Grand Maester by the end of the show.
*Eddison Tollett, ''Dolorous Edd'': Probably the most badass member of the Night's Watch. Responds to situations by making sarcastic jokes about them, and known for being a grim motherfucker in a setting of grim motherfuckers. In the show he [[Awesome|became the new Lord Commander]] while Jon was dead, but gave the title back to Jon when he was brought back to life, and then Jon handed it right back because he needed to go sort out Ramsay Bolton. Dies in Season 8 at the Battle of Winterfell.
*Benjen Stark: The [[Dune|Duncan Idaho]] of this series, the dead guy all the other characters and all the ''readers'' love so much someone has to bring him back from the dead in later books. Benjen is Eddard Stark's youngest brother and the prime motivation why Jon wants to join the Night's Watch in the first place. Joined the Watch for reasons unknown and disappears without a trace even before Jon arrives. In the TV series, he returns as a benevolent Wight that retained his free will and helps Bran to get back to the Seven Kingdoms.
*Qhorin Half-Hand: Badass extraordinaire that killed a shitton of Wildlings in his long time of service, rumoured to have spent more time north of the Wall than anyone living southerner in the setting. Lets himself get killed by Jon in a gambit to earn Mance Rayders respect.
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'''Wildlings'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Groups of nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes who live north of the Wall. Mostly First Men by blood, they have been heading toward the Wall for the past decade with the reputed reemergence of the Others. Nomadic, aggressive, and very much believing in "might makes right", they do not get along with anyone south of The Wall since they view them as "Kneeling weaklings". Basically every Celtic/Scandinavian/barbarian stereotype combined.
*Mance Rayder, ''The King Beyond The Wall'': A Wildling orphan who was taken in by the Night's Watch, he became their best Ranger before he deserted to join his people. He united the Wildlings and lead them south to escape the Others. Also a trained bard, but that was not enough to save him from death in the show while he's merely MIA in the books.
*Tormund Giantsbane: Claims to have a ten-inch penis, and invites his enemies to use their mouths if they want to clean it. Cool as fuck old guy who [[Furry|fucks mother-bears]] in his free time. Tough as nails motherfucker who preaches the merits of using one's cock for everything. He teams up with Jon Snow for the fight against the White Walkers, then fucks off back to the north once the Night King is dead, making him one of the most sensible people on the show. He and Jon go off to be bros at the end of the show.
*Ygritte: Wildling woman who Jon Snow ends up falling for and who returns his affections. Has red hair which is considered lucky among the Wildlings. This being ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', she ends up dying because her worldview is not compatible with Jon's.
*Craster: A sick bastard, formerly a member of the Night's Watch turned polygamous isolationist. By the way, [[Grimdark|his current wives are his many daughters and granddaughters who he fucks regularly to have more children. Girls grow up to become more wives, boys get sacrificed to the Others]]. This keeps the Others at bay - and is implied to be a way the Others reproduce themselves, and that sanctuary is why the Night's Watch barely tolerates him. Fortunately, he's been killed off in the story and his offspring go their separate ways.
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'''Commoners, Knights, and Petty Lords'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Basically any character not associated with any of the Great Houses.
* Varys, ''The Spider'': The eunuch spymaster of Westeros. You can't take a shit in the Seven Kingdoms without Varys finding out where, when, and how watery or dry it was. He does this through paid informants and his "little birds", a spy network of children who sneak through the castle's passageways and air flues to eavesdrop on everyone. Somewhat of a paradoxical character, since his literal dicklessness, reputation and political power make every character extremely vary of him (it's more or less implied that the main thing keeping him in the small council is the fact that he has got enough shit on everyone to blackmail them into submission if they would dare step out of his line) but under the surface, he is the rare example of people in Westeros that isn't an entirely self-serving scumbag and seems to show genuine care and concern for the common folk [[Just as planned|(Even if his machinations frequently put commonors in peril, but hey, such is politics)]]. To that end, he manipulated events that, according to his plan, would end with a Targaryen on the throne, to permanently stabilize the realm and rid it of the aformentioned self-serving idiots. On a sidenote, he's one of the few, if not the only person to fully comprehend how dangerous Littlefinger actually is. In the books, he's currently trying to install an adolescent Targaryen on the Iron Throne (who probably isn't even one, but he got the looks) Dead in the show, having decided to try and put Jon on the throne instead of Daenerys; Jon says no, Tyrion sells him out when he realizes Jon absolutely means it, and Dany has Drogon barbecue him.
* Petyr Baelish, ''Littlefinger'': The Master of Coin (the ASOIAF equivalent of a treasurer) and the closest person the Game of Thrones world has to a [[Daemon Prince]] of [[Tzeentch]], up to even declaring "[[Chaos]] is a Ladder". A dangerous manipulator who manages to trick and steal his way to positions of lordship and wealth because no one takes him seriously, and stabs all the Lannisters in the back when they become inconvenient. As a child, he wanted Catelyn Stark and was tricked into thinking she wanted him when her sister Lysa fucked him while he was drunk. Challenged Catelyn's betrothed Brandon Stark, Ned's older brother who was murdered by Aerys, for her hand in marriage and got his ass kicked because he was a small skinny boy and Brandon Stark was a big strapping man, making that his start of darkness. The guy responsible, directly or indirectly, for the War of the Five Kings because he was the mastermind behind poisoning Jon Arryn, the capture and execution of Ned Stark, feeding several half-truths to Catelyn to motivate her to arrest Tyrion, and eventually Joffrey's death by having Dontos and Olenna Tyrell carry out the plan to kill Joffrey and letting Tyrion take the fall; but no one in the story knows this, not even Varys. People think he can pull gold out of thin air, but he's really been buying debt while letting Robert Baratheon's extravagances and Joffrey and Cersei's dipshittery pull the country into a serious debt of its own. So he's pledged himself to [[Chaos]] and destroying Westeros all because he couldn't have Catelyn as his girlfriend, though he changed his focus to her daughter Sansa now, making him a pedophile. Hasn't yet got his comeuppance in the books, but is currently dead in the show after he was out-gambitted by Sansa and killed by Arya (though the less said about how well executed this was, the better). According to GRRM, he's based on the title character from the Great Gatsby, even though he only really resembles the character when putting on an act. [[Erebus|Basically has the role of a treacherous figure who gives bad advice on purpose and is responsible for the series of events that lead to a massive, devastating war with horrible consequences, making him one of the vilest folks in the 'verse]].
*Gregor Clegane, ''The Mountain'': A 7' 8" 400 pound mass of testosterone, muscles, steroid overdose, [[Slaanesh|utter disregard for consent]], [[Khorne|and murderous RAGE]], Gregor is Tywin Lannister's top muscle. Killed his own father and sister and permanently scarred his brother. [[Beastmen|Hobbies include rape, arson, murder, and random torture]]; he's also been married a few times but not now with the implication he kept killing his wives. He played an important part in destroying the Targaryens by killing a couple of Rhaegar's kids in rather brutal fashion, then raping and murdering his wife. Spends a few novels doing Tywin's dirty work before a Trial by Champion leads to him dying after being poisoned by Oberyn Martell. Qyburn later resurrected him as... something... called "Ser Robert Strong", and is now even stronger, less prone to psychotic rages, and is completely obedient. He's based on accounts of French knight Gilles de Rais and maybe also the scriptural giant Goliath. In the show he goes on to torture Cersei's nun jailer to death in a brutal and unspecified fashion kills Qyburn during the Siege of King's Landing and then nearly kills his little brother, only for Sandor to tackle him through a collapsing wall and into a gigantic inferno that claims both. [[Honsou|Standing out as one of ''the'' evilest pieces of shit in a world filled with them]], to the point that even the author himself has labeled him the worst character in the series.
* Sandor Clegane, ''The Hound'': Younger brother to Gregor Clegane, called the Hound because of his hound-face helm, his family's heraldry, and being the king's hired muscle without being a knight. He hates knights due to the hypocrisy of being a professional "noble warrior" but mostly since his monstrous brother is a knight, showing it's not so much of a noble promotion. Terrified of fire after Gregor put his head against a brazier for playing with one of Gregor's old toys when they were children, burning half his face, but he's still the second-strongest person in Westeros. A brutal anti-hero with a soft spot for Sansa, but a better person than his brother. After falling sick from Biter's nasty teeth, he ends up being a silent monk burying people in the Silent Isles. In the show, he joins the Brotherhood without Banners and goes north to help fuck up the White Walkers. As of Season 8, he's survived the Battle of Winterfell and is riding south with Arya to put the boots to Gregor. Dies killing his now undead brother in a pretty epic fight amidst the crumbling ruins of the Red Keep.
*Grand Maester Pycelle: A shrewd, dangerous man putting on a "harmless old man act" and a high ranking scholar from the science/medical guild the Maesters. The longest-serving member of the King's advisory staff, and is actually Tywin Lannister's biggest lackey. He convinced the Mad King to let Tywin in as Baratheon's armies were marching on the capital, where Tywin proceeded to sack the city and claim it for Robert. Gets his head bashed in by Varys in the books and murdered by Qyburn in the show.
* Qyburn: Formerly a maester, who was kicked out of the order for unethical experiments on the living (taking people and performing vivisections to be precise). Introduced as a part of a mercenary company serving Roose Bolton, which should be a red flag. He moves up in the world when he's sent to escort Brienne and Jaime back to King's Landing and ends with Cersei employing him to replace Pycelle as "science advisor" and eventually Varys's Spymaster. Serves Cersei loyally as long as she lets him indulge his sick experiments, serving as a black magic variety of the court mage. He has resurrected Gregor Clegane as... something. [[Fabius Bile]] if he traded his robot limbs, eugenics and power armour for necromancy. He overestimated his hold on Gregor and got his head caved in for it as of the second-to-last episode of the show.
*Barristan Selmy, ''The Bold'': Knight of the Kingsguard. Which Kingsguard? Take your pick. He's served pretty much every king since Aerys and understandably feels pretty bad about it. Another sad old man who pretty much just wants to die until he decides to go pledge his services to Daenerys. Even in his old age, he is considered one of the most dangerous men in Westeros. [[Fail|Dead in the show]] (to be fair they gave him a huge last stand), but [[Awesome|alive]] and [[Roboute Guilliman|appointed himself Daenerys' steward in her absence to try and fix Meereen's situation in the books]].
*Melisandre, ''The Red Witch'': A priestess of R'hllor, the god of fire. Proclaimed Stannis to be the messiah-king and is doing everything in her power to make sure he wins (considerable given that she can scry, make shadow baby assassins and set things on fire with her mind). She'd be pretty bro-tier if her god wasn't so vicious. As it stands she's kind of in the grey (in the books, the show seems to zig-zag on her being evil 'cos the showrunners seem to hate religion). Most of the people she set on fire deserved it, and she hasn't ''succeeded'' in killing any babies yet. Show version now dead from suicide via rapid ageing after ensuring the Living defeat the Dead.
*Jorah Mormont: A knight and son of Jeor Mormont, exiled for trying to sell poachers into slavery and eventually joining the exiles of House Targaryen. He is offered a pardon in exchange for spying on the Targaryens but ultimately decides to stay with them after falling in love with Daenerys. Unfortunately, he gets friend-zoned hard. Despite saving her life from an assassin while she was pregnant, she still votes him off the Khalassar after learning he was a spy. He still loves her and follows her in secret, though. In the show, he goes on a quest to prove himself to her and contracts the dangerous disease Greyscale (it's like the unholy lovechild of smallpox and leprosy), but he gets cured and is now back at her side. He dies protecting her at the Battle of Winterfell.
*[[This Guy|Davos Seaworth]], ''The Onion Knight'': A former smuggler and bannerman to House Baratheon, and a top-tier hype man, pulling speeches out on the spot on several occasions to convince people to support Stannis and later Jon. One of the most Noblebright characters in the setting, which really isn't bad for a man that only just now learned how to read. During Roberts Rebellion he ran a blockade with a cargo of contraband onions to a castle Stannis Baratheon was besieged in. In exchange for the food he had, Stannis knighted Davos, [[Rules Lawyer|but Stannis's law-worshipping mindset compelled him to remove four digits from his left hand]]. Despite this, Davos has served Stannis with unquestioning loyalty, because Stannis knighting him gave his children a future. The fact that Stannis's war for the throne has ended up killing several of his sons hasn't dented his loyalty at all. **Doesn't like Melisandre because he sees her as a user and her beliefs as brutal. He's a devout follower of the Faith of the Seven in the books and the first season of the show [[C.S Goto|but is clumsily retconned into an anti-religious atheist in later show seasons]]. In the show, he's now pledged to DA NORF and is basically Jon's Hand of the King, except he doesn't get a fancy pin. He survives the Battle of Winterfell and the Second Sack of King's Landing and becomes Master of Ships in the final episode of the show.
*Shae: A former camp follower and Tyrion Lannister's squeeze for most of the story. Fled from an abusive family and became a camp follower to earn a living. Seems to fall in love with Tyrion, but it turns out she's a gold-digging bitch. When Tyrion doesn't marry Shae she sells him out to Cersei for a better offer, then fucks Tywin when she realizes Cersei won't keep her promise. Tyrion found her in his father's bed and strangled her to death with a necklace for betraying him. The discovery of Shae's corpse in Tywin's bed - posthumously outing him as a whoremonger - upsets Cersei to the point she unpersons Shae.
*Bronn: A mercenary who acts as Tyrion's enforcer and personal killer until Cersei outbids him and he settles down with a little wife and title. Routinely kills knights by exploiting how arrogant and stupid they are even after becoming one himself. Only in it for the money, which he'll happily tell you himself. The only character other than Littlefinger to end every book in a better position than he started it. In the show, he makes the very sensible decision to sit out the fighting and wait for his promised castle (Riverrun if Cersei wins, Highgarden if Daenerys wins). He gets Highgarden and is named Lord Paramount of the Reach and Master of Coin in the final episode. Some nobles bitch about the idea of an upjumped thug receiving such high and exalted positions until he points out that their Houses were probably founded by people a lot like him.
* Brienne of Tarth, ''The Beauty'': Surprisingly badass lady knight wannabe (since no women can be knighted), legendarily unattractive but still pretty idealistic despite the shit she gets for her looks. Fate frequently gives her the shit end of the stick, because no matter how hard she tries to finish her quests, she ends up failing or stuff happens that makes it impossible. Secretly crushes on Renly and unaware he's gay. After he dies, Brienne switches her loyalty to Catelyn and helps her bring Jaime to King's Landing as Tyrion promised Sansa's return in exchange for Jaime. She later developed a crush on Jaime. Things don't go well because Jaime lost his hand and the Red Wedding happened. Next, Jaime sends her out to find and keep Sansa safe to make good on Tyrion's promise, since he isn't the complete dick everyone thinks he is. Brienne ends up getting captured by Cat, now known as Lady Stoneheart and an insane undead, who was going to hang Brienne for working with Jaime. Brienne was spared at the last moment to capture/manipulate Jaime.
**In the show, she's now sworn to House Stark and gets knighted by Jaime just before the Battle of Winterfell and then she and Jaime hook up afterwards, only for him to take off and break her heart, because remember kids, he'd rather fuck his sister than fuck an ugly chick. She is now Lady Commander of the Kingsguard as of the final episode.
* Lyanna Mormont: A badass ten-year-old girl who inherits [[Kislev|Bear Island]] after her mother and older sister die horribly in the Riverlands - at least if we are going by the show; in the book, her mother is still alive somewhere [[Catachan Jungle Fighters|waging a Guerilla War]] in the Neck and her older sister Alysanne is the de-facto head of House Mormont. Her activities include pimp-slapping bitches, leading men twice as old as her, and being completely loyal to the Starks despite all their misfortunes. [[Awesome|"Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is STARK."]] She dies killing an undead giant at the Battle of Winterfell, which is pretty badass.
* Wyman Manderly, ''Lord Too-Fat-To-Sit-A-Horse'': The Lord of White Harbour and one of the few Northerners who worship the Seven. Fervently loyal to House Stark, he pays lip-service to the Iron Throne long enough for his eldest son to return home, all to mask a plan to restore the Starks to power, mostly by destabilising the Frey-Bolton alliance, building a navy, marshalling the forces of the lands east of the White Knife river, "losing" Freys in the wilderness and sending Lord Davos Seaworth to rescue Rickon Stark from Skagos. His favourite food is lamprey, although he has also developed a taste for Frey Pie. Also a remarkably graceful dancer, and can survive taking a knife to the throat.
** Wylla Manderly: Granddaughter to the above. Another badass little girl, her activities include openly declaring undying loyalty to House Stark and dying her hair green. She and Lyanna Mormont would probably be best friends if they met. [[Awesome|"The city is built upon the land [the Starks] gave us. In return, we swore that we should always be their men. Stark men!"]]
* Jon Umber, ''The Greatjon'': At first he seems to be your stereotypical, boisterous Northern Lord. However, he becomes one of Robb's most loyal supporters, being first to declare him as 'King in the North' after Ned's execution. Had his moment of awesome [[Awesome|when he killed and wounded four Freys at the Red Wedding, all the while being drunk and needing eight additional men to take him down.]]
* Beric Dondarrion, ''The Lightning Lord'': Minor lord who agreed to head an expedition to take out Gregor Clegane. This being Game of Thrones, however, his party is ambushed by the Mountain and is beaten rather badly, and he loses his life in the process. Thanks to his drunken Red Priest friend, however, he manages to come back not once, but eight times, and each time he comes back, he becomes more powerful, though at the cost of his memory. He now heads an outlaw faction of grimdark Robin Hood types called "The Brotherhood Without Banners", who are dedicated to punishing those who abuse and mistreat the smallfolk. Ironically, he's one of the few book characters to have died (permanently) in the books but remain alive in the show, except now he's dead for real as of the Battle of Winterfell.
* Thoros of Myr: Aforementioned drunken priest who is dedicated to R'hllor, though at first he doesn't really give a rat's ass about the Red God, as he prefers to party it up with wine and women, but after he 'accidentally' resurrects Beric, he becomes quite serious about his religion and vows to curb his excesses in drinking. Dies on a mission beyond the Wall to capture a wight (show-version). Bane of swordsmiths across the lands, as he likes to routinely ignite his swords with Wildfire when he gets a hold of some of the stuff, which completely destroys the blade.
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'''The Free Cities'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Nine city-states to the West of Essos, for the most part, the old colonies of the Valaryian Freehold. Mostly they are ruled by Merchant Princes. They look down on the Westerosi for being a bunch of up jumped backwards war-mongering morons who are only a few silverware sets and maesters away from absolute barbarism. In turn, the Westerosi look down on the Free Cities as being money-grubbing effete cowards ruled by cheesemongers who use bribery, tall walls and dirty tricks to get ahead in the world.

* Illyrio Mopatis: A rich fat bastard and a Magister of Pentos. Old buddies with Varys and a bigtime schemer.
* [[Officio Assassinorum|The Faceless Men]]: A cult of shape-shifting assassins who worship The Many-Faced God of death based in the free city of Braavos that give up personal identity. They claim descent from escaped Valyrian slaves who considered death to be a better fate than perpetual slavery. Their mission hence became being servants of the Many-Faced God of Death. You can hire them to off your rivals, but they request a steep and equivalent price. They also offer a painless, quick suicide for downtrodden and desparate people by the means of poison. Their motto is "Valar Morghulis": All Men Must Die.
* Xaro Xhoan Daxos: One of the thirteen leaders of the city of Qarth. A flamboyant, languid, bald rich man who looks after Daenerys while she stays in Qarth and gives her many gifts. He wants her dragons as much as anyone else and even tries to marry her despite his homosexual tendencies. He stops wanting the dragons later in the book series after seeing [[RIP AND TEAR|their work in Astapor]], and no longer wants her around as her anti-slavery stance is hampering his wealth, so he offers Daenerys ships to leave the area and declares war on her when she refuses. In the show, he's heterosexual, helps steal her dragons, fucks one of her handmaidens and gets locked in a vault for conspiring to have her killed. He's also black and fat in the show when he's white and lanky in the books, being Qartheen and all.
* Syrio Forel: The former First Sword of Braavos (aka the ruler's personal bodyguard) and later Arya's mentor in King's Landing. He teaches her the way of Braavosi fencing, called "Water Dancing", and sacrifices himself to save her from Lannister thugs, taking down at least six of them with a wooden sword. May have inadvertently set her on the path of becoming a badass assassin by telling her of his belief in the God of Death.

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'''The Dothraki'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Horse people who live in a country of endless grass plains referred to by others as the Dothraki sea. They only have one city, called Vaes Dothrak, which is less of a city and more of a place they all meet when important things have to be discussed. Have traits borrowed from several cultures, including Mongols and Native Americans, all filtered through European misconceptions of those cultures of course, such as the Dothraki's antipathy for heavy armour, despite the fact that the Mongols were very heavily armoured and also excelled as infantry, see the Battle of Leignitz. They fear the ocean because of its size and the fact that horses won't drink from it, calling it the "poison water".

* Khal Drogo: An Expy of <s>Genghis Khan</s> Yesukhei Baatyr (his son would have been the equivalent to Chinggis Khaan). Leads the largest Khalassar among the Dothraki. Despite being a barbarian warlord, Drogo is surprisingly intelligent and treats Daenerys well. After an assassin tries to kill her he promises to conquer Westeros for her and their unborn son and immediately starts raiding towns for slaves and ships. At one town he gets cut in a leadership challenge and Daenerys gets a captive wise woman to heal him. However, the woman hates him because his tribe destroyed her hometown, raped/slaughtered or enslaved her friends and raped her three times so she curses him to become catatonic (along with killing his unborn son), leading a devastated Daenerys to perform an arguable mercy kill by smothering him with a pillow. After she burns herself, her stillborn child and the wise woman on his funeral pyre, Daenerys survives and it brings her dragons to life. GRRM named Drogo after [[The Lord of the Rings|Frodo's father]].
* Daenerys' handmaidens.
** Doreah: Daenerys' handmaiden and a wedding gift from Illyrio. A woman from Lysene brought by her brother to teach her how to pleasure a man. In the book she dies of fever and starvation crossing a desert, in the TV show, she betrays Daenerys for [[Salamanders|Xaro's BBC]] and gets locked in a vault to starve to death.
** Irri: Daenerys' handmaiden who teaches Daenerys how to ride a horse. [[PROMOTIONS|Also pleasures Daenerys twice after catching her masturbating once]], yet this canonical girl-on-girl action was left out of the show. The character was even killed off there when she survived in the books, but in this case, it was because her actress' visa had expired rather than [[C.S. Goto|author railroading]].
** Jhiqui: Daenerys' handmaiden who teaches her the Dothraki language and squabbles with Irri over wanting one of Daenerys' bodyguards when he becomes a badass. Also dies in the TV show while staying alive so far in the books.

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'''Slavers Bay'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">A civilization of [[Stupid Evil]] slavers. The remains of a previous civilization that was once the big powerful empire thanks to having phalanxes of obedient, pain-resistant soldiers which Valyria conquered a long while ago because phalanxes don't do too well against motherfucking dragons. They are ruled by wealthy slave mongers who buy slaves, train them up to do specific things and generally are a bunch of stuck up, decadent, puppy-eating (literally) assholes. Basically a civilization so repugnant even most hippies will be cheering when Dany decides to conquer them.

* The Unsullied: Eunuch phalanx fighting slave soldiers trained the Spartan way to produce totally obedient infantry that never break ranks. They also don't feel pain due to drinking a special drink daily, and each one has to take a new name from the name box each day so they can't develop a sense of identity. At least until Dany "bought" the lot of them, had them sack the city which trained them, and freed them.
* Grey Worm: The Unsullied Commander and a no-nonsense badass. When given a chance to take a new name he keeps his slave name because it's the name he had when freed so he considers it lucky. He is completely loyal to Daenerys, considering her his saviour, and in the show, he falls in love with fellow freed-woman, Missandei. This being ASOIAF, however, he can only watch helplessly as his lover is beheaded in front of him by the Mountain. This drives him into a rage, and he eagerly takes part in the sacking of King's Landing in revenge for her death. After the war is over and both Daenerys and Cersei are dead, he takes the Unsullied forces to Naath, in order to fulfil his promise to Missandei that he'd protect her homeland.
* Strong Belwas: A fat but skilled eunuch gladiator. Loves liver and onions and referring to himself in the third person. Travelling companion/guide of Ser Barristan. Has an awesome scene where he beats the champion of Meereen then mocks the Meereenese by taking a shit in their direction and wiping his ass on their dead champion's cloak. Also saves Daenerys from eating poisoned sweets. [[FAIL|Left out of the show]].
* Daario Naharis: A Tyroshi mercenary captain who dyes his hair blue. Betrays his fellow commanders for Daenerys because he loves her as a queen. Fortunately for him, Daenerys loves him back and they pursue a romance for a time, though she doesn't marry him as she's still otherwise smart enough to know she has to save herself for a political marriage. Goes to Yunkai as a hostage in the war on Meereen. Also potentially a shapeshifter, if the show is to be believed.
*Missandei: A young female slave with a remarkable talent for linguistics and one of the more empathetic people in this dark world, Missandei is freed by Daenerys during her campaign to liberate Slaver's Bay, eventually becoming one of her closest confidants and advisers. While a child in the books, in the show Missandei is a grown woman, falls in love with the Unsullied leader Grey Worm, but later is captured by Cersei and beheaded by the zombified Mountain in front of all her friends, but not before telling her friends to burn the Lannisters to ashes.

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===Magic and Gods===
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> The world of ASOIAF has various religions and faiths abound, just like in real life. Similarly, they range between fucking awesome to utterly useless. Dissimilarly, some of them have very tangible, undeniable magic powers, although it is said that the magic became stronger after the rebirth of Dragons into the world, and that in the Far East, where people worship [[Lovecraft|Lovecraft references]], that magic is still alive and well, but those are all just rumors.

Blood Magic seems to be the most consistent, with practitioners paying steep prices for magic, while the druidic magic of the Children of the Forest and the Old Gods still hold strong to this day, they just don't have any practitioners left.

Magic and the Afterlife is a theme in the setting as well, most expounded by the faithful of R'hllor: fire is associated with the warmth of life, as well as light; on the other hand, death is associated with cold and darkness; death carries a harsh finality in the series, ''except when it doesn't:'' as they've shown in special cases with those resurrected by R'hllor, rebirth comes with a price, and not everyone comes back ''fully there''.

*[[Ecclesiarchy|The Faith of the Seven]]: The Catholic Church/Church of England stand-in, which gets both sympathetic (books only) and unsympathetic (books and show) characters associated with it. Holds an anti-slavery stance. The god/s are considered seven aspects of one deity with three male aspects (The Smith, the Father, the Warrior), three female aspects (The Maiden, the Mother, the Crone) and a sexless one representing Death. The places of worship are called Septs, and their system includes Septons, nun-equivalents called Septas and a Pope equivalent called a High Septon. The High Septons all give up their names when they become one to confuse future historians.
** High Septon 1 Fatfuck: A fat, greedy man who used the position for personal gain. He ended up being [[Grimdark|torn apart in a riot]], because the people resented that he had enough food to stay fat while they were starving.
** High Septon 2 Lannister Puppet: Successor of High Septon Fatfuck. Chosen by Tyrion so the Faith would be loyal to the Lannisters. Only ''slightly'' corrupt, being a pro-Lannister yes-man. Murdered on Cersei's order in the book, while in the show he's retconned into a whoremonger who gets deposed by the Sparrows (see below).
** High Septon 3/The High Sparrow: Successor of High Septon Lannister Puppet. After the second High Septon shown in the present day of the story died, the smallfolk burst into the meeting to pick a successor and ordered their chosen candidate to be put in charge when his original successor was caught whoremongering. He'd been a wandering preacher beforehand, and his feet were dark and gnarled from lots of walking. When he reaches the position he starts [[gets shit done|getting things done]]. Since he was appointed by a smallfolk religious movement called Sparrows, he's given the moniker "The High Sparrow". The nobility underestimates him, either due to having other matters or disregard for religious people, but he turns out to be smart, well-meaning and somewhat ruthless. Under the High Sparrow, he and the other clergymen sell their fancy clothes and decorations [[Noblebright|replacing them with simple wool tunics, using the money to buy food and clothes for the poor in King's Landing]]. He also has their Knights-Templar-equivalent reformed to [[Inquisition|protect the faithful and help them root out]] [[heresy]] and sin. He also outwits Cersei and has her arrested and tried for all her evil deeds. While Cersei's scheming does lead to Margaery's arrest, Cersei confesses to some crimes while concealing others, leading to Cersei taking a nude walk of penance in front of the entire city. After this, he somewhat reined in the nobles' politicking to actually look after the commoners and the Faith, though this does make some enemies. In the show, he and the Sparrows are [[C.S Goto|retconned]] from assorted smallfolk and clergymen tired of the nobles' lawlessness and power plays into one-dimensional stereotypes and thinly-veiled jabs at the Catholic Church [[Imperial Truth|in a shoe-horned anti-religion message]]. While they do arrest Cersei and Margaery like in the books, during the trial most of the Faith, including the High Sparrow himself, get blown to kingdom come when Cersei has her agents ignite a massive amount of magical napalm underneath the Great Sept. In the books they're much more like Martin Luther and the Lutherans, except that the Protestant Reformation ''wins''.
* [[Old Ones|Old Gods]]: Native American/Japanese Kame/Druid/nature spirits that reside in places called Godswoods. The original practitioners of this faith were the Children of the Forest, non-elf looking Wood Elves, whose magics were responsible for smashing an entire Southern Warhost with tsunamis (leaving only a narrow isthmus between the North and everyone else), the Wall (it was a collaborative effort with humans), and allowing people to look into the past, and (confirmed in the show at least) influence it.
**Their powers are limited to the North, though, where the last remaining Godswoods remain, but they can grant gifted individuals awesome psychic powers like Warging (mind-controlling animals) and Greensight (Time Travel). For some reason, Martin claims they're based off the Norse Gods. Probably has to do with the way the Vikings made sacrifices to their gods, by hanging them in Ash trees, a symbol for the World Tree Yggdrasil. The Weirwood trees are sacred to the followers of the Old Gods in a similar way. Mostly worship of them is quiet and informal.
*R'hllor: The God of Fire and Light, and like the Old Gods, actually shows evidence for existing. [[/tg/ gets shit done|He gets shit done]], being one of the most common faiths East of Westeros, and his priests have powers such as fire magic and motherfucking Resurrection. Has a nasty habit for burning heretics, though. GRRM said this faith is roughly based (read: poorly modelled after) upon Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism. His nemesis is The Great Other: the god of cold and darkness, the leader of the Others, and prophesied to be defeated by the chosen one, or messianic figure: [[Star Child|Azor Ahai/The Prince That Was Promised]], a figure who is the prophesied warrior that will fight with the Great Other/Night's King during the Apocalypse. Interestingly enough, the prophecy may not refer to a single person, but three (Jon, Tyrion/Bran, and Daenerys). Supposedly, one of these three will also receive an [[Emperor's Sword|awesome flaming sword called "Lightbringer"]].
**R'hllor is very popular among the slaves and poor of the East, though Eastern nobles hate him because of that association. It's actually hard-to-tell how many "miracles" ascribed to him are actually real miracles. Stannis, absolute chad though he is, has a sword called "Lightbringer" meant to evoke the mythical one, but Aemon has [[Bullshit|noticed that it doesn't give off any heat]].
**For obvious reasons, they are ''very excited'' that there are Dragons again.
* Him of Many Faces: The god of the Dead of the religion whose followers are the [[Officio Assassinorum|Faceless Men]]. According to his cult of assassins, whom Arya joins, all gods of death are just him: since every religion has a god of death of some sort, he ''must'' be the only one that's real. Of course, your mileage may vary as to whether he's real or not, though his most awesome followers are granted shapeshifting abilities and powers to be the ultimate assassins.
* Drowned God: Cthulhu combined with Odin. Runs an underwater Valhalla were all Ironborn go whey they either if they drowned at sea, the men die a manly death or the women die in childbirth. Probably doesn't exist or he would have done something about Euron Greyjoy... at least in the books. There, Euron is [[Imperial Truth|proudly scornful]] of him, and his brother Aeron fruitlessly and endlessly mutters "no godless man can sit the Seastone Chair". In the show, Euron is perfectly happy to go through the traditional Drownie coronation ritual and Aeron performs it.
* The Night's King: This is completely different depending on whether you prefer the [[oldfag|books]] or [[newfag|show]]. Book version: A long time ago, when the Night's Watch was just barely getting set up, its Lord Commander, the thirteenth in line, decided to climb over the Wall and explore some. While in the woods to the north of the Wall, he found a beautiful [[Monstergirls|Other female]]. He fell in love with her, had [[/d/|sex with her on top of the Wall]], which somehow changed him into an albino version of [[Star Wars|Darth Maul]], and set himself up as King of the Wall, making everyone in the Watch his slaves and sacrificial fodder. Naturally, this didn't sit too well with the Starks and the Wildlings, and so they banded together to free the Watch and kick his ass, which they managed to do successfully. Now everyone thinks him as dead or a myth. Show version: he was the very first White Walker ever created by the Children, and he decided to get back at them by wiping out all life. Also, whilst he was apparently beaten in the ancient past and sealed away behind the Wall, he's still "alive" and well, [[Daemonculaba|turning infant human boys into new White Walkers]]. Also, he can apparently raise up entire legions of undead, just by raising his arms and looking completely smug about it; unlike regular Others, who can just raise up maybe a village at most. Given that he's the resident [[BBEG|Dark Lord]] of the series, it makes sense that he can take down a dragon with seemingly little effort (a simple throw of his spear), and resurrect it to be his personal steed a la Arthas. (Whether that particular nonsense is going to show up in the books is up in the air, it's suitably grimdark and not particularly [[derp]] so it might.) Then he used the dragon to blow a hole in the Wall and begin [[The End Times]] for Westeros. But [[FAIL|dead]], thanks to Arya's magic ninja haxx which let her [[what|kill the BBEG and his entire race and army of zombies ''in one blow.'']]
** The Others/The White Walkers: A mysterious race from beyond the Wall, known to [[newfag|HBO fans]] as "the White Walkers". Can be described as ice demons/snow elves with necromancy. Eight thousand years ago, they invaded Westeros during a decades-long winter (even longer than the usual years-long winters) known as "the Long Night". With an army of undead warriors, they proceeded to fuck Westeros up every which way to [[Sunday]] before the locals finally drove them out, established the Night's Watch, and built the Wall to keep them out. Like all fantasy aspects of ASOIAF, they are very cliched.
**In the TV series, it's revealed that they were created from human captives by "The Children", the pseudo-[[Elf]] fair folk race that lived in Westeros before humanity arrived, as an attempt to create a super-weapon. The idea was since humanity bred faster than the Children could keep up with, they would create icy [[lich]]-creatures that could create [[undead]] soldiers, and these would then wipe out all human life. Instead, it went disastrously wrong because it turned out that the Children actually couldn't control what they'd created, so the Others [[Ork|just want to exterminate '''all''' life.]] In both versions the Night's King is in control.
*'''Other Eastern Magic/Religions''' - The further and further east you go, the more GRRM scatters Lovecraft references to give the world flavour, like the Shadowlands and its cities of oily, black stone, Leng, and [[Deep Ones|fish people]]. They're just references, though, and will likely never be important.
**The Unsullied have their own goddess, the Lady of Spears, [[Slaanesh|whose altar they burn their dicks on as offerings]].
**The slavers worship a harpy goddess and justify their slavery through her.
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==Locations==

'''Westeros''': The continent where about 80% of the plot takes place. Scotland in the North, Siberia/Northern Scandinavia beyond the wall, Moorish Spain in the South, with the rest being England as far as climate is concerned, only much, much larger.
*The North: By far the largest of the Seven Kingdoms in size, and the least in population. [[Naggaroth|A rocky, cold and dangerous landscape where life barely tolerable]] ([[Norsca|although it's still preferrable to the eldrich lands beyond the wall]]), sometimes it even snows in summer, giving you a general idea why it's quite a shitty place to be in when compared with the more southern kingdoms. Living in it are the Northmen, culturally an inbetween of Northern English and Scots. Most of them still revere the Old Gods and practice traditions that feel very alien to those living in the south, of the First Men culture before the Andal Invasion, still holding out here and the Iron Islands. It's also damn near unconquerable by conventional means due to the narrow isthmus between it and the south being a noxious swamp; . Its ruling house at the beginning of the Story is House Stark, later House Bolton; Its capital is Winterfell.
*Iron Islands: Large, rocky archipelago off the coast of the North and the Riverlands. Their bleak and inhospitable landscape is the major reason why the Ironmen culture, the other hold out of the First Men culture in Westeros which has the unique blend of only political and not cultural Andal influence and lack of Children of the Forest influence as Weirwoods don't grow on islands and only First Men humans ever lived here during those times, is so centered around pillaging and raiding; you can't grow crops on rock. Does have a decently sized economy based around metal working, but nowhere near enough to support its populace. Their capital is Pyke.
*Riverlands: As the name says, the Riverlands are marked by several large rivers flowing through it and the large fertile valleys surrounding them. The historical whipping boy of the continent after the Andal Invasion took over the old First Men realms (minus the North and the Iron Islands), constantly fought over by the Westerlands, the Stormlands, the Reach, the Iron Islands and the Vale, to the point that it was under Iron Islands rule when Aegon Targaryen unified the continent minus Dorne. Gets buttfucked the hardest during the War of the Five Kings by a metric ton; first by the Mountain carrying out a campaign of terror against the civilian populace on Tywin's orders and second by most of the major fights between the Lannisters and the Starks taking place there. Honestly, after all the fighting, raping and pillaging happening in the Riverlands, one must wonder how many people are actually still left in them. Their ruling house is House Tully (later House Baelish); its Capital is Riverrun (later Harrenhal).
*Vale of Arryn: Mountainous Region east of the Riverlands home to (supposedly) the finest knights in Westeros due to them having constant field practice in crushing rebellion after rebellion of the native <s>Irish</s> Mountain Tribes (think Forsworn from Skyrim, only a lot more foul-mouthed) and having an absolute abundance of tiny territories to give out. The population lives more densely packed in the few large cities and townships that exist here due and traversing them is dangerous. Its ruling house is House Arryn, its capital The Eyrie, '''the''' hardest castle to take in Westeros as it is built on a mountaintop. Gulltown, one of the cities of Westeros, is the main economic hub.
*Westerlands: The second-smallest Kingdom in size but by far the richest due to its abundance of Gold and Silver Mines. Has a proud tradition of fucking everyone over by the means of money, politics or both combined. Also has a substantial importance as a major trading and naval hub in the city of Lannisport, which is the largest port on the western side of the continent. Its ruling house is House Lannister, its capital Casterly Rock. Casterly Rock was the capital of the old Kings, House Casterly, which was outsmarted by [[Lukas the Trickster|Lann the Clever]], who married the last surviving daughter and founded House Lannister.
*Crownlands: The lands directly controlled by the Iron Throne, surrounding a big bay, with a rather pleasant, mild climate. Centered around the capital King's Landing, which gets an entry of its own. Its ruling house is always the house of the current kings. Formerly divided between the Riverlands and the Stormlands.
**King's Landing: The capital of the seven kingdoms and by far its largest city. It houses every important institution on the continent, most importantly the Red Keep, where the King of the Seven Kingdoms resides and the Great Sept of Baelor, the religious center of the Faith of the Seven. Aside from the Red Keep and the Great Sept, a filth ridden, downtrodden shithole that is rife with poverty and criminals whereever you may set foot; the City Guard is openly corrupt and acts more like a government-approved gang of thugs. It seems to be something of an unofficial sport among all chacters in the books to never say anything good the city. Architecturally described like Medieval London, at the size of 1600s Paris.
*The Reach: The second-largest of the Seven Kingdoms, and the most populous. Its wide plains, dominated by fields and plantings serve as the breadbasket of the Seven Kingdoms. Also home to the oldest city in Westeros, Oldtown, which in turn is home to the Citadel of the Maesters. Its ruling house is Tyrell, its capital Highgarden. House Tyrell is matrilineally descended from Garth Greenhand like many other houses. The old ruling family, House Gardener, Garth's direct descendants, was wiped out when Aegon unleashed his dragons, with the then Lord of House Tyrell (at this point permanent stewards to House Gardener), was placed in control as he was married to the last Gardener female.
*Stormlands: The lands of House Baratheon, a mix of forested mountains and steep, stony shores: so-named for the very frequent storms that batter its coast. The weather here is so bad, their capital is known as Storm's End because all previous castles were destroyed by the weather, so this one had to be built <s>by a competent Northman architect</s> with magic. In spite of the dangerously bad weather, the area can be quite beautiful when not being battered by the elements. The Baratheons are descended from a loyal general who served the original Aegon, who was also rumored to be his half-brother. After Robert ascended the throne, control of the Stormlands was left to his youngest brother, Renly, while the middle-brother, Stannis, was assigned to guard Robert's back on the much-smaller, less prestigious island of Dragonestone.
*Dorne: The southernmost region of Westeros and the hottest (in more ways than just temperature), consists of rocky deserts in its center and lush, meditterrean areas on its coasts. The Dornish people differ a lot from other Westerosi in ethnicity and culture and have a different origin, that of the migrating Rhoynar people interbreeding with the then relatively isolated local Westerosi. [[Dune|Dorne was also the only Kingdom to successfully resist conquest by the Targaryens]] and was only brought into the fold through political marriages, and their rulers retain the title of Prince (the Rhoynar and the local Westerosi don't use king or queen, they use prince or princess), not afforded to anyone else not of the Royal Family. Its ruling house is Martell, its capital Sunspear.
*The Wall: A wall of ice of gargantuan proportions erected by the First Men to protect themselves against the Others/White Walkers long ago that marks the nothern border of Westeros proper and runs across it from west to east for three hundred miles. In the times when the Night's Watch was under full strength, it was an impenetrable fortification against anything that might dare to cross it, not just because of its sheer dimensions, but also the implication that the wall itself is reinforced by eldrich magic keeping the horrors beyond the wall at bay via unnatural means. Nowadays only three of its 19 keeps are permanently manned, leaving wide gaps in the Night's Watch defense against Wildlings, who sometimes climb over it to raid the South. The Night King tears a hole into it with one of Daenerys' Dragons in the final episode of season 7, allowing him and his undead army to pass through.
*Beyond-the-Wall:
**Craster's Keep: Not really a "keep" but the [[GRIMDARK|home of a man who fucks his own daughters and offers his sons to the Others]]. He is one of the very few "independent" wildlings and offers use of his home to the Night's Watch when they go off on scouting expeditions. Because it's full of servile (inbred) women, the men of the Night's Watch mutiny and take it over.
**Thenn: The name of both the land and its people, the Thenn consider themselves to be the ''true'' "last of the First Men," because they have laws and lords compared to the anarchist free-for-all of the other Free Folk; they don't speak common, they can actually smith, and they treat the "Magnar," the title of their king, like a god. In the show, they're just shown to be a bunch of scarred barbarians.
**Lands of Always Winter: The furthest north people have ever gone and have been able to come back from, the Lands are perpetually frozen, and the Others are said to come from here. Clearly, if you head far enough North, you'll hit a Chaos Rift and end up in the Warp.

'''The Stepstones''': Formerly a solid land bridge between Westeros and Essos, it was brought down by Children of the Forest magic in a failed attempt to stop the First Men invasion. Now an archipelago of islands infested by various ne'er-do-wells.

'''Essos''': A huge landmess (no, not a typo) about southeast of Westeros and home to many independent city-states west of the big mountain range. Generally agreed upon to be largely desolate wilderness sprinkled in with the occasional kingdoms that seem exotic and alien to Westerosi. Most of its western half used to be the center of power of the legendary Valyrian Freehold, with the Free Cities being colonies of them that survived the downfall of the Valyrian Empire hundreds of years ago. The exceptions are Slaver's Bay, conquered by the Valyrians before regaining independence after the Freehold's collapse, Qarth, Ib and some of the others.
*Free Cities: There are 9 city-states on the Western Half of Essos. 8 are former Valyrian colonies, with Braavos being the notable exception to most of the things they have in common. What ties them all together is that they're all connected by trade and feudalism isn't such a big thing here, which also makes their culture remarkably different from the Westerosi. Westerosi tend to view them as alien and hard too understand, while the Free Cities in turn view Westerosi as ignorant morons at best and backwards savages at worst. If you were going to have a setting based on ASOIAF and didn't want to spend the entire time shitting in the dirt or bleeding out in a ditch for some inbred noble, this is where you'd want to be:
**Braavos: The only one of the nine free cities to not be a Valyrian Colony (excepting the other countries like Qarth and Ib, who don't count among the nine). It was founded by Slaves that escaped their overlord in a marsh on the northernmost tip of Essos. It is mainly known for its massive port and the Iron Bank of Braavos, the biggest bank in the world. It also houses the House of Black and White, the central temple and headquarters of the Faceless Men.
**Pentos: Another large trading port on the western edge of Essos. It serves as the major trading hub between Westeros and the rest of Essos.
**Lys: Located on an island off the coast of Essos. Founded as a resort for Freeholders. A decadent city whose most famous export are prostitutes.
**Myr: The women here are hot, considering how often Westerosi seem to come back with wives from here. Other than that, its only notable feature is its forever-war with Lys and Tyrosh.
**Norvos: They make really good bodyguards that are taught to see their [[Executioners|axes as their waifus]].
**Qohor: Not much is known about them, except one of the brutal mercenary companies is from here, and they worship the [[Lovecraft|Black Goat.]]
**Tyrosh: Greedy slavers. Not really notable, except they're one-third of the constant warfare of the Disputed Lands along with Lys and Myr.
**Volantis: The crown jewel, first colony of the Freehold and considers itself the successor state to the Freehold.
**Lorath: No, they don't speak for the trees. Lorath is the poorest of the Free Cities, and not much is known about them. Its most notable feature are the underground labyrinths that dot the island and which predate the Valyrians. Typical of Martin, the Labyrinths and a similar cult in Essos (the cult of the Pattern) are a reference to someone else's work, [[Dick|but no, he doesn't like fanfiction]].
*Ghiscari Empire and Slavers Bay: To the East of Valyria and the Free Cities, these cities pre-date Valyria. Before they were conquered, they had their own empire and worshiped the Harpy. Nowadays, they trade with the Dothraki, exchanging tribute for slaves, which they then market to the rest of the World. Vaguely the [[Middle East]] of ASOIAF. They are: Old Ghis, New Ghis, Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen. In the books, Dany is stuck here trying to manage the clusterfuck that is deslaverizing these lands. Currently locked in a brutal war where the newly-freed slaves are either fighting the surviving slaver-nobles, other cities, or each other.
*Qarth: What separates the "East" from the "Far East." It's to the West of Slaver Bay and East of not!China/Japan, so any traffic between the Free Cities, Slaver's bay, and them, requires them to pass through Qarth. Home to a bunch of fucking weirdo Orientalist tropes that vie for power: The Pureborn, the noble descendants of ancient Qaathi Kings and Queens that fled the sacking of their cities to Qarth, so hold no real power beyond their titles; the Ancient Guild of Spicers (it's in the name); the Thirteen, ''another'' group of Merchants; the Tourmaline Brotherhood (more merchants!). Qarth is also the location of the House of the Undying, a group of Warlocks that drink "shade-of-the-evening," which is pretty much [[Dune|Spice from Dune]], but made from trees and not wormshit; the House of the Undying and most of its Warlocks were burnt down by Dany's dragons after they tried to steal them; they sent out some guys for revenge, but they ran into Euron where he promptly murdered them all and took their <s>spice</s> <s>nightshade</s> shade-of-the-evening. Functionally Singapore, but with a more Indo-Persian aesthetic.
*Rhoyne: Destroyed former city of the Rhoynar, who fled the Valyrian Freehold and migrated to Dorne. The former capital is currently infested by Stone-Men, Greyscale survivors who have gone feral.
*Ib: not!Dwarfs, but described more like Neanderthals than Nordic shorties. They're [[squat]], barrel-chested, with thick wiry black hair, heavy sloping eye brows and square-teeth of neanderthals, They're also incredibly hairy, and even their women have facial hair., Instead of digging holes in mountains, they travel the sees in equally-stocky whaling ships. They tend to keep to themselves, [[Meme|but are natural sailors, suitable for long voyages]].
*The Dothraki Sea: Not a sea, but the name for the not!Eurasian Plains
**Vaes Dothrak: The capital and only permanent Dothraki settlement. It is forbidden to carry weapons or spill blood here (doesn't mean you can't kill through other means).
*Golden Empire of Yi Ti: Not!China, with a mysterious history and pattern of legends eerily-similar to Westeros' own. Like China, has a long history of Emperors, each dynasty progressively ruling over smaller, weaker empires. The current dynasty is actually so weak, they're not taken seriously outside their capital.
**The Five Forts: In the not!Chinese version of the Long Winter/Long Night, the Empire of Yi Ti was cast into a long night that never ended, where the evil Lion of the Night was unleashed by the Bloodstone Emperor. He was beat back by the Lord of Light/Hyrkoon the Hero/but the name that the Yi Ti know him by was never stated. Just like the Wall in Westeros, the Five Forts were said to be erected by a great Emperor soon after to make sure the crisis never happens again. Just like Westeros, the Five Forts have waned in importance, now only protecting the Yi Ti from barbarians. The Five Forts are said to be made from a material of "fused black stone," similar in description to many ancient ruins all over the setting. Harrenhal is also described similarly, but Harrenhal was stone melted by dragonfire, so the idea that the Five Forts was made with the aid of dragons and/or magic has been floated by fans.
*The Jogos Nhai: not!Mongols, but they ride Zebras and are literally cone-heads.
*Asshai-by-the-Shadow: Further-Further-East, it may as well be mythic. The city of Asshai is depressingly gloomy, the entire city is composed of dark black towers made of fused, black stone that seems to "drink the light."

The South:
'''Summer Isles''': Think Avelorn, but Black. An archipelago to the Far South of Westeros, everything here is pretty idyllic. War is very formalized, prostitution is a religious rite, [[meme|there are no white people]], it's practically paradise. A deposed prince was sent to exile in Westeros and had been trying to get Robert to make the journey south to put him back on the throne, but no one really took him seriously.

'''Sothoryos''': [[Lustria|Jungle hell]].
*Yeen: Made of the same creepy black metal in Stygai, implied to be an old Empire of the Dawn Outpost. Even the death world jungle (as in, not just the animals, the actual jungle itself) refuses to go in there for fear of dying.

'''Ulthos''': not!Australia, and has absolutely no lore. Seriously, GRRM has literally never mentioned it except in relation to another place that also has no lore. It's a passing mention that his obsessive fans took note of, and when they literally helped wrote the setting book for him, their guess became canon.

==The appeal of A Song of Ice And Fire==
Exactly what catches the eyes of [[Skub|a given fan/critic/lout who complains about how bad it is anytime the show is mentioned within earshot]] to ASOIAF and its TV adaptation varies from individual to individual. Still, there's a couple of major draws.

'''The Worldbuilding:''' The main reason why this series gets compared to [[The Lord of the Rings]], ASOIAF is literally ''drowning'' under the weight of its worldbuilding, being crammed as full of facts about fictitious regions, histories, cultures, dynasties and races as GRRM can fit it. Your mileage will vary on how ''good'' that info is, but there's plenty of info in it. It is worth noting that much of the vagueness of various aspects of the world's lore comes down to the limited perspectives of each of the characters' point of view, so many places and events are often only known partially through superstition, rumors, and often second hand experiences passed down and muddled over time; all of which play quite heavily into the overall story structure of the series.

'''A vast colorful Cast:''' A lot of works of fantasy get by with a few archetypal characters (the Young Guy out to Prove themself, the Wise Wizard, the Dark Lord, the Mischievous One, the Grizzled Veteran, the Princess, the Dwarf, etc) and maybe a guy or two which rises above this. A Song of Ice and Fire has dozens of viewpoint characters and a hundreds of secondaries each with different situations, drives, motives and quirks that make them reasonably interesting. Even if you don't like one or some of them, there are plenty of others. When they die, it often hits home. Speaking of which...

'''Mainstream [[Dark Fantasy]]:''' Dark Fantasy is not exactly a mainstream niche. ASOIAF stands out by deliberately trying to market itself to the mainstream, despite embracing an abundance of dark fantasy tropes; gratuitous violence, sexuality and sexual violence, moral ambiguity, political intrigue, and a willingness to suddenly kill off any character, even the most likeable or heroic of them.

'''[[Low Fantasy]]:''' On the surface, ASOIAF is an old-school Low Fantasy setting, being a medieval-tech world with the story openly focused on the mundane lives of people struggling for political power and though supernatural elements do exist, they tend to be used sparingly.

'''[[High Fantasy]]:''' But if you scratch the surface, ASOIAF is also a High Fantasy setting, which is always the more marketable of the two, with the big backstory about how the world is facing impending doom from an army of wintery [[fey]] and their [[undead]] minions. There are also non-evil higher powers working against them, but they get swept under the rug in the show. Also, [[dragon]]s. As the more marketable genre, it's also inevitably the more skubby one, for whatever that's worth.

'''[[Magical Realm|Gratuitous Sexuality]]:''' More a thing for the TV show than the books; GRRM's scenes were [[Rape|raepy]] in the earlier volumes, and apparently our boy must have overheard the nickname "George Rape Rape Martin (I ''Like'' Rape)", because he dialed back the forced boning in #4-5. The frequent scenes of nudity and sex in the early seasons of the show were a ''big'' selling point for many people (the casting of people from the sex industry for some of these scenes also helped).

'''Not much in terms of generic fantasy tropes:''' Hate how almost every fantasy just has to have things popularized by Tolkien such as elves, dwarves, orcs and all that stuff? You're in luck because ASOIAF doesn't have a "five races" system, their accompanying stereotypes or the plot hinging on a magic item. On the other hand, it does have several generic fantasy tropes, such as [[dragon]]s, [[Medieval Stasis]], [[undead]] and at least two contenders for [[BBEG|Dark Lord]] status, so if you hate them too, well...

'''Lots of Houses and Sigils''': OK, so this is sort of a joke...except not completely. For those who are artistically minded and love coming up with their own OC groups and/or fleshing out minor characters, this setting really does invite it with the absolutely insane number of houses [[Space Marines|that each have their own distinct logo/color-scheme combo]].

==Oh Yeah, About The TV Show==
[[image:KnightsWhoSayFuck.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Yeah, pretty much.]]

{{Skubby}}

After the first three books became hits, many Hollywood producers and directors had come to the sadistic neckbeard, asking him about making a movie adaptation. At first, he was reluctant at best, due to the fact that a lot of his content would've been cut out to fit into a movie trilogy (see the Lord of the Rings live-action films). Then, a couple of dudes, David Benioff and D.B/Daniel Brett Weiss (AKA D&D, or more accurately as of the final season, Dumb & Dumber), decided to contact him and asked him at a local restaurant about turning ASOIAF into a Television show produced by HBO, the top-rated soft-core porno channel. The story goes that George asked them a very specific question (Who is Jon Snow's mother?). Satisfied with the response they gave, he gave them permission to start work on the show, which would be titled after the first book, ''Game of Thrones''. They would later go on to prove that this is not a good way of choosing who should adapt your work.

The television show casts several well-known performers, such as Sean Bean as Eddard, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, Lena Headey as Cersei, and Charles Dance as Tywin. They have also cast some comparatively less well-known actors and even ones new to cinema, such as Sophie Turner (Sansa), Maisie Williams (Arya), Kit Harington (Jon), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay), Alfie Allen (Theon), and Richard Madden (Robb)

Thus, book snobs seem to think that every episode post-season 4 is nothing more than Emmy-bait. Regardless of the fact Kit Harington still [[Fail|doesn't have an Emmy]], there's a valid contention in that regard, with the number of liberties taken overshadowing the initial appeal.

The final season (more on that below) was eventually revealed to be such a train wreck because Dumb & Dumber did not want to work on the series anymore and had let the success with the earlier seasons go to their heads. In their arrogance, instead of handing the reins to someone else, they decided to plan out their own ending and use it as an audition to Disney so they could write for Star Wars. By then, they'd run out of books to adapt, there was no superior writing for them to leech off of and there was no one to gainsay them in their echo chamber of a writer's room (even George himself was cut out). The result was absolutely shit writing that caused a glorious breakage in the [[skub]] dam that left [[Butthurt|many a fan's anus weeping]] (provided they weren't early seasons fans, book series fans, or any of the other assorted onlookers [[Lulz|taking part in the mightiest of keks]]) and, if anything proved <s>George's </s> Ramsay's quote at the beginning of the article true. Goddamn Dumb & Dumber, could you talentless Derp machines do any worse if you tried? Luckily, comeuppance came after them and Disney, having some sense, told them to fuck off with their [[Star Wars]] ideas after the backlash towards the final season. Not that Disney Star Wars has been without its share of controversy and [[Rage]], but you know it's bad when someone gets told to piss off from even that.

The Greatest Irony and Tragedy of the show's writing was that in the first few seasons, with George RR Martin consulting them and with a wealth of material from the first few books to work with, D&D were actually pretty damn good at adapting the books into a TV format. In fact, quite a few scenes were in fact not only adapted, but actually created from scratch outside of the source material. One of the most noteworthy is the iconic introduction of Tywin Lannister in Season 1 Episode 7, where we learn everything we need to know about his character with nothing but precisely chosen dialogue and a rather blunt visual metaphor of him gutting a stag he slew in a hunt, all while brutally laying into Season 1's initially perceived villain, Jaime. Contrast this with Season 5 where the show's major decline began with blunders such as the omission of fan-favorite Lady Stoneheart, literally butchering the Dorne subplot with Martell family team-killing and changing the Sparrows' movement to a militant atheist's stereotype of religion. This decline makes a lot more sense after George himself admitted that Season 5 was the first Season where he was was really locked out of the loop.

Goes to show how much they had fallen when the well ran dry and the show' writing and adaptation process was no longer the finely honed instrument it had started as.

'''TL;DR'''

[[GM|Producers Dumb&Dumber-style change characters and railroad the plot at a whim,]] [[/d/M|the tits and ultraviolence spigot is opened even wider than the books,]] and most scenes are made for the actors to show off their skills at making their signature angry/murder/brooding/etc. faces, and wrapped it up with a season of TV soon to be discussed that even Matt Ward would be 100% justified in pointing and laughing at. Seasons 1-4 are worth your time, 7 and 8 are best ignored, and 5 and 6 are the [[Skub]] ones.

===The Final <s>Dumpster Fire</s> Season===
{{Fail}}
{{HurfDurf}}
{{Plot Armour}}

Seasons 5, 6, and especially 7 all got their share of grief from people. Mostly deserved in the case of that last one, and [[Skub|arguably so]] for 5 and 6 (though the latter did at least finally give Ramsay his just desserts). Season 8 though? Well, read on:

The Final Season kicks off with the Night King's army attacking Winterfell in a battle meant to be epic, but instead so chock full of tactical [[Fail|fails]] from the living, they make General Custer look like Sun Tzu. The most infamous examples include Melisandre not giving the Dothraki flaming arrows, putting soldiers in front of defenses they should be behind or standing on, no flanking charges and hiding the non-combatants in a crypt while fighting necromancers. The battle is resolved when Arya teleports directly to the BBEG and kills him with some sleight-of-hand that destroys his entire army Keystone Army trope-style and ends the winter. Also Theon, Jorah and Melisandre die, but the story sweeps their deaths under the rug like they're nameless background characters.

Then the Westerosi go full-retard and start hating Daenerys. Yes really; Dany helped end a nation-destroying winter plus a zombie apocalypse, has a claim to the throne AND is their best ally against Cersei... but they want her gone. Even Sansa suddenly turns against Dany and starts seeking the throne, despite having no claim to the rest of Westeros and Dany being easily able to kill her for treason. Everyone inexplicably starts wanting Jon to be king despite his attempt to abdicate, and Jon himself even starts thinking Aunt Daenerys might be a bad queen... but that doesn't stop him from [[Incest Smith|starting a sexual relationship with her]]. The fact that Robert's bastard son Gendry is now a lord, giving him a claim to the throne at least as strong as Dany's or Jon's, is swept under the rug. Varys also jumps ship from Dany to Jon for no reason, even trying to kill Dany in an uncharacteristically stupid move. For his efforts, Tyrion reports Varys to Daenerys, who has Varys executed by Drogon's fire-breath.

Then Daenerys press-gangs people who should logically be happy to fight for her into an army to attack King's Landing and brings them there by sea. Along the way Rhaegal, one of Daenerys' two surviving dragons, is killed by ballistae from Euron's ships. This is despite the facts that Daenerys and her dragons should've easily been able to spot the ships, they were flying well out of ballista range and Euron had no way of knowing where they'd be. After Daenerys and Drogon single-handedly destroy the Iron Fleet (amid poorly animated weather*), they reach King's Landing. Cersei's artillery does nothing despite Daenerys, all her advisors and her dragon being within lethal range plus Cersei's lack of scruples. They in turn do nothing but watch Daenerys' friend Missandei, who was captured offscreen earlier, get executed by zombie-Gregor (despite the fact Cersei and co. had no reason to believe Missandei was anyone of import to either capture or execute. Maybe someone left a copy of the script in Cersei's solar next to her Starbucks latte**)

The battle for King's Landing has Daenerys' forces break in and battle through the streets. Meanwhile Jaime snuck though the tunnels [[Fail|to find and reconcile with Cersei. The Hound regresses to his old violent self and tracks down zombie-Gregor to take him down in a battle that kills them both (although most consider this the one bright spot in the episode). Arya gives up on revenge and decides to let Cersei go despite having strong non-revenge-related reasons to kill her]]. The famed Golden Company is quickly killed off and Cersei signals a surrender by ringing the bells (the bells aren't, and have never been, signals for surrender). Then, in the capstone of bad writing for this season, Daenerys' switch flips from good to evil because the writers want it to happen, and Dany abandons her plan of freeing and leading Westeros to purging King's Landing with her dragon and army. Cersei and Jamie die together in a cave-in and Tyrion mourns their deaths despite being ready and eager to personally kill Cersei earlier. This is followed by Dany's Saruman/Hitler-esque speech that has nothing to do with her former character. Tyrion is arrested for criticizing Daenerys by saying "If this is liberation, I don't believe in liberation theology." Yes, [[Derp|the writers think theology and ideology are the same thing]] (an unsurprising mistake, given they shoehorned in anti-religious rants for the past three Seasons despite the books' even-handedness). This last one has proven to be its own personal bit of Skub, as many have argued that Daenerys going evil is in keeping with the cynical themes and tone of the setting. While this isn't wrong on its face, it does nothing to change the fact that the execution is 100% half-assed. Walter White's descent into villainy this is not, or even Anakin's arc in the Star Wars Prequels, which looks like The Godfather compared to what Season 8 does with Daenerys.

In the aftermath, Jon assassinates Daenerys for the King's Landing massacre... [[Derp|right in front of her dragon]]. Drogon, due to Jon's stronger-than-Valyrian-steel-plot-armor, doesn't kill him but melts the Iron Throne ([[What|accidentally according to the showrunners]]) while chucking a tantrum before grabbing Dany's body and flying away. Jon is somehow charged with Dany's murder despite there being no evidence that he did it, but surprisingly none of the surviving characters still loyal to Dany try to kill Jon (such as the Unsullied or the Dothraki). Despite there being several legitimate choices of king still available, including Gendry, the nobles decide to replace a dynastic monarchy with an elective one and make Bran king. Bran is nominated by Tyrion for a nonsensical reason ("he has the best story"), Tyrion somehow getting a say in the meeting despite being imprisoned for treason.

The Unsullied go to Southros under command of Grey Worm (the only one who still has a personality at this point). The Dothraki are forgotten about by everyone else. Tyrion is freed and made Hand of the King to Brann. Brienne is made Commander of the Kingsguard. [[Derp|Bronn is made Master of Coin. Samwell is made the new Grand Maester]] and [[What|the North secedes and becomes independent under Queen Sansa (which definitely wouldn't cause future problems and tensions)]]. [[The Lord of the Rings|Arya sails to the West]] for some unknown reason and Jon is exiled but doesn't care because he gets to go back up north with the Wildings like he wanted. The end.

This trainwreck of a plot is a testament to how two morons can royally fuck up a show beyond any redeeming qualities the cast and crew can put forward. And even then there were screw-ups among the production staff, such as *the animators being unable to decide whether the sky is sunny or overcast when Dany and Drogon destroy the Iron Fleet - which mattered because Dany's plan to not get shot down involved having the sun behind her - and **not removing the actors' water bottles and coffee cups from the set before shooting. Hyperbole is sort of the norm here, but it really is hard to overstate how badly Season 8's finale fucks up. Game of Thrones was ''everywhere'' culturally for most of the 2010s, drawing in huge numbers of people who would otherwise never be caught dead indulging in High Fantasy works with us uber-nerds. Now, the entire Thrones fandom has practically disappeared or gone underground. Honestly, it would be an impressive achievement if it weren't so terrible.

==House of the Dragon: The ''other'' TV show==

{{Topquote|If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.|Benjamin Franklin [[Star Wars:Rebels|(and also Maul when trying to kill Kanan)]]}}

Deciding that there was still a market for Game of Thrones stuff even after the last season turned the 2010s biggest pop-culture phenomenon into a laughingstock*, HBO bet the bank on some spin-offs, the first of which is now upon us. House of the Dragon is a prequel dealing with the Dance of Dragons, a civil war between two Targaryen factions that ends up consuming Westeros and everyone in it World-War style, and featuring lots of dragons fighting dragons and the standard Westeros fare of fairly bad people doing extremely bad things. Like Game of Thrones before it, it boasts a star-studded cast, a big budget, and a lot of hype. Time will tell if it redeems the failures of the original show or repeats them. If there's a reason to be optimistic (aside from Dumb and Dumber being absent), it would be that the whole story of the Dance of Dragons is written and mapped out, meaning the writers don't have to come up with their own shit to make an ending that George hasn't yet written. Has gotten off to a strong start, so there's the hope that it will be able to redeem the legacy GoT's last two seasons absolutely ruined.

*Given that the premiere was apparently so widely watched it crashed the streaming for many people, they might actually be right.

**In fact, with Martin having more oversight over the writing of this series, and director Miguel Sapochnik actually having a passion for the setting and genre rather than just answering a mystery question to GRRM's satisfaction, the current 6 episodes have seen sky high bumps in both HBO viewership and rave reviews. The slow burn over years as the characters inch closer towards disaster has left the majority of viewers on a palpable knife's edge so far.

==GRRM and [[Your Dudes]]==
Want to make your own ASoIF setting for a role-playing game? Well, readers have enough room to fantasize about their own minor noble House (or kingdom during the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms).

A good example of what you could do is the House from the old [[/v/|"Telltale Game of Thrones"]], House Forrester. Their relationship to the canon is as follows:

House Forrester (lords of someplace in the Wolfswood) '''-> is sworn to ->''' House Glover (overall lords of the entire Wolfswood) '''-> is sworn to ->''' House Stark (rulers of the North).

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] had a very brief tie-in making those annoying attention-sucking Facebook games, way back when FFG did that sort of thing. Just goes to show how even the other guys [[Games Workshop|will do anything for money]].

There's also an actual tie-in tabletop RPG now, which uses its own system and looks kind of like [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] with a heavy helping of resource-management strategy feel.
Players are assuming the role of a minor House to guide to glory, or, more accurately given the setting we're in, NOT to ruin utterly in a season or two, which would still be more than many A-list players mustered in canon. Each PC has a specific position within said House, and only the role of official Head is mandatory; the rest could be wife/children/brothers and sisters/all other kinds of siblings, bastards (with rules for obtaining the legitimate recognition), maesters, sworn/subservient knights, or most of anybody else. This naturally opens up near-infinite possibilities for families screwed up seven ways to high heavens, which would make Lannister's brand of infighting-slash-inbreeding look as sane as the High Septon.

The setting is also ill-suited for "adventures in Westeros" style of gaming for two reasons:
#In the grim darkness of low fantasy, a roaming nobody with no banner to talk about, no House allegiance, no nothing isn't generally treated to a Tavern With Quest Givers, but rather more to a Tavern Where You Are Shanked For Your Sword And Boots And Dumped At The Nearest Forest. Heck, even the big wheelers and dealers are routinely seen invited to the latter when they are slow to properly introduce themselves.
#Working on your initially-puny House will quite realistically involve thy neighbours first and foremost, then liege lords from the higher House yours is sworn to, and on occasion shopping around for an advantageous marriage - there simply ain't gonna be that much spare time to "travel to see places". Both of these are also why tourism wasn't a very popular pastime in medieval Europe (aside from Pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Cologne and Santiago de Compostela) and why those who were "living on the road" usually enjoyed the lowest social standing.

A note to aspiring Lords: do NOT, under any circumstances, allow your "combat-optimized" siblings an unsupervised minute in a social setting. Game's "social combat" system is a thing more brutal than the physical one, and it takes a socially-optimized character all of a few minutes to mindfuck one who is not (read: everyone but dedicated diplomats and Heads of the Houses, and not every one of the latter, to boot, as illustrated by several amazing boneheads in canon) into believing pretty much anything short of Grumpkins and Snarks. Stupid NPCs or a stupid GM will make said mindfuck obvious, allowing you to "mindfuck 'em back" without abuse of OOC info; cunning ones will not.

On a side-note; GRRM is said to take a dim view of fanfiction, saying it kills creative ability. This is kind of a double-edged statement, since a lot of George's characters here are either rehashes of his characters from previous works, references to other fictional characters (like Littlefinger and Samwell being based on Jay Gatsby and [[The Lord of the Rings|Samwise Gamgee]]), walking tropes (such as Ned Stark and Robb Stark being the "[[TVTropes|Honor Before ]] [[Lawful Stupid|Reason]]" characters) or historical references (such House Lannister ripping off House Lancaster and House Tyrell being totally-not-House-Tudor - to the point that Margaery Tyrell is played by Natalie Dormer from "The Tudors" TV show). While this makes everything he wrote just another...fanfiction, and his disapproval hypocritical. Still, given the "creative" output of the average neckbeard, he's perhaps not entirely wrong. For another layer of irony/hypocrisy, he sold the rights to make a TV series of the books to HBO, who's adaptation would eventually devolve into a glorified fanfic.

==Games==
[[image:AGot-2nd-ed-cardfan.png|thumb|250px]]
Like any fantasy author who finds themselves unexpectedly in the warm embrace of commercial success, Martin quickly licensed the shit out of his setting; spawning everything from resin miniatures to replica great swords. While most of this is worthless junk to foist on [[Neckbeard|obsessive fanboys]] /tg/ has agreed that a few of the games are made of win. The first two are a collectable [[CCG|card game]] put out in 2002 by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] and a [[Risk]]-esque board game that followed shortly after in 2003. One of [[White Wolf]]'s subsidiaries also put out a [[d20 System|d20 RPG]] in 2005 but it quickly tanked because, come on, [[White Wolf]]. Martin since wrested the rights back and developed a new version with [[Green Ronin Games]].

Now let's have some serious talks about the Game of Thrones games, because they have become some sort of endless source of [[Skub|amusement and frustration]] for the gaming fanbase. Game of Thrones is, roughly speaking, the second franchise with the most licensed board games, after [[Star Wars]]. Some of them have acquired quite a legendary status and a fanbase that goes beyond the book or series fans.

The great juggernaut for all the ASOIAF-based games is [[Fantasy Flight Games]]:
* First and foremost we have [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/a-game-of-thrones-the-board-game-second-edition/ ''A Game of Thrones: The Board Game'']: a game that after two editions still ranks high in /bgg/'s top 100, and has recently had an expansion. The board game has become some sort of meme for the modern board gamers and it could be considered the equivalent of a more advanced [[Risk]], in which dice and blank character got replaced by a very flavourful and brutal combat system and a lot of thematical mechanics fueling the engine. Overall this game has been associated with concepts such as requiring maximum player count to really be entertaining, having an amazing amount of length and depth and being a very faithful representation of the political feeling the series inspired. Almost any boardgamer or wargamer worth his salt has played this game and enjoyed its highs, its lows and the amazing amount of frustrations it brings. This is probably the most well known of all the ASOIAF games and it was released way before Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon back in 2003.<br>
:It also has a digital edition, sold on Steam and Android

* Another game that bears mention, both for its excellent mechanics and its historical significance is [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/a-game-of-thrones-the-card-game-second-edition/ A Game of Thrones: The Card Game]. It is one of the most balanced card game experiences you can get, also full of flavour and with quite a great amount of balance and non-linear thinking. The best part is, unlike certain other popular card games, the game follows the living card game format: players know exactly what each booster pack brings and can buy cards in a more responsible manner, rather than playing bingo and hoping to get a rare card. Also, the sole core set already provides more replayability than some fully-fledged board games.

* Finally, the last game to mention in the [[Fantasy Flight Games|FFG]] venerable trilogy of games is [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/battles-of-westeros/ ''Battles of Westeros''], arguably the most ambitious and least successful of the three. Battles of Westeros was a fully-fledged wargame that used the [[Memoir 44]] and [[BattleLore]] rules as a base, but then evolved into its own by introducing mechanics such as commanders, tactic cards, and very creative scenario rules. Miniatures were made in 15mm and, for their time and scale, they were quite detailed; some commanders are real standouts (for example, Robb Stark's has his direwolf jumping at his side).<br>
:Thanks to its scale, the game was able to provide players with a great number of options and units at a fraction of the price of other board games. With a core set that was already stacked with units and variety, and then faction-specific expansions that added several more units and commanders. The game also came with scenario books that provided narrative play with quite creative rule variants, such as storming palisades, having decoys in escort missions, and bombarding enemies with catapults. One scenario even tried to bring to life the Battle of the Blackwater (the hybrid invasion of King's Landing by Stannis ''the God-Damn Mannis'' Baratheon). The game was incredible and quite a creative wargame, but its main issue was that the setup time was just terrible. Incredibly complex and tiresome when compared to the actual gameplay time.

There are others, such as the ASOIAF-themed [[Settlers of Catan|Catan]] expansion called [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/a-game-of-thrones-catan-brotherhood-of-the-watch/ ''A Game of Thrones Catan: Brotherhood of the Watch''], another card game called [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/hand-of-the-king/ ''A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King''], and another board game [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/game-of-thrones-the-iron-throne/#/products-section ''Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne'']. The quality of those, however, remains to be seen.

And then the miniature-producing Kickstarter juggernaut [[CMON]] decided to produce its own [[wargame]], with AMAZING miniatures. The game began with, of course, a [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/a-song-of-ice-and-fire-tabletop-miniatures-game Kickstarter], and after that, the game has had at least 2 dozen more releases with 3 more factions added.<br>
The game has some mechanics taken from rank and file games, such as [[Kings of War]], combining them with mechanics taken out of "battles of Westeros" particularly the tactics deck. A new page is in the works: [[ASOIAF Miniature Game]]

==Books==
*''A Game of Thrones''
*''A Clash of Kings''
*''A Storm of Swords'': Split into 2
*''A Feast for Crows'': half the characters, the point where the series goes down the toilet
*''A Dance with Dragons'': split into 2 the first is about the other half of the characters, and manages to pick things up a bit
*''The Winds of Winter'': First rumored to be ready by late 2018, then given an official release date of Summer 2020, those times have come and gone and the book is unreleased. Though he has shared chapters of the book.
*''A Dream of Spring'' : Unreleased and unlikely to ever be.
** GRRM will most likely die before writing this, though he has given an outline for how he wants the series to end that might be made public knowledge if he dies before the book series is finished.
*''The Dunk and Egg Series'': A story about a landless hedge knight travelling across Westeros with a Targaryen squire, so he can teach him how not to be an asshole to peasants.

==On The "Grimdarkness" of the Setting==

One important note: While the setting is usually held to be "Grimdark", it is also very true to Real Life in its nastiness, with real consequences for assholes. George himself has said, quote; "No matter how much I make up, there's stuff in history that's just as bad, or worse." Book one is almost exactly the beginning of the War of the Roses, except with England enlarged to a continent's size and the seasons stretched out to let the travel times work. (...And then the dragons wake up, the ice elves and their undead armies return and magic makes a comeback. It's not a perfect analogy. All that stuff is closed in their own sub plots and they don't involve the main continent in the book, that is left to "common" war and plotting.)

For an example of Grimdark, but with consequences: The King can order the execution of the head of the leading noble family of the North, for essentially no reason, but now he doesn't have hostages to exchange when their relatives and/or armies come after him seeking revenge. (And all this is modeled on various occasions where more or less '''exactly''' this kind of thing happened in real life medieval Europe.)

In other words: Truly heinous shit goes on, and there's nothing ''stopping'' that kind of shit... but there are ''consequences'' to that kind of shit that act as an effective counterbalance against being seen to do that kind of shit to the smarter nobles in the kingdom. And, because anyone can die, the shittiest characters are no more guaranteed survival than the nicest.

Also worth mentioning that there's reason to think that, despite the quote that began this page, the series may not actually end on [[The End Times|100% downer note]], as Martin has said he hopes his series will end in a way akin to the Scouring of the Shire from Lord of the Rings, which, despite the name, is more of a bittersweet ending. So who knows (though this also presumes the author will actually get around to finishing the series at all).

In sum, whether the setting fully qualifies for "Grimdark" is a matter for debate. Probably the best way of looking at is that it is Grimdark, but in a nuanced way.

==See Also==
*[[/tg/ Song of Ice and Fire Houses]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U7NpSubAJQ Weiner, Weiner weiner]

[[category: Literature]]

Middle Earth

2022-09-24T18:56:31Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Rohan */

'''Middle-Earth''' is the setting where the events of [[The Hobbit]], [[The Lord of the Rings]] and [[The Silmarillion]] take place in (chronologically, Silmarillion -> The Hobbit -> LotR). The geography changes significantly from its creation to the Third Age when the story takes place, though this article will mostly cover how it is during the books. For a (mostly) comprehensive list of the characters that inhabit Middle-Earth, [[Middle Earth characters|see here.]]

Not to be confused with New Zealand, though the country has rebranded itself as the ''real'' Middle Earth.

== General clarification ==
[[File:Middle-earth.jpg|thumb|300px|The known regions of Middle-Earth]]Middle-Earth is not the name of The World of the Tolkien's mythos, the term for that would technically be '''Arda'''. Middle-Earth refers to the general landmass where the events of the books take place (hilariously enough, another name for Middle-Earth used by the elves was [[Star Wars|Endor]], possibly a subtle reference by George Lucas). At the same time Arda is not an alien planet or alternate universe but rather a lost era of our world with Middle Earth being roughly where Europe was (and yes, that does mean that there are analogous to the Americas, Africa and Asia in Lord of the Rings). This is in its own way quite sad when you think about it since it would mean that after the events of the books where our heroes sail off to Valinor all the cultures of Gondor, Rohan, Dale/Laketown and so forth that our heroes have fought to save in various ways gradually falter and fail totally, leaving only cave men. An major driving element of the mythos is that the magic of the world is gradually winding down. However, the books do say that the line of Finwë (the ancestor of Elrond and Aragorn) will always endure, so their descendants would still be alive today.

Arda used to be a flat world until the later 2nd Age with the destruction of Númenor and "the bending of the roads". Said event also turned a flying sailing ship into Venus.

== Regions ==
===Eriador===
Located in the northwest, Eriador is generally remote and isolated from most of the goings-on of Middle-Earth. It was once home to the human kingdom of Arnor and the Elven kingdom of Eregion, but both collapsed by the time The Hobbit takes place and the Grey Havens was the last remnant of the Elven Kingdom of Lindon. What's left is a mostly depopulated and rustic region. Typically, the only travelers to the region are Dwarves on their way to the Blue Mountains, or Elves going to the Grey Havens. Besides subsistence agriculture, there's only one major industry that the area's known for - ''pipeweed''. Despite the plant being used by Númenóreans as a fragrant ornamental plant, it wasn't until the hobbits started smoking and cultivating it that it became the commercial crop that its known as.
*'''The Shire''' - Here be [[Hobbits]]. Described as being geographically and ecologically similar to England, it is a peaceful rural country divided into the four farthings, with a recently colonized fifth called Buckland. It's capital and largest town is Michel Delving to the East, far from Bree. At the center is Hobbiton, where the Baggins family is from.
*'''Old Forest''' - One of two remnants of a primeval forest. Its trees are sentient and full of malice, and will try to direct all trespassers to Old Man Willow. However, [[Tom Bombadil]] and his wife also live here, and will guide travelers to safety.
*'''Barrow-Downs''' - A series of burial mounds and tombs within the former kingdom of Cardolan which also held a great number of the dead kings and nobles of old Arnor. It has since become haunted after the Witch-King of Angmar sent evil spirits to inhabit the dead bodies, creating the Barrow-Wights.
*'''Bree''' - A small settlement surrounded by a few satellite hamlets populated by men and hobbits living together in harmony, and one of the few settled towns in the region. Few people stray far from the surrounding countryside, as its very near to the Barrow-Downs.
*'''Amon Sûl''' - Known by locals as Weathertop. A ruined watchtower where Frodo got stabbed by the Nazgûl.
*'''Arnor''' - The other Kingdom of the Dúnedain. Used to encompass pretty much the entirety of Eriador. It fell to ruin centuries before the events of the book due to civil strife and the Witch-King of Angmar fighting a long war against it. Aragorn, due to being the direct descendant of Elendil, is technically the King of Arnor, although he doesn't reign over it until he is crowned king at the end of the trilogy, where he also unifies Arnor and Gondor.
*'''Fornost''' - Also known as Norbury of the Kings, former capital of Arnor, now just a pile of ruins known as Deadman's Dike. The Greenway used to connect Fornost to Gondor, passing through Bree before connecting the Great Western Road at Isen.
*'''Rivendell''' - Imladris in Sindarin. It is a small town hidden in a valley within the Misty Mountains and is populated by elves belonging to the House of Elrond.
*'''Grey Havens''' - The Westernmost part of Middle Earth, and the last remnant of the Elven kingdom of Lindon. At this harbor, elves leave for the Undying Lands, abandoned after the last Elves departed around the year 120 of the Fourth Age.
*'''Eregion''' - Destroyed realm just west of Moria that was one of the two remaining High Elven Kingdoms in Middle-Earth (the other being Lindon). The Rings of Power were made here.
*'''Forodwaith and Forochel''' - Technically not part of Eriador, Forodwaith is the northernmost part of Middle-Earth. The foul magic Morgoth used in the prehistorical Valian Years to build the demonic fortress of Utumno is still radiating from its ruins, trapping the land in eternal winter. The only living inhabitants of Forodwaith are Cold-drakes and whatever remaining Dragons are left. Forochel lies north of Angmar and Arnor, being the only known inhabited region of this arctic wasteland. Forochel's inhabitants are mainly the Lossoth, a hardy tribe of Inuit-look-alikes who live around the Cape of Forochel. The last reigning King of Arnor died here, after a rescue party sent by the Elves of Lindon failed to save him.
**'''Utumno''' - Located somewhere far, far in the polar north of Middle Earth, Utumno was built in in prehistory by Morgoth, and was the mightiest and most terrible dark fortress ever created, dwarfing its better known successor stronghold of ''Angband''; which served as ''merely an outlying armory'' to this beast of a dungeon to put things in perspective. How bad was this place? Its alternative Sindarin name ''Udûn'' can translate as '''Hell'''. Which is fitting, as this hellhole is where Morgoth created the first Orcs, alongside many of his other monstrous mockeries of Creation. Utumno was thankfully destroyed by the Valar, who destroyed it to such an extent that they "unroofed" it. Not even fantasy-Satan's ultimate Hell dungeon of a 40-man raid could even slightly slow a mere 14 of God's chosen Archangels apparently. The only traces left of Utumno are its ruins, which still curse the world with its unnatural cold. As the ruins are just merely ruins and in one of the most isolated corners of Middle Earth, the ruins of Utumno are merely a historical footnote, rather than a place of relevance, ironic for the "mightiest fortress ever created".

===Rohan===
The kingdom of the Horse Lords, Rohan is a wide open plain that was gifted to the Rohirrim by Gondor. To the west is the Gap of Rohan where Isengard is located, and where Dunland lies just beyond.
*'''Edoras''' - Capital city of Rohan. The Golden Hall ''Meduseld'' stands at the apex of the hill that Edoras is built on.
*'''Helm's Deep''' - Rohan's main fortress, built into the White Mountains by the legendary Rohirric King ''Helm Hammerhand''. The castle keep; the ''Hornburg''; was originally built by Gondor to keep watch over the southern half of the river Isen, to match its northern counterpart of Isengard. Its keep leads into a cave system into the mountains, and is defended by a long wall.
*'''Dunharrow''' - A refuge in the White Mountains where the Rohirrim mustered for the Battle of Pelennor Fields. The valley behind it leads directly to a haunted region known as the Paths of the Dead, where the traitorous Oathbreakers of the White Mountains linger in undeath.
**'''Paths of the Dead''': A narrow valley that was once populated by a tribe of people closely related to the Dunlanders who worked as mercenaries for Sauron and Gondor at various points in time. When the War of the Last Alliance began in earnest, these people were enlisted by Isildur, but, having no hope of winning against Sauron, broke the Oath they made to Isildur, who in turn cursed them to linger as ghosts as long as one of his heirs would demand their allegiance again. Several Rohihirrim Kings and princes travelled here to prove their bravery, but none ever returned. ''The Way is shut.''
*'''Fangorn Forest''' - The other remnant of the primeval forest. This one is populated by the Huorns, trees capable of movement, and the [[Treeman|Ent]]s, the tree-herders. Huorns are either Ents who stood still a bit too long, losing some sapience and becoming feral, or possibly sufficiently old trees that graduated to Huorn-hood.
*'''Isengard''' - A fortress on Rohan's western border that watches the river Isen (hence the name). In the center is the tall black tower of ''Orthanc'', which had been built by the Númenóreans during the Second Age and was made of a type of black stone that was virtually indestructible. Saruman was using it as a base of operations as he plotted his betrayal.
*'''Dunland''' - Just west-northwest of Rohan proper, Dunland was populated by primitive tribesmen, known as Dunlendings or Wildmen, who were often at war with Rohan. They coveted the lands of Rohan, as they were the original native inhabitants of it before the Rohirrim came. They allied with Saruman in his war against Rohan, but they were granted clemency after Saruman's defeat.

===Gondor===
The main human kingdom of the setting; Gondor was once a mighty kingdom that is now failing, having endured centuries of political strife and decay. The last king has long ago disappeared with no heir, leaving it under the rule of the house of Stewards. It has become increasingly militarized to deal with threats from the East, at the expense of its former cultural and intellectual advances. Gondor used to stretch all the way east to the Sea of Rhun and South to Harad, but they have since been beaten back and lost the eastern side of the Anduin river, where Ithilien and Minas Ithil were located.
*'''Minas Tirith''' - Formerly Minas Anor. The current capital of Gondor, this city is built into the White Mountains and is built around seven concentric circles with seven gates. Minas Tirith is extremely well fortified, but that didn't stop the armies of Mordor from nearly taking it in an enormous siege.
*'''Osgiliath''' - The former capital of Gondor. It straddled the Anduin river, but was abandoned due to plague and became a contested region when Mordor conquered Ithilien.
*'''Dol Amroth''' - A principality of Gondor, from where Imrahil and his Swan Knights come from. Formerly an Elven Kingdom that existed concurrently with Gondor, but was subsumed by Gondor when the last of its elvish inhabitants sailed West. The princes retain elvish ancestry and customs from Dol Amroth's past.
*'''Pelargir''' - One of the first settlements of Gondor and its biggest port city. Came under attack by Umbar during the War of the Ring.
*'''Ithilien''' - The easternmost province of Gondor, right up against the mountains on Mordor's western edge. Ithilien was abandoned when Sauron returned to Mordor, but the Rangers of Gondor maintained a presence through secret camps to harass any invading armies.
*'''Lossarnach''' - Another principality of Gondor, the description of the land itself and its people make it sound a lot like Scotland.
*'''Anórien''' - Land just northwest of Minas Tirith and directly under its jurisdiction. Also houses a thick forest where a tribe of forest dwelling humans reside that help the Rohirrim to get to Minas Tirith faster during the War of the Ring.

===Misty Mountains===
A long mountain range that runs North-South. It represents a major obstacle as only a few safe passages exist. Various kingdoms have also been set up here as well.
*'''Pass of Caradhras''' - The route the Fellowship attempted to take first, but they were waylaid by Wargs, blizzards, and avalanches, thus causing them to try for...
*'''Moria''' - Formerly Khazad-Dûm, the greatest Dwarven city in Middle-Earth. It was the sole source of [[Mithril]], but the city was destroyed when the Dwarves accidentally awoke the [[Balrog]] known as Durin's Bane. It has since been taken over by Orcs.
*'''Goblin-Town''' - A Goblin settlement situated on the High Pass. Gollum lived in the deepest part of the cave with the One Ring until he was found by Bilbo.
*'''Angmar''' - A kingdom of Wicked Men and Orcs that was ruled by the chief of the Nazgûl who would become known as the Witch-King of Angmar. Angmar lay west of of Mount Gundabad and North of Eriador. Angmar subverted ''Rhudaur''; one of the successor kingdoms of the fractured kingdom of Arnor; and played the other two successor kingdoms against their puppet kingdom. Angmar succeeded in outright destroying the southern successor kingdom of ''Cardolan'' and succeeded in wiping out the royal lineage of ''Arthedain''; the last remnant of Arnor. Angmar itself was destroyed alongside Rhudaur when Gondor and the High Elves of the Noldor vanquished its armies and drove the Witch-King back to Mordor.
*'''Mount Gundabad''' - The mountain where the first Dwarves awoke, considered a holy site for their race. Later taken over by Orcs in the second and third ages. The antagonistic Orcs of The Hobbit originated from here.

===Rhovanion/Wilderland===
The large stretch of land that lies East of the Misty Mountains, and Northeast of Rohan and the River Limlight. Many realms exist here, though they are frequently exposed to attacks from the Easterlings of Rhûn. Rhovanion and Wilderland can used interchangeably to refer to the land, but Rhovanion is typically used to specifically refer to the eastern plains between Mirkwood and the River Running which made up the homelands of the old fallen Kingdom of Rhovanion, but since Rhovanion is simply the Sindarin word for Wilderland, either usage is correct.
*'''Mirkwood/Greenwood the Great''' - A massive dark and spooky forest that's become inhospitable due to the corruptions of The Enemy. The Northern part is relatively safer and is part of the Woodland Realm/Eryn Lasgalen, a Sindarin Elf kingdom. The southern part is dominated by Dol Guldur, an ancient fortress controlled by Sauron. Was formerly known as 'Greenwood the Great' before its corruption, and became known as such again after the conclusion of the War of the Ring and the destruction of Dol Guldur.
**'''Dol Guldur''' - Sindarin for Hill of Sorcery, and was Sauron's hideout in the south of Mirkwood under his guise as '''The Necromancer''' for much of the Third Age before he openly declared himself in 2951, and his largest base outside of Mordor. Was governed by Khamûl the Black Easterling; second of the Nazgûl; after Sauron's return to Barad-Dûr in the same year, and used by him as a base of operations during the War of the Ring against Lothlórien, Dale, and Erebor.
*'''The Vales of the Anduin''' - The valley between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood. Here live the Beornings and various minor Woodsmen tribes, though they didn’t have any major settlements and lived in scattered, rustic communities. Life here was practically a horror game, as the Men who lived here not only had to deal with Orcs from both the Mountains and Dol Guldur, but also Giant Spiders, Wargs, Werewolves, Vampires, and even evil spirits summoned by The Necromancer called "Phantoms".
*'''Lothlórien''' - A mystical forest realm controlled by Galadriel and her husband Celeborn. At its center is Caras Galadhon, a Sindarin Elf city. All of the houses are built upon the unique Mallorn Trees that originally came from Valinor. As the name suggests, this realm is meant to emulate the heavenly garden of Lórien in Valinor, and its beauty is maintained by the first Elven Ring of Power, Nenya; the Ring of Water.
*'''Erebor''' - The Dwarven kingdom located within the Lonely Mountain. Smaug had driven the Dwarves out, but they reclaimed the city after Smaug was killed. While Erebor lacked Moria’s vitally important Mithril deposits, it was very strategically located as it guarded against the frozen North and the lands of the East. Sauron was very keen to retake Erebor, even offering three of the Dwarven rings in his possession for information on the One Ring.
*'''Dale & Laketown''' - Dale was a human kingdom allied with Erebor, until it had been destroyed by Smaug. The survivors fled to the lake and built Laketown, which was also destroyed when Smaug re-emerged. The survivors would go on to rebuild Dale and named Bard the Bowman their king for slaying Smaug.
*'''Amon Hen and the Argonath''' - Another ancient watchtower, it was here that the Fellowship was broken, and where Boromir was slain by the Uruk-hai of Isengard. The river Anduin flows through and descends down a waterfall into Gondor proper. Used to mark Gondor's northernmost border, but has long since been abandoned. Located near Amon Hen is the Argonath, a FUCKHUEG waterfall flanked by the two giant statues of the first kings of Arnor and Gondor, Isildur and Anárion.
*'''Emyn Muil''' - A foggy and craggy land with many hills and gullies where Frodo and Sam got lost, and encountered Gollum.
*'''Dagorlad''' - The swamp past Emyn Muil where the Last Alliance fought against Mordor. The fallen soldiers may seem to be somehow preserved in the water, but it is implied to actually be a trick of residual dark magic from Mordor creating ghostly [[Will-o-Wisp|Will-o-Wisp-like]] apparitions within the waters.
*'''Dorwinion''' - The plains between Mirkwood and the Sea of Rhun. It is said that the best wines come from here, and that its people were Northmen descended from the Edain, but we know little else. Likely came under frequent attack from Rhun.

===Mordor===
[[Meme|One does not simply walk into Mordor.]] A wasteland where Sauron built his kingdom, defended by three mountain ranges and a generally inhospitable landscape. It does not meet EPA standards.
*'''Udûn''' - The valley beyond the Black Gate, where Sauron's armies muster. The Black Gate is the only passage where large armies can pass through. Nearby is Barad-dûr, Sauron's main fortress.
*'''Gorgoroth''' - The volcanic plain beneath Mount Doom. Frodo and Sam had to cross this way from Cirith Ungol to reach their goal. Littered with an unholy number of scattered Orc campsites. Home territory of the Great Beasts of Gorgoroth.
*'''Nurn''' - The only inhabitable region of Mordor. Nurn is fertilized by Mt. Doom's volcanic ash and the waters from Nurnen, and is used to grow food for Sauron's armies. It was inhabited by human slaves, but Aragorn liberated them and gifted the region to them after Sauron's destruction. Given Sauron's MO it would probably be something to the effect of vast fields scattered with barracks where slaves were kept penned up when they were not working, with Orcish overseers driving them and sending off supplies of [[Meme|maggoty bread]] to feed the vast armies of Mordor.
*'''Minas Morgul''' - Formerly Minas Ithil, it was a city of Gondor until Mordor conquered Ithilien, and has hence become the Nazgul's stronghold. It is a horrifying place of sorcery, which even emits a fell "corpse-light". It was razed by Aragorn after the end of the War of the Ring.
*'''Cirith Ungol''' - The only other way into Mordor is up a tall stair across the mountains, and into Shelob's Lair. On the other side is the tower of Cirith Ungol, which is guarded by Orcs. Also a pretty good band.
*'''Mount Doom''' - Also known as Orodruin and Amon Amarth (the latter of which is the name of another pretty awesome band), Mount Doom was where the One Ring was forged by Sauron. Essentially, it is a huge volcano, and is connected to Barad-Dûr via road. Mordor is known as the Land of Shadows primarily because of the eruptions of this mountain darkening the skies.
*'''Barad-Dûr''' - The Dark Tower, and primary fortress of the Dark Lord Sauron. It is the tallest structure in Middle-Earth until its destruction at the end of the War of the Ring. Typically, it is described as being made of black steel and iron or adamant, but given that its foundations could not be destroyed even after Sauron's defeat at the end of the Second Age, it is likely that it is enchanted or made of some unknown metal.
*'''The Black Gate/Morannon''' - A massive wall with three Gates (at least in the books; Peter Jackson's interpretation of it was that the entire wall was one massive iron gate) that Sauron built to guard the largest passage into Mordor proper. Following his first defeat, Gondor claimed it and fortified it further with two large towers, but it fell to ruin during the decline of Gondor's power during the middle years of the Third Age and was retaken by Sauron when he returned to Mordor. It is now his biggest fortress apart from Minas Morgul and Barad-Dûr.
*'''Durthang''' - An old Gondorian castle that oversaw the interior of Mordor as opposed to the entrances as with the Morannon and Minas Ithil. Has long since fallen into Sauron's hands.

===Rhûn===
A general name for the East, Rhûn is not covered in much detail. It has many kingdoms and tribes of Wicked Men that have allied themselves with or were subjugated by Sauron and worship him as a god. The Easterling armies fought in the War of the Ring, and even put up a tough fight after Mordor had been defeated at Pelennor Fields. Four of the dwarves clans live in Rhûn, though many escaped west after Sauron’s takeover of the East. Even before the War of the Ring, these assholes were always trying to raid and conquer Gondor and Rhovanion. Extra-canonical adaptations cannot seem to make up their mind as to whether the Easterlings of Rhun are Persian/Asiatic/Mongol-type nomadic peoples or Scythian/Gothic-type barbarians similar to the ones who conquered Rome. Some of the historic peoples of the east include the Wainriders, the Balchoth, and the Swarthy Men of the first age who followed Ulfang the Black.
*'''Cuiviénen''': located on the eastern shore of the Sea of Helcar, this was where the first elves awoke and lived before migrating west towards Aman. Due to the extreme old age of this journey, we’re unsure of where exactly it would be located; Christopher Tolkien himself speculated that the seas of Rhûn and Núrnen might be all that’s left of the Sea of Helcar, indicating that the geography of the East changed dramatically since the elves left. Whether any of the Avari (elves who didn’t migrate west) still live here is unknown, though by this point they’d either be living in hiding or exterminated by Sauron’s allies. Whatever few hiders, assuming any hadn't left already, then went to Aman along with all other elves.
*'''Hildorien''': south of the Red Mountains and Cuiviénen, the homeland of men faced the easternmost sea. Here, Morgoth tricked men into believing that they were made mortal by Ilúvatar as some sort of divine punishment. Those who refused to follow Morgoth became the ''Edain'' and were the first to move West, eventually reaching Beleriand. Those who came after became the ancestors of the people of Rhûn and Harad, though some men who were distantly related to the Edain but didn’t enter Beleriand became known as the “Middle Men.”

===Harad===
The realm south of Gondor; Harad is home to various tribesmen collectively known as Southrons living in the deserts and jungles. According to Tolkein, Harad was inspired by Ethiopia (or more accurately, apocryphal encounters of medieval Europeans with sub-Saharan Africans translated from Old English which use the word Sigelhearwan - because Tolkien), but the New Line films take a more "tribal" Middle-Eastern tract in terms of aesthetics.
*'''Harondor''' - The southernmost province of Gondor, arid but still livable, and constantly changed hands between the Wicked Men of the South and Gondor.
*'''Near Harad''' - A big desert that runs along Mordor's southern mountain range and stretches south until it meets the completely unlivable Haradwaith.
*'''Haradwaith''' - An even larger desert that takes up the central and eastern regions of Harad, a completely desolate and arid wasteland.
*'''Lostladen''' - The foothills and wastes located between Near Harad and the Mountains of Shadow which make up Mordor's southern border. Other than it likely being extremely desolate and unlivable, we know nothing about it.
*'''Far Harad''' - A jungle far, far, far to the South. This was where the Mûmakil/Oliphaunts came from. Apparently of great size and analogous to sub-Saharan Africa.
*'''Umbar''' - A bay that had been settled by the Númenóreans who built a great port town. After the fall of Númenor, the Black Númenóreans of the King's Men claimed Umbar for themselves and remained enemies of Gondor ever since, turning it into a great naval fortress. Over time the original Númenóreans either died out or interbred with the native Southrons. The city became a pirate scourge after traitors who lost the civil war known as the Kin-Strife in Gondor fled to Umbar with a large portion of Gondor's navy, thus creating the Corsairs of Umbar, who mercilessly raided Gondor for the rest of the Third Age.
*'''Khand''' - Just East of Harad and South of Mordor. Very little is known about Khand except that it has nomadic horsemen that raided Gondor and is home to Wicked Men known as "Variags".

===Beleriand===
A former land mass West of Eriador. It was here that the first Elven and human kingdoms were built in the First Age, though they had to contend with many invasions by Morgoth and his allies from the East. Eventually things got so bad that one of the inhabitants, a half-elf named Eärendil, sailed all the way to the Undying Lands and petitioned the Valar to intervene. The resulting battle basically broke Beleriand apart and it sank into the sea; the survivors either moved Eastward, or traveled to the new island of Númenor.
*'''Gondolin''' - The biggest and most impressive kingdom of the Noldor Elves. It was hidden deep within the mountains until the city was betrayed by an incestuous elf prick who was jealous that his cousin married a human (No seriously, [[The Silmarillion|look it up]]). The weapons Sting, Orcrist, and Glamdring were forged here.
*'''Doriath''' - The kingdom of the Sindarin Elves, ruled by Elu Thingol. The capital, Menegroth, was hidden deep within a large forest and protected by Thingol's demigoddess wife Melian. When Thingol got his hands on a Silmaril, he got the brilliant idea to add it to the most beautiful necklace ever made. The Dwarves of Nogrod did the job, asked for the improved necklace as payment, and killed him after he insulted them, two of the little shits survived the resulting retributive slayings, and returned to Nogrod to spread lies about them being refused payment and slaughtered. Grieving, Melian returned to Aman, and the Dwarves of Nogrod sacked the defenseless, leaderless city, [[Book of Grudges|avenging the extermination of the Petty-Dwarves and centuries of insults besides]], even though the hypocritical midgets hated the petty-dwarves, having exiled them in the first place, and didn't even give a damn about the Petty-Dwarves being mistaken for animals and hunted by the Sindar. The Dwarves of Nogrod failed to recover the necklace, but the sons of Fëanor had little trouble destroying the much-diminished kingdom afterwards.
*'''Nargothrond''' - An underground Noldor Elf kingdom fashioned after Doriath, which allowed the Noldor to fend off invasion from Morgoth's forces - until an arrogant prick named Túrin convinced the Noldor to build a bridge across the Narog river to sally out of, thereby allowing the first ever dragon Glaurung to destroy Nargothrond.
*'''Angband''' - Morgoth's fortress to the North. It was described as an impregnable fortress within an inhospitably cold region and guarded by a massive three-peaked mountain. Angband was destroyed along with the rest of Beleriand.
*'''Minas Tirith''' - Not to be confused with Gondor's tower. This one was built during the First Age, as a watchtower to guard the river Sirion for any raids and invasions from Angband. [[Irony|It was later taken over and ruled by Sauron]] for some time and its name thus changed to Tol-in-Gaurhoth (Isle of Werewolves). It changed hands a couple more times and at one point was brought to ruin by Lúthien.
*'''Ossiriand''' - A forested region on the east edge of Beleriand, between the Gelion river and the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin, later Ered Lindon). Mostly populated by elves. Beren and Luthien lived on an island here after they were reincarnated. It's questionable whether the land north of the forest, Thargelion, counts as part of Ossiriand or not. Either way, parts of Ossiriand (and Thargelion) survived the destruction of Beleriand and became known as Lindon in later ages, from where the elves would depart back to Aman.

===Hithlum===
Normally considered a separate region from Beleriand, to the northwest, it is separated by the Mountains of Shadow. In the northern area of that mountain chain the river Sirion is born, which passes through Beleriand. It was in Hísilómë (Hithlum) that the exiled Noldorin first arrived from Aman, coming both from the sea and through Helcaraxë. Like its neighboring region, it too sank at the ending years of the First Age.

==Regions that are technically not Middle-Earth, but are important to the story==
===Aman===
Known to mortals as "The Undying Lands," this is where the Valar live, and where elves go when they cross the sea or if they die and are revived but confined to a specific fortress here. Aman used to be connected to Middle Earth via a dangerous ice bridge known as the Helcaraxë, literally "grinding ice." After Númenor attempted to invade Aman (it's considered a big no-no for Mortals to try to enter) Ilúvatar separated Aman from Middle-Earth and turned the formerly flat Arda into a sphere; Elves can still travel there via the "straight road" but cannot return with a singular exception given to Glorfindel who had fallen in battle and went to the resurrected elf-quarantine but was allowed to return so that he could remain until the last Elves departed Middle Earth, and also so that he could give out the Witch-King cannot be killed by a man prophecy and to escort the wounded Frodo to Rivendell. Only a handful of mortals are known to have ever lived in Aman; the ring-bearers Frodo and Bilbo, and possibly Samwise Gamgee (who sailed after his wife's death and leaving the Red Book to his daughter and son-in-law) and Gimli the Dwarf (who went with Legolas after Aragorn died of old age, presumably along with the last lingering Elves including Glorfindel, at year 120 of the Fourth Age). It’s important to remember that Aman itself does not grant immortality, but instead is an unchanging land specifically intended for the immortal Elves, who outside of it, are susceptible to weariness and fading away due to the corruption of the world by Morgoth. As the Elves warned men, even without the Ban of the Valar, they would find that living in Aman would actually decrease their lifespan as they’d find it so unbearably unchanging that they’d wither away (presumably Tuor, and Frodo and friends didn’t have such an experience as they were there mainly to be healed, but they still would have passed on eventually).
*'''Valinor''' - The main kingdom of the Valar. Populated primarily by the Vanyar Elves, and was formerly home to the Two Trees of Light.
*'''Tirion''' - A large city built by the Noldor Elves in the mountain gap separating Valinor from the sea.
*'''Tol Eressëa''' - An island off the cost of Aman that had been used to ferry the Elves across the sea. The Falmari Elves settled down here.
*'''Lórien''': Not to be confused with Galadriel's kingdom Lothlórien; these are the gardens of the Valar tended to by Irmo and his wife Estë, and is a place of healing and rest. Elves and even Men may visit these gardens in their dreams, where they receive prophetic visions.
*'''Halls of Mandos'''- The aforementioned revived-elf quarantine place. Only two people were ever allowed to leave, Luthien; when she chose to be human and was granted a resurrection to live with her human love before dying as a human and going to the human afterlife; and Glorfindel on the condition that he return when the last Elves left after Aragorn's death early in the Fourth Age.
*'''Avathar'''- Between the mountains that barricade Aman and the sea, Avathar is a lightless valley where Ungoliant lived. This valley was unknown to the Elves, but Morgoth came here to recruit Ungoliant for the destruction of the Two Trees of Light.

===Númenor===
Middle-earth's Atlantis, the Valar created Númenor as a reward for the Men who fought against Morgoth during the First Age. In time, Númenor became a mighty sea-faring empire that rivaled the Elves and had colonies all over Middle Earth. Its first king was ''Elros Tar-Minyatur'', the Half-Elven son of ''Eärendil'' and ''Elwing''. Like his brother ''Elrond'', the Valar had Elros choose whether to live as an Elf or as a Man. Though Elros chose the Gift of Men, he lived for over five hundred years. His descendants would inherit his vitality, though it dwindled as it passed down the generations; his most well-known descendant, ''Aragorn'', lived for 210 years.

Sauron used that lack of immortality as the wedge to turn Númenor into his pawns against the Valar when its last king invaded Middle Earth and took him prisoner. After bargaining his way into an advisor role and subverting the kingdom and converting it to fantasy-Satanism (complete with human sacrifice), he convinced Ar-Pharazôn that he could defy the Ban of the Valar, sail into the West, and use his nation's military might to force the Valar to grant immortality to Men. As soon as Ar-Pharazôn set one foot onto the soil of Aman, Ilúvatar reshaped the world, removing any physical path to the Undying Lands that the inhabitants of Arda could take to reach it; the upheaval also caused Númenor to fall into the sea, save for the highest peak ''Menelterma''.

Only the Faithful in Elendil's fleet escaped to Middle Earth when Númenor sank, these refugees would go on to found the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor.

==Characters & Races of Arda==
[[Middle Earth characters|Moved here due to page bloat.]]

==Languages==
Being a linguistics professor, languages were a huge deal to Tolkien and play a major role in the setting.

* '''Quenya''' - the older Elvish language and primarily spoken by the elves who reached the Undying lands. In Middle Earth, its mainly used as a ceremonial language by both elves and the men of Gondor.
* '''Sindarin''' - the other Elvish language; because the Sindar were the dominant group of Elves in Middle Earth and due to the misdeeds of the Sons of Fëanor, Quenya was forbidden from being spoken in the Sindar kingdom of Doriath, thus causing Sindarin to become the most commonly spoken language by Elves in the First Age. It would retain its dominance in the later ages of Middle Earth, and is a commonly spoken language among educated Men. As such, it's the most complete language in the Lord of the Rings.
* '''Westron''' - aka the "Common Tongue." This language is rendered as English in the books, but some original Westron words appear in the books. Westron is a descendant of Adunaic, with elvish influences. Westron is the dominant language of the Men of the West, and is also used by Hobbits and Dwarves.
* '''Rohirric''' - the language of the men of Rohan. Rohirric is rendered as Old English to show the relationship between the men of Rohan and the men of Gondor. Hobbits picked up a few Rohirric words during their migration from Rhovanian to the Shire.
* '''Dalish''' - The language of the men of Dale; because the Dalish are very distantly related to the men of Gondor, Dalish is rendered as Old Norse.
* '''Adunaic'''- The language of the men of Númenor, and derived from the dialects of the Edain. After Númenor became split between the King's Men and Faithful, the King's Men used Adunaic exclusively as they hated all things Elvish.
*'''Khuzdul''' - The language of the Dwarves. Dwarves do not speak Khuzdul in everyday conversation and don't normally teach it to outsiders, and indeed the Petty-dwarves sharing their Khuzdul names openly was part of the reason the little shits were exiled. It is very distinct in sound from both Elvish and Mannish languages.
* '''Entish''' - the language of the Ents. Notable for being very slow to speak, because the Ents believe that anything worth saying takes a long time to say. It presumably sounds like random tree creaking and rustling.
* '''Black Speech''' - Sauron's invented language. Derived from the elvish languages, though made deliberately to sound harsh by removing any pleasant phonetics, such as the letter "e," because it forces the speaker to smile. Used somewhat by Orcs, who mostly prefer to use some vulgar form of pre-existing languages, although they frequently bastardized in loan-words from Black Speech into the resultant mess of a language that was typically called ''Orkish''. Pure Black Speech was typically only spoken by Black Númenóreans directly serving Sauron (such as the Mouth of Sauron), the Nazgûl, and whatever Shadow Cultists existed among the Wicked Men and subjugated peoples.
[[Category:The Lord of the Rings]]

Star Wars Setting

2022-09-12T02:31:05Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Species */

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{{Plot Armour}}
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Describing even the cursory information on the sheer number of characters, amount of history, and various factions in [[Star Wars]] is a massive undertaking, and one that cannot be folded into another page. As such, here is a summary of things who either are influential, [[Awesome]], [[Fail]], hilariously meme worthy, or all of the above.

==Main Characters==
* Luke Skywalker: All-round good guy and idealist, despite being a complete idiot, Luke wishes to learn the ways of the Force to defeat the Emperor and save the galaxy. A Jedi prodigy, he can lift heavy ton space fighters with just his force powers, though he struggles with doubts. Although he starts all brash and teenage and shit, by the conclusion of the trilogy, Luke is well on the way to becoming a wise and powerful Jedi ready to rebuild the Order. Mark Hamill observed that Luke's role in Star Wars is that of the comedic "straight man"; a bland Abbott in a galaxy of Costellos.
** In Legends continuity, after ''Return of the Jedi'' Luke worked to restore the order and trained many generations of Jedi including his niece Jaina and nephews Jacen and Anakin as well as his future wife and son. About Luke's family? Long story short, Luke met a woman named Mara Jade, a former Force-using agent of the Emperor who sought to avenge him by killing Luke. But he and Mara were forced to work together to survive a death world before Luke freed her from Palpatine's lies and Mara joined the Jedi Order, where the two eventually fell in love, married and had a son - Ben Skywalker. Before and after this, Luke destroyed massive remnants of the Empire over and over again and also fought off an even bigger threat in the form of an [[Tyranids|extragalactic invasion]] by Force-resistant [[Dark Eldar|space Cenobites]] called Yuuzhan Vong, where he defeated many including their best fighter. Years later, Luke nearly turned to the Dark Side after Mara was murdered, but overcame the temptation though he violated the Jedi Code by attempting to murder her enemies in revenge. Following this he killed a resurrected Palpatine repeatedly and took on his most dangerous single foe in the form of a Force-Cthulhu called Abeloth (who was so dangerous Luke had to make a temporary alliance between the Jedi, the Republic '''and the Sith''' to defeat her). After this he continued to be a great hero until he died in an unspecified manner some time before the Cade Skywalker era, but still existed as a Force Ghost who guided future Jedi.

* Han Solo: Dashing [[rogue]] and space cowboy who somehow shoots his way out of debt to the mob, ends up a general, and bags himself a princess. Not a bad series' work. His ship, the Millennium Falcon, deserves a mention too for being as iconic as he is. In pre-Disney continuity he was once a Swoop (flying motorcycle) racer turned Imperial Officer who shot his superior that was beating a Wookiee to death and gained a lifelong friend in said Wookiee - Chewbacca. He also had three kids with Leia pre-Disney with two sons called Anakin and Jacen and a daughter called Jaina.

* Princess Leia: The regulation piece of lady crumpet in the movies, Princess Leia was a leader in the rebel alliance and (spoiler!) Luke's long lost twin sister. Also both a capable soldier and politician. Her being forced to wear a metal thong by an overweight space slug named Jabba the Hutt has since cemented her role as sex idol to legions of adoring fan boys, while her general [[Awesome|door-kicking deadshot sarcastic asskickery]] made her a feminist icon as well (this was back in the 80's when the two could be the same). With her home planet and entire adoptive family destroyed by the Death Star, she became a General although somehow retained her princesshood (yes, she's now a Disney Princess). In the pre-Disney EU Leia became a full-on Jedi warrior in the and had three kids with Han, one of whom had a daughter of his own.

* Obi-Wan Kenobi: If, at any point, in any work of fiction, the hero has an old master/father figure who teaches him part of what he knows, makes sure that he will grow up to be a virtuous and decent hero, but ultimately dies fighting a great evil to buy the hero time to escape, then returns as a spirit guide for the hero later, the Internet has probably accused that character of ripping off Obi-wan Kenobi. The prequels show him as a young Jedi and a deuterotagonist to Anakin Skywalker, acting as ''his'' master, teacher, partner, and dear friend before their eventual falling out [[FATAL|ends with Anakin losing most of his major extremities and organs]] and Obi-wan hiding out in a cave waiting to turn into Alec Guinness. In hindsight he was a fucking moron to expect Anakin stay sane with his mother separated forever from him and doomed to slavery in a shithole planet. Certainly this won't torment the kid's thoughts about her, what's that? Tuskens tortured her to death? We are the Jedi, we do not take reve- oh well he went Sith. So much for Jedi and their wisdom. He is a great source of memes within the SW fandom, as well as jokingly referred to as Jesus due to his hairstyle in Episode II.

* Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker/"The Chosen One": The black-helmeted face of evil and the most well known villain from Star Wars (and arguably the most recognizable character in cinema, full stop). Has become an iconic and memorable figure due to his menacing, robotic appearance and ultra-deep, wheezy respirator voice. He is [[Meme|(spoiler!)]] secretly Anakin, Luke's fallen Jedi father, thus allowing him to be able to say the most memorable line in the film series, "''I'' am your Father!" Abaddon wishes he could be this sinister. His children eventually manage to rekindle the spark of human decency in his heart, and he redeems himself by giving up his own life to save them and destroy the Emperor. Hates sand. Fun Fact: his portrayal required four actors in the original trilogy: body, voice, face and a stunt double. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okAyvguQucs His scene at the end of ''Rogue One''], where he goes absolutely berserk and tears some puny rebels to shreds, is probably the best in the movie, and one of the best in Star Wars as a whole. [[awesome|It ends with him standing in open space]], something originally intended for the original film and the original reason he was designed with the armor in the first place. The scene was well received, so Disney decided to have him go berserk again in the Star Wars: Rebels TV show (several times) and the video game Jedi: Fallen Order, before giving Maul a scene like it in Clone Wars. To this end, Vader’s recent portrayals (which have taught both neckbeards and the new generation of fans alike to be fucking terrified of him) have led many to claim that the changes to his character is the only thing Disney got right in their ownership of Star Wars (well, that and The Mandalorian. And the Clone Wars(*cough* Grievous)). Hreeeeee-kchooooooosh...

* Padmé Amidala: The future Darth Vader's waifu who spends most of the prequel trilogy being a hopeless idealist (though still has enough presence of mind to keep a blaster handy when diplomacy fails). Swaps out outfits and hairstyles at a near constant rate. Get's choked by Vader and dies giving birth to Luke and Leia, which ironically Vader was trying to prevent in the first place after seeing a vision. [[FAIL|Way to go, dumbass]]. Haven't you ''read'' a work of fiction with that kinda prophecy in it before? Much more skubby than her daughter, largely on account of the writing for her love story with Anakin being poorly received, as well as Natalie Portman's performance being divisive.

* Qui-Gon Jin: Liam Neeson as a Jedi. [[Meme|As such, he had a particular set of skills, skills to recognize a Sith plot]], and would've uncovered and exposed Palpatine if it weren't for Darth Maul's sword going through his gut. In life, Qui-Gon was known to be a gadfly who frequently disagreed with the dogma of the Jedi Council, instead putting his trust in The Force and eventually discovering The Chosen One in a little slave boy on Tatooine. Was the master of Obi-Wan, and tried to teach Anakin the basics from beyond the grave. Qui-Gon had learned the secret of immortality before his death, and passed on his knowledge to Yoda in a spiritual journey, and later to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Thanks to him, he was able to preserve the legacy of the Jedi long after the purge.

* Ahsoka Tano: An orange, female togruta jedi padawan that helps tell the story of growing up. When she was first introduced in the skubtastic Clone Wars movie, she was basically annoying beyond belief and attached to the notoriously reckless Anakin Skywalker. However, she began to grow on fans, eventually becoming a fan favorite. Initially, she dressed only a little better than a Dark Eldar wych, raising serious moral questions about a girl her age dressing that way, but this issue was resolved in season 3 of the clone wars. Her character grows from beyond the simplicity of an <s>(un)</s>amusing wisecracker, much like her master, into a wiser, kinder woman, whose actions speak louder than her words. In the penultimate season of the Clone Wars, she leaves her master and the Jedi order, and some believe that she unintentionally caused Anakin Skywalker to fall to the Dark side (It certainly denied him the title of master since the standard way of gaining that is to raise a Padawan to knight). She reappears in Rebels, where she acts as an agent coordinating rebel cells, and takes on the wise guide and teacher for Ezra and Kanan, two other jedi who are fighting the Empire. Thought to have died in the second season, she is revealed to have been saved, and was alive even up to season 2 of The Mandalorian.

== Disney Main Characters ==

* Rey: Protagonist of the new trilogy. Most people either think she's a sloppily written Mary Sue and wish-fulfillment character for the writers' female-empowerment fetish or that she's a fine protagonist and the former group is just being salty about new things and/or a bunch of [[Neckbeard]]s and [[/pol/]]s. The sequel trilogy's Jedi and maybe the most immediately competent of the three (the others being Luke and Anakin). What invited critique in the first place is the fact she is readily bestowed new, often unexplained abilities as ''the'' means of moving the plot forward, and the few failures she has either turn to successes, or have next to no consequences. While it was foreshadowed she would have piloting skills with the pilot memorabilia in her home from which the audience was supposed to infer she knew how, Disney had to later specifically point out "she literally plays flight sims anytime she isn't working, that's the shit on her table". But since the memorabilia didn't look like a flight sim, some viewers concluded this was an asspull by Disney. To the credit of the writers however, the foreshadowing implies X-Wing obsession so it makes sense that she royally trashes the Falcon trying to escape TIE Fighters with it (like everyone else who played the old X-Wing video games). She also has fucking god tier Force talent, able to pull off Force techniques that took the previous protagonists years to learn such as the Jedi Mind Trick. The sequel semi-explained this with an actual asspull by suggesting the Force balances itself and with only one remaining trained Force user below a master left alive she pretty much got cheat-coded to be at his level as Light Side opposite...although that ignores Luke not gaining the same cheats and the Force users left alive in the Disney EU who have no Dark Side opposites while also relying on information from that same EU (the trippy metaphysical Force entity kind) so it only works if you turn off your brain and give up. Apart from all that, Rey is a scavenger who grew up parent-less in a wreck on a desert planet, earning from the scraps of old Rebel and Imperial machinery. While she's been seen using the Light Side of the Force for the most part, the Dark Side allegedly tugs a great deal in her. She also has a vision of herself as a Sith with a double-bladed red lightsaber similar to Luke's tree vision on Dagobah. Due to a spate of leaks, numerous details were revealed before the release of the film such as her being Sheev's grandaughter and the fate of her parents; Rey's parents hid her on Jakku because they were being hunted and were killed shortly after leaving. After Rey joins forces with Kylo to defeat Palpatine, she actually dies... only to be brought back to life by <s>Pokémon tears</s> <s>true love's first kiss</s> Kylo Ren using the Force to give his life to save hers, and the two share a kiss before Kylo dies. She ends up on Tatooine and with the last of the Skywalker line dead (by technicality, the Force powers always came from Palpatine so it just means Shmi's bloodline is dead) Rey, while gaining no new personality to speak of, [[Blood Ravens|takes the Skywalker last name as her own]] since she will never know her actual last name now. As one might expect from a character touted as a strong female protagonist, Rey is propped up by failures of men, sometimes turned failures after the fact for the purpose of redistributing their successes to her. Because of this Rey remains the only character alive with any Jedi training.

* Finn: A First Order Stormtrooper (serial code FN-2187) who has doubts about the First Order after a battle where he has to shoot innocent civilians and ends up defecting to the Resistance, allowing him to actually aim worth a damn. Finn ends up carrying ''The Force Awakens'' thanks to the acting talents of John Boyega. He probably would have made a much better main character than Rey because at least ''he'' has a fucking ''reason'' to go on a space adventure and undergoes actual character development. He’s basically Kyle Katarn, only he didn’t get to steal the Death Star plans or become a Jedi. The second movie unfortunately rendered Finn a character without an arc, as discussed below. Had a really cool scene where he fights a former squadmate with a lightsaber, before said [[FAIL|squadmate beat him with a big electric stick.]] He also had a second cool scene where he attempts to fight on a trained dark Jedi (not a Sith) with that same lightsaber before getting badly injured, showing tremendous fucking balls (and implying that Kylo Ren, after being shot by a laser crossbow that flings stormtroopers in the air, is about on par with a pissed off Stormtrooper with a lightning sick). Revealed to be Force-sensitive in Rise Of Skywalker, and finds an entire division of Stormtroopers on Endor who quit the First Order as a group the same way he did as an individual; the leader of them replaces Rose as his love interest, despite the same movie implying heavily he has an unrequited love for Rey (later in an interview JJ said he was trying to say he was Force-sensitive, while some fans think his knowledge that she is Palpatine's grandaughter was what he was supposed to say which meant a "why didn't you tell me" plot would follow). Ends the franchise as the general of the ground forces of the Resistance, a famous galactic hero, and probably going to be trained as a Jedi. So yeah, Finn is canon Kyle Katarn from start to finish.

* Poe Dameron: An X-Wing pilot and one of the best pilots in the Resistance who gave Finn his nickname. Poe is the son of an ace pilot and an elite Rebel soldier, who was seemingly conceived in an Ewok hut during the Yubyub song and grew up with a holy Force tree in his yard that was a gift from Luke. Gets captured by the First Order but gets rescued by a defecting Finn and they both escape using a TIE Fighter. Assumed dead by Finn after crashing the TIE Fighter, though ends up coming back shooting down an entire squadron of TIE Fighters. Its never really stated why did he leave Finn behind in the crash site, how did he leave the planet or why did he pretty much abandon his mission of trying to find BB-8. As such he's barely in The Force Awakens. This is because the original script George Lucas proposed for Force Awakens used Poe as a means of Finn escaping, whereupon Finn takes it on himself to complete Poe’s last mission and eventually replace Poe in the Resistance. After Poe’s actor lamented that he dies in every movie, Poe was made to survive the crash and Finn gained a fearful coward who becomes a hero subplot, which unfortunately left both characters with nowhere to go for character arcs. Poe is far more important in The Last Jedi, <nowiki>but not in good ways. He disobeys orders and leads an attack on a First Order capital ship which not only results in the destruction of most of the surviving Resistance small fighters, but delays their escape long enough for the First Order flagship (so large it is essentially a giant capital city for the First Order) to catch up with them and massacre the Resistance. Poe then mutinies when the now-comatose Leia’s subordinate Holdo is put in charge of the Resistance (Ackbar was killed before that because his Voice Actor died, leaving Holdo as highest ranking officer) to enact his own plan using Finn...which fails, resulting in the deaths of most of the rest of the Resistance and the loss of their last capital ship. Poe’s counterattack also fails, and by the end its only thanks to Rey and Luke that anyone survives. By the end, there’s barely enough Resistance left to fill up the Millennium Falcon, although the First Order got it just as bad thanks to Holdo’s last act. In short: Poe is Magnus the Red tier of fuckups (for the same reason too, not being trusted with the truth but with even less justification).</nowiki> OR ALTERNATELY : Poe actually scores a massive victory for the Resistance as he destroys a massive dreadnought that would have wiped out a base on the ground and then some with a squadron of a dozen bombers '''and one fighter to protect them''' at the price of said bombers that were so stupidly designed they would basically kamikaze as their payloads are dropped gradually meaning the first explosion would start a chain going all the way up to the bomber itself. So basically, Poe destroyed a massive enemy asset at the price of some worthless ships but he still gets demoted because he had the common sense to not follow the order to retreat '''as the bombers were already hovering over their target and were completely defenseless in the first place and would have been even worse off during a retreat'''. This order makes so little sense, it's safe to assume it was only put in here so Poe could disobey it and the audience would understand he's a hotshot who doesn't respect the hierarchy while he was in the right in terms of tactics and strategy and it's already a miracle he got the raid to succeed. Essentially, claiming Poe fucked up is like saying blowing up a pillbox full of enemy soldiers and loads of ammo stockpiled in it with a single grenade is "fucking up" because you maybe probably possibly could have saved the grenade for later and made even more damage. If Poe hadn't had the dreadnought destroyed, it would have with ease one-shotted their ships and their base if they would have even got there (especially as the First Order could track the resistance and therefore the Dreadnought would've simply followed them and blown them up immediately). Not to mention that the bombers where the worst designed starships to date. No big loss there. In other words, he is the only reason they survived. Revealed to be a former Spice smuggler who had a criminal crew in Rise Of Skywalker, which is the bulk of his character development for most of the movie since he otherwise just banters with Finn and Rey. He gets friendzoned by his ex twice (his abandonment of their crew '''really''' screwed them over and she decides to forgive him for it, so its not like its out of nowhere to not want to shag) and leads initially the small Resistance fleet before the combined forces of the militias and pirate crews and Rebel veterans suddenly show up, meaning he lead the biggest navy in the entire setting and does it well which mostly makes up for the stupidity of the Last Jedi "character arc".

* Luke Skywalker has become a [[Neckbeard|grumpy old man who just wants the Jedi Order to die with him since he's been disillusioned in people not being shitty now that his shitty-feeling self is considered the least shitty person in the universe.]] [[Rage|He also tried to kill his nephew because he had a bad dream.]] (something many fans, and even '''Mark Hamill himself''' considered out of character for Luke). It takes a direct Force-powered intervention from Leia as well as Yoda's Force ghost telling him "don't worry, we both fucked up and the kids still love our <strike>toys</strike> legends" to get him to nut the fuck up and help stop the First Order by embarrassing Kylo Ren in front of everyone. It got to the point where [[The Last Church|he tried to burn a sacred tree with contained the last books about the Jedi code]]. Yoda appeared as a Force ghost and told Luke the Force weren't limited to buildings or writings, destroying the tree which supposedly contained the last books about the Jedi code and history which turns out to be because Rey had already stolen said books and the destruction of the tree prevented Luke from discovering that fact, ensuring the Jedi will continue regardless of Luke's faith crisis. Of course the old codger gets to become a Force Ghost that resides mostly on Ach-To, so lets see if we won't see our boi Mark again in some future movie or series.

* Han Solo has, unfortunately, suffer from how Harrison Ford always went back and forth on wanting to continue the franchise, mostly because he thoroughly hated Solo and wanted him to die pretty much from day one, only to be thwarted in Empire and again in Jedi by the character's popularity. Ford agreed to return for Episode 7 when Disney finally gave him his wish, having Solo fail to redeem his son Ben and getting a metaphorical and literal lightsaber through the heart for it. Post-Disney Han's origin is covered in a solo movie named Solo. It's generally considered skub.

* Leia manages to somehow [[Roboute Guilliman|survive getting shot into space]] using her force abilities in TLJ, probably the most ridiculous part of the film (which is no mean feat considering the rest of the film). Due to the death of her actress Carrie Fisher (given the amount of cocaine and partying she'd done over the years it was amazing Carrie lived as long as she did) Leia only appears in Episode 9 using altered unused footage from Episodes 7 and 8 along with some dubbed lines, where she's shown training Rey then just dies by fading away.

* Dinn Djarin: the titular Mandalorian from the series of the same name. Dinn belongs to a radical sect of the Mandos called the Children of the Watch, who follow an uber-conservative version of the Mandalorian Creed in which they must not allow anyone to see their faces. Dinn is still an honorable, if reserved and standoffish warrior who works for the Bounty Hunter's Guild in the post-Endor galaxy. He ends up breaking one of his contracts when he's hired to kidnap a young Jedi child named Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) and turn him over to the Imperial Remnant; Dinn instead chooses to be the child's protector and deliver him to whatever Jedi remain in the galaxy. During their adventures he bonds with the child, and eventually learns that not all Mandos follow his extreme version of the Creed, eventually removing his helmet for Grogu's sake as they tearfully part ways. But then, Disney remembered that this duo were breakout stars that gave the franchise a massive shot in the arm, so they ended up reuniting shortly after during Din's latest team-up with Boba.

* The Bad Batch: Officially known as "Clone Force 99", they're a Special Ops squad made up of clones with genetic defects that give them a tactical advantage. Initially introduced in the Clone Wars series, before getting a series of their own. Because of their unique traits they were partially immune to their Inhibitor chips and thus didn't initially obey Order 66, later getting on Tarkin's bad side for being too disobedient and getting branded as traitors. Crosshair betrays them as his inhibitor chip still works; they're joined instead by Omega, the only known female clone of Jango Fett, and apparently part of a contingency plan where she and Boba Fett were to become the new gene template for the clone army. The clones witness the rapid transformation of the Republic into the Empire as they live on the run, likely to include the "decommissioning" of the clone army as a whole. Members are:
** Hunter: Team leader, his "trait" being enhanced senses. Hair and red headband, knife skills, and being a badass commando make his Rambo inspiration obvious. Becomes a father figure to Omega and the moral compass of the team, protecting them from their former brothers and an empire that wants them dead.
** Wrecker: Team bruiser and man-child. [[Space Marine|Is super strong, loves a good fight, and wears bulky black and red armor with skull imagery]]. Though sometimes a victim of the Worf effect, he's generally allowed to be fairly cool. In keeping with his gentle giant image, he takes a shine to Omega sooner than many of the others.
** Tech: The brainy one, which is conveyed by Dee Bradley Baker giving him an English accent. Also more mellow and less abrasive than most of the other squad, getting along fine with the "regs" who the Bad Batch as a whole often disdain and dislike working with.
** Crosshair: Vindicaire Assassin in Star Wars, being a cold-blooded sniper with incredible aim who wears black armor and is fanatically loyal to his fascist employers. With special reflectors he can make his blaster bolts ricochet off of solid surfaces. The team's asshole, he unsurprisingly betrays them in the aftermath of Order 66, though he still cares about his former teammates in his own way, even saving Omega in the Season 1 finale. Wants the rest of the Bad Batch to join him in working for the Empire.
** Echo: Originally a regular Clone Trooper, he was one of the titular rookies in the fan-favorite Season 1 episode, and by the end of the series was the only one still breathing. Now is a member of the Bad Batch, the cybernetic modifications he got while a prisoner of the Separatists making him more than ordinary Clone.
** Omega: A barely useful waste of...(sees giant mouse giving evil eye)...uh, I mean, sweet, endearing kid who befriends the Bad Batch and joins them on their adventures. Revealed to be a female clone of Jango and currently the only known one, making her effectively the Bad Batch's cute little sister despite technically being OLDER than them. Main source of Bad Batch's Skub. Also blonde despite being a Jango clone, likely a subtle reference to how Jango's sister in Legends was blonde. That or she's got some of Maketh Tua's DNA thrown in.

* Cal Kestis: [[Zero Punctuation|Young "Luke Skywalker"-type hero and giner]]; the main character of the Jedi: Fallen Order and upcoming Jedi: Survivor vidya games. Was in hiding after Order 66 on a scrapperyard before being found by the Inquisitorius and taken on a planet-hopping treasure-hunting adventure with former Jedi master Cere Junda and the small-time smuggler Greez. Cal has the ability to use Psychometry, a Force-power that allows him to absorb memories and thoughts connected to items (a Force power made famous by Quinlan Vos), which has made it difficult to live with the lightsaber of his dead mentor. Personality is fairly stock for a Jedi, but does manage to fuck up two Inquisitors, battalions of Stormtroopers, Purge Troopers, vicious fauna and flora and the occasional bounty-hunter with nothing but a scratch on him. Has a thing for ponchos.

== Side Characters ==
* C-3P0 and R2-D2: Two robots trapped in a sexless gay marriage who are the only minor characters to have been in all the movies so far, and even in stories like The Old Republic outside of their millennia of existence will usually have an equivalent. C-3P0 is the shiny golden humanoid robot who constantly fusses about keeping the furniture clean and worries that his pies are getting overdone in the oven while R2-D2 is the brash, brave husband figure who swings into action regardless. He looks like a salt shaker next to the Dalek's pepper shakers, although is he more a plucky rabbit to their rabid wild cats. He's also an angry motherfucker; in Revenge he iced two battledroids by setting them on fire, and his killcount throughout Clone Wars raises the question why the Republic isn't using R2's instead (explained nx the fact that Anakin never resets his memory and thus goes from [[Servitor]] to AI). The robots mostly have comedy roles in the movies, since they might threaten to upstage the human actors if they became too useful, though R2 has an electric cattle prod and serves as the party's computer skillmonkey, while C-3P0 saves the day with his mad linguistic skillz at least once per film in the original trilogy. They starred in their own cartoon series that was surprisingly good. In the pre-Disney EU the two are rarely joined as they are in the films. R2 frequently joins Luke on adventures, giving him someone to talk to during otherwise solo adventures, providing a Doctor Watson like figure even if the droid doesn't add much to the conversation. C-3P0 on the other hand stuck with Leia and assisted her in her duties as mother and head of state. In post Disney continuity the writers don't seem to know what to do with them and they're mostly just there; at least until Rise of Skywalker, where C-3PO's l337 tranzlation skillz are again important to the plot. Both are occasionally funny.

* Chewbacca: The original furry in space, the dog you can have a beer with in the space Winnebago. Nothing sexy about him; he is just hairy, huge, knows how to pilot a space ship, fix stuff, fire a <s>fucking space crossbow</s> gun, and generally get shit done which strangely makes him the coolest furry ever. Best friends with Han, has a family that we can all agree did not appear in the terrible Christmas special that does not exist (he got a much more badass family in the Galactic Battlegrounds games, so go with that). Hates Trandoshans like all Wookiees, since Trandoshans are almost always assholes and are particularly assholish to Wookiees. The prequel trilogy revealed he's REALLY FUCKING OLD thanks to Wookiee lifespan. In post-Disney lore, he is one of the few characters who has lived through the ''entire saga'', including the Clone Wars, the rebellion against the Empire and the resistance against the First Order. In the post-Disney continuity he ultimately generally ignored in endings and the plot overall (ironic that he was the first major character who died in the pre-Disney lore and he's one of the few still alive in post-Disney lore).
**In the pre-Disney continuity he was a slave that the then-Imperial Han saved, then he helped Han save the galaxy. He was also tough as nails having survived numerous injuries and abuse that would've killed most Wookiees, and Wookiees are already tougher than humans. His actual death was getting mooned to death by extragalactic space cenobites - as in they used a gravity manipulation device to smash a moon into the planet Vector Prime while he was accidentally trapped on it. He was hailed as a hero across the galaxy (with the boast among Wookiees that [[Awesome|Chewbacca was so tough, it took something that can wreck a planet to kill him]]) and the fanbase cried or raged at his death; even the authors who killed him off went on record to say they were sad about his death and only did so for the sake of plot.

* Lando Calrissian: Suave, charismatic, and an expert con artist, this guy is the original pirate king in space. He betrays Han and co. when Vader invades his city, later regrets it, and then atones by saving the cast from the Empire as well as the populace of his city at the same time, then helps save Han from the mafia, and finally leading the fleet that blows up the Death Star 2.0. Consistently one of the only two film characters to maintain his original actor in the EU, with Billy Dee Williams showing up for video games, audio dramas, promotional shorts, and the occasional malt liquor ad.

* Yoda: Ancient wise grand master of the Jedi Order who a tiny green alien is. Never named, his species was. Because of his size and age, most assumed just a harmless old teacher he was, your nice old granddad like. His pulling out a lightsaber and engaging a Sith Lord in combat at the end of ''Attack of the Clones'', one of the most surprising and popular fights of the series is. Incredibly powerful in the Force, he is, rivaled by the likes of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Sideous. Became a big franchise mascot he did, despite a surprise for the audience he was meant to be in his first appearance, ruining it for future generations. A unique way of speaking, he has. A very popular target for parody, it has become (though the original trilogy indicated it was just one of many things he was doing to annoy Luke as a test, since he doesn't talk that way to Obi-Wan). A symbol of the Jedi Order's blindness and rigidity in the prequel era, he was. But had a spiritual reawakening, after his journey following the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn. Even after death, a wise mentor he became.

* Wedge Antilles: The anti-redshirt. Has almost no lines in the original movies but somehow survives all of them, even blowing up the second Death Star with Lando. In the EU he is one of, if not ''the'' best starfighter pilot in the galaxy, and co-founder of the über elite Rogue Squadron along with Luke. It also establishes he was the son of humble (mobile) gas station owners who got killed by pirates. After tracking down and killing the pirates, he tried to live to a normal life, but failed when Imperials killed his alliance sympathizing girlfriend. Eventually rises to General after realizing his refusing promotions was screwing the career of everyone under him. Has a weakness of being more of a tactician than a strategist, which extends to his personal character which often fails to see the big picture. The other character to maintain his original actor in most EU works.

* Admiral Ackbar: Giant tactical fish who has the need to point out obvious traps in memetic fashion. Leads the rebel fleet in the sixth film. Dies in the eighth. He has a huge fanbase despite only appearing in a few scenes across the entire film saga and is one of the meme-faces of the fandom alongside Obi-Wan, Anakin and Palpatine. His survival and high rank made him quite prominent in the EU's New Republic works. Pre-Disney was much of the same except he died during the Yuuzhan Vong War (the same war that led to Chewie's death in the Legends).

* Jar-Jar Binks: Solely exists to fuck up everything (and we do mean EVERYTHING) at the worst possible moment. This guy is so hated by everyone in and out of universe that his actor received severe backlash - including '''death threats''', and he even considered suicide because of it - even though he had nothing to do with the writing while also sympathizing with fans' complaints and Lucas shitcanned his role down into a very brief cameo at the end of Episode 3. He's actually something of a tragic figure representing someone good who tries to act to save the galaxy but ended up ruining it instead. All of this only gets more palm-to-head-worthy since Jar Jar was created as a fun kids characters, rather than anything truly important... But of course, [[neckbeards]] gotta rage. Got a depressing meta style sendoff in the Aftermath book after Disney got the rights, which is a shame since it was hinted at in the Clone Wars series that he would marry a powerful alien queen who thinks he's a sex magnet. No really.

* Mace Windu: The original only black dude in space (because everyone forgot about Lando), he was the hardest-as-nails Jedi master of the council during the prequel trilogy and the best swordfighter in the Order, hence his unique purple lightsaber. That, and Sam Jackson wanted his own color to stand out. If Anakin hadn't interfered, he would have killed Darth Sidious and none of the original trilogy would have taken place. His subsequent anti-climatic death in the movie is regarded with annoyance by his fans. His mastery of the Force allows him to channel his anger and enjoyment of battle into his combat style [[Bullshit|without being corrupted by the Dark Side]], basically getting as close to the Dark Side a Jedi can get and still be a Jedi. He can also detect what he calls "shatterpoints", which lets him detect weaknesses to either mess people up in combat or exploit the "for want of a nail" proverb to turn situations to his side. Has a novel, Shatterpoint, which is pretty much Heart of Darkness IN STAR WARS.

* CT-7567/Captain Rex: If the Clone Troopers are the equivalent of Guardsmen, then this guy is the equivalent of the likes of [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|Gaunt]] and [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken|Straken]]. The defacto second-in-command of the 501st Legion under Anakin Skywalker, he fought in nearly every major engagement during the Clone Wars, leading his men through hellish battles like on Geonosis at the beginning of the war and on Mandalore at the end. He has a strong sense of morality and cares for the lives of both the men under him and the officers above him, which meant that he often came into conflict with asshat commanders like the Jedi knight Krell (who treated their troops as little more than disposable cannon fodder). He even managed to face off against dark-side Force users and live- something very few non-Force users are able to accomplish (To get a better picture of what this is like, imagine a sergeant in the guard facing off against a Chaos Space Marine, and living). After the war and his beloved Republic's transformation into the eventually-despised Empire, he and two other clone commanders went into retirement on a backwater world, fishing for worms the size of skyscrapers on an old walker they converted into a mobile home. He was brought out of retirement by a combination of the rebels of Phoenix Squadron, his old friend and commander Ahsoka, and the Empire being their usual backstabbing, overreactive selves, and so resolved to bring down the corrupt regime and restore the nation he had served out of pride (although most clones were programmed to follow the Republic, and specifically the Chancellor, many ended up choosing instead to follow the ideals of the Republic rather than the people in charge, and some even managed to overcome Palpatine's programming via removing the chip he had planted in their heads during the cloning process). To that end, he participated in many Rebel missions. Making him the old man you see with Han Solo's commando group in RoTJ was toyed with, but ultimately rejected due to the character already having an identity in the EU and him having the wrong ethnicity.

* Corran Horn: A Correllian detective who becomes a member of Rogue Squadron during the New Republic. Later becomes a Jedi. His unique bloodline makes him inept at telekinesis, but gives him the unique power of energy absorption. Often accused of being a Mary Sue by people who miss his huge ego and over confidence problem even though right from the start Wedge has to berate him on his putting himself before the squadron. Constantly makes bullheaded mistakes like ignoring his low fuel, causing him to run out of fuel, trying to use his girlfriend's dad infamy to his advantage on someone, before learning ''that's her dad'', thinking having a lightsaber and some ''very'' basic training made him invincible, which would have killed him if bacta didn't exist, and smugly mocked Exar Kun in his temple under the mistaken impression he's physically powerless, only to get mauled in return and needing rescue from Mara Jade. He had legitimate criticism about Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy and told Luke off when Luke tried to warn Corran about the lure of the Dark Side of the Force. Corran was once a police officer and God only knows how corrupt the Correllian police can be, so he's seen his own dark side from "down in the trenches" as it were. Also the only Rogue to ever get downed by SAMs.

* Booster Terrik: A jolly but hot-tempered smuggler boss with a prosthetic eye. Helped Wedge find and kill the pirates who killed his family. Currently working/had to work to reestablish himself after a stint in Kessel, courtesy of Corran Horn's father Hal Horn. Father of Mirax Terrik. That his daughter is dating the son of the guy who put him away drives him crazy, but he eventually gets over it by coming to think of Corran as a Rogue instead of CorSec. Has a serious rivalry with Talon Karrde's organization. A crazy bluff eventually (and inadvertently) leads to him being the sole private owner of an Imperial Star Destroyer, which he operates as a mobile black market known as the Errant Venture.

* Aayla Secura: The space waifu of many a generation of star wars fanboys. A hot Twi'lek jedi chick who dressed skimpy and kicked butt. She was such a popular side character that Lucas took notice of her and added into the second and third prequel movies. Her reason for ditching the traditional jedi robes and showing her midriff was to show pride in Twi'lek culture, as her race tends to be viewed primarily as slaves rather than as an important part of the galaxy. Much like Ahsoka, she wasn't entirely defined by being a hot chick, but had other redeeming characteristics that made her likable, like being mechanically inclined, kind, wise, and somewhat mischievous. Much like Captain Rex, she had a great relationship with clones under her command, and it was rumored she and her Clone Commander had a romantic attachment to each other. Suffers from two tragedies: her death in Revenge of the Sith was brutal, and Disney hasn't done anything with her character since they acquired the franchise. In pre-Disney continuity, Aayla and Jedi master Kit Fisto were rumored to have a romantic attachment to each other.

== Disney Side Characters ==

* BB-8: The R2-D2 replacement and mascot of the new trilogy. Poe's buddy robot, started out as the plot device that the First Order was after in The Force Awakens, saves Finn and Rose's asses twice by taking down prison guards and piloting an AT-ST to attack Stormtroopers in The Last Jedi as well as Poe's in the comic. Saves Rey in Rise and reactivates a small antique droid companion that can speak Common AKA English, giving him his own C-3PO.

* Maz Kanata: An orange alien who knows a lot about the Force. In her backstory she was a Force-sensitive that’s somewhere in Yoda-tier age, but was never trained as a Jedi and instead used her talents to survive among the “third faction” (Hutts, smugglers, mafias, Mandos) while remaining as friendly to the “light side” factions as Hutts are to the “Dark Side” factions. Apparently also a supreme badass, judging from her brief appearance in TLJ. Definitely fucked Chewbacca and somehow survived. She procured Anakin’s/Luke’s blue lightsaber from the depths of the Bespin gas giant simply because she wanted it, and gave it to Rey in Force Awakens as well as some grandmotherly advice to her and Rey. She appears briefly to give the heroes contact information for a codebreaker in The Last Jedi. Joins the Resistance proper for the final movie, but not actually doing much onscreen other than spending some time with Leia.

* Saw Gerrara: Originally a member of the Space Viet Cong, this guy doesn't fuck around. Torture civilians? Check. Massacre entire patrols of Imperials? Check. In fact, his methods were considered so extreme that even the Rebel Alliance wanted nothing to do with him. Strictly speaking, he's a pre-Disney character as his first appearance on-screen was as part of the Clone Wars TV series; his first episode airing the same month that Disney acquired the franchise, making him one of the few characters to make the transition from the small screen to the big screen. Though he gets deaded within the first 30 minutes of Rogue One and does absolutely nothing of any value other than hinder the protagonists long enough to pad the run time, he has a lot more of his back-story filled out in the Rebels TV series. He was played by actor Forest Whitaker, so at least there's that.

* Sabine Wren: One of the main protagonists from the Star Wars Rebels show. A Mandalorian woman with a flair for art, explosions, and kicking Imperial ass, she is probably one of the most recognizable characters from the animated side of Disney canon. At first, she was a patriotic Imperial, designing weapons for the Emperor and his vassal ruler for Mandalore, Gar Saxon, until Gar decided to test one of her weapons on a group of Mandalorians, leading her to be labeled an oath-breaker by her people and cast out from her home-planet of Krownest by her mom. She then spends the events of the TV-series with her new surrogate family, the crew of the rebel freighter *Ghost*, and eventually recovers an ancient sword revered by her people, leading her to reconcile with her past, her birth family, and her people. Now, after the Battle of Endor, she is on a quest with Ahsoka Tano to find her 'totally-not-boyfriend', the Jedi Ezra Bridger, and Grand Admiral Thrawn, as they disappeared into the Unknown Regions following the events of the series finale. Was considered "another Disney female Mary Sue" until she acquired some nice depth in the last season of Rebels, however event before that their are several good moments with her such as her getting captured by Sith Inquisitors and used against Ezra and her fights with Kanan. Overall she is a very likable character and one of the better characters in Rebels.

* Amilyn Holdo: An [[Tumblr|overbearing, purple-haired “Rebel hero”]] and one of the key admirals of the Resistance. If you don't like the direction the Disney canon is going in, this character is your Jar Jar Binks and probably is to you even if you do approve/tolerate it. Her only role was to basically die in style but unfortunately she was pretty forgettable and nobody actually cared when she was atomized, even if it was a really fucking cool death. Tie-in material tried to fix this; the only real requirement for joining the Resistance was "didn’t think Leia was crazy for thinking the First Order was going to perform Star Wars 9/11”, and Holdo was only the captain of a small frigate before her battlefield promotion due to the entire chain of command other than the other frigate commander dying or being incapacitated by a single torpedo blast to the bridge of the Resistance flagship. As a matter of fact, [[skub|her "super-duper secret plan" ends up getting most of the Resistance killed after Finn and Poe fuck it up]], due to the fact that she decided to [[skub|not tell the freshly demoted highest ranking pilot who had just lost the resistance the last of their bombers her plan, causing him to mutiny]], and she only partially redeems herself via [[What|FTL ramming their command ship into the First Order command ship, destroying most of the FO fleet]], which is briefly visually spectacular but [[fluff]]-wise highly.... [[skub|take a guess]]. In the original script there was a subplot about there actually being a First Order spy aboard with the audience knowing in advance that there was a plan that spy could have ruined, but in an absolutely stunning display of terrible choices none of it was even filmed and the story was not changed to cut the references to that dropped plot.

* Rose Tico: A maintenance worker who acts as a tagalong for some of the most boring and annoying parts of The Last Jedi. After losing her sister in the beginning of the movie, she catches her idol Finn (who has apparently become something of a celebrity within the Resistance over the course of the week or so since he defected) trying to desert ship in order to warn Rey not to rendezvous as they were being chased by the First Order's fleet since Leia had given her a beacon indicating a rendezvous point (something that is entirely forgotten about for the rest of the movie, since Rey doesn't even use it to meet up with the Resistance at the end). She later went along with Finn to the Gilded Age planet to find the expert capable of helping them deactivate the First Order's tracking system, and despite literally growing up on a planet like that she still thinks its a great idea to just park their fighter on a luxury beach and run straight into a casino full of arms dealers wearing their military uniforms which results in the two being arrested and meeting a random criminal who sells the two out to the First Order because he overhears them literally explain their entire situation, despite the aforementioned "growing up as either a slave or a poor servant, its kind of unclear" backstory which means she should probably know more than the guy who literally only knows life as a Stormtrooper about shit like that. Her lust for Finn's BBC drives her to cockblock his heroic sacrifice on Salt Hoth before confessing his love for him at the worst possible moment in a plot point that will likely go nowhere. Also delivers the worst line in the entirety of the franchise: "[[What|That's how we are going to win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.]]" Which is even worse because Finn was not fighting a hated foe since he has no hatred towards his enemies and was instead just sacrificing himself for the people he loves. This quantum singularity of [[bullshit]] led to a substantial fraction of TLJ's backlash being directed at her actress despite the fact that she had nothing to do with writing any of it. Said backlash also basically single-handedly torpedoing whatever reputation the Star Wars fandom had with the greater public prior to this. Was an interesting character- how some heroes could come from unlikely places- that got handed shit writing in a movie that was way too crowded with a huge ensemble to begin with, and almost zero development. In The Rise Of Skywalker, instead of giving pithy speeches about love and being oppressed she spends her time doing actual ground crew technician work between battles, when characters are meeting to plan their next move she speaks like a high-ranking member of the Resistance (by process of elimination, but still), and the most important thing; '''she actually gets to participate in a battle and shoots some motherfuckers''' in an attempt address the "her figures don't sell" problem. The plot point of her being in love with Finn is not addressed, like in any way at all, and she has very little screentime so she's pretty much been simultaneously upgraded/downgraded into being the Wedge to Finn's Luke. That last part didn't go over well with a lot of people given her bigger role in VIII, leading to accusations that IX was pandering to the /pol/ crowd by giving Rose so little to say or do. Despite (or maybe because of), getting shafted in the movies proper, the actress has proven fairly game about reprising her role in voice-acting for various projects.

* Torra Doza: D.Va in Star Wars. No seriously. Young female, wears a blue and white bodysuit with gloves, is a pilot, likes video games, cheerful personality, she's got it all...except for being in something that's actually popular. Unfortunately, Torra had the bad luck to be a character in the widely reviled Star Wars: Resistance, which basically guaranteed a status as Skub at best and hated at worst.

== Notable Pre-Disney EU Characters ==
* Thrawn: (See *below under villains since despite being created as part of the Legends - in fact, the 1991 book he debuted in is what began the Star Wars Expanded Universe - he was brought back into canon by Disney)

* Mara Jade: A Force-sensitive former agent of Emperor Palpatine, Star Wars second strong female character after Leia (Nomi Sunrider wasn't high profile or developed enough) and a fiery, snarky, sexy redhead. Taken from her parents at a young age and raised as a servant to Palpatine, Mara trained with him and with his royal guards to become one of several high-level Force-using operatives with the title of "Emperor's Hand", though she used the cover story of being a dancer that Palps liked called Lianna. A life of hard work gave Mara a liking for challenges, and she completed numerous missions for him, living the high life under his patronage. Upon Palpatine's death, he gave Mara one last command and a Force geas - kill Luke Skywalker. Bereft of the Emperor's patronage, without job skills besides spy and assassin and unable to find Luke, Mara was forced to live paycheck to paycheck in numerous jobs until becoming a smuggler under Talon Karrde. When Mara finally met Luke, she tried to kill him but ened up in survival situations that forced them to work together. When she finally learned the the truth of her master and killed and escaped Palpatine's compulsion when she killed Luke's clone. Mara then joined the Jedi Order, and over the years Mara's grudging respect for Luke grew into love - which Luke ironically developed before Mara did despite Luke saying he didn't like fiery women like Mara, and the two eventually married. Then a Yuuzhan Vong agent infected Mara with a deadly bioweapon, and she only survived through using the Force to keep it at bay. When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded at large, she fought while struggling with the virus, being cured of it around the time her and Luke's son Ben was born. After the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, Mara led the Jedi alongside Luke and fought in wars against various aliens and the re-emergent Sith. Years later her nephew Jacen turned to the Dark Side and became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. When he tried to corrupt her son Ben, Mara tracked him down to kill him to protect Ben. During the fight, Jacen killed Mara via cheap shot with a poisoned dart. But before she died, Mara told Jacen off while using the Force to alert Luke and Ben and say goodbye to them (Mara's death was one of the main reasons the book series was hated by fans). She later appeared numerous times as a Force ghost, visiting Luke - at one point to give him tips on how to fight Abeloth, and warning her great-great-grandson Cade Skywalker against the Dark Side. Due to being a sexy redheaded woman with a backstory as a spy-cum-assassin (emphasis on cum for neckbeards) for an evil government before joining the good guys, plus her fiery disposition and penchant for black catsuits, Mara's probably a deliberate ripoff of Black Widow from Marvel Comics (ironically, this didn't stop Disney retconning her from the lore despite Disney now owning both the Marvel brand and Star Wars franchise).

* Ben Skywalker: Son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Named for Obi-Wan Kenobi's pseudonym, Ben grew up learning the ways of the Jedi from his parents. He was close to his uncle, aunt and cousins too. Ben was nearly lured to the Dark Side when his cousin Jacen became a Sith but resisted, and any bond between them was destroyed when Jacen killed Ben's mother Mara. Years later when the Jedi got word of a lost tribe of Sith emerging and an emerging Force psychosis started spreading among the Jedi, Luke, Ben and the Jedi Order went to resolve the problem, Ben joining his father in re-tracing Jacen's steps to try and gain insight. Things went from bad to worse when the Jedi and Sith encountered the Lovecraftian Force Entity Abeloth, a shapeshifting being described as a dozen times stronger in the Force than Luke and able to use both sides of it. Things were so desperate, Ben accepted when Luke got the Jedi and the Sith to form an alliance against her. During this time, Ben encountered Vestara Khoi, a Sith apprentice and daughter of one of their leaders. While firmly on the side of the Jedi, Ben found himself often working alongside Vestara in their mission to stop Abeloth, and was attracted to her; for her part, Vestara reciprocated Ben's feelings but was hindered by Ben's disapproval of Sith. Eventually they confessed their feelings, and the two became a couple (with Vestara also leaving the Sith and trying to become a Jedi). Said co-operation proved invaluable when Abeloth kidnapped Ben and Vestara for the final part of her master plan. After Abeloth's ultimate defeat Vestara, after a ruthless act while fighting Abeloth, became convinced she had much of a Sith mindset to be a Jedi, reverted back to the Sith, ended the relationship by zapping Ben with Sith Lightning before fleeing. Heartbroken but resolute, Ben resolved to track her down and redeem her if possible (unbeknownst to Ben, Vestara was also heartbroken about leaving him).

* Jacen Solo: While George Lucas always had a story idea for a son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side, Jacen Solo was the first incarnation, and a major influence on Disney's Kylo Ren. Born to Leia alongside his twin sister Jaina, he was a skilled Jedi, and often tried to be a calming influence on his younger brother Anakin Solo. Played a pivotal role in the Yuuzhan Vong War, killing their military commander Tsavong Lah and their true leader. However, his experiences during the war took a toll, and Jacen started struggling with the Dark Side. Falling into corruption of a Sith Lady, Jacen fell pretty hard. He became a Colonel in the Galactic Alliance and took control of their secret police and converted it into his own Personal SS division. He [[What|legally coup]] the Chief of State and turn the successor to the NR into a evil democratic republic.

* Jaina Solo: Jaina Solo was a Human female Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order and member of the Jedi High Council. Daughter of Han and Leia, twin sister of Jacen Solo and older sister to Anakin Solo, she inherited her father's mechanical aptitude and her mother's Force sensitivity, resulting in her eventual training at the Jedi Praxeum. During her time there as a youth, she had many adventures, including helping to thwart the Second Imperium, where she helped Zekk abandon the dark side of the Force and join the ranks of the Jedi. She became a distinguished pilot during the Yuuzhan Vong War, which also saw the death of her brother Anakin Solo and the birth of her cousin Ben Skywalker. Becomes the Jedi Saber, the Order's sword against the dark.

* Kyle Katarn: A stormtrooper commander who turns mercenary after learning the Imperials were responsible for the death of his father. After being one of the many people who stole the Death Star plans, he destroys an Imperial super soldier project essentially solo. After this he gets wrapped up in the head inquisitor's plot to revive the Empire and gets trained as a Jedi by a force ghost. Straightforward and prone to snark, but also very easy to trick. Partner (if not more) with hot space Asian Jan Ors. Considered one of the more powerful force users in the New Republic, even outside the games where his power level is rather over the top. Where Luke (and most Jedi) keep the dark side away with spiritualism and positivity, Kyle does it through sheer force of will.

* Talon Karrde: A suave rogue smuggler captain who became the new smuggling and black market kingpin after Jabba died. Compared to his predecessor, he's pretty benign given his preference for tariff evasion and illegal goods over straight up extortion and slaving and being a father to his men instead of someone who executes minions on whims. His favored product is selling obscure and/or stolen information. Explicitly what Han might have become if he didn't join the rebellion. Likes punny ship names, with his flagship the Wild Karrde (Wild Card, plus a pun on his last name) and secondary ships like Lastri's Ort (Last Resort), Uwana Buyer (You want to buy her?) and Amanda Fallow (A man to follow). He makes a business arrangement with Mara Jade when she's trying to track Luke down to kill him, where he provided her information if she worked for him temporarily. Years later he acts as a friend in the black market to the Solos and Skywalkers.

* Bevel Lemelisk: An old EU Character that hasn't been quite retconned out yet (even if Director Krennic and Galen Erso more or less took his place in the overall plot), Lemelisk is the Albert Speer/Wernher von Braun of the Imperial war machine. A genius architect and engineer with a serious boner for mass destruction, he designed the Death Star and several others of the Imperial Superweapons, like the discount Death Star battlestation ''Tarkin'' (kinda like a Proof-of-concept prototype for the Death Star concept) or the ''Eclipse''-class of Super Star Destroyers. He bore the brunt of Palpatines anger for the Death Star's destruction, who had him tortured, executed and ressurrected via cloning several times for his failures. After the Empires defeat, he ended up working for the Hutts and worked on a Death Star knockoff called the Darksaber (which he purposefully sabotaged by not pointing out obvious design flaws and the overall shoddy construction work), where he was captured by the New Republic and executed for war crimes.

* Tsavong Lah: An alien [[Horus|Warmaster]], Tsavong was a member of the Yuuzhan Vong species and in charge of their military during most of the Yuuzhan Vong War. His most notable accomplishments were conquering Coruscant and indirectly causing Anakin Solo's death. Tsavong was a skilled tactician but a poor strategist, [[Commander Kubrik Chenkov|a ruthless fanatic who's willing to throw countless lives away to achieve his goals]]. Also took on the Vong Nom Anor as his advisor, despite hating Anor's self-centeredness and lack of piety. At one point Jacen cut off his foot, so Tsavong [[Awesome|cloned an extinct super-predator so he could prove he was still badass by killing it and using one of its feet as a prosthetic foot]]. Also got caught up in a plot by the [[Haemonculi|Shaper Caste, seeking to control him through his body modifications]]. He also dearly loved his dad - a retired military officer he'd often turn to for advice, to the point that his death made Tsavong mentally unstable. Came to view Jacen Solo as his archnemesis, and was eventually killed by him.

* Nom Anor: A Yuuzhvan Vong member of the Intendant caste. After the events of ROTJ, Nom arrived with a Vong advance force as a saboteur to undermine the galaxy in preparation for the Vong invasion/Yuuzhan Vong War. During this time, Nom worked in disguise to manipulate various groups and even clashed with the Chiss Ascendancy... [[Not As Planned|the capture of some of his agents also clued the Empire in to the coming Vong threat]]. He was also such a selfish schemer even Thanquol would turn his nose up in disgust and a major [[Troll]]; before revealing his true identity, when negotiating with Leia he often dress up and act like Darth Vader just to mess with her. Also notable for being an atheist while the Vong as a whole are characterized by being deeply religious. Before the war, Nom infected Luke's wife Mara with a Vong bioweapon that caused a terminal illness, forcing her to use the Force to stop its progression. When Mara confronted Nom, he tried and failed to kill her and was sent packing. After being heavily demoted, Nom tried to rally the outcast class under the guise of a prophet, only to throw them away when they weren't useful to him. Nom later found his way onto the Supreme Overlord's flagship ([[Asdrubael Vect|not that supreme overlord]]) during the battle to retake Coruscant. When the Supreme Overlord was killed and the ship started falling apart, Nom tried to kill the heroes three times but was always thwarted. When offered the chance to escape with the heroes, Nom realized he'd burned all his bridges; he didn't fit in anywhere and was too proud to reconsider his life choices or face punishment for his role in the war. So Nom chose to stay behind and die on the exploding flagship. Essentially [[Fabius Bile]] as a self-centered alien bureaucrat.

* A'Sharad Hett/Darth Krayt: A human Jedi-turned-Sith. Born A'Sharad Hett, he was born to a Jedi and his wife who somehow managed to live among the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine, he eventually joined the Jedi Order, becoming a Padawan of Jedi Masters Ki-Adi-Mundi, and later, An'ya Kuro. When he was only a teen, Hett's father was murdered by the Jedi assassin Aurra Sing, who was later defeated in a duel by a young A'Sharad Hett. During the Clone Wars, he served the Republic as a General. He met and eventually befriended Anakin Skywalker after Skywalker struggled to come to terms with Hett's Tusken heritage. He managed to survive the Clone Wars and Order 66. He was eventually captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, who [[Haemonculus|tortured and experimented on Hett]], which drove him to the Dark Side.

* Darth Talon: A female Twi'lek from the EU comic series "Star Wars: Legacy" who became a Sith Lord in Darth Krayt's One Sith in 137 ABY. Best known for being one of Star Wars most fanservice-y characters on account of her attractive, tattoo-covered body and always wearing skimpy skin-tight clothing (though the character's creators have gone on record to say her appearance is meant to be primal not sexualized, and the skimpy outfit is to show off her tattoos). Apart from the fanservice, she's also visually distinctive for being a rare red Twi'lek and the aforementioned black Sith tattoos. Appointed personal assassin of Darth Kryat, Talon was sent to kill Luke's descendant Cade Skywalker, then later chosen to be Cade's Sith teacher when Darth Kryat tried to induct him into the Dark Side. During this time, Cade and Talon drew close and w slept together, which may have been Kryat's plan (Cade and Talon are shown kissing, and in one scene Cade is shown getting out of bed while a naked Darth Talon is sleeping next to him). Interestingly, George Lucas' original plan for a sequel trilogy involved Talon corrupting Han and Leia's son to the Dark Side of the Force and Talon was nearly in the Disney trilogy and there is early concept art of her.

* Abeloth: A Lovecraftian female entity strong in both the Light and Dark side of the Force, and one of the most powerful beings in any Star Wars canon. She first lived as the Servant, a mortal woman who served the powerful Ones on an unknown jungle planet over a hundred thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. Over the course of her life, she became the Mother: she kept the peace between the Father's warring Son and Daughter and became a loving part of the family. But she was still mortal—she grew old while her ageless family lived on—and she feared she would lose her precious family. In a desperate attempt to hold onto the life she so loved, she drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge. Her actions corrupted her, transforming the Mother into the twisted, immortal entity known as Abeloth. Has numerous titles such as the Bringer of Chaos and Beloved Queen of the Stars (the latter self-proclaimed). Spent millennia trapped on a planet by the Ones, though she'd escape only to be re-imprisoned once more.

* Natasi Daala: Tarkins lover (which, in a surprising twist for the kinds of stories Star Wars tells, was actually reciprocated), the first woman in the Imperial Navy to hold the rank of Admiral and certified badass. Sets herself apart from other Imperial leaders by being much less of a self-interested power-hungry warmonger and instead being fiercely and unquestionably loyal to the Empire and its ideals, which in turn also made her reasonable enough to not want to rule the Imperial Remnants like Thrawn or others, despite being more than capable of it. Her relationship with Tarkin and her sizeable aptitude as a tactician earned her the position to guard the Ultra-Top-Secret R&D base at the center of the clusters of black holes known as the Maw, where she commanded a small flotilla of four Star Destroyers. After having been isolated from the Empire for over a decade after the Battle of Yavin, never wavering from her posting in spite of the suspisous lack of new directions coming in, she was alerted to the fall of the Emperor when Han Solo accidentally crashed right into her turf. Being mightily pissed off, she proceeded to wreck shit for the New Republic just because she could. Later, she allied with Pellaeon, killed a bunch of imperial remnant warlords and helped him fight the New Republic in a series of battles, but vanished without a trace after she ordered her ship to make an unguided hyperspace jump and was declared dead, but not without giving Pellaeon a code with which he could call her she the need arise.

== Villains ==
* Darth Sidious/Sheev "Can't Peeve the Sheev" Palpatine/The Emperor: A creepy old wrinkly dude who sits in his badass evil throne constantly screaming "[[Just as planned]]!" And occasionally frying fools with force lightning. About on par with [[Nagash]] in terms of plain assholery (not to mention being crazy powerful). Built a giant planet-destroying weapon, then built another, bigger one as a trap when the first one blew up. He is very clever, managing to scheme and outwit everyone in the prequel trilogy (not particularly hard, given that every good guy in the prequels was written to be a complete dunce), moving them all into place so he could take over the galaxy (although he still needed a big superweapon anyway to hold onto said power) in the original trilogy and even manages to make [[Just as Planned|everything move to his design]] in the sequel trilogy. Chews so much scenery they had to resort to computer-generated imagery. [[Meme|He is the Senate]]. His survival in the third Disney film was so baffling and unexplained that even the characters had to admit that it made no sense; then again, he was only brought back because Disney had no other choice, having killed off Snoke too soon and Kylo Ren not being a credible enough villain on his own.

* Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin: [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Tywin Lannister]] [[Indrick Boreale|IN SPHESS]] (although, given that Star Wars came first it might be more accurate to say Tywin is Tarkin in Grimdark Fantasy). Ruthless, ambitious, and cold, Grand Moff (Governor) Tarkin is the epitome of all that is Imperial in the SW Universe, and represents all the non-Sith elements that makes the Empire so evil. Started out as a career officier in the republican navy, became promoted by Palpatine after he put down early resistance movements against the Empire with ruthless effiency (including literally crushing protestors with a Star Destroyer). The Clone Wars also showed that he briefly served under Anakins command, where their philosophies showed be to quite compatible (Tarkins cold pragmatism combined with Anakins fierce determination to get the job done at any cost) and became the basis of a deep mutual respect for one another. Also happens to be one of the few characters outside of the force users to figure out that Vader was Anakin on his own. His idea of ruling pretty much comes down to [[Konrad Curze|"They can hate me as long as they fear me"]], which is symbolized ultimately by the Death Star. [[Derp|However, he uses the stick far too often and hardly uses the carrot]], and this policy backfires on him horribly when he destroys Alderaan, a Core World and one of the founders of the Old Republic- for instead of cowing the galaxy into submission, it, along with the Battle of Yavin which saw himself and his battle-station destroyed, [[Fail|galvanized half the galaxy into openly declaring for the Alliance]]. Before the Prequels rewrote the origins of the Imperial superweapon programs entirely, he pioneered the idea of weapons like the Death Star and worked hard to lobby political support from Palpatine and the military for their construction, and was the man in charge for a great number of military R&D developments until his death.

* Jango and Boba Fett: Father and son, though the son is actually an unaltered clone of his father. Badass, mostly-silent mercs who get shit done and come from a line of Spartan/Viking/Māori warriors in space called Mandalorians. Mandos are real hardasses who can go toe-to-toe with Jedi, and the Fetts were no exception. Sadly, both had very anticlimactic deaths, though Boba survived his in the EU, through the power of being too popular with the audience to kill permanently, later having his survival added to Disney Canon. With both of his former employers dead (Jabba and the Empire), and having just survived a fate worse than death and separation from his father's armor, Boba seems to have had time to reconsider his past decisions. He becomes an honorary Tusken after helping out a Tusken tribe that kept him alive, and after getting his armor back from Din Djaren, decides to take Jabba's old position as crimelord of Tatooine. Despite being Jabba's number one enforcer for years, he finds the job a lot harder than it looks, fending off Hutts and local gangs while trying to live up to his Mandalorian heritage and sense of honor. Both of them, ''especially'' Boba, are long-time fan-favorites, but there is also a very vocal and obstinate faction of haters who ''never'' shut up about Boba Fett's falling into the Sarlaac and his limited role in the movies proper. [[Rage|No matter how many times Boba's survival and numerous showings of badassery outside of the movies are pointed out, you can count on the Fett haters to stick to their guns as stubbornly as an Imperial Guardsman down to his last lasgun rounds.]] Sadly, the underperformance of Book of Boba Fett has ensured that the Fett-bashing is likely to continue, with Boba's softer characterization being one of the main points of contention.

* Jabba the Hutt: Obese slug who is a cross between a Mexican drug cartel kingpin and Mafia crime-boss. He runs his criminal enterprise from an old palace-monastery on Tatooine. A [[/d/]]eviant at heart, likes to fap to hot alien chicks dancing for him until they try to escape, then faps even harder when he feeds said chicks to Rancor. His power is such that the Republic, and later the Empire, had to negotiate with him to be able to have some influence in the Outer Rim, because even Sheev Palpatine knows that you don't do shit in the Outer Rim without dealing with the Hutts first. Gets strangled to death by a bikini-wearing Leia with her own chains, because symbolism. In short, he's one of Slaanesh's despite looking like one of Nurgle's.

* Thrawn: *Star Wars [[Creed]], if Creed was also a philosophical blue-skinned, red-eyed alien who loved art. Originally introduced in the pre-Disney EU/Legends, Thrawn was so popular Disney soon brought him back into the Disney canon (with a few tweaks to his story). Thrawn was renowned for being one of the few high-ranking aliens in the Galactic Empire and one of the Emperor's best subjects. He originally served as a member of the Chiss Ascendancy, but after being backstabbed (Disney canon retconned this into a ploy; he's still loyal to the Chiss, but pretended to be an exile so he can use the Empire as a buffer state) he signed up with the Galactic Empire and worked with Darth Vader - having met him back when the latter was still a Jedi - and even the Emperor himself. In his tactics, Thrawn notably employed his analysis based around understanding the philosophy and art of his enemies, and was a very capable commander. Always one step ahead of his opponents, Thrawn would frequently outplay both rebels and political rivals by anticipating their actions well in advance, sometimes even using their own plans against them. Literally the only things that can stop Thrawn are insubordination, and things he can't anticipate or control like The Force (and he even found an effective countermeasure for the Force in the form of some Force-resistant Sloths). Thrawn quickly became very well-liked with fans, to the point many considered him the best thing to come from Star Wars since the original trilogy.
** He also set up a vassal Empire called "the Empire of the Hand" to combat an alien menace encroaching on Chiss territory that was considered a threat to the Empire; pre-Disney this was the Yuuzhan Vong (AKA the Far Outsiders, AKA the space cenobites who killed Chewbacca by dropping a moon on him), post-Disney it's Vong-knockoffs called the Grysk. Pre-Disney Thrawn was killed by the betrayal of his Noghri bodyguard but he is alive and well post-Disney, and was last seen when Ezra used the Force and space whales to yeet Thrawn's ship into the unknown regions with all of them on board. His actual name is the near-unpronounceable Mitth'raw'nuruodo. With his philosophical nature and fetish for art collecting, he's probably a deliberate ripoff of M'Quve from ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', but good luck getting Zahn to admit it.
** Out of all the Empire's elite command, Thrawn stands out not just for being a tactical genius, but also for being a stone-cold pragmatist without falling into Tarkin's genocidal dickery or Vader's open disdain for his own men. He prefers to handle situations with subtlety and long-term success rather than with violence or cruelty for short-term gains (though he'll use the latter if he thinks it's required). Had he not been saddled with working for such an openly tyrannical dictatorship, he could easily have been a more heroic (if ruthless) military leader when faced with an actual threat to the galaxy at large.

* Gilad Pellaeon: The Watson to Thrawn's Sherlock, Pellaeon was a veteran Imperial Navy Officer in the Legends canon with a career stretching from the Clone Wars to the Vong War. Well liked in-universe and out for being a reasonable, fair-minded person with a sense of honor. Basically the complete opposite of guys like Tarkin. As such, he often gets the role of "Token Good Imperial", with the implication that Thrawn was setting Pellaeon up as his successor.

* Count Dooku: An elegant, charismatic, gentlemanly Sith lord and master fencer who had dreams of liberating the galaxy from Republic control, but didn't expect his partner in crime to be a backstabbing douchebag (seeing how he was a full-blown Sith Lord by the time of Attack of the Clones, he really should have seen that coming). Was born as a planetary noble, but gave it all up when he became a Jedi, only to get it all back when he gave up being a Jedi to lead the secessionist movement against the Senate's corruption. In spite of all his unethical activities, including assassination plots against virtuous Separatists while actively promoting war criminals in the CIS military, Dooku genuinely believed that the New Order was going to wipe away corruption in the galaxy, and that even the Jedi would have a place once enough of them saw things his way. Turns out, Palpatine had been playing him just like everyone else during the Clone Wars. Hates Anakin/Vader for not being a gentleman.
** In the novels he's also an alien-hating human supremacist who believes the Empire's purpose is to establish humanity as dominant in GFFA; He'd do well as a citizen of the Imperium if he just changed which Emperor he revered. While actually a very cool villain in the EU, because he was so underdeveloped and underused in the movies proper, most younger or more casual fans (IE: anyone who hates or doesn't care about the EU), tend to dismiss him as boring, making Dooku the "unfavorite" of Palpatine's three apprentices despite being played by Saruman himself, Sir Christopher Lee (RIP).

* Darth Maul: Horned Sith primarily concerned with bloodshed and fighting. He'd do well as a Khornate Champion. Had his legs cut off then was brought back more badass than ever, making him obsessed with getting revenge on Obi-Wan, as well as Sideous for casting him aside. He creates a massive criminal syndicate and even conquering the Mandalorians to create a small army that posed a serious threat to Sidious' plans; that is, until he was utterly stomped by Sidious himself, then gets killed in a duel with an elderly Obi-wan almost 18 years later. Wields a sick-looking double-bladed lightsaber, doesn't actually gets a single line in the first film dubbed in by a different actor, and played by famous martial arts master Ray Park. He was a silent badass in the movie but for some reason he was made very talkative in the animated series. The EU gave him a backstory as the scion of a species of Sith-aligned Force witches that ''The Clone Wars'' later made canon. The director of ''Solo'' picked him out of a hat to be the leader of the nefarious criminal gang Han gets stuck working with, which is not unreasonable given his previously established connections. Despite being a rage-filled maniac, the TV shows gave him a lot of depth, as he recognizes that there are bigger forces at play in the universe, and by the time of his death, puts his hope in the Skywalkers finally defeating Sidious.
** In the Legends canon, he was resurrected by some Dark Side cultists very shortly before A New Hope and sicced on Darth Vader so the writer could have an excuse to give the fans the fight they'd been clamoring for since 1999. Vader sent Maul back to the grave, but not easily. Then his brain was salvaged by some mad scientist and kept alive (somehow), with Maul interacting with the world in a limited way through holographic projections. Luke Skywalker pulled the plug on it though, letting Maul finally die for good.

* General Grievous: An alien cyborg even more fucked up than what Darth Vader would become (being a robot body that was a canister for his eyes, brain, and vital organs), Grievous was the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army during the Prequels and the Clone Wars TV series (both versions), and a sadistic Jedi hunter. His competence is usually portrayed two totally different ways; in the 2D animated TV series (created by the same guy who made [[Samurai Jack|Samurai Jack]]), and other EU material created prior to the second Clone Wars cartoon, he is portrayed as an awesome, unstoppable killing machine who roflstomps experienced Jedi Masters, and is only bested by Mace "The Ace" Windu. In the CGI series and the third film, he is an [[Stupid Evil|incompetent, froth-mouthed imbecile]] with a record of failure that even [[Abaddon]] would laugh at hysterically. (Sadly, the latter was what Lucas originally intended him to be - even if the former is way more awesome). By the end of the clone wars, Grievous and his atrocities against civilians became the public face of the Seperatist cause (while Dooku kept Grievous actions a secret from his allies); The death mask of Grievous became a potent symbol in Imperial propaganda in order to associate resistance to the Empire with the horrors of the Clone Wars - just as Palpatine intended. Ironically, in Legends the Empire gave copies of GG's mask to some of their secret weapons (Terror Troopers and Terror Biodroids namely).
** Actually has a somewhat-tragic past in Legends: he was a great and virtuous hero on his primitive planet, but Dooku arranged for the Separatists to shoot Grievous' shuttle down and harvested his shredded body to repurpose him into their general/assassin. Dooku also lobotomized Grievous in way that reduced him to a raging killer. When Grievous recovered, Dooku then pinned blame for the shuttle crash on the Jedi and Republic, turning him into the OG raging murder-machine we all know and love. In all, a considerably more grimdark past than his other versions.
** In the second Clone Wars cartoon, his backstory is kept vague, but Grievous claims he deliberately chose to become a cyborg in order to become better at killing Jedi (and actually becoming extremely good at it, at least in the first CW, where he cuts down four Jedi with ease). Hated being mistaken for a droid, being compared to a droid and all Jedi - especially Obi-Wan Kenobi. His competence ping-pongs around even more violently than before: Grievous [[What|loses to a barely-trained Padawan]] and [[EPIC FAIL|the fucking Gungan army under Jar Jar and Captain Tarpals]] in a couple episodes while [[grimdark|committing on-screen genocide against the Nightsisters]] and going toe-to-toe with Jedi Masters in others. He was voiced by one of the folks at Lucasarts, who submitted his audition under an alias to make sure he'd get a fair shake. Along with Anthony Daniels, he reprises his role more often than most other Star Wars movie actors.

* Clone Troopers: The predecessors of the Storm Troopers. These soldiers were vat clones of Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett cloned in large numbers, trained from birth in combat and clad in environmentally sealed suits of their famous gleaming white full body armor. Despite being genetically engineered to be perfectly obedient automatons, the Jedi they served under encouraged their individuality, and they began giving themselves names and unique tattoos and haircuts. But when Palpatine activated their inhibitor chips via Order 66, the clones' autonomy was completely overridden (the effect appears to only last a couple weeks, but it is extremely intense) and they executed the Jedi without hesitation. The original clonetroopers served the Republic against the Separatists, and were turned into the stormtroopers after Palpatine's total take-over. A very small minority of clones had their chips successfully removed and fought against the Empire, especially those who formed close bonds with their Jedi generals or local freedom fighters, but the vast majority of the Clones were more loyal to Palpatine than to the Republic itself, and didn't need much convincing to stick with the Empire, with or without inhibitor chips.
** Various sources (even within legends) disagree on the exact reasons why Palpatine replaced the clone troopers: the rebels blew up the gene-banks, the Kaminoans rebelled and created their own clone army, the clones were too susceptible to targeted genome-based biological weapons, or that the clones served their purpose and were too expensive to maintain, especially with their accelerated aging. Remaining Clones either were retired, served as instructors and in the case of the Commandos and the 501st Legion (having proven their loyalty and competence over and over, including at the Kamino uprising), kept serving in pure Fett-template units as Vader's personal enforces. Even they were retired after Hoth due to being too old.
** In Disney Canon, the clones were expendable once they served their purpose of killing the Jedi; removing them from the equation freed up resources for the Death Star and reduced the Empire's dependency on Kamino's cloning facilities. However, enough clones started to mutiny or desert that the Imperial military accelerated their replacement with recruited Stormtroopers.
** The old EU canon had a different take on why the Troopers had little trouble with executing Order 66; where the order was merely one of many (151 in total) contingency plans that would be enacted by either the chancellor or the senate if the existence of the Republic or the functioning of its governing institutions were vitally threatened (the irony was certainly not lost on Palpatine) and were just part of the normal training program of the soldiers. Order 66 was buried under plans for events like the Senate being blown up, the Chancellor becoming incapacitated, Coruscant being destroyed etc. What made Order 66 so insidious was that the Jedi thought it was a protection against renegade force users (not unheard of with Dooku and Ventress running around) and that Palpatine masterminded his scheme in such a way that the legal prerequisites of Order 66 - Jedi staging a coup against the Chancellor or the Senate, which technically was what happened when Windu attacked Palpatine (even more explicitly so in the Novelization, where Windu planned to install the Jedi council as an interim government until the Senate would elect a new chancellor) - was fulfilled with no one there to question it. Combined with the Troopers inherent psychological conditioning and more than one Commander holding serious grudges against many Jedi ensured that the Order would not be questioned even by those Clones who were fond of their generals.
* Stormtroopers: The soldiers of the Galactic Empire. Unlike the Clone Troopers, the vast majority of the stormtroopers are enlisted, typically from the underclasses of war-torn and impoverished worlds. Contrary to popular belief, Stormtroopers are ''not'' the rank and file in the Imperial army, and are more skilled and fanatical, akin to Marines. There's ''technically'' an Imperial Army apart from the Stormtroopers, though you'd be forgiven for having never heard of them, because most writers of the fanchise tend to forget they exist too. Either way, Stormtroopers are a step down in quality from Clone Troopers (including their armor, with a surviving clone trooper making a point of how awful it is compared to his old wargear), but by this point the Empire didn't really need that many high-quality soldiers when it was more concerned with keeping civilian populations under its thumb. Since the First Order doesn't have a good dental plan to bring in recruits, they instead resort to [[Schola Progenium|kidnapping or buying children and raising them as soldiers]] to fill their mook quota. They are unwaveringly loyal and obedient to the Empire, ruthless and brutally efficient foes in combat, and incredibly precise shots with their state-of-the-art weapons. Naturally, these qualities all go out the window when they encounter the protagonists, but that's life when you're wearing a [[helmet]].
**There are some explanations as to the inconsistency in Stormtrooper quality; one is that the Imperial army is so vast that quality differences are inevitable. Stormtroopers that are an actual threat will defend the core worlds or accompany the more "serious" units, such as the 501st legion. Lesser recruits get sent to rim world backwaters or meat grinder conflicts, making them easier prey for the odd band of rebels or pirates. The rebels learned the hard way, though, that trying to fight a conventional way against the former was just asking for trouble (the Battle of Hoth being the biggest defeat in their history). That being said, by the Original Trilogy, the Empire hadn't fought a war even close to the scale of the Clone Wars before the Rebellion, so there were a lot of inexperienced troopers as well.
** Amusingly enough, Legends indicates that many of the Clone Troopers that actually stayed with the Galactic Empire ''hated'' the Stormtroopers, considering them a pack of incompetent idiots with no sense of their surroundings and terrible aim (which can be taken as a canonization of their memetically awful competence). One source even had Commander Cody (yes, that guy from Revenge of the Sith and the Clone Wars CGI cartoon) stating that he'd sacrifice an entire platoon of Stormtroopers for one real Clone Trooper and noting that Fett would probably kill the lot of them himself.
** Lastly, these boys comes in literally ''all'' the flavors. Variants based on environments (Snow, Desert, Shore and many more) and roles (Heavy, Incinerator, Commando and the elite Death Troopers), ensuring that the Star Wars brand always has a new bunch of cool soldier dudes to make toys off of. When things has to get really dangerous for the heroes, the elite variants are brought in, like the Storm Commandoes, Death Troopers and (in Episode IX), Sith Troopers (no relation to the troops of the same name used by the Sith Empires pre-dating Palpatine).

* Inquisitorius: Darksiders trained by the Empire. While the Rule of Two prevents additional Sith Lords, it says nothing about other force users under their command, especially if they're not given full access to Sith lore and thus can't properly challenge Sith Lords on equal footing. It is not known if Darth Bane expected the Imperial Inquisition or if he would have approved of the Emperor bending the Rule of Two such. Their job is primarily to ferret out the remaining Jedi and other force users, but they are also used for all manner of wet work and internal affairs. Since their first mention ''way'' back in ''The Star Wars Sourcebook'', they have served as enemy force users that while still dire threats could still ''conceivably'' be defeated by the player characters. The source of many prominent antagonists in the expanded universe, including Jerec.

== Disney Villains ==

* The Inquisitors: The Disney version of the above, here reimagined as fallen Jedi who have taken up hunting their fellows for the Empire and wielding spinning double-bladed lightsabers while doing so. Actually rock a pretty boss set of designs overall, but sadly most of them are underdeveloped in both personality and backstory, with the exception of the Grand Inquisitor and Fallen Order's Second Sister. They have a "brother/sister" naming system. By the Original Trilogy, the Inquisitorious appears to have been either disbanded or severely reduced in size, as there were hardly any surviving Jedi left to hunt down, and in the end Vader took over much of their role, especially since they were not full Sith they were much weaker in power potential.
** Grand Inquisitor: Head honcho. An Pau'an who used to be a Jedi Temple Guard before going bad. Voiced by Lucius Malfoy / Admiral Zhao and similarly evil. By far the coolest (and most competent), villain in Season 1 of Rebels, so of course they killed him off. Also shows up in live action in Kenobi where Third Sister stabs him, but his showing up in Rebels later suggests he walked it off, which was confirmed outright in Episode 5 of the Kenobi mini-series. His spirit is cursed by Vader to continue serving him in death as a trap for Jedi, and was only defeated by Luke Skywalker during his search for a replacement lightsaber after ''The Empire Strikes Back.''
** Second Sister: Main villain of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and as mentioned above, easily one of the more well-developed of the bunch besides GI himself. Once the Padawan of Cal's mentor in the game Cere, and hates her something fierce for feeling abandoned by her, leading to the Empire capturing her and giving her the [[Inquisition]] / [[Dark Eldar]] treatment. Just when it seems like she ''might'' make amends with Cere, Vader, unhappy that Second Sister failed him, cuts her down on the spot.
** Third Sister: Another one of the better fleshed-out Inquisitors. One of the main villains of Kenobi series on Disney+, hunting him in the hope that Vader will give her a promotion in exchange...or so it seems. Turns out she actually just wants a chance to get close to Vader so she can kill him for murdering her fellow Younglings during Knightfall. But of course, Vader's way out of her weight-class. Can pose and parkour like a superhero, and has a [[Angron|bad temper even by Dark Side standards.]] Character and actress got crap from the [[/pol/|usual offenders]]. The original script gave her less confusing motivations as she didn't know that Anakin was Vader and she blamed him and the Jedi Council for causing Order 66, so she was a more willing (if misled) participant in all the atrocities she'd commit as an Inquisitor.
** Fourth Sister: Another Inquisitor introduced in Kenobi. Looks a bit like a Twi'lek but isn't listed as one. Not much else to say.
** Fifth Brother: One of the more prominent male Inquisitors besides the GI (enough so that he shows up in Rebels and the Obi-Wan mini-series). Like Third Sister he covets the Grand Inquisitor's position, and the two dislike each-other. Confirmed by the creators as being blind in Rebels, but able to see through the Force. Killed off in Rebels Season 2 when Maul wipes the floor with him.
** Sixth Brother: Minor Inquisitor who's main moment in the sun is fighting Ahsoka and getting killed by her.
** Seventh Sister: One of the two main Inquisitors in Rebels besides Fifth Brother. Voiced by Sarah "Buffy" Michelle Gellar, who is also the wife of Kanan's voice actor, which the writers reference by giving Seventh Sister some flirting. Is a Mirialan like Barriss, but it has yet to be confirmed that the two are one and the same even though it would make sense. Killed off in Rebels Season 2, when Darth Maul takes a page out of Kenobi's book (oh the irony) and cuts her in half.
** Eighth Brother: Throwaway Inquisitor who also dies the most embarrassing death of any Inquisitor to date (his helicopter lightsaber malfunctions and he falls to his death). Cool helmet though.
** Ninth Sister: The "muscle" of the bunch, being big, brutish, and filled with rage. Though beaten by Cal Kestis on Kashyyyk, her death hasn't been confirmed, so we might see more of her.
** Tenth Brother: So far exclusive to the comics, he was once a Jedi in the Clone Wars who tried to off Mace Windu, which went as well as you'd expect. Since Jedi tend to frown on executing people, they sent him into exile...which allowed the Empire to pick him up and turn him into an Inquisitor. Whoops. He eventually bit it when a Jedi manipulated several [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Purge_Trooper Purge Troopers] into Order 66-ing his ass, in a moment of positively delicious irony.

* Agent Kallus: Continuing Star Wars' proud tradition of unsubtly named characters, Kallus is Rebel's equivalent to Asajj Ventress, being the semi-competent, semi-bumbling secondary villain who gets a redemption arc. Was involved in a massacre of Zeb's people, but had not actually ordered said massacre and feels kind of bad about how it all went down. Later joins the Rebel Alliance after Thrawn outs him as a spy. Rocks some Wolverine-esque sideburns, but not the weird haircut to go with it. Art crew considered making him a Chiss based on the concept art, but it seems they decided there's only room for one in the Empire's hierarchy.

* Kylo Ren: A Dark Jedi (not Sith, they technically went extinct with Vader, Sheev, Dooku, and Maul) who is actually the son of Han and Leia, Ben Solo, which the Internet absolutely refused to shut up about after it was leaked. He's mostly based on Jacen Solo from the EU (a son of Han and Leia who became a Jedi then fell to the Dark Side and became a Sith) with his new name likely taken from EU character Kybo Ren and having the same real name as Luke's son from the EU with Mara, Ben Skywalker. He idolizes his grandfather, Darth Vader and wears a black suit and a mask to show this. He wields a unique crossguard lightsaber. People thought he would be a badass after seeing the trailers but after seeing the movie, he turned out to be a half-naked pussy looking like a gay Turkish oil wrestler who very often gets temper tantrums and gets his ass kicked by a teenage girl (though to be fair, if he had been a complete badass, everyone would’ve just complained that he was a rehash of Vader. So, you know, rock and a hard place. Also he only had his ass beat since he was already shot by a bowcaster and stabbed with a lightsaber, so fighting even in spite of that is pretty badass). Kylo's character became significantly more fleshed out in TLJ, ironically making him one of the only characters to have actual development in the whole movie. Between that and Kylo's actor Adam Driver being really bro-tier about the whole situation (he even appeared in a skit as Kylo which also included poking fun at Kylo's emo traits), Kylo has managed to win over many fans, with some citing him as probably the most interesting character in the Sequels. Serves Palpatine before turning on him with Rey and gives his life to heal her, scoring a kiss with her before he dies redeemed as Ben, ala Vader dying as Anakin. This relationship between Rey and Kylo ''sharply'' divided the fanbase and created some extreme reactions. The worst cases were some extremely rabid Kylo/Rey shippers who insisted Adam and Daisy Ridley - Rey's actor - become a real-life couple (despite both being in separate relationships), to the point that they '''harassed Daisy Ridley's boyfriend on social media, harassed Adam Driver along with his family (including stalking them and sending messages hoping for the deaths of Adam's wife and/or newborn son) and made death threats against JJ Abrams''' (far surpassing practically any other Star Wars backlash, even the death threats thrown at Ahmed Best - Jar Jar's VA - and the purported backlash against Kelly Marie Tran - Rose Tico's actress); it cannot even be “justified” (and justified is used ''very'' loosely here) as the ravings of butthurt ultra-fanboys, this crossed the line into full-on bullshit. To repeat, this one was Skub incarnate. Most fans either adore the Reylo ship or absolutely hate it with a passion.

* Snoke: Supreme Leader of the First Order who speaks to his underlings through a massive hologram. <s> Very little is known about him at the moment. Though many fan theories say that he is Darth Plagueis, the old master of Palpatine who was assumed dead (everyone assumes every new Darksider is him, though, so grain of salt) the powers that be have repeatedly denied the theory (though it's admittedly a better guess than suggesting that Snoke is [[What|Mace Windu, Boba Fett, or a clone of Darth Vader]], which we would like to stress are [[Derp|actual fan theories]])...unfortunately, we will have to wait for an inevitable comic book or novel to explain it, since he [[RAGE|gets killed like a chump by his own servant, Kylo Ren.]] It is possible he may return given that the ring on his finger has inscriptions that translate to various rephrasing of “survive death” that is carved from the stone of Darth Vader's lava castle (yes, you read that right), but that may actually be a nod to Palpatine’s EU resurrections.</s> Turns out to be a genetically engineered pawn of Palpatine's, like he was literally born looking as shriveled and injured as he did and had some kind of fabricated backstory like an organic Blade Runner Replicant, whose sole purpose was to babysit the First Order and get Ren to fall to the Dark Side. So in sum, a dime-store Palpatine knock-off. Of course, the explanation we got in Episode IX was still pretty weak so it took Lucasfilm years after the fact to finally give him a proper story; Snoke was a failed Palpatine clone who was still pretty strong in the Force, so Palpatine used him as his proxy in getting the Imperial Remnant back under his control and to help him find Rey, his only viable descendant. Snoke didn't like being Palpatine's puppet so he engineered a plot to have Ren kill Rey and the two of them would overthrow Palpatine. This failed however, as Palpatine knew that Ren would turn on Snoke and that he'd get his hands on Rey eventually. ''Would've been nice if they planned that from the start...''

* General Hux: The First Order's Tarkin equivalent and a moustache-less ginger Hitler in space. Delivers a pretty cool speech, but can't fight to save his life. The backstory for Hux is his father was an Imperial hero, and Hux wants to be the First Order version of his old man and lead the FO to a final victory. Hux openly dislikes Kylo Ren and has frustration with the Force-users borders on meta at times. Spends most of TLJ as a foil to the edgier and more toyetic bad guys, but he seems to be the only one to have noticed how impractical the Empire/FO's fuckhuge weaponry can be when you're fighting something smaller than a planet and have lost the element of surprise. Becomes Kylo Ren's comic relief ginger prison bitch at the end of TLJ, although he has an interesting scene where he was about to finish off the unconscious Kylo until he woke up. Sent some very simple info to the Resistance in Rise Of Skywalker that set off the movie plot (mostly by making them take the info they already had seriously) and later helped the main characters escape, and was immediately shot for his efforts. He is never mentioned again.

* Captain Phasma: A First Order operative in charge of instructing the new Stormtrooper legions, Phasma serves as the Boba Fett of TFA - which is to say that she does nothing of note other than stand around and look cool until she figuratively and literally gets thrown into the trash in Force Awakens. Lucasfilm have apologized for overadvertising the character in the lead-up to the film since she was just supposed to look cool and do nothing like Boba Fett originally did but the huge presence of her in the marketing implied she was going to be a major character (remember, Jar Jar and generic Battle Droids had far more merch than Maul during the release of Episode 1) and have promised to give Phasma an actual role and backstory for TLJ that will play into Finn's story. (This turned out to be bullshit due to the fucked-up nature of TLJ's production, but the reshoots managed to give her a good showing anyway.) Her backstory was released in a novel where she was a tribal on a planet the Empire stripped into the stone age, who backstabbed her tribe for a stronger tribe, backstabbed her second tribe and brother to rescue a stranded Imperial officer and join the Empire, backstabbed her mentor to become the supreme commander of the Stormtrooper Corps in the First Order, then in the comic series she was shown to have survived the trash compactor when a Resistance bomb blew it up and she entirely disregarded everything (including saving Starkiller Base or Kylo Ren) to backstab and frame one of her subordinates for lowering the shields then promptly hunted him down to “bring him to justice”. So [[Skaven|she’s a spear-wielding backstabber extraordinaire.]] At the present she's got a nasty scar on one eye where her hyper durable helmet was busted in, and fell into a fire on a shattered starship to her confirmed demise. Worth mentioning that even many folks who liked TLJ considered this an unsatisfying send-off.

* Commander Pyre: The gold and male version of Phasma, and often the closest thing [[Fail|Star Wars: Resistance]] had to a big bad due to being in charge of most of the First Order's operations in the show. More active than Phasma usually is, but still not likely to become anybody's favorite new villain. And then he died, and no-one fucking cared.

* The Knights of Ren: The Dark Side warriors who Kylo is the leader of, each one having their own unique look and signature weapon. Also probably one of the biggest bits of [[Fail]] in the Sequel Trilogy on account of being teased in the first movie but completely absent in the second, and saying and doing absolutely nothing in the third before being unceremoniously killed off. Seriously, if you're one of those people who grouses about Boba Fett not having enough to do in the Original Trilogy, the way these guys are handled will drive you crazy. To put it into perspective, a ''non-canon LEGO short-film on Disney+'' gave these guys more characterization than the actual Sequel Trilogy did.

== Old Republic Characters ==

* Revan: Simply put, you'd be hard-pressed to find an EU character with a bigger following than Revan and with good reason: the protagonist of one of the most beloved Star Wars games of all time, ultra-powerful, awesome design, red and purple lightsabers...he's got it all. This is reflected in how he's one of the only EU characters to get an official LEGO minifigure, action figures, a Gentle Giant bust, etc. For backstory, Revan was a bit similar to Anakin in that he was a talented but headstrong young Jedi who during the course of a war (in this case the Mandalorian Wars), got corrupted and fell to the Dark Side. From there became a Sith Lord who waged war on the very Republic he had led/saved before being betrayed by his cowardly dipshit apprentice Malak. One quick round of mind-wiping later, and the Jedi and Republic had themselves <s>a new tool and patsy</s> an important new ally for stopping Darth Malak, who had quickly proven to be a much worse Sith Lord than Revan had been (go figure). That's where the player comes in. After defeating Darth Malak, and remembering his true identity along the way, Revan goes off to fight an "I can't believe it's not Palpatine" Sith Emperor dwelling in the Unknown Regions and disappears. Later returns in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but how the game and its expansions portray him and end his story were divisive to put it mildly. Which is why we're going to skip right over that minefield in favor of giving a neutral summary of it in the timeline section.
**Interestingly, the kind of Sith Lord he was differs somewhat depending on the source. The first game actually depicts his Sith Lord phase as being fairly par for the course: wanting power for power's sake, social darwinist, etc. But the sequel and other sources have instead cast him as more of a [[The God-Emperor of Mankind|visionary who was trying to save/prepare the Galaxy for approaching horrors but also felt that only he had what it took to lead the effort, hence his war of conquest.]]

* Jedi Exile / Meetra Surik: The main character of the second game, and nowhere near as popular as Revan despite the fact that the fondness for her game is at least as strong among older EU fans. Started out as a general under Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. During the big battle of Malachor V, she activated a doomsday weapon that won the battle, but killed so many people and fucked up the planet so hard, that Meetra was shell-shocked and became cut off from the Force. Oh, and kicked out of the Jedi Order. The second game begins with her slowly rediscovering her connection to the Force under the guidance of a mysterious woman who totally won't later turn out to be a villain with an agenda. Her adventures take her to places recovering from the recent Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, and she gets to team up with some of the few surviving Jedi Masters until her mentor kills them near the end of the game. After putting the old woman out of her misery and also stopping the other Sith Lords who have been treating the Galaxy like their personal murder-playground, she follows Revan's lead and disappears into the Unknown Regions. Her anti-climactic death in a subsequent novel drew all sorts of white-hot [[Rage]].

* Carth Onasi: Quite possibly the skubbiest character to ever come out of a Star Wars video game. A Mandalorian Wars veteran and your first permanent party member in the first game, his betrayal by his old mentor and then said mentor's bombing his homeworld and killing his wife has left him with major trust issues. But he's also the romance option if you're playing female, and so many a fan ships him with the female Revan even as others find him whiny and annoying. In a case of history repeating itself, his voice actor would go on to voice ''another'' party member in a Bioware game set in space who is a polarizing romance option for female players. Also shows up in the second game as an NPC, so long as you don't decide that Revan was evil in the first game. "If you find Revan, tell him... tell him that Admiral Onasi is carrying on his duty".

* Bastila Shan: A Jedi with a talent for Battle Meditation (a Force power that basically makes the user's side significantly better in a given fight), Bastila is the one who faced down Revan when Malak betrayed him. Outwardly haughty, holier-than-thou, and a complete stickler for doing things the by-the-book Jedi way. Actually very insecure, and one of many examples of Bioware's fondness for the defrosting ice queen archetype. The romance option for male Revans (and by extension his canonical love interest), she gets captured by Malak later in the game and tortured into becoming his new apprentice, at which point the player has to decide to join her or not. Canonically, Revan doesn't join her but instead gets her to rejoin the Jedi. The two of them get hitched in the period after the game, but then duty calls so Revan has to abandon his wife, much to the unhappiness of many a KotoR fan. Her love story with Revan is roasted by HK-47 in the second game, while Bastila herself makes a return appearance in a minor role.
** Satele Shan: Bastila and Revan's descendant, and having the same voice actress and preference for double-bladed lightsabers as the former, and a similar talent for Battle Meditation too. Appears in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Also had a kid with a Republic soldier as it turns out and later formed an unlikely friendship with the Sith Lord Darth Marr. Said kid was a Republic Spy and was one of the best bros in SWTOR.

* HK-47: In running for the most popular character to come out of KotoR other than Revan himself, HK is basically a blend of Bender and Deadpool, being a sociopathic-but-funny anti-hero who enjoys violence, advocates for violence as a solution to all problems, and calls everyone meatbags (except his beloved master of course). Has a strange verbal quirk where he says the kind of speech he's going to say before saying it (IE: if asking a question, he'll first say "query"). So popular that he later showed up in an expansion for Star Wars: Galaxies despite that game taking place ''thousands of years after his debut appearance''. Got some would-be-replacements in the second KotoR game in the HK-50s, and hates their guts. SWTOR would also give him a successor in HK-55, as well as yet another appearance from the original...before he gets scrapped. As already stated, he shows up on Mustafar later, so he must have gotten rebuilt at some point.

* Canderous Ordo: A Mandalorian veteran of the war who has become a cynical and ruthless mercenary before deciding to join Revan. Actually very pro-Revan, respecting him for being a good warrior and tactician and actually being able to kick his people's teeth in. Becomes the new Mandalore in the second game. So in short, basically the Boba Fett of his day, and accordingly is one of the more popular characters. Unfortunately got his legacy tarnished when the Mandalorians joined the Reformed Sith Empire in the Great Galactic War, though they dodged the karma backlash until thousands of years later in the Great Peace of the Republic.

* Mission and Zaalbar: A young twi'lek and her Wookie buddy, they're ostensibly the game's Han and Chewbacca, but are actually very different. Mission is the spunky-but-somewhat naive female with a can-do attitude who manages to be interesting and not insufferable despite what that description might suggest, and Zaalbar is a depressed exile who's brother is a sociopath that's willing to sell his own people into slavery for profit. Sadly nowhere to be found in the game's sequel.

* Juhani: A Cathar (no, not the Medieval Christian sect condemned as heretical), Jedi who is introduced as a failed Padawan who's in a sufficiently bad mood that she's caused all of the planet's local Kath Hounds (basically lion-dogs) to get extra-aggressive. Dealing with her is part of the player's Jedi Trials needed to pass to become a Padawan, and assuming the player doesn't off her, she later joins as a party member. Probably most famous/remembered for being one of the first LGBT Star Wars characters, and her girlfriend will fall to the Dark Side if you did kill her. Alternatively, female players can hook up with her also.

* Jolee Bindo: A cranky old man living in Kashyyyk's shadowlands who is actually a Jedi living in self-imposed exile. Something of an "unorthodox" Jedi, he adheres firmly to the good parts of the Jedi belief system while relentlessly roasting the bad and dumb parts, such as the Jedi's general aversion to love and families. This, coupled with his often hilarious "back in my day" cranky old man lines, have made him another one of the more popular characters to come out of the first game.

* Atton Rand: He is as Atton as Atton will ever be! Initially appears to be a Han Solo clone, but it turns out this is a front to hide something much darker: he's a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars who, pissed that the Jedi sat the war out but had no problem fighting him and his fellows when Revan became a Sith Lord, reinvented himself as basically a serial killer of Jedi. Eventually, his conscience caught up with him and he struck out on his own. As the ship's pilot and a romance option for female players, he takes over some of the roles of Carth Onasi, but is a lot less skubby, his overall reputation with the fans being a lot stronger (everyone likes a bad boy). Meetra redeemed him into being a Jedi.

* Bao-Dur: Zabrak Carth, being like him a staunchly pro-Republic goody-two-shoes who hates Mandalorians and gets into arguments with Canderous. Is missing an arm but replaces it with an energy field that connects the metal hand to the shoulder, which is different from most Star Wars characters who lose limbs. Also has a pet remote and helps the player character get their first lightsaber. Notably, he is one of the only characters who's futures Kreia isn't able to glimpse into at the end of the game, suggesting the writers either had specific plans in mind for Bao-Dur in an unmade sequel...or that they just got lazy. Meetra also made him a Jedi.

* Brianna the Handmaiden: Only joins if the player is male (and yes, is a potential love interest option). Due to being a handmaiden to the most insufferably puritanical Jedi Master ever, she's been fairly indoctrinated to have an extremely black and white view of what is and is not acceptable behavior for a Jedi. Dislikes Atton (and vice-versa), and may be Kreia's daughter. Member of the Echani, a species that look a lot like humans but white haired and apparently all martial artists. Don't let her slender figure fool you; she's one of the best melee fighters in the second game, especially if made into a Jedi or Dark Jedi. Giving her a double saber is just mean, and is definitely the best leader on the Dxun team for the party splitting on Onderon and Dxun mission (though Atton's skill-set and Visas' power make them good alternatives to the point that the game guide recommends picking one of them, Mira and Bao-Dur are also good picks as team members to stealth through the mines and slice respectively). Canonically traveled with Meetra even though she was female and became a Jedi.

* Mira: One of the many, many tough, sarcastic redheads in Star Wars' old EU, she's a bounty hunter who, unusually for a character in Star Wars, is actually reluctant to kill people and prefers to avoid doing so. She also has a wrist-launcher that shoots out various projectiles. Has history with the Mandalorians but doesn't really identify as one. One of the more popular characters to come out of the sequel, but you won't get her if you're Dark Side unless you start off Neutral or Light Side on Nar Shadda and ''then'' turn into a dick after getting her on your team. As many people prefer Mira, this is exactly what some Dark Side players do. Meetra made her a Jedi.

* Hanharr: The Anti-Chewbacca, being a bloodthirsty, vicious psychopath who was doing the whole "evil Wookie bounty hunter" thing long before Black Krrsantan was ever a thing. Joins the player if the latter is Dark Side and fittingly for a Wookie who would have done well in Khorne's service, is a melee powerhouse. Actually very depressed to the point of secretly wanting to die, which is part of why he hates Mira for not killing him/constantly hounds her and attacks her; he's always hoping she'll put him out of his misery. Also [[Grimdark|killed his own tribe to keep them from being enslaved due to deciding they were better off dead.]] Mira put him down on Malachor V after she realized that his suicidal state made it impossible to help him.

* Mical the Disciple: The Handmaiden's counterpart, joining only if you're playing female (canonically he accompanied the female Meetra). A very nice and pleasant guy and one of the least morally compromised of the sequel's party members. And this in turn is exactly why some people find him boring relative to the more flawed Atton, though he's also often compared unfavorably to the Handmaiden as well due to the feeling that she's more useful in fights. Secretly a spy for the Republic, though most would say its not much of a secret. And guess what, Meetra made him a Jedi.

* Visas Marr: A Miraluka who has been Darth Nihilus' "apprentice" (by which we mean slave) for an untold period. Unsurprisingly leaps at the chance to ditch him for the player character the first chance she gets. A romance option for male players, to the absolute fury of the Handmaiden (to the point that she might stop speaking to you depending on how things go). Can be talked into killing herself to hurt her ex-boss in the final battle with him, but because Visas is cool hardly anyone takes this option even if playing Dark Side. Gets bonus points for being voiced by Kelly Hu. Canonically Meetra redeemed her to the light side (though it's not a redemption so much as a "literally anything is better than her current situation").

* GO-TO: No, no. Not [[C.S. Goto|he-who-must-not-be-named and who is universally despised and shunned]]. This is a different GO-TO, who is a droid that runs the Galaxy's largest crime syndicate. Looks exactly like the torture droids used by the Empire despite existing well before the Empire's time. An interesting character, but as he's considered pretty useless in a fight, most players hardly ever use him. Canonically blown up on Malachor after he got stuck with Bao-Dur's remote during the final mission of KOTOR 2.

* Vrook Lamar: Where Jolee Bindo is a funny cranky old man Jedi Master, Vrook is the opposite. Generally fitting the negative perception of "humorless jerk Jedi Master who preaches and lectures a lot", Vrook is one of the few characters to appear in both games. Dark Side players will kill him, and for all his grumbling, this old geezer has the skills and power to back it up. Doesn't save him from Darth Traya in the canonical Light Side path even with Master Zez-Kai Ell and Master Kavar being with him though.

* SWTOR PCs: A Jedi Knight, a Jedi Consular, a Republic Special Forces Soldier, a Smuggler, a Sith Warrior, a slave-turned Sith Inquisitor, a Bounty Hunter who can join the Mandolorians, and a Sith-Imperial Spy. The Eternal Empire/Eternal Throne expansions are basically a continuation of the Jedi Knight's story, though the Outlander's actual background is purposefully kept vague and the story can be tackled with any class. With that said, the story makes a heck of a lot more sense if its one of the Force-Sensitive classes (as otherwise you have silly things like Arcann losing to a Smuggler or a Bounty Hunter). Since their names are player-generated, each one has a title that the fanbase knows them by. Specifically:
** Jedi Knight: The Hero of Tython
** Jedi Consular: The Barsen'thor
** Republic Trooper: Havoc Squad Commander (or by the callsign, Meteor)
** Smuggler: Voidhound
** Sith Warrior: Emperor's Wrath
** Sith Inquisitor: Lord Kallig (actually a surname, the Inquisitor was a slave unaware of the lineage from Sith Lord Aloysius Kallig, later changes to a Darth title that differs depending on your alignment, Imperious for Light Side, Occlus for Neutral and Nox for Dark Side)
** Imperial Agent: Cipher-9
** Bounty Hunter: The Great Hunt Champion
** The one who went on to become the expansion PC is referred to as the Outlander, later the Alliance Commander and after the anti-Zakuul coalition dissolves simply as Commander. For the purposes of default timeline, we will assume that the Hero of Tython is the PC as that makes the most sense story-wise.

== Old Republic Villains==

* Darth Malak: Revan's former apprentice who turned on him because that's what Sith Lords do, and because Malak is a jerk. Unfortunately for the Republic and Jedi, it soon became clear that if Revan was like the Emperor of Man or Vlad von Carstein, Malak was closer to Abbadon or Konrad von Carstein, being that ever-disastrous mix of vicious and stupid. Where people often talk about Revan as a [[Tzeentch|tactical and strategic genius with a real talent for scheming and planning out victories]], Malak always goes for the [[Stupid Evil|bluntest, most brutally violent solution]]. Can't find a single person on a planet? [[Exterminatus|Bomb it]]. Wants to get Jedi on his side? [[Inquisition|Torture them until they join]]. And so on. As a consequence of pissing his master off at least once before betraying him, he's missing his lower jaw, hence the machinery where it used to be. We get a look at him without it on towards the end of the game, and its appropriately grisly.

* Darth Bandon: Malak's utterly generic and forgettable apprentice, who is basically the writers thinking "what if we did Darth Maul, but without the [[Awesome]]?Just about the only memorable thing he does is kill the Republic Soldier Trask Ulgo who helped amnesiac Revan escape the ship crash in the beginning of the game. Fittingly, he's disposed of by Revan and then basically never brought up again. Like Calo Nord, he leaves behind an outfit that doesn't look anything like his actual outfit.

* Darth Traya / Kreia: The main villain of the sequel, though she initially appears as an enigmatic mentor to the Jedi Exile. Generally remembered for her unique philosophy that is often highly critical of both the Jedi and the Sith, and is later revealed to hate the Force itself due to viewing it as a malicious deity (the lead writer has actually admitted that he basically used Kreia as a mouthpiece for things about the Force as a concept that bothered him). This unique perspective on the Force and her regular challenges of the player's actions, motives, and beliefs, has led to Kreia becoming a favorite among fans and critics alike. That her view of the Force is factually incorrect does little to change this (though to be fair, she doesn't have the benefit of knowing everything the audience knows). Was also Revan's Jedi Master as part of her backstory, and clearly still has fond memories of him, as he's one of the only characters she speaks about in an even remotely flattering way. There's also evidence to suggest that she might be the mother of one of the other party members, the Handmaiden, but this has never been conclusively confirmed.

* Darth Nihilus: Another fan-favorite to come out of the KotoR games, Nihilus is the poster-boy for the sequel despite not being the main villain and in fact having the least characterization of the three main Sith Lords. But, he's got the coolest look and has the highest intimidation factor, so he became a huge hit with fans anyway. Voice sounds vaguely like a toilet getting backed up and/or audio from Minecraft, but its much creepier/cooler than that sounds. Specializes in Drain Life, a Force power where the user sucks the life of a person or persons and gives it to themselves. Has become so addicted to using this power that he's become basically a wraith and needs to sate his hunger constantly, even on the planetary level, making him vaguely a Star Wars version of Galactus. Sadly, you can't ever wear his mask in the game, but you can get it as an item after killing him. To SWTOR's credit, you can wear it there.

* Darth Sion: A walking corpse of a Sith Lord whose main shtick is regenerating over and over again, hence his current physical appearance. Gets a crush on the Exile if she's female, and the Exile eventually convinces him to let go of his pain, causing him to die for good. Weirdly, he was also an alternate skin for Galen Marek in the later Force Unleashed game when no other characters from KotoR were.

* Atris: If ever there was a single character who perfectly embodied every negative stereotype about the Jedi, and was everything fans criticize about the Jedi distilled into a single character, it would be Atris. Self-righteous, rude, and more dogmatic and sanctimonious then a bus full of puritans, Atris quickly established herself as a hated character, especially with her constant insulting and lecturing of the Jedi Exile. She also kept the Exile's original lightsaber that she was forced to surrender because she's that petty. Turns out, of course, that she's fallen to the Dark Side from her study of Sith Holocrons, making all of her posturing and bluster completely hypocritical. Her Handmaidens are assholes too, with the exception of the one who joins you. The good news is, because she's gone Dark Side, you don't need to play a villain to have an excuse to cut her down. Though making her eat her words by sparing her and lecturing her right back as she realizes how badly she has been fucking up since the Mandalorian Wars started is on an entirely different level of satisfactory. Meetra most probably spared her and let her spend the rest of her miserable life in depression.

* The HK-50s: The "next-gen" HK-47s that appear in the sequel. Unlike HK-47, they are very much ''not'' on the player's side and are a recurring enemy throughout the game. A subtle difference between them and the original, is that while HK-47 enjoys knowing how to kill efficiently and/or with style, the HK-50s just enjoy killing period. This is why HK-47 hates them.

* Calo Nord: The first KotoR game's equivalent to Jango/Cad Bane, being the top bounty hunter of his day who dual wields blaster pistols. Doesn't save him from getting killed by Revan and company when they go to the first of four planets in their Star Map hunt. Short in temper and stature both, but weirdly leaves behind a shiny set of silver armor after he dies that fits everyone in the party perfectly despite being taller than him (with said armor also looking nothing like his outfit in the game).

* Darth Malgus: Though he was initially dismissed as a lazy blend of Vader and Malak when first introduced in SWTOR's announcement cinematic, this big, bald Sith has actually developed a solid following after both SWTOR and a tie-in novel told from his perspective came out. Where many other Sith in the Empire Malgus is a part of are alien-hating assholes with no real redeeming features, Malgus is depicted as more egalitarian. And while a believer in Sith ideals, argues that wars and other conflicts are necessary for people to grow and realize their full potential. Pulled a Kaiser Soze on his wife when his enemies tried to use her against him, and after a failed bid to become the new Sith Emperor later turned on the Sith in the pursuit of his own agenda, making him something of a spiritual successor to previous Old Republic Sith villains Revan and Traya. In short, he's generally seen as one of the better characters/things to come out of the fairly skubby SWTOR game and tie-ins.

* The Sith Emperor: Very blatantly a Palpatine rip-off who serves as the main villain of SWTOR. Revealed to have been the one who finished corrupting Revan and Malak to the Dark Side before sending them out to pave the way for his arrival. Revan and Malak of course, had other ideas, but the Sith Emperor's longevity meant he was still around to launch an invasion of the Galaxy anyway 300 years later. His backstory is that he's a parasitic body-hopper who transfers his consciousness every time a new, more powerful vessel comes along, and also has the ability to suck ''everything'' from a planet in what is an even more extreme version of what Nihilus does. Not just people's lives, but color, sound, the Force itself, etc. This is seen as so messed up that the few Sith who know the truth about him want him dead as badly as any of the Jedi. Unfortunately, the Emperor's body-swapping shtick continues after the player beats him, and he gets a new form and voice in Immortal Emperor Valkorion. In this body he's even more ridiculously powerful and <s>basically becomes Fire Lord Ozai in space</s> forms his own faction to try and wipe out both the Jedi and the Sith. Gets killed, but his ghost sticks around to cause more trouble, until that's taken out...and then a fragment of him persists even then and has to be taken out too. Since the fragment of the Sith Emperor's essence was wiped out, the jerk's (hopefully) gone for good, but if the game and its expansions have taught us anything at this point, always assume that the Sith Emperor will come back in some way or form down the line. For the purposes of timeline, the Hero of Tython is held to have killed him for real with the destruction of the last fragment.

* Arcann and Vaylin: Valkorion's children. As siblings who are the kids of a heartless, despotic ruler with great power, with the son having facial scarring as a result of his dad's actions and initially being a villain before redeeming himself, they are basically Zuko and Azula in Star Wars. Like their old man they're nothing to scoff at in power, especially Vaylin who has inherited her dad's psychopathic traits (much like Azula relative to Ozai). Furthering the Avatar parallels, Arcann's voice actor also voiced Koh the Face-Stealer. Despite being Dark Siders, neither one is technically a Sith, and both use yellow lightsabers instead of red. Vaylin is later implied to have soul hopped to one of the Jedi apprentices the Emperor's last fragment tried to take over, though further details are TBA as SWTOR is still on going.

== One-Appearance Characters / Other Characters of Note==
* Owen and Beru Lars: Moisture farm couple and Luke's aunt and uncle (sort of, its complicated), who raise him on Tatooine. Effectively Luke's Ma and Pa Kent/Uncle Ben and Aunt May. And like Uncle Ben, their murders prove a major catalyst for Luke's transformation into a hero. Owen's main claim to fame is roasting Obi-Wan figuratively before later getting himself roasted literally. Isn't actually one-appearance, turning up in the prequel as their young selves and again in the Obiwan series where they defend their home from the Third Sister of the Inquisitors, ''successfully''. We can imagine they died fighting those Stormtroopers now.

* FN-2199/"TR-8R": a First Order Stormtrooper who wields a badass riot baton in combat. Appears only in The Force Awakens and notable only for two reasons; he shouts "Traitor!" at Finn, and then he kicks his punk ass despite the latter wielding a fucking lightsaber. Such is the stuff that memes are made of. Gets a bit of backstory that he and Finn trained and grew up together, hence his outrage at seeing Finn fighting for the opposite side. Even if he goes out like a punk to Han Solo, by all accounts, <s>FN-2199</s> TR-8R is what Phasma '''should''' have been. [https://image.prntscr.com/image/VFRN0EFuQkCz3pkBYGCN2Q.jpg He would make a great commissar].

* Jyn Erso: Appears in Rogue One. A former member of the Space Taliban (Rebels who refused to group up with the rest of the Rebels due to their extreme willingness to do evil shit to kill evil assholes) who is captured by the Rebels so they can talk to Space Bin Laden (Saw Gerrara, a character who guest-starred in a few episodes of the cartoon Rebels and pretty much shows up to die in Jyn's movie) about rumors of a planet killer being fueled by Space Iraqi oil crystals (that makes lightsabers work), one that was partially designed by her father. Jyn is angry all of the time because her life sucks, she watches every parental figure in her life die in front of her, most of them over the period of a single day, and the movie hopes this will hide the fact that she really doesn't do much other then flip authority figures the bird. Her name mirrors that of Jan Ors, partner-in-crime of legendary badass Kyle Katarn which is REALLY not as well-received by the fans of the series her movie retconned as Disney thought it would be (to be fair, the old EU had around ten different versions of the Death Star plans being stolen which many fans just figured were combined into the one Leia had, so that doesn't mean Kyle and Jan can't ever be made canon again). Gets killed when Tarkin used the Death Star to destroy the facility in an attempt to stop the Rebels transmitting classified information, but Jyn and Cassian got the Death Star plans beamed into space before that.

* Cassian Andor: Appears in Rogue One. A Rebel spy and assassin, Cassian angsts about the fact that he lives in a political thriller about the space mafia VS the space Nazis set mere days before the simple good and evil morality of the original trilogy kicks in. His only friend is a droid, but that's not exactly as unusual in the setting as the movie implies it is. Shares an award with Luke for not getting the girl in the end...kind of; they do share a final hug and possible kiss in the elevator before he died with her getting atomized by a partial-strength shot from the Death Star. The Disney Canon variant of Kyle Katarn, who was an Imperial officer turned Rebel turned Jedi Master, who is so badass he shaves with a lightsaber. A massive waste of character. UPDATE: We're now getting a TV series based on him, so there's at least that?

* K-2S0: Appears in Rogue One. What C-3P0 would be if he grew a pair and got a stronger droid body. A reprogrammed Imperial tactical droid and Cassian's only friend. Does that thing where he spits out survival odds in stressful moments. Caught a grenade in mid-air then tossed it back at it's original thrower without even looking, shot Stormtroopers (even took out two by [[Angry Marines|picking up a third stromtrooper and whacking them with him]]), and delivered some great deadpan lines which endeared him the audience - even those growing more jaded to these new movies liked him. So of course he dies first in order to establish that shit gets real during the last twenty minutes of the movie, although he died holding the line so Stormtroopers wouldn't reach Cassian and Jyn and his last act was smashing the control panel with his bare hands so at least he went out as cool as he came in.

* Chirrut Îmwe: <s>Discount Jedi</s> The real star of Rogue One. A blind martial artist who may or may not have force powers, can beat a squad of Stormtroopers with a staff, shoot TIE Fighters out of the air, and could take your girl if he wanted to. Haha, jk, he's totally homo for his bara partner-in-crime with the badass autocannon. Dies in a bombing run, but he doesn't fear death. Even his actor (from the badass "Ip Man" series) admitted that he was shoehorned into the movie in a desperate attempt to make China give a shit about Star Wars (which failed, because China really just doesn't give a shit about the franchise). Chirrut is memorable mostly because he belongs to the "Order Of The Whills", notable because "Whills" were a thing George Lucas kept wanting to use in the original trilogy (immortal beings who were supposed to be telling the story, hence "a long time ago", later the spirits that make up the Force itself, and finally an order of warriors that Leia was supposed to found after Luke's death in a sixth movie before he decided to take a break then do prequels instead. Basically Space Moirae).

* Baze Malbus: Chirrut's best mate and self-appointed bodyguard. Has three lines, but comes off as memorable because of his hellgun-looking backpack mounted autocannon with a scanvisor that lets him hold down the trigger and headshot stormtroopers until they are all dead. In early scripts Chirrut was his father figure, in the finished product they're ambiguously gay even though the director intended there to be a "finding peace with the pastor who heard his confession after a very grim life" vibe. Dies shortly after Chirrut, and actually makes a connection with the Force in his final moments. Quite a bit of work went into designing his visual style and his backstory, not a single bit of which ended up in the movie.

* Orson Krennic: Director of the Imperial Military Research Division and Rogue One's villain. Forces Jyn's father into building the Death Star for him, causes the death of Jyn's mother, then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie getting roasted by the more competent Imperial characters because he's a fucking moron with a grudge. He's typical of the average Imperial who doesn't wear Stormtrooper armor in the Expanded Universe as well as Disney canon, notable mainly for giving off "Resident Evil villain" vibes.

* TZ-1719 / Jannah: Appears in Rise of Skywalker. The leader of a unit of First Order Stormtroopers who, upon being ordered to shoot civilians, all laid down their guns at once despite there being no communication between them to do so. Implied to be Force sensitive, with the accidental subtext being that she simply subconsciously Force-tricked her troops into not being evil anymore. They stole their dropships and escaped to Endor, living a non-tech lifestyle by taming some kind of goat aliens as mounts. She personally took on the name "Jannah". Her primary purpose of the movie is to replace Rose as Finn's love interest since they couldn't decide on hooking Finn up with Rey or not (for problems such as "would it offend racists into not buying merch, would it be seen as sexist to end her journey with a Disney Princess ending of getting a relationship, etc"). Further unfortunate subtext is how TZ is quite literally just Rule 63 Finn, although it fixes the "Finn Problem" that has been pointed out where suddenly Stormtroopers dying can be seen as a tragic loss of a potential hero by adding the idea that "<strike>Kanye was right, slavery is a choice</strike> good characters who end up as Stormtroopers can just choose not to shoot the non-combatants so anyone that doesn't deserves to die like the nameless <strike>loot pinatas</strike> mooks they are. The end of the movie adds <strike>spinoff bait</strike> the implication she is Lando's grandaughter, or at the least he has an idea of who she was taken from as a baby.

* Qi'ra: Han Solo's old girlfriend and partner introduced in ''Solo: A Star Wars Story,'' filling in for a number of older EU characters (don't worry, the Disney Star Wars comics had already given Han an ex other than her anyway). Grew up with Han on Corellia before getting forced into the Crimson Dawn, which is like the Mafia in space except run by Darth Maul instead of the Hutts. Helps Han survive an unobtainium deal gone bad, then backstabs her boss to become her gang's alpha dog and Maul's personal agent. Too bad this will probably never be followed up on outside of tie-in novels thanks to how bad the movie did. Also kinda awkward they made her Maul's Personal Assistant right after Rebels killed him off, meaning that Star Wars fans felt absolutely no curiosity about how the entire thing was going to go. She was still kicking around the Galaxy and is now involved in the Bounty Hunter Wars. Qi'ra is played by the famous Emilia Clarke which is one of the many reasons she is popular

* L3-37: While K-2S0 brought droid characters to an awesome new high, L3-37 brought them to a new low. While not being as bad as Holdo and Rose, and being far more memorable than the chick, the spy dude, the TIE Fighter pilot dude, and the two Asian dudes from Rogue One (admit it, you don't fucking remember more than two of their names at best), she suffered the most from the reshoots the movie underwent. The /v/-tier name is only the warning label on this crock of shit. A droid that constructed a body for herself from spare parts and wound up as Lando's version of Chewbacca, L3-37 is a [[SJW|woke robot feminist in space by direct admission of the writers, with everything that implies]] while also being a revolutionary leader who gives no fucks about any disgusting meatbags and at the same time is physically romantically involved with Lando while giving romantic advice to other characters and at the same time is all about profit and shooting up the place while using other droids as just pawns in her rampages (did we mention this character REALLY suffered from the reshoots?) Her body is destroyed in an escape attempt but ends up as one of the droid brains running the Millennium Falcon (yes, the same computer C-3P0 complained about in the original trilogy; draw your own conclusions.) Long story short, the feminist/sexbot/droid-supremacist/human loving/spree killer provides constant tonal whiplash. Did we mention that since she began without having a body there was no reason to stick her in the Falcon which is a fate worse than death based on about 1/4 of her characterization, it adds a LOT of disturbing subtext to Lando's fondness for the Falcon and the fact that Han basically just kept it after winning the game despite knowing Lando's lover was trapped forever inside, the implications for the conversations she had with Threepio during Empire Strikes Back, and the fact it was kept abandoned by a criminal on a desert planet for at least a decade means she's probably gone even more insane? Fan reaction is mixed, but only between "worst character ever, would prefer to watch Jar Jar and Holdo star in a sitcom combining the bad parts of both original EU and Reboot than watch the movie again" and "had potential, was disappointed, still don't like the name".

* Iden Versio: Created for DICE's Battlefront II as the protagonist of the story mode (though she's also playable in multiplayer). The leader of a small squad of Imperial Special Forces (because apparently the Empire can't get enough of black armored elites despite already having Shadow Stormtroopers, Storm Commandos, Purge Troopers, and Death Troopers). Modeled to look like her actress. Initially rabidly pro-Empire, but changed her mind during Operation: Cinder due to Palpatine's posthumous orders to take the rest of the Empire with him if he ever died. Becomes a New Republic soldier along with the one member of her squad who decided to go with her, and then later married him. Dies around the time of the Sequel Trilogy, but takes the member of her squad who ''didn't'' side with her with her. General consensus is that her shift to the Light Side either shouldn't have happened at all (so players could have an Imperial protagonist from start to finish like in TIE Fighter), or needed to come way later / be less sloppily done.

== Nations and Organizations ==
* '''''The Galactic Empire''''': Ever seen an evil, fascist space empire imposing itself on the galaxy with huge, evil spaceships and cool mooks? Then it was probably inspired by the Empire. Itself inspired by the brutalist designs of Nazi Germany, the First Galactic Empire is overall ''the'' classic authoritarian dictatorship, propped up by legions of obedient but easily disposable troops, cool propaganda that paints them as the saviors of the galaxy and ambitious officers ready to be choked for their failures. The Empire was created from the infrastructure of the Republic when Emperor Sheev Palpatine took singular power of the Republic Senate, ostensibly to keep the galaxy safe after the Clone Wars, but totally because he was a powerful Sith Lord who wanted to get his evil fascist dick hard. Once the galaxy got wise to this, the Empire used fear to keep them in line, which is one of the reasons why they took a liking to huge Star Destroyers and Death Stars, since they look fucking terrifying. While evil overall (as our [[Emperor|Lord and Savior]] George of the Lucas proclaims it), individual people go from normal people who knows no better since they've lived with propaganda up their exhaust ports all their lives to genuine psychopaths like Palpatine and Grand Moff Tarkin. Even so, The Empire still possessed deep flaws; apart from the authoritarian top-down rule, the Empire also wasted significant resources on its inefficient military, and their constant poaching of the Galaxy's brightest minds and permanent wartime economy meant the rest of the galaxy stagnated. Severe competition in the officer corps meant that infighting and backstabbing was not uncommon, either, and that the politically connected could still advance ahead of truly competent officers (that is, until their incompetency finally pissed off someone above them, as seen with Vader choking Admiral Ozzel). The Empire eventually broke apart after the Battle of Endor where the Emperor was killed (allegedly; it's more complicated than that...), his apprentice turned (back?) to the Light Side of the Force and the second Death Star blown up. The remains of the Empire's military became the Imperial Remnants who fought the New Republic and each other for control of resources.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Legends)'': in the original continuity, the Empire splintered into different warlord factions after the death of the Emperor and took several decades for the New Republic to defeat. At various points these remnants continued to threaten the New Republic for a long time, including the splinter lead by [[Creed|tactical genius Admiral Thrawn]]. They did team up temporarily to fight off the extra-galactic invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong. Eventually the largest remnant, which had greatly mellowed out its policies since Palpatine's death, made peace with the New Republic. It would continue to exist into Cade Skywalker's era 130+ years after the Battle of the Yavin, where it would split into two major factions; one that was more overtly associated with the Sith and reminiscent of the pre-Rule-of-Two Sith Empire, and the other lead by a royal family of Force sensitives more akin to Grey Jedi. After a war, the One Sith (faction name of the last Sith group) aligned faction is defeated, tries to go back into the shadows but is destroyed by a renegade One Sith, Darth Wredd, who wants to return to the Rule of Two but dies before taking an apprentice leaving the Sith extinct. The Fel Empire joins the New Republic successor government and the Jedi for to form the new galactic government.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Disney)'': In the Disney canon, the Emperor had a two-part plan in the event of his death; firstly, he'd destroy most of his remaining forces in Operation Cinder (this plan appears stupid on its head, but does serve a few purposes; it prevented Warlords from using Imperial resources to carve out their own empires, it tested the loyalty of the remaining officer corps, and denied assets to the New Republic. But mostly he was just a bitter asshole who wanted to take his ball and go home). In the second phase, those considered worthy enough were to retreat to secret fortress worlds in the Unknown Regions. Most of the remaining Imperial forces surrendered not long after the Battle of Endor, but various warlords still existed in the Outer Rim for at least five years since the fall of the Empire. The New Republic decides to just ignore them because fuck it Jar Jar Abrams wanted Rebels vs. Empire again, couldn't be asked to explain it and had no plans for the rest of the trilogy anyways. Considering how a large part of the Galaxy's history can be characterized as "Core Vs Outer Rim," and how the region had always been hard to control, its likely that the New Republic didn't want to fuck around with such a large clusterfuck of a region when they were still trying to consolidate the core, which unfortunately allowed for opportunists like Moff Gideon to grow in the shadows. There's also good evidence that Grand Admiral Thrawn, who's already been integrated into Disney Canon, will once again be a major power player in the Imperial Remnant. Whether he's still working for the Imperials in the Unknown Regions or in it for himself, we'll have to wait and see.
The problem is 90% has been retconned multiple times now and Operation Cinder has suffered from having four different interpretations. Currently evidence points to a Imperial Civil War broke out been again retcons and retcons have frequently become a problem. As such their are several schools of interpretation and the amount of factions.
1. The Yomo Council: A faction which rejected the authority of Gailus Rax and Coruscant. This group was Imperial Army elements and their families which ended getting brutally attacked by the Loyalist Shadow Wing and the New Republic.
2. The Jakku Remnant: The term for the Imperial Forces at Jakku during the battle under Fleet Admiral Rax. This was the force you see at Jakku and was the one who was defeated at the battle. After the battle the Imperial Forces are either killed, Captured a tried as War Criminals, or fled the battle to other Imperial Forces.
3. Moff Gideon's Imperial Remnant: Also known as Gus' boys, these are the main Imperials scene in The Mandalorian. They are pretty good shots and made up of Imperial Veterans. The only reason they Do not kill Mando is because of the literal plot armor. They also had Dark Troopers and some specialized Imperial Assets. Their is a implication from Behind the scenes interviews that Moff Gideon is backed by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
4. The Iron Blockade: A faction led by a Imperial Governor name Adhard who lockdown the Sector and pretended palps was dead, despite the balantant evidence to show otherwise. He held tough control of the Sector and had is own Purge Trooper Squads and custom Imperial Logo.
5. The Outer Rims Remnants: A group of Imperial forces who rejected the FO as a bunch of larping Fags. They decided to fight against them and the Emperor because they saw them as traitors to the Empire they had fought for. These guys are kind of a cool idea of something not explored.
6. The Core World Remnants: These are planets like Fondor, Kuat, the Deep Core, and Coruscant. They kept some Imperial Forces as defense forces and they desire the return of the Empire. Despite be banned by the New Republic from building armies and navies they built tons of weapons and warships from the FO without the NR [[FAIL|realizing]]..... When the FO took out Hosnian Prime, these forces joined up with the FO as sympathizer and auxiliary forces.

* The Republic: Before the Empire, the galaxy was governed by a ''huge'' representative democracy, seen in the prequel movies. It's corrupt as fuck, and not really capable of much other than ignore the fact most of the galaxy is already at war with itself, entire species are being wiped out in ethnic purges faster than they can be counted in a census, and slavery is pretty much everywhere. Acts like one nation, functions as an economic forum for oligarchs while planets police themselves to varying degrees. And since, by law, the Republic had no army before the Clone Wars, planets that were too poor to fight off pirates and slavers had little recourse. Besides failing to act on the many atrocities happening in the galaxy (and those they do intervene in ended up sowing resentment into the future Separatists), a major issue was that Republic policies gave special treatment to the prosperous Core worlds and large corporations over the remote and impoverished Rim worlds. Don’t fuck with Hutts, leaving them to do whatever they want in most of the galaxy, and until Sheev took over and made it the prelude to his Empire the only thing they ever did to get shit done is ask the Jedi to deal with it, whatever it is. The scary thing is that in the final years of the Republic, the Senate voluntarily laid the groundwork for the Empire long before the Declaration of the New Order and nobody even noticed it happened until decades later, when Palpatine received his emergency powers at the start of the Separatist Crisis and the opening of the Clone Wars. As Maul would point out before the end of the War, the Republic was already gone.

* The Old Republic: The early Republic. Far less corrupt, and had a standing army made up of what can charitably be called a mix of rent-a-cop security and elite paramilitary volunteers, the Special Operations department was top notch (although it had a bit of a war crimes problem and had a humiliating defection in the Cold War phase of the Great Galactic War that only didn't destroy them because the rookie and the cynical intel officer in the defecting Havoc Squad and the hacker, the Sith Imperial defector, the demolitions unit and the prototype battle droid assigned to them to rebuild were even better than the traitors and managed to convince three to surrender and killed the psychos) and the Navy as well as the armored land units were great, infantry and random conscript from wherever not so much. It was also far smaller, as the Republic only gradually expanded in stages across the galaxy, with humans leading most colonization efforts. Still rely heavily on Jedi, but mostly just for dealing with Sith. Hutt territory is more formal rather than them operating everywhere.
** Ruusan Reformation: 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, after the apparent destruction of the Sith, the Republic underwent a massive reorganization that made it into the Republic, but started with a dark age due to the damage caused by the war. Used to reconcile a problem in the films where the Republic is said to have existed for both 1000 years and "a thousand generations". This also solves how many details about pre-Prequel works had substantially different depictions of the Republic and Jedi from what the prequels wound up doing, and how there were wars when a character says there hasn't been a full scale war since the formation of the Republic.

* The New Republic: The post-Empire government that the Rebellion forms.
** Legends: Leia rules for a time, trying to manage the various monsters of the week and Imperial remnant groups, gradually stepping down to more minor titles to avoid being another Emperor. Then they have to deal with things like the extra-galactic cenobite invaders that cause a galaxy-wide holocaust while her Jedi kids died or flirted with being evil. Eventually it forms the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a confederation that includes a less-evil Imperial remnants (which it had been at peace with for a while) and some other powers, remaining a stable force combating Sith and their empires ever. During this time, Leia's granddaughter was prophesied to bring the Light Side of the Force into ascendance while a female Force-Cthulhu tried to co-opt the prophecy for herself. After Luke defeats her, a few decades are skipped and the Federation is defeated by a Sith backed Imperial Remnant faction, the Fel Empire. The Sith then backstab the Imperials and kick off the Sith-Imperial war. The Federation and the Jedi help the loyalists defeat the One Sith, and the Sith themselves are rendered extinct after Darth Wredd (who wanted to bring back the Rule of Two) kills them all and dies before taking an apprentice, leaving the Federation, the Fel Empire and the Jedi (who had suffered another purge before the Sith back-stabbed Emperor Roan Fel, who died at the hands of his Gray Jedi/Imperial Knight Bodyguard in the final battle after falling to the Dark Side and succeeded by his daughter Marasiah) to form the last known government, the Galactic Federation Triumvirate.
** Disney: Focused on defeating the Empire, then dismantled the Rebellion militarily. Focused mostly on being an intermediary with independent planets, paying for each one in the alliance to have their own militia with treaties to support each other if attacked, while the Republic itself had a small fleet to bolster anyone in need. Despite sounding like the setup for World War 1, it actually is like the US/Soviet Cold War with the Imperial remnant then its successor the First Order, until the FO performed a Star Wars 9/11 and used a planet killer weapon to destroy all the planets in the sector of the New Republic capital then invaded the independent planets. [[what|Being essentially destroyed with their capital system despite being the galactic government which should have contingencies for such events since existence of planet killers is common knowledge]], the planets focused on their own survival until Lando performed a short planet-hopping tour to rile up the militias and all the scum, villainy, and pirates who wanted to see the true death of the Empire/First Order. During its reign it had far less control over the galaxy than the Republic or Empire, but clever administration and assigned leadership of the militias made traditionally dangerous and lawless planets like Tatooine finally civilized. Its ultimate fate is now unknown.

* Confederacy of Independent Systems: aka the Separatists. Due to the rampant corruption in the Republic, a lot of systems were very unhappy with the state of the galaxy and wanted out. However, many of these separatists included extremely powerful corporate goons, such as the Trade Federation, who simply wanted more power for themselves, and were willing to lease out their droid armies to that end. While outwardly they were simply disgruntled and neglected planets who wanted independence, in reality the CIS existence was deliberately engineered by the Sith in order to further their goals in the creation and maintenance of the Empire. Under the leadership of Count Dooku, they formed a formidable alliance that would threaten the core worlds of the Republic with the biggest army ever created, eventually leading to the Clone Wars that would throw the galaxy into one of the bloodiest conflicts in centuries. And despite Dooku's purported political idealism at the start of the war, the more idealistic and politically motivated worlds who wanted to escape the Republic's corruption found themselves sidelined by the big Corporate worlds who controlled the war effort and stationed their droid armies everywhere. As the war progressed, bloodthirsty war criminals like General Greivous made the Republic fear and loathe any hint of disloyalty, which was a major PR problem for the early Rebellion. One of the big ironies is that, because the CIS turned out to be just as corrupt as the Republic, many Separatist worlds begrudgingly sided with the Empire as the "lesser of two evils" in their minds. The fact that the CIS was made up of powerful, alien corporations from the Outer Rim also served to justify the Empire's xenophobia, nationalization of virtually all heavy industry, and subjugation of worlds far away from the Core. Because the Separatists were simply an expendable puppet of the Sith, Palpatine had no qualms about sending Vader to destroy the remaining leaders once he secured his Empire and they'd outlived their usefulness. The Empire then proceeded to dismantle the remaining Confederate groups along with pirates and other anti-central government forces in the Reconquest of the Rim. Several remnants continued resistance and some helped Order 66 survivors escape. After the Rebel Alliance was formed, surviving Confederate Remnant forces joined it, for those who joined the CIS to fight against Old Republic corruption happily, and for those who were full on separatists somewhat unhappily as a lesser of two evils. Until at least 1 BBY one Imperial Moff, Conan Antonio Motti, referred to them as a threat alongside rebels and criminal enterprises. Presumably, the last few organics holdouts joined the rebels or took the opportunity to disband after the Death Star was destroyed. Handfuls of Droid units that didn't receive the deactivation signal remained active on Tatooine, Lok and Kashyyyhk and were destroyed by the Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG characters. A large leftover unit was present on Geonosis and were destroyed in a Galactic Civil War battle there in 3 ABY. A single Droideka, which had been infiltrated into the Outbound Flight voyage, was out of range of the shut down order and was destroyed by Luke and Mara in 22 ABY during their expedition to the Outbound Flight crash site, ending the last relic of the Confederate cause that was still nominally obeying CIS Parliament orders.

* The Rebel Alliance: After Emperor Palpatine's political takeover succeeded and the Jedi murdered in a [[Horus|galaxy-wide act of backstabbery]], Senators Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, Mon Mothma and a small group of sympathizers come together to form a resistance group, knowing fully well that the new Galactic Empire won't be going quietly with their new "doctrines", especially since the Empire's militarization only increased following the end of the Clone Wars. Prior to the Battle of Yavin, the "Rebel Alliance" was more like the "Rebel Coalition of guys who loosely agree on some things," being made up of individual cells under the coordination of a High Command unit. The rebellion's supporters were an odd mixture of former Separatists, Republic loyalists who found themselves betrayed such as Kashyyk and Mon Calamari, and the occasional Imperial defector who found Imperial service either too immoral or too dangerous. For the next twenty years, the Rebellion will infiltrate, sabotage and generally frustrate the Empire as best they can, but unfortunately doesn't manage to really make a big difference; that is, before a certain Luke Skywalker gets swept up by them and leads them to their first, grand victory against the Empire's first Death Star. From here on out, the Rebellion does their best keeping themselves hidden from the Empire while maintaining strong relations with their allies, who, while few, did let them create a small fleet of outdated vehicles. Eventually, the Rebellion's hard work bears fruit after the second Death Star blows up and the Emperor goes missing. From here, the Rebellion and their members become the New Republic.
** The Resistance: From a first look, the Resistance looks extremely similar to the Rebellion visually (they are called "The Resistance" for Pete's sake!), but there's a little more going on under the hood. Feeling her hairbuns tingle with fear, Leia Organa realizes the First Order will become a galaxy-wide headache soon and moves to get the New Republic to give a shit - except they don't, because her father was Vader, and thinks she's a military maverick that just wants to feel important. Leia then begins to fund a secret militia of her own, looking for supporters among fellow senators and calling in old friends. The result is... Less than ideal. Functionally just a strikeforce of some twenty fighters and one or two capital ships (who by now are über-mega outdated), the Resistance can do jack ''shit'' against the First Order, who literally commands entire space empires by force. By the Force Awakens, they're pretty much fucked - but luckily gets themselves two new heroes to add to the fold (one who is among the most naturally talented forces users ever seen), re-connect with Han and Chewie AND find a fucking map to Luke Skywalker's personal pillowfort he left for some 5-10 years ago. Eventually fucked up after destroying the Starkiller Base and grinded to metal spacedust by a prolonged space chase, they eventually manage to ignite resistance in the entire galaxy, which gets a ''fuckhueg'' navy of ragtag ships to reinforce them at Exegol.

* Sith Empire: The Old Republic's mortal enemy. In the many millenia leading up to the Ruusan Reformation, the Sith Empire held a significant chunk of the northeastern galaxy, holding thousands of worlds under their iron grip. The Sith engaged in several major wars against the Republic, oftentimes defeating the Republic and nearly exterminating the Jedi, only for their own empire to descend into chaos as Sith Lords backstabbed each other once they no longer had a common enemy. This pattern would continue until Bane killed all the remaining Sith Lords and instituted the Rule of Two, plotting to take over the galaxy and exterminate the Jedi through slow and careful planning rather than overwhelming force.

* The Hutt Cartels: Essentially the space mafia, if the mafia had the clout to influence the national government (like in Russia during the 90s with the Russian Mob). The Hutts managed to drive of the Rakatan Infinite Empire despite having no FTL at the time due to the Rakata losing their connection to the force. The original Hutt empire, after fighting some wars of expansion against neighbors and fellow tyrants in Xim the Despot's regime suffered a massive civil war known as the Hutt Cataclysms which ruined their original homeworld and made them move to Nal Hutta (Nar Shadda is it's moon). To prevent things getting this bad, cartels were established between influential factions, all answering to the Council of Elders made up from the heads of houses. Hutt Space is nominally ruled by the Council but it essentially practices anarcho-capitalism and takes its cuts to rule the core planets and lets the cartels compete out of the core however they wish. If there's an affair that's illegal by legal standards, the Hutts probably have a hand in it. Keeps to themselves and doesn't care much for what the Sith and Republic is up to, though Jabba the Hutt, owner of Tatooine, takes part in the original trilogy because of Han Solo's longstanding debt to him, and Jabba had one of the biggest criminal empires at the time, competing with giants like the ancient Black Sun. Gets helped and funded by the Empire to do their dirty work and gets killed for his efforts, so there's a good reason why they keep out of all that. Hutt space has significant overlap with the cartels, but the two are technically separate as mentioned above, with the Council of Elders acting as a government for Hutt Space and as a mafia council for other holdings by the cartels. They get invaded during the Yuuzhan Vong war, but effectively form a guerilla force tying up major assets and reassert their rule after the Vong were defeated. After dealing with some slave revolts around the time of the Second Galactic Civil War and selling arms to Darth Caedus's uprising, they continue as they were until the Fel Empire (reformed Imperial Remnant), backed by the Sith, defeats the Federation. When the Sith backstabbed the Imperials, the Hutts secretly provide support to the Fed Remnants and Imperial Loyalists battling the Sith in the Sith-Imperial War. After the Sith blow up a Hutt temple, they officially declare war and join the anti-Sith coalition. Presumably they joined the Galactic Federation Triumvirate with at least nominal autonomy after the Darth Wredd Insurgency and the destruction of the Sith in 138 ABY.

* The First Order: If the Empire was the textbook fascist dictatorship, Disney's First Order is the Nazi Party itself as a military organization/cult. After the Imperial Remnants began fighting amongst themselves, an Imperial admiral fled to the Unknown Regions to rebuild her version of the Empire. Here the First Order grew slowly as former Imperials joined them and they subjugated small local fiefdoms and kingdoms. Eventually the previously unknown Sith Lord Snoke took control as their Supreme Leader and Ben Solo joined him as his apprentice, becoming Kylo Ren. The New Republic eventually learned of the First Order, but thought they were just a paper tiger with no real power. In actuality, their military tech and capabilities were quite high for how relatively small they were... Oh yeah, and they had created a superweapon built into a trench in the planet Ilum that could ''destroy a whole star-system''. Eventually they fired the thing and waged a war of subjugation on the anarchic remains of the New Republic.
**RETCONS: The First Order apparently never existed until about 8 years before TFA meaning a lot of this does not make sense. Its assume a minor civil war happened in the Unknown Regions but again the FO is not given much lore. They also apparently had a fleet bigger the Empire's fleet at its Height..... just do not bother.
** SPOILERS: Behind the scenes, the Emperor had manipulated the creation of the First Order to retake the galaxy, using an artificial body double (Snoke) to take direct control while hiding on the Sith homeworld. The plan was to eventually add his own fleet of Star Destroyers with planet-destroying capabilities to the First Order and form the Final Order, the one and final armada to take the entire galaxy through force and fear.

* Galactic Federation Triumvirate: The last known galactic government at the ends of the Legends continuity, formed from the Fel Empire, the Federation and the Jedi after the One Sith are defeated by a joint coalition of Fel Empire loyalists, Federation Troops and Jedi in 137 ABY. In 138 ABY, renegade One Sith Darth Wredd, wishing to restore the Rule of Two, manipulates the One Sith to destroy themselves and kills the survivors in the Darth Wredd Insurgency, before being killed himself without managing to take an apprentice in the last known battle, leaving the Sith extinct and the galaxy at least nominally unified by a well armed government.

== Significant Worlds ==
Theres a fuckton of planets in the Star Wars Galaxy, so we'll limit this list to the more noteworthy ones (mostly the ones that show up in films).

* '''Tatooine''': A run down desert world orbiting a binary star system on the outer rim of the galaxy. Its close proximity to major hyperspace routes and its location in Hutt space makes this otherwise unremarkable planet relatively strategic for illicit trade (ie: Space Juárez). It has a few dingy little cities, towns and farms home to a collection of criminals, smugglers, people scraping by and slaves with some basic order imposed by Hutt Crime families. The oral history of the native sand people suggests that it was considerably more lush before its inhabitants pissed off the Rakata, but the source for that notes oral histories are generally inaccurate. Surprisingly it is the most visited world in the franchise, showing up in every one of the six original films but ''Empire Strikes Back'' ''and'' appearing in countless other works due to the Skywalker family's connection to this craphole.

* '''Naboo''': Lush planet between the Mid rim and outer rim, shared by both humans and gungans. Naboo's settlers are descended from Alderaaneans (Leia's home planet), so their culture and politics are extremely similar with a strong emphasis on pacifism, philanthropy, and high art (and ironically, early supporters of the Rebellion). Interestingly, the planet core is connected to the planet's oceans, though travel through the core is quite dangerous due to the leviathans living there. The planet hadn't been terribly important right up until the Trade Federation came knocking to demand tax payments over its trade routes (though in reality Naboo had ''massive'' untapped plasma reserves, and the Tradies wanted free reign to drill), which began a series of conflicts culminating in the Clone Wars. Relatively close to Tatooine, which is how the Jedi end up discovering Anakin Skywalker during the conflict when they're forced to evacuate the Queen of Naboo.

* '''Coruscant''': The Capital of the Republic and the Empire, a Ecumenopolis in which basically every square meter of it's surface is covered in a multi-kilometer thick cityscape. <s>So, Trantor. It's fucking Trantor.</s> Several sources claim it to be humanity's homeworld, or else where humanity initially expanded from since their enslavement by the Rakata. Originally found in George Lucas's notes as "Imperial Center", [[Timothy Zahn]] named it Coruscant (pronounced chorus-saunt and is similar to Coruscate, which is a fancy way of saying to sparkle) in the Thrawn Trilogy (as Imperial Center was clearly not the original name) and Lucas was convinced to keep the name when it came time to make the prequels. Before the prequels, pronunciation in audio books was all over the place. Descriptions of the city are not unlike your typical [[Hive city|Hive City]] (if not as extreme), where the elites live in the upper levels where the sky is still visible, while the lower class live in the dark, crumbling foundations, but with a more Art Deco vibe rather than Gothic. The actual planet surface is mostly landfill now, and the lower levels got increasingly uninhabitable after the Yuuzhan Vong terraformed the planet and later the Force-Cthulhu Abeloth made some new volcanoes. Not much is shown of Coruscant in the Disney canon after the prequel era, and its not even the capital of the New Republic. Supposedly J.J. Abrams wanted to blow the planet up but was told "no" by literally everyone.

* '''Yavin IV''': Jungle moon of the gas giant Yavin. The temples on this moon used to house a warrior race that had been enslaved by the Sith before being driven to extinction; it then became the secret base of the Rebel Alliance, which became the staging area for the Alliance's battle against the first Death Star. After the superweapon's destruction, the Empire launched a conventional attack and the Alliance was forced to relocate to Hoth. After the Thrawn Campaign, it became the site of Luke's new Jedi Academy which, after a brief incident with a Sith wraith haunting the place, flourished until yet another galactic war forced them to relocate.

* '''Hoth''': An obscure snow world devoid of any intelligent life, and seemingly named after a legendary Jedi master of old. It became the new headquarters for the Rebel Alliance after the fall of Yavin Base. It was established ''way'' back in the Newspaper comic that it was chosen by the rebels after Luke crash landed on it and encountered a pair of malfunctioning [[Android|Replica Droid]] prototypes fleeing from their creators. Further sources have expanded on its reasons for being chosen to include the fact that it's just off of a major trade route, which concealed supply runs (and is why Bespin is within backup drive distance).

* '''Bespin''': Gas giant with a breathable upper atmosphere. Home to Cloud City, an independent city that makes its income through mining Tibanna gas (used in blasters). Bespin's independence was used as political leverage when Vader arrived and extorted Lando Calrissian into betraying the rebels to him. After Vader double crossed Lando, the Rebels would later liberate Bespin from the Imperials.

* '''Kamino''': Ocean planet that technically exists outside the Galaxy proper, in between it and what is known as the "Rishi Maze," which was why it was a bitch to find. The inhabitants are expert geneticists, and the place is really hard to get to without knowing exactly what you're doing, making it the ideal location for growing the Republic's clone army. Kamino's cities were destroyed by the Empire shortly after the Clone Wars, as they had decided to switch to recruited soldiers; we don't know much about what became of the Kaminoans themselves other than some were forcibly recruited into more specialized cloning programs. Legends had a revolt break out by the Kaminoans making their own Fett clones which was put down and the planet was irrelevant afterwards.

* '''Geonosis''': Desert world inhabited by bug people. Was used by the separatists to build their armies and strategize, eventually becoming the site of the first battle of the Clone Wars. Geonosis is actually even more of a creepy hellhole than Episode II suggests, as the Geonosian Queen can use worms to turn corpses into zombies and mind control living hosts. During the Clone Wars, Geonosis was the first construction site for the Death Star, since it was technically the Geonosians who made the schematics in the first place. Most Geonosians were wiped out by the Empire when the Death Star was moved for completion.

* '''Utapau''': Temperate planet characterized by its massive sinkhole cities. General Grievous tried to rally the Seperatists here after Dooku's death, but was killed by Obi-Wan in the ensuing battle.

* '''Kashyyyk''': Forest/jungle planet and home to the wookies, who live in gigantic tree houses connected by enormous suspension bridges. The interior of the jungle, known as the Shadowlands, is full of a wide variety of dangerous lifeforms, so the wookies stay close to the canopy. During the Republic it was an important trade world due to its location at the junction of several trade routes, highly prized resources, and the expert craftsmanship of the wookies. Despite their loyalty, during the Empire the wookies were severely subjugated and enslaved (with the help of Trandoshans) and their trees were chopped down for the valuable wood and sap. The Empire never truly took it over but did manage to pollute it to all hell.

* '''Mustafar''': Lava planet and the last holdout of the Separatists. Darth Vader makes his base here after he is forced to don his iconic armor, proving that he did have [[Meme|the high ground]] by plonking a gigantic black tower on the surface. The planet has a strong affinity with the Dark Side, attracting various Sith cults in its history.

* '''Ilum''': Small alpine planet covered in ice and snow and by the time of the prequels the galaxy's only known significant source of Kyber crystals, the core ingredient in a little thing we like to call "the lightsaber". Traditionally a place for Jedi to do pilgrimage to find their own Kyber crystal at, as Jedi initiates find that the only crystal visible to them in the caves is the one they're destined to use.
** In Disney canon, the Empire turned one half of the surface into a gigantic strip-mine several hundred kilometers down into the crust. It was eventually rediscovered by the First Order and turned into an actually moon-sized laser cannon called Starkiller Base (This is poorly explained within the films; its not even identified as Ilum except in side stories. The idea is that like the original Death Star, the superlaser is powered by gigantic kyber crystals, and Ilum happens to be well inside the Unknown Regions yet its location and route were still known thanks to Jedi pilgramages).

* '''Dathomir''': [[Death World]]-style hellhole and home of Darth Maul. Filled with gigantic brambles, noxious swamps, poisonous critters and savagely insular tribals. The native inhabitants use the planet's natural Dark Side energy to do all sorts of creepy and arcane shit, including necromancy. Nearly all of its magick-using females were wiped out by the end of the Clone Wars, leaving the planet to decay.

* '''Malachor V''': The last battlefield of the Mandalorian Wars, which blasted the entire planet into a Mars-like wasteland thanks to a superweapon deployed, ironically, by the Jedi. The Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians all regard it as perhaps the most critical place and moment in their respective histories despite it being a lifeless desert littered with crumbling temples and the rusting armor of countless thousands of fallen warriors. The general takeaway is this: Nobody EVER wins on Malachor. It is a tomb-world, a monument to the devastation wrought by pursuing raw power to beat your enemies.

* '''Dagobah''': Uncharted swamp planet where Yoda went to live in exile. Noteworthy for the Dark Side cave, a naturally-occurring phenomenon where the dark side would tempt anyone who entered. Briefly the EU made the cave a remnant of a random dark force user Yoda fought there, but this was retconned away when it was implied Yoda had never visited the place before his exile, then the Clone Wars series made it so Yoda ''did'' visit Dagobah before his exile. This would just be a random detail if not for a significant character having his backstory linked to this event.

* '''Endor''': A gas giant also known as Tana at the end of the Outer Rim before Wild Space (and it probably was in Wild Space before one of the most significant events in Galactic History took place there). The Empire built the second Death Star in its system.
** '''Sanctuary Moon''': Better known than the planet itself is its forest covered moon that the Empire build the shields for the under-construction Death Star 2 on. It's home to the short, furry and deadly Ewoks. It was the nominal capital of the interim Alliance of Free Planets and New Republic for two years till the capture of Coruscant.
** '''Kef Bir''': Ocean moon of Endor. Despite the Death Star II being in orbit of the Forest Moon, Disney decided that the wreckage landed on Kef Bir because JJ wanted an ocean setpiece. No explanation is given other than "wibbley-wobbly hyperdrivey-wimey." The LEGO Skywalker Saga game even takes a bit of a shot at it.

* '''Death Star''' & '''Death Star II''': We're fudging the definition of world here, but its not an exaggeration to say this thing is the size of a small moon and has a very sizeable population. While the Death Star II was incomplete, it was substantially bigger and more deadly. Its main purpose was the protection and operation of a garguantuan superlaser capable of blowing up an entire planet in a singular shot. This thing was able to get around with a battery of hyperspace engines, but still took a fair amount to time to get around in order to get within firing range. Curiously enough, the idea for the superweapon came from Tarkin, but was designed by the Geonosians of all people, which then terrified the pants off the Republic that the Separatists had a superweapon prompting them to start reverse-engineering the design ([[Just as planned]] as far as Palpatine was concerned). Its design ties back to their Genosian origins, who where insectoids living in large anthills with little regard for the concept of "up" or down". As a result, the Death Star became notoriously awful as a posting among its crew, many of which had problems with orientation and becoming nauseaous.

* '''Alderaan''': A perfect pacifist planet until the Death Star blows it up. The planet Leia was raised on by the Organas, and actually shown to have been very nice prior to its destruction, with lush forests and snow-capped mountains.

* '''Felucia''': Another jungle-world, but this one looking like something conceived by either Dr. Seuss or someone from the 60s who got a hold of the good stuff. Rancors can be found here, and some have been tamed by the natives, truly bizarre-looking beings that look a bit like tye-dye, technicolor tree-people who are all Force-Sensitive.

* '''Taris''': Ostensibly an Outer Rim version of Coruscant, in that the planet is a big city that really leans into the whole "what most people think of when they think of a far future city" aesthetic, beneath the shiny exterior is actually a pretty shitty society. Basically, it's society is like Pre-Civil Rights America in space (with aliens as stand-ins for out-groups), and that's before the Sith show up and put the whole planet under quarantine. Beneath the Upper City is the Lower City, which is a slum that gangsters constantly fight over and with shitty apartments that are more likely to house crazed killers or the aforementioned gangsters than honest citizens, as well as looking like they've been abandoned for years. Beneath ''that'' is the Undercity, which is where the descendants of Taris' failed <s>proletariat</s> uprising are consigned. Them, and Rackghouls, who, as the name implies, are basically Ghouls in Star Wars, but as there are no Elves, no one's immune (unless you have some handy Rackghoul serum). So to recap, its a planet that hates aliens, has crime-filled lower levels, and is much more [[Grimdark]] in its overall set-up than the average Star Wars planet. The Imperium would be proud...or would be, if Malak hadn't then bombed the hell out of it. Even thousands of years later, much of the planet is said to still be in ruins.

* '''Telos''': A mix of futuristic cities and natural environments, so unlike Coruscant and Taris it isn't all one big city. A major Republic world, and then Malak bombed it, leaving it badly scarred. As such, the Republic launched a restoration project to try and get the planet back on its feet. Or, in the words of Atton Rand, "a dying world the Republic is trying to breath back to life". Also houses a secret (and defunct), Jedi academy in its polar region, where ultra-bitch Atris and her similarly obnoxious handmaidens reside.

* '''Dantooine''': Farm planet. Fairly idyllic by all appearances, enough so that the Jedi in Legends had an Enclave here for a time...until Malak bombed it (you may be noticing a pattern by now). Even after this bombing though, the planet remains a major agricultural center up to the Clone Wars and beyond. First mentioned in A New Hope as a location Leia gives for the Rebel base to try and save Alderaan (it doesn't work). One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Manaan''': Water-world, but a lot less rainy than Kamino. Source of Kolto, the top healing substance in the Galaxy prior to Bacta. Once that stuff got on the market, Kolto became obsolete, and Manaan and its fish-folk inhabitants fell into decline something fierce. One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Korriban / Moraband''': The homeworld of the Sith, and as to be expected, a place that tends to scream "this is an evil location". A ton of Ancient Sith Lords are entombed here, as is a Star Map (in Legends anyway). The Sith also naturally had an academy here too, which was basically a Hogwarts for sociopaths before it became abandoned. So saturated with the Dark Side that its affected the local wildlife, making most of them vicious, fearsome looking monsters (though who knows what they eat with no apparent herbivores or plant life around).

* '''Jakku''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Tatooine clone (such that when the first trailer dropped, a lot of people thought it ''was'' Tatooine). Where the war between the Rebels and Empire ended in the Disney Canon, being the site of the latter's last stand and with ruined Star Destroyers and other wreckage still littering the place. As such, its mostly populated by scavengers, but in a feeble effort to convince you that it isn't a ''complete'' Tatooine clone, they aren't all Jawas this time.

* '''Hosnian Prime''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Coruscant clone (and again, folks initially thought it ''was'' Coruscant). Gets the Alderaan treatment from Starkiller base, meaning it rips off of two previous planets for the price of one (still better than actually destroying Coruscant though, which according to rumor is what JJ ''really'' wanted to do).

* '''Ach-To''': The planet Luke Skywalker flees to in the Sequel Trilogy. Apparently the planet where the Jedi originated (which is Tython in Legends). Mostly a lot of water, with at least one big landmass that's where Luke's holed up. Rey goes there to get training from him, but that clashes with Luke's whole "I don't want to be a Jedi anymore" bit. Briefly reappears in Episode IX when Rey considers doing what Luke did before his ghost talks her out of it. Also home of the [[Skub|"love 'em or hate 'em"]] Porgs.

* '''Canto Bight''': A mostly barren planet that hosts a giant casino where rich bastards can go. Seems to be a general dress code of only black and white allowed, and filled with wholesome activities like gambling, arms dealing, child labor, and war profiteering. So a lot of glitz and glamor standing side by side exploitation and "rich people are jerks" stuff. So basically Pre-Revolution Cuba in space. Generally considered to be where a bunch of largely unnecessary stuff happened, even by folks who ''didn't'' hate Episode VIII.

* '''Crait''': Site of an abandoned Rebel base that the Resistance remnants flee to at the end of Episode VIII, leading to a vaguely "Battle of Hoth" esque fight involving the First Order's own version of AT-ATs. As one Youtube LEGO video aptly put it, the ground is white but the dirt is red for no real reason other than that it looks "cool". Also, apparently its salt and not snow. So like, a salt-Hoth. Or something.

* '''Exegol''': A world shrouded in darkness and perpetual lightning storms that is where Palpatine and his cronies have been hiding out since losing the Galactic Civil War. How such a large number of people existed or thrived on such a dead world is never explained, but it does manage to give the other Sith world Korriban a run for its money in the whole "obviously evil death world" department.

* '''Rakata Prime / Lehon''': Home of the Rakatans, and where the species has become trapped ever since their empire fell. Actually a pretty lush and scenic place, though as Rakatan tribes and small-but-still-deadly Rancors roam about here, one vacations here at their own risk. That, and the same thing keeping the Rakatans from leaving (the Star Forge), also causes ships that get too close to crash-land, making it a ship's graveyard. By the time of Darth Bane, the planet seems to have become deserted, the Rakatans having apparently gone extinct.

* '''The Maw''': Bears mentioning for being one of the more unique places of the EU. An unusually dense cluster of black holes near Kessel whose gravitational anomalies make it the ideal backdrop for risky hyperdrive spice smuggling operations. Strongly implied to be the work of an unknown precuror civilization, the Maw was considered to be largely impassible, if not for the work of top secret scouting operations that the Empire undertook to find a place to house a big R&D facility kept from the public eye. Within the Maw station, developments like the prototyping of the first Death Star and several other imperial superweapons took place, protected by a small flotilla consisting of four Imperial Star Destroyers.

==Species==
One important thing to note about alien species in Star Wars is that almost all of them were originally singular costumes added to the films for background color or to make a character stand out, then had a species name and culture retconned onto them by Expanded Universe writers. As a result, most species' "personalities" are just shallow clones of the character they're derived from. Many of the species seen in the original trilogy were given names and backstories by [[Star Wars RPG|the original RPG from West End Games]] that became canon as every other EU novel to come after used Star Wars D6 as a reference. All entries after humans are alphabetized.
* '''[[Human]]s''': They originated in the Galactic Core, but have spread to most inhabited planets, first as slaves to a now-extinct species of precursors and then through initial space exploration with pre-hyperdrive generation ships. As a result there are a lot of [[Abhuman|"near-human"]] species kicking around that are basically just weird-looking humans and pretty much the only species humans can crossbreed with.
** '''Mandalorians:''' Bobas/Jangos. A society of space [[Spartans]]/[[Vikings]] with cool armor. Actually not human majority initially (Unless you are a Disney fan), originally made up of a species called the Taung. The Taung had a habit of adopting orphans of other species to the point that when shit hit the fan and they died out following a war with the Jedi, their culture was preserved by other species who remember them as their Progenitors. As it stands, a Mandalorian can be of any race (the adopting the orphans-thing was something else the Taung passed down) but are usually human. Way, way back during the Old Republic, they were death-worshipping genocidal crusaders who were used by the Sith to crush the Republic and provoke the Jedi into war. In more modern times they mellowed out and mostly work as mercenaries or bounty hunters (and for a brief time, even flirted with pacifism), though some extremist sects like the Children of the Watch still exist, clashing with mainstream Mandalorian culture. Following the Empire's purge of Mandalore, the Mando's Beskar Armor became a priceless resource (As only Mandos knew how to make Beskar Iron, a near-impenetrable material and one of the few that can block blaster bolts and lightsabers), with the surviving Mandos sometimes being hunted just to be stripped of their armor.
** '''Corellians:''' Hans. Literally an entire culture of dashing rogues and space cowboys who like to go fast and smuggle shit (and penniless street urchins looking for their big break to become dashing rogues and space cowboys). The Corellian Engineering Corporation made the YT series (of which the Falcon is officially part of, though its modifications are extensive enough to make listing CEC as its manufacturer a [[Wikipedia:Ship of Theseus|Ship of Theseus]] problem) and many of the Rebel ships seen in the original trilogy. Nearly ruined their planet with starship factories, but now they've gone green and relocated all of their heavy industry to space stations. Their home system reeks of precursor meddling and is detailed enough to be a setting in itself, complete with a Big Dumb Object in the middle (Centerpoint Station) for PCs to fuck with.
* '''Aqualish:''' Ponda Babas. Vaguely spider-like (from the neck-up) aliens who are easily one of the ugliest looking species in Star Wars. Generally portrayed as violent thugs, though not always. Apparently they don't usually get along with Biths.
* '''Bith''': Another species that debuted in the original Star Wars movie, and because they did so as a band playing the famous Cantina theme, they were naturally given the species-wide hat of being musicians (though some Bith do pursue other careers). Their bulbous heads are probably owing to their being a fairly intelligent species, as they are big on mathematics and science as well as music. Generally a peaceful species.
* '''Bothans''': [[Meme|Died to bring you this information.]] A species of [[Beastmen (40k)|wolf-men/horse-men/goat-men]] (depending on which author/illustrator) who are almost universally spies thanks to that one-off line from Mon Mothma. When you remember these are hairy-ass, man sized, cloven beastmen, it seems like the bothans would be the shittest race for something as subtle as spywork. In truth the best and early EU works portray them as something far worse than spies: politicians. The most prominent Bothan is Borsk Fey'lya, a Bothan politician who used his role in the acquisition of the second Death Star plans to maintain a place in the New Republic's senior leadership and uses his position for personal gain like any proper politician should. Now possibly NOT wolfhorsegoatpeople, thanks to some Lucasfilm [[Troll|source]] being all like “uh actually, it’s never explicitly stated that they’re aliens, maybe they’re humans, *WINK*”. Let’s hope they’re humans - or at least less dumb than wolfhorsegoats. EU Bothans were as ridiculous a concept as [[Derp|force cancelling weasels]].
** '''Half-Bothans''': Satyrs/Fauns in Star Wars. Seriously, look up a picture of them and that's exactly how they're drawn. Don't seem to be too common, suggesting most humans in Star Wars ''aren't'' Furries.
* '''Chiss''': Thrawns. Near humans with blue skin, dark blue/black hair and red eyes. They dwell in the Unknown Regions, with they’re own fancy schmancy empire, crack navy and altogether superior technological advancements that make the rest of the galaxy look fucking backward (see blaster resistant clothes...whereas [[Derp|fucking stormtroopers in armor can be knocked down by arrows loosed by Care Bears]]). Known for being superb pilots, traders, negotiators, tacticians and all round scheming bastards with Danish accents.
* '''Dugs''': Sebulbas. Except, most of them aren't Podracers, instead being even more explicitly criminal in their professions (gangsters, drug dealers, members of Black Sun, etc.). Usually abrasive, arrogant, pushy, and violent. They share a homeworld with the Gran, which leads to some tension. Understandably hated in-universe by most.
* '''Duros''': Seen once in ''Hope'' during the cantina scene. Naturally they're one of the most important species in the EU despite not having a canon character until The Clone Wars introduced us to Cad Bane. Enslaved by precursors alongside humans, they were among the first to develop FTL travel based on salvaged hyperdrive technology and are the only non-human species to have an equivalent of "near-human" in a few "near-Duros" species. Look a bit like classic sci-fi Gray Aliens, as well as the Tau, but without the whole "Space Stalinism" thing.
* '''Echani''': Similar to humans in appearance, but most if not all of them have white or silver hair. They're also a culture of martial arts experts, specializing in armed and unarmed combat and even being able to "read" their opponents to an extent. [[Bretonnia|Generally seem to prefer melee combat and have comparatively less impressive ranged weapons]] (at least to hear Mandalorians like Canderous tell it).
* '''Ewoks''': If skub became a species, Ewoks would be a contender up there with Gungans and Yuuzhan Vong. Small koala-like creatures, similar to Jawas, that live on the forest moon of Endor, Ewoks are super primitive and live in tribes. They end up playing a big part in the Rebel victory in ''Return'' by attacking Imperial stormtroopers and destroying some walkers. Their reception didn't seem too bad at first, but in the following decades they've become reviled by many, not so much for their design but more for the idea that small bears with spears and rocks could defeat what were supposed to be the Emperor's finest troops. Some people don't mind them (and they were ''definitely'' profitable for merchandise) but others hate them and say they're a prime reason that attitudes toward ''Return'' have gotten increasingly negative over the years. That being said, people tend to overlook that Ewoks have a dark side to them; remember how they were going to eat Luke, Han and Chewie? Some EU material reshaped them into brutally savage death world survivors who practice some shady tribal customs, but are also well-accustomed to hunting much bigger and more dangerous creatures than themselves, which would make them fighting the Empire a little more credible.
* '''Gamorreans''': Space [[Orc]]s: Pig-like, brutish, stupid and violent. Constantly at war with each other, their clan identity is so strong they'll try to kill each other if from opposing clans if they meet off-world. Frequently brought into the galaxy as slaves or by clans trading labor/muscles for outside resources. Like Wookiees, can't physically speak Basic. Unlike Wookiees, only their clan matrons and some high ranking men are literate in their native language.
* '''Geonosians''': The franchise's token bug alien race, because every space setting needs bug aliens. Hugely vital to the CIS due to their homeworld being one of the main planets the Droid armies were built on. Various sources describe them as as rather arrogant. [[Skaven|They're hive-like, seem to treat their warriors and minions as expendable, and use a mix of polearm melee weapons and ranged weapons with green projectiles no one else has]]. Genocided by the Empire in Disney's Canon.
* '''Gran''': Three eyed goat (?) like aliens with rough, tan skin. They are quite nice and peaceful with excellent vision, especially in distinguishing color. Unfortunately for the galaxy at large, Gran exile most of their criminals: They consider being unable to see the rich and beautiful environments of their homeworld a fate worse than death. These exiles often fall into criminal groups.
* '''Grysk''': A near mythical species from the Unknown regions, where starships usually can't go because the hyperspace along its border is a level of fucked-up that only warp storms can match. Little is known about them except that they live on a spacefleet, have a fierce warrior culture, are humanoids with tapered skulls, their weapons and armor are ritualistically disfigured on the right side and they had a penchant for [[Tesla|electrical weapons]]. Likely Disney's replacement for the Yuuzhan Vong, since Space Cenobites with bio-tech is too weird and grimdark for Disney. tl;dr the Grysk are the Rak'gol to the Yuuzhan Vong's Tyranids.
* '''Gungans''': Jar-Jars. These guys suffer from an extremely poor choice of poster-boy (compared to Wookiees who have one of the best possible poster-boys of their species). You may think that just because Jar-Jar is one of the least intelligent (and most hated) characters in the entire Star Wars galaxy, the rest of his species are too, and this is certainly how a lot of people feel. But if you can look beyond Binks you'll see that the Gungans are pretty cool in their own way. Remember that, canonically, Jar-Jar is considered a disgrace in Gungan culture before the Battle of Naboo and after the rise of the Empire (as Senator Binks directly enabled it). Masters of organic technology, they live in bubble-buildings under the sea and have access to bioelectric spears and booma (essentially organic shock grenades fired by the [[Sling|various]] historical throwing devices) alongside [[Awesome|army-wide shield generators]] (in defiance of everyone else in the galaxy deriding them as primitives). Like the Wookiees these guys have a warrior-culture to be proud of, but unlike them they have at least made the effort to have a go at learning to speak basic (even though they still need to work on it). Due to their cartilaginous skeletons they are especially athletic and dynamic, making them pretty good fighters if they are trained properly, and in a rarity for a sci-fi species they have a racial weapon that's actually entirely practical (sling hurled explosives continue to see use today). Certainly if you want an accurate Gungan poster-boy, look no further than Captain Tarpals, who manages to hold General Grievous up in a duel for several minutes with nothing more than his spear. Oh, and their king is voiced by [[Awesome|BRIAN BLESSED]]. Still, for most folks, being the species of Jar-Jar is a hard thing to forgive, but like with many things from the Prequels, time has been a bit kind to their image. Worth mentioning that the writers are acutely aware of how much people find Gungans annoying, and so take shots at them now and then.
* '''Hutts''': Jabbas. (Fun fact: "the Hutt" was just a title in the original trilogy and Jabba was just some random slug dude. The original film didn't even intended for him to be an alien!) Naturally they're all mini-Jabbas who live in a clan/crime-family/zaibatsu type of arrangement known as the ''kadjic''. Kind of like the Mexican drug cartels in that they have their own corner of the galaxy that they rule independently, even after they join the Empire they pay the Moff to look the other way when they do shady shit. (They're always doing shady shit.) Because the Hutts own exactly one third of all organized crime (and a significant number of planets) in the galaxy and it is the third (after Basic and Binary) most widespread full language, Huttese is a good language to take, especially for criminal-types . Be warned! Hutts have four fingered hands and their numbering system uses base eight! Despite being looking and acting like fat [[neckbeards]] they're actually insanely strong and their less bulky youth are very agile for their size. They LOL at the Force, so the RPGs tend to give them a huge bonus to resist mental influence.
* '''Jawas''': Utinni! They roam Tatooine (and a few other planets) scavenging technology and selling it. A handful of sources mention they are [[Ratfolk|rodents]] under the hoods. Popular with the fans, but sadly we haven't yet gotten an (official), Jawa Jedi or Sith.
* '''Kaminoans''': A tall, gaunt species with super long necks hailing from a water-world who's species-wide hat is being expert cloners. Anyone who has a thing for clones always goes to Kaminoans to do the job, including the conspiracy behind the Clone Army that fought in the Clone Wars. Unfortunately for them, the Rise of the Empire led to their downfall in both Disney and Legends, though the circumstances between the two differ. The origins of modern Kaminoans are actually pretty grimdark for Star Wars: Originally an aquatic species confined to Kaminos vast oceans, their society was nearly driven into extinction when a climatic shift slowly turned these oceans into solid ice. Their solution to this issue was to enact a selective breeding program which later bloomed into full blown eugenics. As a sideeffect they accumulated a vast amount of knowledge about genetic engineering, which lead to the rise of their highly profitable cloning business.
* '''Miraluka''': A species that look very similar to humans, but for two major differences: they're all blind, and they're all Force-Sensitive. That first part's not as debilitating as it sounds thanks to the second part, as they effectively "see" through the Force. If Visas Marr from Knights of the Old Republic II is anything to go by, they can see what alignments other people are, with good guys being blue, ultra good guys being glowing dark blue, bad guys being red, super-evil bad guys being glowing red, and neutrals being a yellowish-white.
* '''Mirialans''': Luminara Undulis. Look a lot like humans, but with skin along a green/olive spectrum and also often black diamond markings on their cheeks, forehead, and/or chins. As the setting's resident "green-skinned space babes" (other than Twi'leks), they naturally have a bit of a following with the fans.
* '''Mon Calamari''': Ackbars. An aquatic species whose long history of making airtight vehicles for travel in three dimensions has made them excellent ship-builders. During the early days of the Rebellion the Mon Calamari were one of the few species to successfully throw off the Empire during Operation Domino and not be subject to immediate reprisal thanks to their isolated location and strategy of mining hyperspace routes; basically they turned their system in to Space-Finland and the Empire gave up suiciding ships into them. Those weird-looking bubble ships from ''Return of the Jedi'' are built by Mon Calamari.
** '''Quarren''': Another background species from ''Jedi'' who share their homeworld of Dac with the Mon Calamari. Prideful isolationists who stick to the depths, with their main contact to the surface being trading deep sea mined materials to the Mon Calamari. Look more than a bit like [[Illithid]]. Quarren and Mon Calamari have a complicated (by which we mean bad), history and hate each other with a passion, with each species taking opposing sides in the Clone Wars.
* '''Neimoidians''': Nute Gunrays. [[Meme|They will not survive this.]] Their reproductive cycle is really weird: they produce lots of grubs which are raised in warrens fighting over a limited amount of food; this results in only the biggest, most paranoid, and most greedy surviving. Unlike how this usually goes, this process makes the Neimodians prone to hoarding resources and wary of danger. They're also fouler than [[Luke]] when it comes to hygiene; their homeworld's principal export is considered to be Type-B Brainrot, and even the Republic had the place functionally quarantined because of the sheer number of diseases they shit out.
* '''Noghri''': Primitive, short saurian people who happen to be some of the deadliest non-Jedi melee combatants and assassins in the galaxy. Darth Vader bought their loyalty by saving them from the environmental damage a crashed ship caused. They are a major part of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, which they were invented for. Thrawn still has one as a sidekick in ''Rebels''.
* '''Pykes:''' humanoids with bulbous heads and small beady eyes, and typically wear decorative masks. Don’t let the appearance fool you, the Pyke syndicate is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the galaxy as they have a stranglehold on the underworld’s number one resource: Spice. Yes it’s a blatant reference to [[Dune]]. No, it doesn’t give you freaky superpowers, it’s just a very powerful narcotic. The Pykes control the Spice supply chain for the entire galaxy, taking in mined pre-spice from various planets (most of it coming from Kessel, located deep inside a maelstrom that makes navigation extremely hazardous), having it refined on their homeworld in Oba Diah, and then distributed to every corner from Tatooine to Coruscant. The Pykes allow independent smugglers to do supply runs for them but expect their cut, regardless of the smuggler’s success or failure. If you’re really unlucky, they’ll just kill you on the spot, since their leaders are constantly high on their own product.
* '''Rakata''': The aforementioned precursors, developed by [[BioWare]] for the ''Knights of the Old Republic'' game (though there were a few mentions of precursors here and there before that). Formed an "Infinite Empire" long before the Republic using dark side powered hyperdrives only they could use. When they gradually lost their force sensitivity their empire fell apart. Responsible for why there are so many Humans and Human off-shoots everywhere: They were seeded throughout the Infinite Empire as a slave species and abandoned when it fell. Also ''enormous'' assholes as it turns out, doing everything from eating people to genocide and basically having a level of sociopathic awfulness that wouldn't be out of place in 40K. There is no evidence they existed past the Old Republic era, where a few fractured and primitive survivors were seen on their home planet and this planet was devoid of life by the time of the Ruusan Reformation.
* '''Rodians''': Greedos. Their home planet being a death world full of predators means they are often aggressive and put hunters in high regard, which is the EU excuse for most Rodian characters being criminals. Despite being somewhat popular with the fans, they tend to be given the role of blaster/lightsaber fodder, especially in the KotoR games where hordes of Rodian goons and thugs are a relatively common sight. Those Rodians who want to live longer seem to generally gravitate towards jobs like bartenders and merchants if the KotoR games are anything to go by. That, or politicians, but as Senator Farr reminds us, that can be hazardous too.
* '''Shards''': Sapient crystals. They are incapable of movement and don't speak the way humans do. They can however control droid bodies they are implanted into. Several are force sensitive which led to a Jedi teaching them the ways of the Force. The Jedi order shunned these "Iron Knights" and excommunicated the master responsible. This wound up benefiting them though, as the master and his students were able to survive the Jedi purge due to the obscurity this granted. When Luke's new order emerged they welcomed the Shards with open arms.
* '''Sith / Sith Purebloods''': Red skinned near-humans with bony tentacles growing out from near their nose and an affinity for the dark side, especially illusions. Natives of Korriban, the order most people know as Sith were a result of exiled dark Jedi interbreeding with them and adding their knowledge of technology. So diluted with human blood they were extremely rare by the Old Republic era and believed extinct by the time of the prequels. A few small mostly primitive pockets had been discovered however, but were covered up by Palpatine so he could grab more dark side goodies. More or less invented whole-cloth for the EU.
* '''Sullustans''': [[Dwarf|Short, tunnelfaring, crafters who can drink a lot without getting drunk]]. Vaguely simian near-humans with flappy jowls, large ears, and black eyes that originally evolved for tunnels. Their SoroSuub company is one of the largest tech makers in the galaxy, and likely the largest that isn't Human run.
* '''Tarasin''': Invented whole-cloth for the Living Force campaign for [[Star Wars D20]]. Lizardmen with scales that change color based on their emotions and frilled necks. With focus they can control their colors enough to camouflage themselves and even "speak" silently amongst each other. They had a high degree of force sensitivity, though if this a result of their species or their home system being a place where the Force is strong is unknown.
* '''Togruta''': Diet Twi'leks. Humanoids with lekku and hollow horns that allow echolocation. Shaak Ti and Ahsoka were Togruta.
* '''Toydarians''': Wattos. Blue tapir-looking dudes from Hutt Space who can hover on fly-like wings. As their source character is a hilariously offensive Jewish stereotype, the EU largely ignored Toydarians until ''The Clone Wars'' reinvented them as a vaguely Cambodian monarchy on a mud world. Mind tricks don't work on them (only money). Of the non-Watto Toydarians who showed up pre-Clone Wars, they're mostly surly and greedy like Watto, but with the Jewish stereotypes downplayed for obvious reasons.
* '''Trandoshans''': Bossks. Brutish, scaly [[Lizardfolk]] capable of regenerating severed limbs and absolutely obsessed with hunting shit. Have had a continuous species war with the Wookiees since before FTL was a thing, which is a ''long-ass time'' in Star Wars (well over 150,000 years), owing to the fact that the two species share a home system. Their religion is about scoring "points", with the only known method of gaining them is violent action and the only known method of losing them is being captured alive by enemies. The system was first mentioned a mere three years after ''[[Doom]]'' so the fact that they essentially see life as a giant, violent video game is likely pure coincidence. Despite this they aren't universally evil, though they often are. Have their own Predator <s>ripoff</s> homage movie.
* '''Tusken Raiders:''' More commonly known by civilized folks as "Sand People," they are the native race of Tatooine and are your typical desert-dwelling nomadic raiders, with the added twist of having a major cultural taboo against showing any flesh (including their faces) and having "blood spitters" as part of their biology. One of Tatooine's two primary non-human races (the other being Jawas). One of the first alien species encountered in the franchise, yet never as fleshed out as others. Even the actual name of their species is unknown; their current name originates from the first Human colonists, who named them 'Tusken Raiders' after their repeated assaults on Fort Tusken. Fiercely xenophobic and violent, the Tuskens typically have an antagonistic relationship with the other peoples living on Tatooine, usually raiding moisture farmers or sometimes outright kidnapping and killing civilian homesteaders, or even massacring small frontier towns, and in turn being seen by most as [[Always Chaotic Evil|pure monsters]]. In reality they have more nuance than they're often given credit for, and more recent appearances have made them a bit closer to portrayals of 19th Century Plains Native Americans; not taking crap from trespassers, but honorable and fair with those who respect them. Its been shown to be entirely possible to live peacefully with the local tribes if you can communicate and work out a deal with them (that you don't break). Their civilization is quite ancient, with them remembering when Tatooine still had seas and having adapted to both the harsh desert and salvaging the technology of foreigners into blaster-muskets. They also seem to be one of the few cultures in Star Wars that haven't heard of women's liberation, because with the exception of a female Tusken warrior in [[Skub|the Book of Boba Fett]], the female Tuskens seen thus far all seem to tend to the home and not be armed warriors.
* '''[[Twi'lek]]s''': Technicolored humanoids from Ryloth (which is about as far as you can get from the core worlds without leaving the major hyperspace lanes) with weird head-tails ("lekku") that they have instead of hair. Enough have been transported off world, generally as slaves, they can be found anywhere, and many have never seen their ancestral home. Given it's a borderline death world whose chief economic exports are drugs and slaves, they aren't missing anything. Their most interesting physical quality (aside from the girls being hot) is that they can communicate silently with their lekku. TORtanic tried to rationalize their fetish for enslaving their own as being the result of a precursor project to design the perfect slave species, but nobody cares about this because TORtanic is <s>shit</s> Skub.
* '''Wookiees:''' Chewbaccas, and one of the only species to be named in the original films. Huge, swole sloth people that do not live on Endor and can't speak (but absolutely understand) Basic. Most are actually pretty peaceful and intelligent and they have produced a lot of highly skilled engineers. They also have a reputation for being the best [[Navigator]]s in the galaxy, in part because their highly secretive Navigator's guild has plotted all sorts of shortcuts across the galaxy - plus you better be bloody good at orientation, pathfinding, and being able to make your way back to your treehouse at days end if your entire planet is a fucking forest. They highly value people who save their life, becoming their eternal friend in what is known as a Life-debt; this is how Han met Chewie. They have retractable climbing claws, but a cultural taboo on using them in combat leads to those who do so being exiled as "madclaws". Has the unfortunate distinction of being the first species in Star Wars lore to have their home planet and culture detailed... via the ''Star Wars Holiday Special''. Despite the infamy and single airing, the broad strokes survived the entirety of the Expanded Universe's lifespan and would reappear in ''Revenge of the Sith''.
* '''Yuuzhan Vong''': Humanoids with pallid skin and tapered skulls [[Tyranids|from another galaxy and who only use organic technology]]. Native to a living planet called Yuuzhan'tar which they worshipped as a god, their first contact experience was [[Necrons|an interstellar robot war]]. They weaponized their biotech and defeated the invaders - and in so doing gained [[Khorne|a taste for war and conquest (plus a hatred of machines) that led them to invent a war god and conquer their galaxy]]... [[Fail|which they later destroyed through infighting]]. The destruction of their homeworld [[Culexus|cut them off from the Force, unintentionally making them mostly immune to it]]. Their attempts to undo this gave them [[Dark Eldar|a species-wide fetish for pain and body modification]] instead. Centuries later they found and invaded the Star Wars galaxy, leading to a galactic war that decimated the New Republic, caused multiple genocides and had a death toll around '''365 trillion''' ([[Lamenters|including Chewbacca]]). Luke and his family ended the war by killing the various Vong leaders and finding Yuuzhan'tar's offspring, Zonama Sekot. The Vong colonized Sekot, were reconnected to the Force and became terraformers as penance for the war. Rendered part of the Legends by Disney. Some fans consider the Yuuzhan Vong a fresh blast of originality that provided a threatening and utterly badass new foe (even Dave Filoni has tried at least twice to pull the Yuuzhan Vong into his projects), while others consider them a nonsensical edgelord race that relied on major retcons to make sense.
* '''Zabrak''': Mauls. Near-humans with mostly bald, spikey heads and two hearts. Those black markings Maul had are actually ritualistic tatoos that Zabrak men often get. They were pretty divided internally till the Empire decided to oppress them all and force them to join together. Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar of the Jedi Council were also Zabraks.
** '''Dathomirians''' are a sub-species of Zabrak native to Dathomir who supposedly interbred with humans to create a new group, though their origins have been neglected in current canon. Even so, the females of this sub-species do not have the spiked heads typical of other Zabraks, looking more like ashen-skinned humans. Strictly divided along gender lines, with the bulk of the females forming the Nightsisters while the men are [[Drow|relegated to the role of slaves and breeding stock]]. Darth Maul is the most prominent Dathomirian in the films and TV series, with Asajj Ventress close behind.

==Ships, Superweapons and anything in between==
*Imperial-Class Star Destroyer: The iconic dagger-shaped grey icons of Imperial might from the original trilogy, most prominently featured in Empire strikes back. Star Destroyer in itself was a classification for the largest capital ships in the Republican Navy that simply stuck when the Empire took over. Equipped with devastating firepower that outclassed any other type of warship at the time and its own dedicated regiment of ground troops together with fighter and bomber support, a Star Destroyer was built to serve as its own independent strike group to police the Empire and defend it from outside threats completely independently. The Rebellion was scared shitless of the things, as nothing in their arsenal could hope to withstand a direct encounter with them for long and one showing up almost always meant very bad news for them.
*Executor: The FUKHUEG mega-ship that served as Vaders flagship in Episode 5 and 6. So huge that it is even in-universe classified as a "Super-Star Destroyer", with it being about 20 kilometers in length. Built in the years between A new Hope and Empire strikes back, the Executor and the class of dreadnoughts of the same name had the purpose of serving as flagships to the Imperial sector fleets and as a supplement to the Death Star to intimidate any world into submission with a metric ton of weapon systems that afforded it the firepower to glass a sizeable unshielded planetary settlement within minutes. The ability to posess one of these precious few ships (about nine were built in total) was often used in the old EU to indicate the power level of the villain of the day. Most of them ended up being destroyed, but at least found their way into the hands of the New Republic, where they became its foremost power projectors should the need for such arise.
*TIE-Series: The Empires standard pattern of small space vessel and very recognizable for it. Their base construction was built around the core concept of having a cheap, disposable and mass-produced ship that needed very little fuel and maintenance to be operational in order to cut down on the costs for equipping the enourmous numbers of ships in the Imperial Navy. The base model is the TIE-Fighter, equipped with two ion engines (hence the name, TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine) powered by the large solar panels that made up its "wings" and twin-linked laser cannons capable of destroying most fighters it would come into contact with. Despite being blisteringly fast and maneuveable, the design had a lot of serious downsides when compared with more sophisicated designs like the X-Wings the Rebels used; in order to cut down costs, the amount of protection afforded to its pilots was almost non-existent, having no armour to speak of, no shield generator and not even life support systems, requiring the pilots to wear pressurized suits when going on a mission. They also lacked Hyperdrives, although given their intended purpose as short-ranged carrier-based strike craft this is mostly irrelevant.
**TIE-Fighter: Aformentioned base model, the basic star fighter for the Imperial Navy.
**TIE-Bomber: The basic bomber/torpedo boat model of the TIE-Series. An enlarged version of the Fighter with differently shaped solar panels and a massive bomb bay that could either house bombs for conventional bombing campaigns or Proton Torpedoes for destroying enemy battleships up close.
**TIE-Interceptor: A new and improved version of the Fighter, with distinct arrow-shaped Solar Panels and improved propulsion systems, making it even faster than regular TIE-Fighters while also having improved firepower.
**TIE-Defender: Probably the most advanced ship of the TIE-Series, this baby took all the good things from the TIE-Fighter and Rebel-Ship models into an extremely deadly package, boasting shield generators, hyperdrives and weapon systems that transformed its role into a space-superiority-fighter/fast torpedo bomber hybrid. These advanced systems however meant also that it was quite expensive and rare.
* The Sun Crusher: If ever there was a non-living object that can be described as a [[Mary Sue]] this is it. Just go to the Wookiepedia page as anyone who thinks to elaborate on this is suddenly overcome by an urge to smash their heads against the nearest wall. TL;DR: its the original Starkiller Base (IE an even more powerful Death Star), and like Starkiller Base one of the less beloved things about the franchise's post-RotJ period.

==The Galaxy (and beyond)==
The Galaxy Far Far Away is a spiral galaxy about 120,000 light year in diameter. It is home to an unusually high number of populated planets and species. It has a few smaller satellite galaxies, though only one is ever visited in the entity of Star War media and only in an obscure short story (but visitors from the others have come).
*The Deep Core: The innermost part of the galaxy. Due to a high number of black holes, and dense star clusters, only the outer most areas are explored. The sole exception is a top secret Imperial bunker world of Byss, also Empress Teta (a world that once rivaled Coruscan in population, named after the badass who broke Naga Sadow's attempt to destroy the Republic with the Old Sith Empire) is just on the inside of the border between the Deep Core and the Core.
*The "Core" worlds: The most populated and best mapped part of the galaxy. Holds the actual capital of the Republic/Empire/New Republic, and some of the biggest sources of culture. The earliest known home world of Humans and Duros, but the Rakata taking these species as slaves leaves the world of their origin a mystery.
*Colonies: The first areas that was expanded to after hyperspace travel came about.
*Inner Rim: The next set of areas colonized. By the time of the films, they’re pretty developed.
**Hapes Cluster: An independent system of stars ruled by the matriarchal Hapes Consortium. Even for Star Wars, it's incredibly dense in populated worlds. They took in a large number of Separatist scientists at the end of the Clone Wars and by the New Republic it has unique technology that's more advanced in some areas despite lagging behind in some other areas.
*Mid rim: An even further area of expansion. Where the Mid Rim ends and the Outer Rim begins is a bit vague, with a lot of the outer Mid Rim being barely if at all better off than the Outer Rim.
*Outer Rim: The farthest reach of the galaxy. Civilization is sparsely populated, neglected by the galactic authorities and/or largely dominated by the independent and cruel Hutt Empire.
** Hutt Space: An autonomous section of the galaxy ruled by the Hutt clans ("Kajidic"). How, exactly, head of state (or any government function) is determined and what titles they hold is unclear, but there seems to be some Hutt that somehow becomes on top of it. A lack of extradition agreements with the Republic renders it a haven for criminals, who in turn kick money back to the Hutts. It joins the Empire during its existance, only to continue its shifty ways after early Imperial attempts to wipe out crime fail and regain independence after Palpatine's death.
*Corporate Sector/Tingel Arm: The "northern" most edge of the galaxy. Over 400 years before ''The Phantom Menace'', the Republic had the brilliant idea to develop an unpopulated section of the galaxy: Get a bunch of large companies to do it in exchange for some autonomy, resource rights and lower taxes. [[Not As Planned|Naturally this went poorly]], and the whole place is a [[Cyberpunk]] style megacorp controlled dystopia. Originated in the Han Solo books, one of the first expanded universe books ever, and the fluff from there has seen little change.
*Unknown Regions: The vast, largely unexplored due to similar issues to the core, western chunk of the galaxy. It actually has several native hyperspace capable civilizations forging their own empires by the New Republic era, one of which was already active over 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin.
*Wild Space: Wild Space is the area of the galaxy that ''is'' charted and open to Hyperspace travel, but unsettled and most of the detail on the maps is lacking. Holds the Rishi system, the only publicly known path to the Rishi maze (a state secret path in the Outer Rim's Rothana goes to Kamino).
*Rishi Maze: The only one of the satellite galaxies to be visited by those from the main galaxy, able to be accessed by traveling a chain of systems stuck between the two. The one short story that actually goes there describes it as a mess of radiation, but this could be the particular system within the maze. The only people known to live here are exploiting the natural resource deposits and hiding from The Empire. More well known is the cloner planet of Kamino, which is between the main galaxy and the maze.
*(unnamed) Yuuzhan Vong galaxy: This was the home galaxy of the EU race the Yuuzhan Vong, their original homeworld of Yuuzhan'tar, the planet Zonama Sekot, the reptoid Chazrach, and possibly the Silentium (who made first contact and war on the Vong) and the Abominor droid civilizations . The galaxy was a spiral galaxy like GFFA and had a vast number of sentient races in it; however, the Yuuzhan Vong [[Tyranids|wiped the others out]], save the Chazrach [[Dark Eldar|whom they instead enslaved]]. The Yuuzhan Vong referred to it as the "ancestral galaxy", and much of it was destroyed when [[Horus Heresy|the Yuuzhan Vong started fighting among themselves after dominating the galaxy]], with its current state of what's left of it unknown.
*Firefist Galaxy: Another one of the orbiting galaxies. The only contact the main galaxy has had with it has been sending probes. Home to the Faruun, Maccabree, Nagai and Tof, all of which arrived during the early New Republic fleeing the problems of their home or in pursuit. All of this comes from the Marvel comics (with some smoothing in the details in reference books), but despite the general oddness of fitting the Marvel comics into more modern canon and many silly concepts in those comics, the presence of these species and their conflict is largely accepted because, unlike the ''other'' extragalactic visitors, it's not very disruptive to overall canon to include them. Given that Disney now owns both Marvel and Star Wars, we may see more of them.

==Technology==
Star Wars appears to be a fairly standard sci-fi world (because it ''set'' that standard), but there's many subtle nuances that are easily missed
* Hyperdrives take ships to Hyperspace where they can travel and arrive at other destinations at FTL speed. Using a hyperdrive takes careful calculation to not only arrive on target, but avoid hitting anything on your way there.
** Each hyperdrive has a class, which multiplies travel time. At the time of the Rebellion, the standard was 2x, with newer/upgraded ships often packing class 1x and the Millennium Falcon (proclaimed to be the fastest ship in The Galaxy) had a class 0.5 as a result of modifications that made it unreliable. Anything larger than a fighter has a backup hyperdrive of much higher class (typically double digit) to ensure the crew can limp to the nearest populated system in the event of failure of the primary drive.
** Most travel occurs along the great hyperspace lanes, where the way is known to be clear and calculations are more established.
** Vehicles have to start up their shields ''after'' they complete their jump, which makes them vulnerable if you can predict where they are coming from. This makes launching an attack purely to target any reinforcements possible.
** Hyperspace itself [[Warp|is weird]], and standard procedure is to avoid looking outside long term during travel to prevent people from going nuts. Communications while in hyperspace (except to ships making the same jump) are near impossible. Leaving hyperspace without the ship you came in on is impossible, and ejecting someone during travel ensures their death.
** There's a handful of instances of of hyperdrive failures sending people to Otherspace, an alternate dimension populated by a ship graveyard and hostile bug aliens with organic technology.
** One thing that's often overlooked is that modern hyperdrive technology is adapted from the dark side powered hyperdrives of the ancient Rakata after they lost the ability to use The Force and could no longer travel to maintain their empire. The result is that even [[Adeptus Mechanicus|experts don't have a total understanding of ''how'' Hyperspace works]].
** Hyperdrive is quick, a good hyperdrive capable ship can get you across the galaxy in at most a day.
** Interdictor ships are capable of generating artificial gravity well to stop travel through their path and prevent ships from getting away. These first appeared in the Mandalorian Wars of the Old Republic, using spammed tractor beams to fake gravity wells, but these couldn't keep pace with hyperdrive improvements and disappeared till a superior successor technology was developed in the Imperial era. During the early days of the New Republic, Admiral Ackbar devised a tactic of using of such ships to prevent ''ally'' movement, ordering one to power up if it detected sabotage on a planned target had failed so the incoming attackers would be pulled from hyperspace far enough away to retreat. It would be Thrawn however that would prove the true master of such maneuvers, developing a system that allowed reliable same-system hyperspace jumps during tactical combat, hence it's name, Thrawn Pincer. Thrawn himself nicked that idea from Plo Koon and Saesee Tin when they wanted to bomb a planet but also bypass the superior blockade around the planet.
* FTL communication comes in four forms, all with their own issues.
** Holonet: The best known method for FTL communications. Vaguely comparable to the early internet, with news, primitive BBS, email, and some other stuff. Quite rare once you get past the developed core areas, and expensive to use both in setting it up and bandwith costs. Only military command vehicles and those for heads of state are likely to have personal holonet transceivers.
** Subspace relay: The cheaper alternative to the holonet is subspace relays. Relatively slow and has problems with dropped communications, but still FTL. Most capital ships have subspace transceivers, and some smaller vehicles are known to have them as upgrades. Comparable to snail mail, with shopping being a mail order order system like the Sears Catalog (view catalog, send order and payment, await shipping) rather than online shopping.
** Hyperspace Courier: Has all the problems of courier communication, and all the problems of hyperspace combined. Despite these faults, it's often the only choice for the most remote systems or if someone is disrupting the above two (like in a war) and always the only way to send physical goods.
** The Force: Occasionally powerful Force users are seen communicating via The Force across very long distances. This requires both parties be strong in The Force and have a very close connection. Even then being able to do anything more than sense the other is in danger is a crapshoot.
* Blasters use energy to excite special gas that is then expelled to deadly effect. Most blasters have an alternate stun setting which provides less-lethal takedowns. Stun setting is quite reliable and consistent even on physically tough species like Wookiees, though it's not safe to use on pregnant women and outside of specialized stun-only blasters the range is rather low. Despite being energy weapons, they have quite a kick. Routinely dismissed as "slow" despite multiple sources contradicting this idea. How fast they are is somewhat debatable (and differs depending on which canon), but they're considered more advanced than Slugthrowers (detailed below), implying that Blasters are better overall.
** [[Stubber|Normal firearms]], known as slugthrowers, are also present. Compared to blasters they're cheaper, cause bleeding, are far more dangerous to block with a lightsaber (it'll usually just melt the slug and make you get hit with molten metal instead), can be suppressed, and lower maintenance requirements, but have less initial stopping power, lower capacity, can't stun, make far more noise without a suppressor, and have heavier ammo. Considered more primitive than blasters, which is why you rarely see them (well, that and the powers that be preferring Star Wars to not be rated R).
** Ion weapons disrupt electric systems, but cause little structural damage and only minor burns on living creatures. This allows them to disable droids or ships without totally destroying them, making them important in capturing them.
** [[Sonic Weaponry]] exists, but it's considered an odd fork (as powerful as a slug thrower with none of its benefits) by everyone outside of water worlds and Jedi hunters.
* Replusorlift keeps vehicles, industrial equipment and some droids floating off the ground a good distance. Most spacecraft have repulsor systems as well, which is how they're able to operate in atmosphere despite their poor aerodynamics.
* '''[[Robot|Droids]]''' aren't a true species, but are playable in all RPGs. They're supposed to be really smart appliances, but Star Wars technology is so fucked up that a few develop sapience if left on too long without formatting. Despite this droids aren't considered people by the galaxy at large because sapient droids are as rare as non-evil [[drow]] and most of the time leaving droids running for a long time just makes them slower and buggier until they can't do their jobs anymore, like Windows, or, at best, overly attuned to a specific user. That a good number of sapient droids have learned to bypass that pesky "no killing" clause doesn't exactly encourage experimenting with it and trying to replicate it either.
** Class 1 droids are designed to preform scientific applications like medicine or lab work. Since they were designed to be used in fixed locations most, but not all, have limited mobility.
** Class 2 droids are designed to preform technical labor like repair work. Since they are expected to work within artificial locations they are generally on wheels or treads and have short, non-human shapes. One notable subcategory of Class 2 droids are Astromech Droids (like the famed R2 series), which are designed to plug into fighters and bombers where they function as a co-pilot, navicomputer and in-flight repair.
** Class 3 droids are designed for human interaction, with jobs like translator or chef. Some lower end Class 3 droids were made for positions like waiter. Almost all of them are roughly human shape, with the main exception being those built by and for non-humans that instead resemble their intended masters.
** Class 4 droids are the most varied but have one thing in common that clearly separates them: They are made for combat and (except for a few armed with only stun weapons) don't have programming against killing. Class 4 droids vary in intelligence from blaster turrets with some targeting AI to clever and ruthless assassins/commandos. Even [[Android|Human Replica Droids]], designed to be indistinguishable from humans, are technically Class 4. Many Class 4 droids have their nature obfuscated by building them into the shell of a Class 1 or Class 3 droid.
** Class 5 droids are made for manual labor like heavy lifting or a power generator with legs. They are barely intelligent, rarely have names and almost never become sapient. They are however cheap and quite common.
* Cloning: Fairly realistic on most accounts. You take a gene sample, use it to make an ova, grow it in an exowomb and decant it as an infant you raise to adulthood. The main difference is that SW cloners are much, much better at it, with a vastly higher success rate compared to real life plus the ability to do accelerated aging for army building. The Kaminoans are the best at this. Generally, Force-Sensitives can't be cloned, and when they are, they most often come out as physically and mentally unstable nutjobs who need to be put out of their misery. "Perfect" Force-Sensitive clones are exceedingly rare, to the point that (again), most in-universe consider it impossible.
* Cloaking devices come in two types.
** The first was dependent upon crystals that became rare due to overharvesting. Use of a superweapon for deep excavation allowed an imperial research project to toy with the idea of fitting an entire squadron of fighters equipped with one.
** The second, the hibridium model, used a different rare material and was developed near the end of the Empire, though didn't see use till after the fall. It was substantially (though still only relatively) cheaper but had two unique drawbacks. The first was that it also blinded the ship to the world outside and rendered it unable to communicate as well. These problems would briefly be overcome with the use of the Force instead. Afterwards the Remnant gave up on it as mostly useless, and agreed to ban it during the peace treaty with the New Republic.
** Personal "stealth field" generators also seem to exist, unrelated to these. They simply dampen sound and bend light to make the wearer harder to spot and difficult (but not impossible) to see. Presumably these aren't upscaled for vehicle use because of the real world problem with such a concept of being completely useless against any sensor beyond just human level vision (still being blatantly obvious to thermal, as well as radar if they're big enough ect.).
* In many ways, while technology is advanced it's still in the mindset of 1983, if not 1977. As mentioned above, the internet (at least the interplanetary one) is quite primitive and poorly connected. Even though everyone has a tiny radio set (Comlink), there's no such thing as cellphones (you have to broadcast to a channel and hope whoever you want to hear something is listening). Aside from portable computers, which are quite expensive, and datapads, which still have limited functionality, most non-droid technology only does one thing. Unlike the 1913 rail and M-Lok equipped guns of the 90s onward, weapon accessories either need to be made for a single model or hand-fitted by an expert. Video games are either professional simulators or extremely primitive.
* Energy shields come in several variants
** Ray shields protect from energy weapons but are useless against physical attacks. Most ships are equipped with ray shields.
** Particle shields protect from physical attacks but are useless against energy attacks. Generally only bigger ships are equipped with particle shields while smaller ships such as fighters only have ray shields.
** Planetary shields are the reason why ground battles happen and why orbital superiority isn't enough to secure a planet. They can withstand even the most severe bombardment for weeks, with only weapons like the Death Star being capable of penetrating them almost instantaneously. As a result, it is generally more feasible to land troops on the planet.
* [[Lightsaber]]s are the most iconic weapon of the setting, being plasma-based melee weapons only used by crazy space [[wizard]]-[[monk]]s.
* [[The Force]] isn't so much technology as something in between a religion, [[magic]] and [[psionics]]. This is ''the'' element that turns Star Wars from [[Space Opera]] into [[Science Fantasy]].

==Setting History==
{{stub}}
Bear in mind the highly contradictory nature of canon and many sources from EU to Disney means any attempt to truly form a concrete history would take an in-depth scholarly pursuit of all sources and debate amongst the global community while taking into account upcoming new results that can entirely rewrite the record. You know, like real history ([[Tolkien]] did an admirable job, but nothing quite says plausible history like something everyone has an opinion on but nobody that anyone wants to listen to has fully researched). At any rate, what is presented here is an abridged version of the lore history prior to the Original Trilogy, using the most complete accounts, and combining the EU AKA “Legends” with the Disney canon when not contradictory (because despite having supposedly wiped it out of canon, there are frequent callbacks to parts of it). Though in fairness, Legends lore is far more fleshed out and takes priority in practice. Since it is under construction, it will probably be split into different sections (or we'll put parentheses showing whether it's Disney or OG, going in year order). As a note, most dates are referred to Before or After the Battle of Yavin (with both 0 BBY and 0 ABY existing) for the sake of out of universe convenience. There are various in-universe calendars, but this is pretty much the standard at the time of the end of the story and is the easiest to follow IRL. Thus, when the contradictions majorly start after Episode 6, the format will be Legends-5 ABY, Disney-5ABY, Legends-6 ABY and so on.

* The universe begins, life begins to evolve. A lot of small things happen that tie into other stories, but aren’t worth mentioning outside that story.
* The unknown Celestial race holds dominion around a hundred thousand years Before the Battle of Yavin, they mysteriously vanish soon afterwards.
** Before disappearing, a set of force wielding physical gods known as the Father, the Daughter and the Son help them to seal Abeloth "The Mother", a mortal who lived with them and in desperation for sharing their immortality did some extremely bad dark side Force stuff and turned into an eldritch abomination, in the Maw Cluster of black holes using Centerpoint Station, a super weapon in the partially artificial Corellia System.
* The first galactic civilization (that we know of except whatever the Celestials were, if they even count as a formal polity) are the Rakata, cruel aliens who uplift various other species for slaves and food in the Rakatan Infinite Empire. This explains most aliens that are just paint and simple face prosthetics away from being human, as well as recurring traits like bipedalism.
** The Rakata encounter the Sith species, who also use the dark side. The Sith drive them off after a costly battle thanks to Sith King Adas sacrificing himself.
*** The Sith'ari prophecy is made to indicate a worth successor to Adas who would bring the Sith to the height of their power, Bane would be the Sith'ari more than twenty thousand years later.
** At some point the Rakata encounter the Hutts, and the result is the Rakata being nearly wiped out. Hutts did not possess space travel, nor would they until much later so how the fuck that happened isn’t clear, though it is mentioned that they lost their connection to the Force (universally the Dark Side due to species wide enforcement of being an asshole) after an unknown illness.
** Time progresses and the Rakata are forgotten from general knowledge outside of archeological and historical circles, even then only Force sensitives really know the major significance other than "big empire that collapsed before the Republic was even a dream".
* Civilizations develop and discover space travel, then hyperspace travel. Initial hyperspace colonization and mapping is risky, requiring oftentimes blind jumps and the hope there isn’t a star or something where you end up.
** Blind jumps result in colonists losing contact with the rest of the universe and evolving on their own, explaining some groups that are VERY similar but not the same species (for example, Miraluka are lost human colonists who ended up on a planet with poor light and over generations they evolved to not have eyes, but instead all have a Jedi-tier connection to the Force to “see” with).
* The Force-users find their jumps guided to a specific planet, with aliens from many diverse backgrounds guided to a planet (First Tython in Legends, changed to Ahch-To in the Disney canon. Later material for The Mandalorian brought Tython back alongside Ahch-To as both being early Jedi planets and nobody knowing for sure which was actually the first).
** Bringing their own religions, traditions, and cultures, the Force-users develop schools of thought on the philosophy. Eventually one group decides the meaning of life for the Force is to destroy evil (like [[Paladins]]), and wages war on the others saying “you’re with us or against us”. One group resists which saw honor and personal development as the meaning of life (like [[Cavalier]]s). The rest were split between the two.
** The Paladin-like aggressors were victorious, slaughtering and driving off the Cavalier-types. The Paladin-like Force-users would become the early Jedi. The Cavalier-types would find pain and misery in exile after multiple Great Schism's, sinking deep into worship of power and personal gain. After the Third Great Schism caused by Jedi Knights Ajunta Pall, Sorzus Syn, Xoxaan, Remulus Dreypa and Karness Muur wanting to study the Dark Side after the balance started falling towards Light Side use lead to the Hundred Year Darkness civil war, they are exiled. The exiles find and enslave a species of aliens and stole both their dark Force/alchemy teachings as well as their name when Ajunta Pall killed the last King Hakagram Graush, the Sith, and interbreeding with them to build the Old Sith Empire, Pall as the first Dark Lord of the Sith.
*** The Hundred Year Darkness leads to the invention of Lightsabers, inspired by Rakata Forcesabers, though initial examples like the one Karness Muur used require energy batteries on belts connected by cables.
*** Karness Muur discovers the method of immortality when he transfers his spiritual essence to his Muur Talisman amulet created by Sith Alchemy. Dreypa, his rival, makes a stasis coffin to hold Muur in, said coffin is later named the Jebble Box and is misidentified as a Jedi artifact.
** This becomes a recurring pattern in Star Wars history regarding good and evil Force-users. Good creates its own evil by standing up and declaring themselves good and morally correct, turning any challengers to their orthodoxy towards the Dark Side (look, it comes up whenever Lucas or some other writer wants to go back to the Taoist roots of The Force). Good then defeats the evil it created once evil has almost won, and they reestablish order with some oppression in an attempt to prevent another evil which restarts the cycle.
** The Chosen One to bring balance to the Force prophecy is made. Anakin Skywaker would fulfill this prophecy a thousand years after Bane fulfilled the Sith'ari prophecy.
* Humans and Duro, the first two species to discover hyperspace travel from Rakata technological remnants, eventually meet. The planet they meet on has been implied to be the human homeworld, the Duro homeworld, Earth, and various other things, but it doesn’t matter, final decision settled on as Human homeworld with any connection to real Earth slashed and Duro homeworld being described as another planet in another part of the galaxy. It becomes Coruscant (the homeworld of the Taung, a.k.a. OG Mandalorians, and also the homeworld of the human predecessor race, the latter won and drove off the Taung to Mandalore), and they create the first Galactic Republic in 25553 BBY.
** The exiled Taung found Mandalore, a martial society of warmongers and Social Darwinists, on the planet of Mandalore, which along with it's moon and nearby systems has a massive amount of the substance known as Beskar, capable of making Lightsaber resistant armor.
* Various expansion wars occur after the Republic is founded, including a religiously motivated 1000 year long pro-human genocidal regime, the Pius Dea cult, taking over, brought down by the Jedi and those sick of their shit after their reign, leading to a few decades of Jedi Grandmasters pulling double duty as Supreme Chancellor to restore democracy and arrest leftover cultists. Other wars also occur such as the the Hutt Wars with Xim the Despot, the Hutt Cataclysms (a major series of Civil Wars and natural disasters that ruined the Hutt Empire and instituted the Hutt Cartel system and founded the basis of the galactic criminal underworld), and a series of wars on and off for 20000 odd years over whether Coruscant or another planet (Alsakan) is to be the capital.
** Two important worlds that need to be noted are Corellia, which has disproportionate influence in the founding of the Republic and even has the right to declare neutrality in civil disputes due to economic power of its status on the most important hyperspace shortcut in the galaxy (as well as the Celestial influenced state of their system), and Kuat, founded by pre-Hyperspace human colonists launched from Coruscant and the premier shipyard in the galaxy.
* Eventually the Sith return to destroy the Jedi after two Republic scouts accidentally stumble upon Korriban, the Sith species home planet and now the burial site for the Dark Lords, and return while being followed, kicking off the Great Hyperspace War.
** The Republic is almost destroyed, but survives, and led by Empress Teta (the Empress of a member world that is) in turn smashes the Old Sith Empire led by Dark Lord Naga Sadow.
** The Sith slink back into the shadows. The Jedi start their other big tradition, over-correcting from their past mistakes and creating new ones, by beginning a time of non-interference in galactic affairs and a general desire only for peace.
** During this time, Darth Vitiate (born Tenebrae as the illegitimate son of Sith Lord Dramath [[Grimdark|who raped one of his slaves]]) exploits the defeat and manipulates 8000 fellow Sith Lords to a secret ritual to live forever. It goes [[Just as Planned]] for Vitiate as he consumes the souls of his fellows to become immortal (but not invincible) and names himself Sith Emperor of the Reformed Sith Empire. He secretly builds his forces from the remaining Sith armies and lords.
** Duringthe final battle of the Great Hyperspace War a Sith ship crashes into a planet and the survivors become the Lost Tribe of Sith.
* Freedon Nadd, Jedi apprentice, is denied knighthood and falls to the Dark Side after finding Sadow's tomb and his spirit. He causes the Beast Wars on Onderon and its moon Dxun and rules for a hundred years before dying, his cultists becoming weirdo beast rider types who plague Onderon.
* Two Jedi Knights, Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma fall to the Dark side after finding Dark Lord Marka Ragnos and Nadd's spirits respectively and become Master and Apprentice in that order. After Ulic kills his brother and former fellow Jedi, he returns to the light and kills Exar Kun during their war to destroy the Jedi. Ulic wanders around for a while and then dies in his former lover Grand Master Nomi Sunrider's arms, who had become Grand Master after Exar Kun and Ulic's war ended with the formers death.
* Mandalorians, the space Mongols/Aztecs, start attacking the universe because all they understand is war (and because the Taung species is dying out, leading to them allowing worthy foreigners to join, humans end up as the vast majority).
** This massive war almost wipes out several species but the Jedi do nothing. Eventually one of their number, nicknamed the Revanchist and his friends Alek and Meetra Surik are dispatched to investigate, and upon finding the atrocities committed decide to forsake the Jedi wuss way and break the back of the Mandalorians.
** The Revanchist takes the name of Revan after picking up and putting on the mask of a female Mandalorian who refused orders to massacre civilians and died defending them.
** During the fighting, Mandalore the Ultimate orders Serocco and Jebble nuked from orbit, killing everyone who failed to escape and leaving Jedi Assassin Celeste Morne stranded on Jebble in stasis, which she had gone in to to keep the Muur Talisman which contained to soul of Karness Muur, one of the Dark Jedi exiles who founded the Sith Order, from escaping. The stasis coffin is the same one built by Remulus Dreypa to keep Muur in.
** Revan kills Mandalore the Ultimate in single combat, leaving the Taung extinct. After learning that Mandalore the Ultimate was manipulated through his final words, Revan and Alek go to Dromund Kaas to investigate, then fall to the Dark Side and create a fascist government centered on Dromund Kaas (actually the hidden capital of the Reformed Sith Empire who brainwashed the leader of the Mandos). The Sith Emperor had brainwashed both of them.
** Revan becomes Darth Revan and Alek becomes Darth Malak, which almost destroys the Republic, again (a third recurring theme), with the only loyalists remaining being Surik and her chief engineer, who had returned to the Order after the final battle at Malachor V where they fired a super weapon, the Mass Shadow Generator on Revan's orders which the brainwashed Revan used to kill the other loyalist Jedi, before Revan and Alek went off to open revolt.
** A Jedi named Bastila Shan is sent to assassinate their leader Darth Revan, but believing in redemption instead she wiped his mind. The two went on an adventure while Revan was trained as a Jedi again, and he defeated his apprentice Darth Malak and dismantled his own army (also did a bunch of racing, theme #4).
** Afterwards, the remaining Fallen Jedi institute the First Jedi Purge under the Sith Triumvirate, Darth Nihilus (who vored planets after being reduced to a husk by the superweapon Revan used at Malachor V), Darth Sion (who was so edgy he had to be convinced to let go as he was too angry to die), and Darth Traya (a.k.a. Kreia, actually Jedi Master Arren Kae, who wanted to destroy the force itself) and their followers, survivors of Malak's remaining army.
** The only loyalist Jedi survivor of Revan's initial force, Meetra Surik, having been exiled from the Order after being the only veteran to return, comes back and destroys the Sith Triumvirate (redeeming the only apprentice they had, Visas Marr, in the process) along with her companions (including Visas and her old chief engineer) who she trained as Jedi, plus Revan's old war buddy/current Mand'alor (Mandalorian king) Canderous Ordo and an asshole droid.
** Revan's companions and Meetra's companions then presumably rebuild the Jedi Order and the badly damaged Republic over 300 years, while Revan and Surik go to Dromund Kaas to finish off the Emperor (Revan not telling anyone like a moron, while Surik just went to help her friend) but are betrayed by their ally Darth Scourge, who foresees the Emperor is not going to die for three more centuries.
** Surik ignonomously dies, while Revan is tortured for 300 years while managing to keep the Emperor from attacking the Republic when it is vulnerable.
* A clusterfuck of things happen.
** The Sith create a nearly galaxy-wide coalition to start a civil war with the Republic. The Sith have overwhelming advantage, but are so backstabby and hedonistically asinine they fail to accomplish anything major after the initial strikes, though Darth Malgus manages to sack Coruscant and the Jedi Temple.
** Things cool of for 12 years in a Cold War, then heat back up again and are disrupted when the Sith Emepror (who as stated was the guy who manipulated the Mandalorians and brainwashed Revan) is apparently killed by the Hero of Tython (who is then promoted to Jedi Battlemaster) aided by Darth Scourge (who the Emperor life-extended to serve as his personal assassin, while plotting to kill the Emperor).
** Revan splits in two from the 300 year torture, and after the torturers (the edgiest Sith ever, the Dread Masters, who were personally trained by the Emperor) get killed by the SWTOR player character of your choice (story-wise, the Hero of Tython makes the most sense as the Jedi Knight so will go with that for the purposes of timeline), who had also apparently killed Darth Malgus when he got pissed at the [[Stupid Evil]] of the other Sith and tried to make his own empire, and tries to bring the Emperor back to a physical body, with the protagonist and their allies barely stopping him.
** It turns out the Emperor manipulated Revan's last efforts and used the bloodshed there to transfer all of his spirit to where he was actually focusing on, the Eternal Empire at the planet of Zakuul he made over the past few centuries, after finding a super robot fleet in the planet of Iokath and possessing a local hero named Valkorion. His body is destroyed by the protagonist, and the Emperor's son Arcann (who killed his light-side twin in a rage) invades both the Republic and the Sith Empire.
** Meanwhile, the protagonist is placed in carbonite for five years, while Arcann used the Emperor's supposed death to drum up support for his regime in Zakuul. He is defeated and (due to Light Side Republic Loyalist Jedi Knight being the most reasonable choice for storyline purposes) is redeemed to the light side. His sister tries to take over, and is killed. A large part of the Emperor's soul is destroyed after trying to take over the SWTOR protagonist.
** Afterwards, the Republic and Sith Empire return to war over the remaining superweapons on Iokath and the SWTOR protagonist rejoins the Jedi and the Republic. Empress Acina (who took over the Reformed Sith Empire after Darth Marr, regent after the Emperor faked his death, was killed after being captured along with the protagonist prior to the 5-year timeskip) dies in the fighting and Darth Malgus returns, having survived and rebuilt as a cyborg.
** The Emperor finally loses control of the Force and all three of his personalities (Tenebrae, Darth Vitiate and Valkorion) are destroyed, finally killing him for good and thus letting Revan and Meetra become one with the Force. The protagonist continues heroics and defeats/captures some Dark Council Sith Lords (and Malgus, presumably in the next expansion as of the time of writing - which happened and he was captured by the Republic, further details TBA as SWTOR storyline continues) and the final phase of the Great Galactic War eventually ends in Republic victory, the Reformed Sith Empire shattering to pieces.
* Around 2000 years before the Battle of Yavin some dickwad Jedi falls to the Dark Side as Darth Ruin and reignites the brewing low intensity conflict as the New Sith Wars at full scale as the first undisputed Dark Lord in a millenium since the Sith Empire Remnants shattered to insurgencies and individual Dark Side cabals. Ruin instigates the Fourth and last Great Schism of the Jedi.
** The Sith eventually reform into the Brotherhood of Darkness to prevent the mass backstabbing that restarted with the New Sith Wars and bans the title of Darth, with all Sith Lords being equal (though of course, [[Communism|some are more equal than others]], like fallen Jedi Master Skere Kaan).
** After a thousand straight years of war, a Galactic Dark Age settles in and ruins major tech infrastructure and companies, fixing the dissonance between movie era tech being worse than literally thousands of years ago. The last three hundred years until 1000 BBY are particularly brutal, killing FTL communications past the Mid Rim sans courier and brings the Republic to its knees.
* 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, Sergeant Dessel, transferring from the Sith Army to the Sith Academy after his force sensitivity was discovered, thinks the Brotherhood of Darkness is a bunch of bullshit. He decides that the Dark Side can only have two Sith, one Master to embody power and an Apprentice to crave it, after finding Revan's edgy fanfiction he wrote after the Mandolarian Wars and before the Jedi Civil War in a Sith Holocron. He names himself Darth Bane and manipulates Lord Kaan into building the Thought Bomb, a Dark Side Force weapon.
** The Brotherhood of Darkness are defeated at the (Seventh) Battle of Ruusan. They detonate the Thought Bomb, which wipes them out along with the Army of Light, a Jedi army formed in desperation by Lord Hoth as a last resort to save the Republic, as the Army of Light sacrifice themselves to force Kaan to detonate it early and end the New Sith Wars, [[Just As Planned|exactly as Bane planned]].
** The Rule Of Two is instituted by Bane who takes Zhannah as his apprentice, preventing the Dark Side clusterfuck that happens when too many assholes exist as “equals” in one faction. The Jedi almost destroy the Sith as Zhannah is caught spying in the Jedi Temple and is forced to retreat, chased by three masters and two knights.
** Bane and Zhannah defeat them and Zhannah's cousin is made insane by her Sith Sorcery and attacks the Jedi task force sent after them, who are forced to kill him. Thinking that was the Sith they were looking for the Jedi pat themselves on the back and go back to Coruscant to report the Sith being destroyed.
** Zhannah defeats Bane and takes Cognus as her apprentice. Cognus takes Millenial (yes, Darth Millenial) as her apprentice, who disagrees with the Rule of Two and goes to Dromund Kaas to start the Prophets of the Dark Side, who worship the Dark Side. Cognus takes another apprentice and things continue as they hide, plan, research, and backstab in secret for 1000 years.
* After this apparent victory, the Republic undergoes the Ruusan Reformation, beginning the Great Peace of the Republic in which no major war occurred.
** The Jedi are greatly weakened in political authority and demilitarized. They also begin strictly enforcing the age maximum for training people as Jedi. Having lost its best and brightest save for Grand Master Faye (namely, Lord Hoth and Master Valenthyne Farfhalla) in the Army of Light's sacrifice, degenerate into Lawful Stupid morons with the Ruusan Reformation, which states that the Jedi can no longer create an army, and that the Jedi are under the command of the Senate, although they still have their own Council for internal stuff. They decide to vigorously enforce the age limit and become more and more detached from the people and the small good deeds that help reinforce the light side in an individual (demonstrated in SWTOR with the Hero of Tython, whose dead master as a Force Ghost instructs him to give labor and medical assistance in a small village to help reinforce his soul).
** The Republic disbands its military except for a small anti-piracy force in the Judicial Forces and leaves actual defense to Planetary Defense Forces.
** The Republic massively decentralizes and executive, as opposed to legislative or home planet/sector, power starts falling back into Senators hands for the first time since pretty much the Pius Dea period as Supreme Chancellors and Vice Heads essentially become first and second among equals to other Senators, thus making the executive and legislative significantly accountable to the larger and more bribe friendly Senate rather than the government.
* Due to the infrastructure damage, a period of [[Medieval Stasis]] sets in, turning for example battle droids from multi legged hyper mobile tanks and super deadly assassins to crappy shit tier fodder infantry outside of expensive special models.
* Megacorporations gain power in the sparser regions of the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim as the republic falls into a combination of absurd political corruption and Inner Rim/Core Worlds exceptionalism, to the point that some corps have Senators of their own (not even bribed, literal voting members presumably elected/bribed the electoral offices from corp owned worlds). Senators essentially become mouthpieces of planetary interests or big business and vote based on who bribes them.
* 65 years before the Battle of Yavin, a man from Naboo's House Palpatine (dubbed Sheev in Disney canon) became the apprentice to a Sith Master named Darth Plagueis.
** He learned secrets of Sith Alchemy and pretty much any other plot-related evil shit that writers want, takes on the name Darth Sidious, then killed his master and began a (very convoluted) plan to wipe out the Jedi, rule the galaxy and wage war on things outside the galaxy, and live forever. Just assume anything that happens from here until his death is [[Tzeentch|because of him]].
** Palpatine takes on an apprentice, an older Jedi who left the Order due to its hands-off approach to galactic governance. The now ex-Jedi Dooku Serenno reclaimed the fortune and title of Count he had relinquished to join the Jedi and was secretly contacted by Palpatine to slowly cajole him over years.
* A Jedi named Sifo-Dyas has a prophecy that the galaxy will soon be at war, and concocts an elaborate plan to get an army for the currently armyless Republic using money from criminal organizations and the genetic material of a Mandalorian descended from the old warriors. He’s killed by Palpatine ([[Just As Planned|the guy that planted the idea in his head]]), who takes over the project via Dooku and had each clone implanted with a secret control chip that would override their training and loyalties when Sheev gave “Order 66”.
* As the Republic weakened due to corruption and the rising power of corporations, and the Jedi weakened due to Sheev’s (and his predecessors) tampering with the Force via bullshit Alchemy handwaves and becoming detached from the common people weakening their compassion and the light side, planets and organizations within the Republic began to act aggressively. Sheev was behind many of their moves as his public identity rose as the Senator of his home planet of Naboo.
** As aforementioned, many organizations gained enough power to have Senatorial representatives, making corporations as powerful as entire planets and causing the clusterfuck of alliances and conflicting interests to render the Republic almost powerless.
* The Trade Federation, a simple shipping company that had its own Senator and via shared interests controlled many, MANY more, began using its private army to blockade planets. They did this to secure exclusive contracts with the goal of controlling all trade everywhere eventually, and even hold power over the Republic due to its lack of military.
** Sheev as Sidious reveals himself to be heavily invested in their projects, and they gladly accepted his patronage. He advised them to upscale their ambitions and blockade the planet Naboo, which was far more powerful politically and economically than their previous targets, 32 years before the Battle of Yavin.
* We leave the mists of backstory/dubious canon and enter into the Movie/TV Canon.
** Two Jedi, an apprentice and a master (Obi-wan and Dooku’s old apprentice Qui-Gon) were sent to negotiate an end to the blockade. Fearing that the Federation had gone into dangerous territory, the leaders contacted Sheev, who ordered them to kill the Jedi and continue the blockade as if nothing had happened.
*** The Jedi escaped to the surface of the planet and escaped with the planet’s leader Queen Amidala. They were delayed due to engine problems from the escape, and stopped at Tatooine where they picked up a slave boy named Anakin who was Force-sensitive (implied to be an experiment from Sheev’s Alchemy to create life as he learned under Plagueis, abandoned after accidentally rendering Anakin's mother pregnant with no father, bot Plagueis and Palpatine deeming it a failure). Meanwhile Sheev’s own apprentice Darth Maul had been sent to ensure his plans were carried out. A couple of weeks after this Palpatine kills Plagueis and becomes the Dark Lord.
** Sheev convinced the Queen to start a movement against the administration of the Republic, which was joined by the majority of the Senate; even the corrupt were sick of everyone else’s corruption.
*** This destabilized the Republic leadership, shuffling Sheev into power as Supreme Chancellor and putting his lackeys in charge. Meanwhile, the queen and Jedi returned to Naboo and lead a revolt, defeating the Trade Federation and leaving their leadership as prisoners of the Republic, but Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin dies at the hands of Sidious's apprentice Maul and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi is left grieving and Maul believed dead as he was cut in half by Kenobi.
*** Sheev worked behind the scenes to keep them from being prosecuted for their actions while making plans to turn Anakin Skywalker, who had been found and chosen for training by the Jedi as part of the Chosen One Prophecy (by Obi-Wan, who had literally just become a Knight after Qui-Gon's death, so that was a dumb fucking call giving the kid who needed a father figure to a rigidly dedicated young man in mourning who had almost failed out of the Jedi into the Jedi Service Corps due to relative weakness in the force), into a future asset.
** Sheev progressed his plan for a war to further destabilize the galaxy by pitting the various corporate powers he controlled as Darth Sidious against the united planets he controlled as Supreme Chancellor. This leads to a Separatist movement with both sides financially powerful, both sides possessing armies, and both sides feeling they were the ones who were wronged and both firmly in Sith pockets, the Separatists as a disposable tool under Dooku (who, after Maul's believed death, had become Sidious's apprentice Tyrannus) and the Republic primed to vote for Palpatine to gain more and more power.
*** The “Clone Wars” began after a series of events orchestrated by Dooku where the Jedi discover and deploy the clone armies against Separatists who had been planning to execute the Jedi and former queen of Naboo as revenge on behalf of the Trade Federation.
** Sheev manipulated both sides of the conflict to deplete the strength of all participants. The Separatists were led by the cyborg General Grievous, Count Dooku (Sidious planned to replace both Maul and Dooku from the beginning, with Anakin) and the corrupt Separatist Council essentially acting as Count Dooku's mouthpiece, while the Republic forces were led by the Jedi Master Mace Windu and Grand Master Yoda.
** Public opinion began to turn against the war, and groups of Senators who had previously been allies of Sheev began meeting in secret and planning for militarizing their planets so there would no longer be a need for an army of the Republic.
** When the time was right Sidious orchestrated a finale of battles which resulted in the deaths of Dooku and Grievous, then enacted Order 66 to slaughter almost all of the Jedi and turned Anakin to his side as Darth Vader. He declared himself Emperor and the Republic his Empire, eliminating much of the old government over time, and allowing cronies to make it into the ranks of a galactic military dictatorship which used powerless puppet governments on the local level.
** Separatist remnants continue resistance and a majority of them are defeated in the Reconquest of the Rim.
** Small rebel cells popped up everywhere, which would eventually unite under the surviving members of the old Senate following Palpatine using Vader's "secret" apprentice to lure them out and failing to kill them as said apprentice turns to light and sacrifices himself (the plot of The Force Unleashed).
** The Great Jedi Purge comes to an end one year before the Battle of Yavin with Master An'ya Kuro being killed by Vader, leaving several dozen Jedi alive as the Empire shifted focus to fight the Rebels, now united as the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The Alliance is led by Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, two Senators.
** The Emperor dissolves the Senate and orders his military second Wilhuff Tarkin to use the newly built Death Star, a planet killer super weapon, to enforce his rule, while his civilian second Sate Pestage handles the bureaucracy.
** Han Solo, would be Imperial Officer, quits the academy after saving Wookie Warrior Chewbacca's life due to personal aversion to Imperial policy and turns into one of the best smugglers in the galaxy (having a Wookie owing a life debt to you really helps in fights, by the way).
** Vader turns out to have fathered twins with Padme Amidala, the Naboo senator after Palpatine became Chancellor, who died due to her life force being drained after giving birth to Luke and Leia. Leia got sent to live with Bail Organa and his wife in the idylic paradise Alderaan as Princess, while Luke got given to his in aunt and uncle at the sandy shithole Tatooine, utterly worthless except as a shadowport since the Rakatans bombed it to dust in such a way as to render minerals mined from it useless due to ion fluctuation after the world defied them. When we said the Jedi degenerated into [[Lawful Stupid]] morons, we meant it, given it was Obi-Wan and Yoda, basically the two big name Jedi of several dozen who had their heads screwed on straight, who made this decision.
** In 0 BBY Leia, by this time a very active but powerless Senator, acquires the Death Star plans after various different missions gather bits and pieces of it and rushes to Tatooine to get Obi-Wan's help on her fathers orders. Obi-Wan was on Tatooine to help guard Luke. Leia's ship and its escorts are intercepted by Vader and his units and her corvette attempts to escape from the battle only to be boarded by Vader's personal elite unit since the Clone Wars, the 501st Legion. Leia is captured but two droids, C-3PO (a protocol droid built by Anakin as a child) and R2-D2 (an astromech that used to belong to Naboo and was used by Anakin in the Clone Wars) manage to escape with the plans which Leia gave to R2-D2. The droids crash onto the planet in an escape shuttle.
{{Star Wars}}

The Lord of the Rings

2022-09-06T17:21:37Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power */

[[Image:LotR.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Daddy's home]]
{{Topquote | There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old's life: ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''Atlas Shrugged''. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. | John Rogers}}

'''''The Lord of the Rings''''', sometimes shortened to LOTR, is the sequel to [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Hobbit]]''. He found that the setting he had built was far too interesting to abandon after a simplistic quest storyline, an experience common to modern [[GM]]s, and his publisher thought a new story in Middle-earth would be just as popular as ''The Hobbit''.

=The Books=
Because of its original publication scheme (the whole thing was too big for '50s era bookbinding techniques), LOTR is commonly, though erroneously, called a trilogy - it's technically ''six'' books, just bundled into three:

*The Fellowship of the Ring
*The Two Towers
*The Return of the King

You have, of course, read them. If you haven't, gtfo and read them. And don't you even dare ''just'' watch the movies. Although amazing films, they aren't the same experience.

==The Story==
[[Image:LotR 1e.png|right|300px|thumb|The original [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|First Edition]] nerd book]]
If you're a filthy normie or you've been living on a cave on Mars with your fingers in your ears, here's a brief refresher:

Check [[The Silmarillion]] and [[The Hobbit]] to go in chronological order.

Bilbo Baggins, the protagonist of ''[[The Hobbit]]'', decides upon his 111th birthday to leave home and entrusts his magic ring to his nephew Frodo. Problem is, Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo's wizard friend, has figured out that something's off about the magic ring once he sees how Bilbo can barely bring himself to give it up; it is in fact the One Ring, an artifact created by Sauron, Lord of [[Mordor]] (and also Of The Rings), and contains a vast amount of his power. Its continued existence is a threat to the free peoples of Middle-earth and Gandalf exhorts Frodo to come to a meeting in Rivendell, house of the great elven lord Elrond, where a council of all the finest minds that can be brought together will determine what to do with it. Joined by his gardener Samwise and two fellow hobbits, Merry and Pippin, Frodo makes his way to Rivendell but not before running afoul of barrow-wights and Sauron's chief minions, the Nazgul, leading to him getting stabbed with a cursed sword by the lead Nazgul that would make him their wraith minion. Fortunately Elrond is also skilled in healing arts and magic and saves Frodo from the fate worse than death.

At the meeting, it is revealed that no mortal artifice can destroy the One Ring (demonstrated in the movie when Gimli shatters a weapon on the unassuming golden band). The only way to unmake it is to return it to the fires of Mount Doom where Sauron originally forged it. Unfortunately, Mount Doom is smack dab in the middle of Mordor and Gandalf can't ask his great eagle buddies to risk death by arrows, Fellbeasts (seriously, why does everyone forget that the bad guys could fly too?) or deadly volcanic gases to fly the ring to Mount Doom for him. Really though, stealth was the only realistic option, even if that meant hoofing it for months on end. And to make things more complicated, the ring itself is actively trying to get back into Sauron's hands, whether by alerting Sauron to its presence every time someone puts it on, outright manipulating people with promises of power, or just trying to GTFO the Bearer's person at every vaguely-plausible opportunity. Frodo agrees to bear the One Ring on its journey and a group is formed to escort him there. The party for this quest is called the Fellowship of the Ring and consists of:

*Frodo Baggins, the Ringbearer, hobbit;
*Samwise Gamgee, Paladin/gardener/Frodo's [[Gay|"best friend"]], hobbit;
*Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck, rogue, hobbit;
*Peregrin "Pippin" Took, bard, hobbit;
*Gandalf the Grey, wizard (one of the Istari, essentially an Angel in human guise, and on the same tier as Saruman, Sauron, and the Balrog);
*Aragorn, son of Arathorn, ranger, human of Númenorean descent and heir to the thrones of Arnor and Gondor;
*Boromir, son of Denethor, fighter, human;
*Legolas Greenleaf, son of Thranduil, archer, elf;
*Gimli, son of Glóin, fighter, dwarf;
[[file:Legolas.jpg|right|400px]]
So, off they go. After a few detours and sidetracks, the Fellowship is split into three (even though you should never split the party): Frodo and Sam go off directly to Mordor, as Frodo's the only one who really needs to go and Sam is too much of a bro to abandon him; Gandalf duels a primordial demon to the death (both their deaths, really) since he's the only one there powerful enough to stop it, but since he's a demigod on a divine mission [[skub|he gets to come back]]; Pippin and Merry are kidnapped by orcs but escape and wind up in Gondor, a formerly prosperous kingdom, and Rohan, a nation of Anglo-Saxons on horseback, respectively, after having adventures with Ents; Boromir dies in an ambush but has a pile of corpses to show for his troubles and gets a river funeral; Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli form a Human-Elf-Dwarf triple threat team, ostensibly to find and rescue Merry and Pippin, but end up travelling across two different kingdoms and fucking evil's shit up for the rest of the story, with Gimli as Dennis Rodman.

Despite having their own problems to contend with, somehow the members of the divided Fellowship seem to get involved with everyone else's mess and need to sort shit out. Their list of game achievements include, but are not limited to: surviving a ruined [[Dwarf Fortress|dwarf city]] filled with an insane number of goblins and a big motherfucking demon lord with weapons made of fire (the backstory behind this inspired the aforementioned game); foiling the plans of Gandalf's wicked wizard counterpart and his orc army; saving not one but two human nations (and the entire world for that matter); winning a whole campaign's worth of scenarios and battles; and defeating the big bad evil guy of the setting (that is currently not imprisoned off the edge of the world, his old boss had a bigger resume) with enough time to go home for tea and crumpets.

Finally, after going around the most fuck-me way possible to get into Mordor (partially due to bad directions from Gollum, who was conflicted with his addictive desire for the Ring, and an encounter with the [[Arachnarok Spiders|giant spider]]/spider-demon hybrid Shelob), Frodo reaches Mount Doom and is about to drop the ring into the lava when he can no longer resist the ring's allure. Just as it had done at the end of the Second Age when it stopped Isildur from destroying it, the ring saved its existence from certain doom. But in an ironic twist, the ring's former owner Gollum attacks Frodo for it and bites it off of his finger, dances about happily, and falls into the lava, just as both Frodo and the ring itself had warned what would happen if Gollum betrayed him and tried to take the ring. With the ring destroyed, Sauron's power is all but gone forevermore and his armies scatter. The eagles can swoop in for MEDEVAC, getting Frodo and Sam back to civilization to rest and recover before the hobbits return to the Shire.

But wait! The Shire's under new management, Chief Sharkey. Frodo and company help the hobbits rise up against Sharkey, who turns out to be Saruman, who has committed his greatest evil yet by trying to industrialize The Shire out of spiteful revenge. Frodo allows Saruman to leave the Shire, but his put-upon minion Gríma Wormtongue slits his throat (and is then riddled with arrows, nicely tying up that loose end). After compiling his memoirs and still feeling pain from the Nazgul attack all the way at the beginning of his journey, Frodo travels to the Grey Havens and is allowed to sail into the West, where he may find relief from his pain. The story ends on a bittersweet note as Sam (arguably the story's true protagonist and MVP of the closing chapters) finally settles back home with his family, writing the final pages to the Baggins' family saga.

Final apocrypha detail the fates of the characters, notably Sam goes west following his wife's death as he was a brief ringbearer (leaving the Red Book to his daughter and son-in-law), Merry and Pippin retire after lengthy political careers and witnessing Eomer's death before dying in Gondor, Aragorn cleans up the remaining orcs and makes peace with human servants of Sauron, has a son and some daughters with Arwen and dies of old age, followed by Arwen a year later. Gimli and Legolas go west after Aragorn's death, presumably along with the final few Elves who were getting their affairs in order before leaving Middle Earth, leaving humans as the dominant power of the Fourth Age and the Dwarves apparently peacefully dying out after reclaiming lost homes.

==The Expanded Canon==

Besides the LOTR trilogy and the Hobbit, there are a few other books about Middle Earth. Many of them were published after Tolkien's death, but were personally edited by his son to make them available to the public. While none of these books are strictly need-to-know material, they can be thought of as great fluff books full of additional stories that flesh out the setting.

*[[The Silmarillion]] - This was an abridged history of Middle Earth, from its creation to the War of the Ring. Here you'll find more information about Sauron and the creation of the One Ring, as well as epic tales of both elvish and human heroes from the First Age, the sociopathic Elf King Fëanor who played right into Melkor's (Middle-Earth's Satan and Sauron's boss) schemes, the rise and fall of <s>Atlantis</s> Numenor, the War of the Last Alliance, and other things. Many people complain about the Silmarillion being too dry and reading like a history book (which is what it is, to be fair); if you’re looking for a ''novel'' - read on.
*Unfinished Tales - As the name implies, these are narrative scraps which Tolkien hadn't completed before his death. Christopher Tolkien published this mess of notes on his way to completing two of the Tales (which he hadn't dared, himself, at the time). This book includes longer versions of lore mentioned in the trilogy, such as Isildur's death, the origin of the Wizards, and the founding of Rohan. And draughts of those ''Hurin'' and ''Gondolin'' stories which Chris would fill in, and publish, (much) later. But not ''Beren''.
*The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - Poetry centered around Tom Bombadil, who is best described as Middle Earth's equivalent of a Monty Python sketch. He's actually in the first LOTR book but is so carefree and oblivious to the War of the Ring that he's not terribly important despite being implied to be powerful enough to kick Sauron in the balls an walk away without a scratch.
*The History of Middle Earth - A 13 volume series detailing the creation of Tolkien's mythology, includes early drafts and unused stories. Here's where ''Beren'' is first floated, as a poem; and the first (maybe best) ''Fall of Gondolin''. While the early material here isn't considered canon, some very interesting revelations appear here:
:*Originally, Tolkien wanted to claim that he only "discovered" the stories about Middle Earth from a book he translated.
:*Which book, you may ask? Why, just a copy of the [[wikipedia:Red Book of Westmarch|Red Book of Westmarch]]. Also known as that book Frodo and Bilbo were writing as the story progresses. This is because...
:*[http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Lost_Road Middle Earth is actually our Earth.] [[wat|From before the Ice Age]] (hey, if Robert Howard could do the "lost era of history" story for [[Kull]] and [[Conan the Barbarian]], then so can Tolkien).
:*[http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Athrabeth_Finrod_ah_Andreth And that First Age humans predicted the birth of Jesus Christ] (though not in explicit terms). Did we mention Tolkien was Catholic?

=Legacy=
[[Image:Tolkien with pipe.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The man himself]]
It's commonly accepted that the Lord of the Rings invented modern fantasy fiction, as everybody basically used it as a template for most, if not all, future stories that involved anything more than Knights, princesses, and dragons. That being said, most people tend to only pick up the surface elements of the stories without the nuances they originally came with, either to fit their own stories or because they just thought, "hey, orcs are cool, imma add them to my campaign." One example is that despite everyone basing [[elves]] on Tolkien's interpretation rather than the more pixie-like versions of previous generations, most stories' elves are universally depicted as arrogant and smug racists who were almost as commonplace as humans, whereas Tolkien hewed closer to the original mythological version of an alien, isolationist, though not outright hostile people, who seldom interacted with mortals (it helped that any racial supremacist tendencies they once had were basically stomped out of them after getting their asses kicked in the First Age, with humans giving them most of their support). On top of that, the books are pretty clear that Elven immortality isn't all sunshine and rainbows, as they are doomed to fade into wraiths unless they travel to the Undying Lands.

Even in his time, while Tolkien maintained a strong correspondence with his fans (he wrote enough letters that they essentially became a supplement on the Lord of the Rings stories), he felt that a lot of people simply didn't ''get'' his stories. Hippies declared Frodo to be an anti-establishment hero, despite Tolkien himself being strongly conservative and the story containing an explicitly pro-monarchy plot point in Aragorn's ascension. People would claim it to be an allegory of WWII and nuclear war, despite being based on his own personal experiences during WWI (he also hated allegories in general). And if he were alive today, he'd probably call the travesty that was the Hobbit trilogy (see below) the very "disneyfied" crap that he sought to avoid. [https://curiosityquills.com/limyaael/tolkien-cliches/ Here's a list] of fantasy cliches attributed to Tolkien that are actually misrepresentations of what he wrote because the authors would miss the point.

All that being said, the influence of his books can't be denied. The funny thing though, is that despite being a source of inspiration for Dungeons and Dragons (one could argue that DnD codified fantasy tropes moreso than LOTR, but that's for another time), the actual story of the Lord of the Rings wouldn't make for a great roleplaying campaign; rewards for battles are scant, the vast majority of enemies are orcs, orcs, and more orcs <s>with a dash of goblins</s> that's just another term for orcs, the actual fighting done by Aragorn's team is of secondary importance to Frodo's mission to destroy the ring, Sauron never appears in the flesh so there's no final boss, etc. A webcomic called "[http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612 DM of the Rings]" explores this concept quite humorously, as the tension between the player characters (as Aragorn's party) and the DM shows how frustrated they get when the story doesn't meet their hack-and-slash expectations.

To give a short list, Tolkien basically gave us:
*[[Orcs]]
*[[Halfling]]s
*[[Treeman|Ents]]
*[[BBEG|Dark Lords]]
*[[Half-elves]], though they weren't considered a distinct species. There's only a handful of them, and they have to decide whether to have the fate of the elves (immortality, but you have to go to the Undying Lands or become a wraith) or the fate of men (mortality, but you get a super-secret afterlife that not even the Valar know about, and in the meanwhile are free from Fate and able to do what you like with the time you have). This part never seemed to catch on.
*[[Elves]] as beautiful pointy-eared superhumans; while not explicitly codified as of yet, we also got High Elves in the Noldor and Wood Elves in the Sindar. No Dark elves yet though (unless you count those Avari guys who sat by a lake); that would be the [[Drow]].
*[[Dwarves]] as a proud warrior race rather than just short greedy bastards. <s>Note that the Scottish accent wasn't tacked on until the New Line films.</s> Not even then; the most prominent Dwarves in all six films are Gimli, played by John Rhys-Davies, and Thorin, played by Richard Armitage, who speak with their actors' native Welsh and Yorkshire accents respectively. Scottish Dwarves do exist in the franchise, but it's not mainstream - the Dwarven accents are drawn from a wide UK spectrum. Scottish Dwarves are popular in fantasy games, World of Warcraft being perhaps the most prominent example, but even the Tolkien-esque Warhammer Fantasy has Yorkshire Dwarfs (with some exceptions).
*The [[Ranger]] archetype (historical note: actual rangers were just guys hired to keep poachers off a nobleman's land, the idea of an outdoorsy type of tracker/scout/soldier didn't exist until the 17th century.)
*Mixed race, mixed class adventuring parties.
*A "Three Age" structure to history, with the earlier ages being more legendary and mythological than the more mundane later ages. (Though Greek mythology had similar ideas).
*[[Mithril]] {NOT Mythril, a name used in various other books and games to avoid copyright infringement}, a super-strong, super-light metal. Like aluminum, if aluminum were also indestructible.

==The Movies==
===Old School===
[[Ralph Bakshi]] made an animated film based off the Fellowship of The Ring and the first half of The Two Towers, which was released in 1978. The resulting film was trippy, to say the least. It has a lot of weird animation with massive amounts of [[wikipedia:Rotoscoping|rotoscoping]], although it does work from time to time. It also decided to make adjustments and stay faithful to the text in the oddest ways. Many lines of dialogue were taken from the books word for word, with enough cut out so that you don't know what they are talking about and it does not come across as natural conversation; for example, Saruman declares himself Saruman of Many Colors without explaining the name change, but they decide to make a prince of Gondor (the largest and greatest civilization in Middle-earth at the time) dress like a Wagner opera viking. While it does have some good points here and there the end result both leaves you both weirded out and bored unless you are really into that era of animation.

Rankin Bass produced a Return of the King animated film in 1980, a made for TV movie which didn't have near the budget. It traded in some of the trippiness (even if it does have Orcs transforming into Coutimundis) for being more mundanely bad and getting pushed into the animation age ghetto, since again, it was made for TV not theaters in an age when censorship ran strong. They couldn't even allow for people getting hit with swords onscreen.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr_rb_pitHk If you are curious about the Bakshi film and have an hour to kill, Dan Olson has a pretty good video essay on the subject]

===The Peter Jackson Trilogy===
But those two movies are footnotes compared to the ones that you have most likely seen, those being Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. By far the most financially successful and critically acclaimed fantasy films of all time, including winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards, which generally go for historical pieces and similar, not fantasy or sci-fi. It helped bring fantasy to mainstream audiences and probably why many of you are you are here now. It has massive battles made possible by groundbreaking special effects technology. The films also have incredible amounts of attention to detail to bring the world of Middle-earth to life. While some changes were made (as was inevitable in adaptation), many of them were for the better such as developing Aragorn as a character rather than just a mythic archetype and having Gollum being accidentally thrown into Mount Doom fighting with Frodo over the One Ring. [[This Guy|In short what happens when you get a lot of skilled passionate people together to make something they love come to life.]] [[Skub|Though apparently Tolkien's son really hated the movies for some reason (Probably for personal reasons as the original books were written in part for him. Ostensibly it was because of the films emphasis on action setpieces etc. as opposed to the more “low-key” elements of world-building etc.)]].

PJ followed this up with a series on ''[[The Hobbit]]'', which we handle in its own [[skub|totally unbiased and sober]] page here.

===Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power===
{{Topquote|The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own.|Frodo, The Return of the King.}}

A few years after the questionable reception of the Hobbit trilogy, Amazon dropped the news one day that they were planning on making a LOTR series based on the Second Age. The reaction was at first cautious interest, but as more tidbits were made known, this changed to wariness, and then into seething irritation and [[Rage|rage]]. The first major warning sign was that shortly after the death of Christopher Tolkien - the one person in the Tolkien estate who was still protective of his father's work - Amazon fired their resident Tolkien consultant Tom Shippey, (a British medievalist who has written six books and several academic papers on Tolkien's work), and replaced him with a Tumblrina diversity officer from Glasgow Uni who's so-called "academic career" includes such gems like "Tolkien's work is Eurocentric and problematic". Subsequently they began to take more drastic "liberties" with the work.

Worse, it didn't come to light until way later in production that Amazon didn't even have the rights to [[The Silmarillion]] or the Unfinished Tales (the primary source material for the Second Age), instead having to depend on the Appendices from Return of the King and whatever they could pull from the original books. In other words, this show was never going to be faithful to canon from the very outset. Amazon is taking the typical corporate route of avoiding criticism by claiming or insinuating that anyone who dislikes their changes are [[pol|racists]]. Which works great for getting a bunch of unthinking websites like Kotaku or The Mary Sue to take your side, but all it does is alienate people who were on the fence but somewhat cautious to "Why bother if they're gonna insult me for disagreeing?" and galvanize those who were already opposed.

Y'see, the new management wants to adapt and [[SJW|˝modernize˝]] the lore to make it [[Skub|inclusive and diverse or a bastardization of Tolkien's work, depending who you ask]]. There's black elves, black Numenoreans (here referring to their ethnicity rather than their attire when serving Sauron), black and [[Derp|'''beardless''']] dwarf women, [[What|black AND MAORI hobbits]] (how in the Morgoth-cursed fuck does that even work!?), all of the above sporting glaringly modern haircuts and a whole lotta other dicking with the canon and lore including gratuitous sex and low-effort concealed attempt to turn the thing into the next Game of Thrones.

The previously established characters that do appear are barely recognizable. Arguably the worst example is Galadriel, who is changed from a magical sage to a warrior, wears Fëanor's plate armor despite her utterly hating Fëanor and she gets flirty with a human castaway despite being married to Celeborn. They even invented a new backstory for her that skips over the Simarils, Fëanor’s oath of vengeance, the Kin-slaying, and the Doom of the Noldor - all of which are important character-building moments for Galadriel - to fit their Stwong Independent Wahmen mold. Brand new characters were invented whole cloth that look out of place even not considering the above points, and major plot details have been completely changed (ie. Tar-Miriel is now the ruler of Numenor instead of Ar-Pharazon? That will take a lot of explaining away, but then we gotta have GRRRRL POWAH!). Finally, they’re mucking around with the timeline; it wouldn’t be so bad if they simply compressed the events of the Second Age into a reasonable time span since you’d have to reintroduce characters every season, but that's still a tall order since the Second Age spanned millennia. As if skipping directly from Morgoth destroying the Two Trees to the War of Wrath wasn't enough, we have Harfoots (the aforementioned black and maori hobbits), Hobbits living in the Shire and Gandalf the Grey... none of whom should be around in the Second Age.

Prior to release there was barely a teaser released despite being in production for 2+ years with literally a billion dollars spent so far. From the fact of all the [[skub]] it caused beforehand, at best it seemed a trashy cash grab and franchise milking, and at worst woke propaganda wearing the bastardized mask of a beloved franchise that would split the fandom akin to how The Last Jedi did with [[Star Wars]]. Tolkien supporters have been watching this along with Star Wars and Star Trek closely over the past decade and have been holding the line. A particular moment of hilarity and rage was the now infamous "super-fans clip", a totally-unscripted interview with supposed fans of the show (that turned out to be paid actors) who were so incredibly cringey and uninformed that Amazon ended up burying the video in the face of the overwhelming and justified backlash. This, Amazon not owning the rights to the appropriate source material and their purchase of the film and gaming rights to LOTR has lead people to believe that Amazon's true goal is not to stick to canon but ''reboot it entirely in their image.'' Upon release, audience reception of the show was quite tepid and the gap between most critic and audience reviews is vast. And yet, critics of all stripes are somewhat puzzled about it too. The series currently sits at a Metacritic rating of 71, which is atrocious for a production of this size. Common complaints from the critics side of things are dull and uninteresting charactization, the dialogue being overwritten in order to churn out as much quoteable material for trailers as possible (which, ironically, makes it feel hollow and tedious) and some odd choices regarding the story.

On the positive side, it is beautiful. Scenery, sets, creatures and costumes are all lovingly rendered.

==MERP(S)==
Over the 1980s <strike>immigration-control</strike> Iron Crown Enterprises put out the [[Middle-Earth Role Playing]] (System). Lots of sourcebooks for the setting. Generally considered good if quite crunchy (unsurprising, since it was based off [[Rolemaster]]). Sadly enough no longer in print.

Unwin did a massive map extending Middle-Earth east and south. Here we got the Stormshadow Mountain Kingdoms, Lands of the Broken Moon, Kingdoms of the Cloud Forests and other hippie bullshit that northern Californians think up after huffing the bong. Nobody considers this map to be canon.

==Of course GW couldn't let such a profitable venture pass them by...==
Back in the early 2000s, [[GW]] made a tabletop game based around this premise and called it [[The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game]]. Because they ran out of short titles.

In a peculiar way, this was GW coming full circle. They began by making miniatures for D&D (which as stated above, heavily borrowed from LOTR) before morphing into Warhammer.

While it let you play out your favorite scenes from the movies (in the way YOU imagined them going), it failed to light the world on fire. Likely because it lacks any of the batshit awesome insanity of their own IPs. However, GeeDubs has kept on truckin' with this line regardless of cost, eventually offloading it onto [[Forge World]] to work on in between releases for [[Blood Bowl]] and [[Necromunda]].

==The Last Ringbearer ==
Of course, there is always some weird thing people will do with an original work of an author. If we're to believe the fan fiction authors, all the characters of the novel were fucking each other so hard it's a wonder they were able to waddle out of Rivendell.

Some of them, [[SJW|for various]] [[Edgy|reasons]], even flip the script by changing the villains to heroes and/or the heroes to villains. Such is the nature of The Last Ringbearer, a book written by this Russian named Kirill Eskov. Its supposed to be an alternate take on LOTR, and has plot points ranging from The One Ring being a red herring, the Nazgul being enlightened philosopher scientists, and Mordor being an industrialized society torn apart by unsophisticated luddites for no reason other than elf bigotry. We hear that pirate translations exist, including into English. But we could never condone reading such trash, especially when they suck as bad as this did. LotR copyright expires 2043 which may be just long enough for this abortion of a "book" to fall into the pages of obscurity.

The Last Ringbearer was officially published in the legal vacuum that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, which also allowed assorted other unauthorized revisions and sequels to be published. Making it either a cash-grab or an attempt to make LOTR-based Soviet propaganda. Among those are the Ring of Darkness by Nick Perumov (a Fourth Age story where the Big Bad Evil Guy collects the rings of the Nazgul to become a great conqueror, and a Hobbit fighter clad in mithril armor endeavors to stop him) and the Black Book of Arda by Natalia Vasilieva (an alternate take on the Silmarillion where the original evil Melkor is a nice guy).

... so. How about An Archive Of Our Own.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Height.jpg| How the heck did a little hobbit beat this?
File:Talion_and_orcs.jpg| Actually not a scene from the books. To be fair, though, [[/v/|Shadow of Mordor]] showed us what Mordor looks like in the daytime.
File:Sauron_My_Battle_Plan.jpg| Knowing is half the battle. The other half is [[Sonic the Hedgehog|rings]].
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game]] for the tabletop skirmish game.
*[[Mordor]]
*[[Middle Earth]]
*[[J. R. R. Tolkien]]
*[[The Last Ringbearer]]
*[[The Silmarillion]]
*[[Ainur]]

[[Category: Literature]][[Category:The Lord of the Rings]]

A Song of Ice and Fire

2022-09-06T13:18:36Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Locations */

[[image:Game_of_Thrones_Title-DVD.png|300px|thumb|WIENER PARTY! WIENER PARTY!]]

{{Spoilers}}
{{Grimdark}}
{{Sick|Among other things, the books can barely go ten pages without having another rape.}}
'''Warning: This article contains so many spoilers we're ruining books that haven't even been released yet.'''

{{Topquote|If you think this story has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.|Ramsay Bolton, nailing the grimdark theme of this series}}

{{Topquote|It matters not from whence the blood flows. Only that it flows.|George RR Martin, Exalted Champion of Khorne when explaining why so many characters get offed}}

'''''A Song of Ice and Fire''''' (more better known as '''''Game of Thrones''''') is a [[Grimdark]] fantasy book series for people who hate fantasy, or at the very least, have gotten their fill of Tolkien pretenders and want something more "distinct". Its central themes include [[Tzeentch|political Machiavellian scheming]], [[Khorne|ultraviolence]], [[Slaanesh|incest/sex with exposition]], and [[Nurgle|everyone trying to survive in such a Crapsack World of perpetual suffering]]. There is also lots and lots of food. Thus it has become one of the most popular series of our generation and its author, [[George R. R. Martin]], has been praised for his highly realized world and gritty low fantasy style. He was even called "the American [[Tolkien]]" by <s>Time magazine</s> gormless idiots who lump diametrically different writers together for no other reason than that they're both fantasy authors, which would probably explain its sudden spike in popularity following the TV show (at least [[Skub|to a point, anyway.]]) The great joke of an actual World War veteran writing fantasy about heroic knights and elves being compared to and contrasted with a conscientious objector who writes edgy fantasy is not lost on most (though its worth mentioning that Martin is as much of a Tolkien buff as any of us, meaning that he didn't write the series as a "fuck you" to Tolkien's work as some might assume).

The series itself is set on the [[Original character, do not steal|totally not medieval European ripoff]] realm of Westeros as it is wracked by a massive succession war drawing its realms into conflict. Everyone's picking up the pieces from the pervious war until one family's bid for power starts another war (book one), A bunch of dudes declare themselves kings (book two), they're burning the continent down in their scramble for power, and somehow all the fuck-ups managed to lose anyway (book three). Just when the guys who lost the least start thinking they get to rule over the remaining chaos, more fuck ups happen and more dudes show up (book four). Sadly, winter has finally come and, unbeknownst to most people, [[Thousand Sons|evil ice wizards leading soulless undead]] [[Alpha Legion|assumed to be only myths by most people]] are about to invade the continent from the north. By the fifth book, things are going and/or will go to shit even for the bad guys.

According to a leaked fan conversation, George R. R. Martin jokingly stated the series would end with an epic cock-slap fight between Samwell Tarly and Jaime Lannister.

TL;DR: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Roses War of Roses] with a helpin' of <s>cliched fantasy</s> George's old sci-fi writing plots given a fantasy overhaul and [[/d/]]-lite.

[[ASOIAF Miniature Game|Miniature game has their own page now]]

==Characters==
{{cleanup}}
Since these books have some thousand named characters, you won't remember most of them without an obsessive disorder over details.
Here's a relatively shortlist (mostly based on the TV series rather than the books, but seems to randomly switch between the two) for the characters you'll care about. We'll also be making an effort to mostly focus on characters from the main series, rather than historical figures like Maegor Targaryen, the Dance of Dragons Blacks and Greens, and so on. Trust us, given the number of characters we already have to cover, it's for the best.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:100%">
===House Stark===

''"Winter Is Coming"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Honourable, bro-tier northerners who always [[Space Wolves|compare themselves to direwolves]]. They have a tendency towards [[Lawful Stupid]] that proves to bite them in the ass due to naivete about how [[Tzeentch|Westerosi corrupt politics actually works]]. They're also arguably the protagonists of the setting. Basically Scotland and/or the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_york House of York].
* Eddard Stark, ''The Quiet Wolf'': Patriarch, lord and POV death-puppet. Not nearly as stupid as everyone tries to pretend, but still a dead man walking. Honorable to a fault and deeply repulsed by the politicking that goes on around him, which eventually leads to a mild case of death by decapitation.
* Robb Stark, ''The Young Wolf'': Shiny, [[Lawful Stupid]] King Arthur-like hero. After waging a successful war to avenge his murdered father, he was betrothed to a noblewoman but he ended having comfort sex with a virgin noblewoman which may have been arranged by her scheming bitch mother, while in softcore porno he got the hots for a commoner. Cacks it nastily: he got his head cut off and his pet's wolf's head stuck on his body, which was paraded around while his enemies chanted "HERE COMES THE KING IN THE NORTH!" In other words, he's a Scottish [[Roman Empire|Hannibal Barca]].
* Sansa Stark: Useless teenage girl extraordinaire at the start of the series with dreams of marrying a prince and "having lots of babies", but gets shat on hard by reality. Becomes Littlefinger's replacement goldfish when Catelyn's no longer around, her father got killed and her best friend was sold as a sex slave, and ended up in the worst relationship we can possibly imagine with King Joffrey. [[Grimdark|Even got deflowered via rape by Ramsey Bolton]] and married to him before managing to escape with the help of others. Currently acting as a co-ruler to her brother/cousin Jon Snow, and has learned much from her suffering, allowing her to kick Littlefinger out of the Great Game via throat slitting. While in the book Littlefinger is/was setting her up at House Arryn to claim the Vale and the North, the show version becomes QUEEN IN DA NORF in the final episode.
* Arya Stark: Little tomboy assassin. Has a kill list, but doesn't get to use it so long as she is an amnesiac apprentice of [[Officio Assassinorum|the Friendly Neighborhood Assassins Guild]]. In the books, she's still training with the Faceless Men, but in the show she's broken away from them and headed back to Westeros to get revenge on a LOT of people, giving her one of the highest kill counts in the series. She goes home to Winterfell when she hears that Jon and Sansa took it back and starts acting as a general "troubleshooter" for Sansa while scaring the hell out of everyone with all her new assassin skillz. Kills the Night King like a fucking champion in Season 8, then rides south to add Cersei to her body count. Instead, the Hound talks her out of it and she [[The Lord of the Rings|decides to sail into the unknown west]].
* Catelyn Stark (nee Tully): A woman who trusts the wrong people at the worst time, causing a lot of misery. Gets killed along with Robb, then comes back (books only) as Lady Stoneheart, an undead witch bent on killing all the Boltons, Freys, Greyjoys, Lannisters... pretty much everyone she thinks was tangentially involved in betraying her and her family, or somebody who just pissed her off. The show writers left this part out completely, which caused much [[rage]] and [[skub]] in the fandom.
* Bran Stark: Intelligent little boy, named after the founder of House Stark, Brandon the Builder (basically Tony Stark combined with [[Leman Russ]]). He was crippled in the first sign of major [[GrimDark]]. Has prophetic dreams and becomes a [[druid]]. In the TV series, fucks things up by alerting the Others to where he's hiding, which gets all of the Children, his loyal wolf, the Three-Eyed Crow and Hodor killed. For good measure, turns out to have accidentally ''caused'' Hodor to become, well, Hodor, as he was using his druid powers to figure out why Hodor is only able to say Hodor, resulting in Hodor's gruesome death-by-zombies being beamed directly into young Hodor's brain. He's now the Three-Eyed Raven and likes going around being creepy as fuck and generally weirding people out. Becomes King of the <s>Seven</s> Six Kingdoms in a hilariously nonsensical plot twist in the finale.
* Rickon Stark: Four years old at the start, turning into a real little [[Barbarian]] from not being raised properly, because everyone who would have raised him was dead or missing. In the books, he and his wildling nanny Osha are on the cannibal-infested island of Skagos, and Davos Seaworth is on his way there to pick them up so that the northern lords who are still loyal to House Stark have a figurehead to rally behind. In the show, he ends up hanging out at the Umbers, then is handed over to Ramsay as a prisoner when Smalljon becomes afraid of the Wildlings living north of him (who were invited by Jon Snow to fight the Zombie Apocalypse), and finally dies via arrow in a sick game of "dodge the missiles" courtesy of Ramsey.
* [[Mary Sue|Jon Snow]], ''The White Wolf'': A bastard living in the Stark household before leaving for the Night's Watch (basically [[The Last Chancers|Colonel Schaeffer]] with more convicted rapists under his command) and excels there because nearly every one of his fellow recruits are peasants who have never had a formal days of training while Jon has had the serious training afforded to all lords. After he takes over by becoming the Watch Commander secures and alliance with the Wildlings, ancient barbarian enemies of the Night's Watch, because when the end of the world is coming you tend to think outside the box. Also gets a Wildling girlfriend, but she dies... then a hotter Wildling starts cracking on to him. He's currently dead in the books, but was revived by R'hllor in the series after being stabbed to death by the senior members of the Watch. Isn't actually Eddard's bastard son, but rather the legitimate son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, meaning that he is, in fact, the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. The new KING IN DA NORF according to his supporters after he killed Ramsay Bolton and took back Winterfell, and is also currently hooking up with his own aunt. He turns on Daenerys once he realizes she's lost it and kills her in the throne room, but [[Plot Armor|for some reason her dragon doesn't kill him despite seeing him do the the deed]]. The Unsullied want his head, but instead, King Bran exiles him to the Night's Watch and he fucks off into the far north to live with the Free Folk.
* Hodor: Hodor. Hodor, Hodor, Hodor. <s>An enormous and possibly retarded stable boy, and Bran's faithful steed.</s> Hodor. Ok, in all actual seriousness, this guy is probably one of the most tragic figures in this series (and that's saying something). [[Grimdark|The guy basically received horrible visions of his own death fighting a horde of zombies, buying time for his friends to escape by literally holding the door shut as he was hacked apart]]. This causes him to suffer a mental break, leading him to develop Immature Personality Disorder and making it so the only thing he can say is a garbled version of his friend's last request "hold the door" for all of his adult life; the logic here is that "hold the door" devolves into "hol' th' door" and eventually "Hodor". You now feel bad for at laughing at the guy.
* Osha: A Wildling woman who surrendered to the Starks and becomes their servant in exchange for not getting killed. Now dead in the show thanks to Ramsay's dickery.</div></div>

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:100%">

===House Targaryen===

''"Fire and Blood"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">The former Dragon kings and rulers of Westeros, [[Eldar|fair-haired purple-eyed beautiful people]] who have descended from the [[Dark Age of Technology|ancient technologically-advanced superpower]] of [[Roman Empire|Valyria]], which collapsed because of [[Fall of the Eldar|their colossal hubris]]. After the anarchic [[Age of Strife|Century of Blood]], the Targaryen patriarch Aegon I, instead of reconquering the lost cause of Essos and of Valyria's former empire, looked towards the rather primitive continent of Westeros, and its squabbling Seven Kingdoms, [[Great Crusade|to establish his own Imperial dynasty and unify the Realm]]. Aegon I is essentially the Low Fantasy version of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror William the Conqueror] and/or the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], with a little dash of [[/d/|incest]].

[[Rules Lawyer|Thanks to a loophole]], the Targaryens were immune to the moral objections relating to incest. Common sense (and common decency) took back seat to a time-honoured policy of [[/d/|catastrophic inbreeding]], which made a number of problems. Aegon I married his older and younger sisters and had several kids with each, which would be the start of another Targaryen tradition: the occasional succession crisis. The inbreeding would also lead to a line of almost alternatingly great and lunatic kings, culminating in Aerys "The Mad King" Targaryen and a palace coup. Eventually, the lineage was banished to Essos after a brutal civil war, the remnants trying to gather armies to retake the Iron Throne which they see as rightfully theirs. Basically a family of inbreeding girly-men with a massive sense of superiority and as arrogant as they come, forgetting that most of what they accomplished was due to the fact that only they had dragons. Still, they occasionally did have genuinely good people like Aegon V (aka Egg), Jaeherys I the Conciliator, his wife Good Queen Alysanne and complete badasses like Brynden Bloodraven and Baelor Breakspear (too bad Bloodraven is hooked up to Old God wi-fi permanently and Breakspear died before he could become king).
Pseudo-Romans and/or the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Normandy House of Normandy].

* Aerys II, ''The Mad King'': [[Kharn|A pretty fun guy to be around]]. Had a psychotic fascination for fire, which extended to being a psychotic fascination for burning traitors, a category of people that eventually grew to include anybody he disliked for any reason, anyone who disagreed with him, and a few people who were unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. [[Goge Vandire|Teamkilled by his bodyguard Jaime for planning to burn the city down with everyone inside it, and even refused to accept his death until he actually died]].
* [[Mary Sue|Daenerys Targaryen]], ''Stormborn'': She was sold by her brother to a barbarian leader [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|Khal (warlord) Drogo]] in exchange for the promise that he'd use his Khalassar (Warband/tribe) to conquer Westeros. She found her self esteem as his wife, then her husband killed her idiot brother Viserys and promised to conquer the world for Daenerys, making her a full-fledged badass barbarian war queen. Unfortunately, her husband died when [[Derp|Daenerys trusted one of the slaves whose town Drogo had pillaged and burnt to heal an infected wound of his]] and his horde fell apart (though the book is somewhat ambiguous as to whether the slave did kill Drogo). Then she hatched three dragons (completely by accident when she tried to commit suicide) bringing them back from extinction, and now everyone wants to marry her because she is now one of the most powerful people around due to said dragons and being good-looking (in the books this is by the age-of-consent in Westeros standards, where girls are women when they start getting their periods and boys are men at age 13). [[Gets shit done]] except the entire fifth book, in which she mopes around about wanting to marry an annoying, flamboyant mercenary instead of saving herself for political marriage. After banging the flamboyant mercenary, she later marries a Meereenese noble who guarantees he can get her some peace (more likely [[Just As Planned|just as he planned]]). She also does nothing while insurgents kill her men, a horde of plagued refugees spread disease to her city and standing idly by while an enemy army besieges her walls, all for realistically political reasons because the world is a horrible place. Learns how to train her dragon. In the books she's just encountered another Khalassar after being hauled away from Meereen by Drogo. In the TV series, she takes over all the Dothraki and adds them to her army, then heads for Westeros to invade the place with her army of elite hoplites, massive horde of Dothraki and her dragons. By the time she gets to King's Landing she's taken significant losses, including two of her dragons, and is fucking her nephew (Jon Snow). Officially went Mad Queen as of S8E5, wherein she burned most of King's Landing after the city attempted to surrender and has decided to "liberate" everyone on the planet, whether they want it or not. Jon kills her in the series finale so that she won't go around burninating the rest of the world.
* The dragons: The three dragons that Daenerys hatched. They're wyverns that breathe fire, [[Awesome|have blood hot enough to melt steel]], and [[List of /tg/ Cuisine|cook their meat before eating it]]. Naturally, some of the coolest things in the story.
** Drogon; named for her late husband, Khal Drogo. Black and red, the biggest and [[Gork|most aggressive dragon]]. Starts eating people and then escapes, leading to the other two getting imprisoned. Interrupts a gladiator tournament, killing a lot of people before being whipped by Daenerys into flying her to a Khalassar that broke off from her husband's after his death. In the show, he's the last dragon standing after Viserion bites it north of the Wall and his undead body is put down at Winterfell and Rhaegal gets shot down over Dragonstone. Takes Dany's body, destroys the Iron Throne and fucks off to who knows where after Dany is killed.
** Rhaegal; named for the first of her dead brothers, Rhaegar. Green and gold, the [[Mork|cunning one]] and the loudest (with a roar "...that would have sent a hundred lions fleeing,"). Kills Quentyn Martell when the latter is trying to goad Viserion (see below). After breaking out of jail with Viserion they go "all your base are belong to us" on Meereen, killing people and taking over the pyramid of a loyal family as his lair. Last seen playing "sack the town" with Viserion in the books. Dead in the show thanks to Euron Greyjoy and some Diabolus ex Machina bullshit.
** Viserion; named for her other brother Viserys. White and gold and the [[Vulkan|friendliest]] (as dragons go, he still eats people). Dug cave for himself in his jail then moved into another pyramid after his and his brother's great escape. Gets killed by the [[Vampire Counts|Night's King in the show via a magic spear, then his corpse is reanimated to be the Night King's zombie dragon steed]] and blasts a hole in the famous Wall, allowing the armies of snow elves and zombies to start flooding Westeros. Now perma-dead thanks to the Night King biting it.
* Viserys Targaryen, ''The Beggar King'': Daenerys' physically abusive older brother. Best known for being a bully with incestuous lust for her, and an arrogant and incompetent fuck with a massive sense of entitlement. He eventually got himself killed for being an all-around jerk and whiny idiot, which culminated in him threatening his sister and unborn nephew with a sword while drunk in a sacred Dothraki place where weapons and bloodshed are forbidden on pain of death (execution is done by bloodless death - having a scarf wrapped tight around the neck and being drowned in a barrel). Daenerys' husband [[awesome|poured molten gold over his head and called it his promised crown, also ensuring his death didn't technically shed any blood in their sacred place]].
* Aegon Targaryen, ''Aegon VI'': Daenerys' nephew, the son of her brother Rhaegar. Been hiding in Essos for the entire length of the series, but recently raised an army of Westerosi exiles and threw them all a massive Welcome Home party with rape and pillage. Wants to marry his aunt because she has dragons, and might not actually be a member of House Targaryen if you believe some fans. He can actually count past 6, can multiply numbers, can read different language and has a minor understanding of geometry thus cementing him as one of the most educated people in this overwrought series. Can also do his own laundry.
* Brynden Rivers ''Bloodraven'': A Targaryen bastard who came to prominence about a hundred years before the series as a sort of sorcerer, he later became known as the "Three-Eyed Raven/Crow" after encountering the Children of the Forest, and uses his powers to help advert the Long Night and train Bran. He's described as having long, white hair, missing an eye, bound to a tree, knows all and sees all, associated heavily with ravens and omens... [[Vikings|yeah, he's very much Odin, come to think of it. Just a lot more of an asshole than the Warrior King of legend.]]</div></div>

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===House Lannister===

''"Hear Me Roar"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[Monopoly|Westeros' richest family]], proud, pompous, selfish and fabulous assholes. Not much of a martial tradition but if you cross them [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7t7cnwlOgY they will fucking cut you]. You can tell they are the bad guys because they have an army of sick fucks, including a zebra-riding mercenary band and 7' 8" Khornate Champion <s>not-Goliath</s> Gregor Clegane. House Lancaster combined with the House of Rothschild and the Mafia. Their unofficial motto is "A Lannister Always Pays His Debts"
* Tywin Lannister, ''The Lion of Lannister'': The Godfather, head of the house, and obsessed with his reputation as a Magnificent Bastard extraordinaire. Lawful Evil Personified. He was a most feared general whose greatest achievement was [[Exterminatus|erasing House Reyne from existence]], which was immortalised in his own sweet-yet-creepy-as-fuck theme song (The Rains of Castamere) that became used as a warning against anyone standing against him. During his tenure as Hand of the King (i.e. Prime Minister), he was a political genius who operated as the true power behind the Iron Throne, keeping the realm stable and prosperous despite the stupidity of Aerys II and Joffrey. However, despite all of his achievements, he's an [[Emperor|absolutely terrible father]], who treats his children as nothing more than tools to further his political agenda. He is completely blind to the incestuous relationship his two oldest children had, and hated Tyrion and made his life a living hell for very poor reasons. He humiliated Tyrion whenever it wouldn't threaten the family's reputation, berated Tyrion for being a whore-monger despite secretly being one himself, [[Grimdark|tried to get him killed multiple times]], and as the capstone of awful parenting, he taught Tyrion not to marry commoners after he married one called Tysha - by forcing Tyrion to watch Tysha get gang-raped, forcing him to rape her too and then annulling their marriage. The only person Tywin truly loved was his wife. He eventually gets his comeuppance when Tyrion finds out the truth about the Tysha incident and kills him with a crossbow, all while mentioning that out of all his children, Tyrion was the most alike to Tywin himself. He's based on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick Warwick the Kingmaker].
* Joanna Lannister: Tywin's late wife and first cousin, meaning the next three characters are inbred as well, ironically. Dies giving birth to Tyrion, which is part of why Tywin hates him, though Cersei hates him for other reasons. Caught wind of Cersei and Jaime's incestuous tendencies, but she died before she could tell Tywin. It is implied that her ghost visits Jaime in a dream and mourns the current state of her family.
* Cersei Lannister, ''Cunt Queen'': Tywin and Joanna's first child. Twin sister to Jaime Lannister and wife to King Robert Baratheon. She fucks her brother Jaime all the time and had three of his children, whom she passed off as Robert's to grab power. She is a massive narcissist who thinks of herself as "female Tywin" and hence seeks to rule Westeros as the Queen, and will do anything to keep her power... even when [[Abbadon the Despoiler|most of her plans end up becoming utter failures]]. Crazy as all fuck and prophesied to be killed by the "little brother." This is because of a prophecy a Gypsy made when Cersei was a child that she'd be a beautiful queen, lose everything, her children would die before her, and the "Valonqar" would kill her. Though that does explain why she hates Tyrion as hard as all fuck, [[Just As Planned|the exact translation of the term]] that was used is "younger sibling", and not necessarily her sibling, which opens the door to all sorts of characters who hate the fuck out of her. Since Jaime is technically younger by a few seconds, him killing Cersei would be an interesting twist not without buildup. Possibly the Gypsy was messing with her head because of what a bitch Cersei was being to her, something Cersei never grew out of. Cersei is currently alive only because Varys wants her to be, [[Just As Planned|as she's a terrible queen who'll destabilize the realm enough for him to bring back the Targaryens]]. She was completely shaved, stripped of power in all but her royal heritage and forced to do a nude walk of penance throughout the city by the High Sparrow (ASOIAF Pope- equivalent/[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther Martin Luther] except he won the Reformation) after he uncovered her crimes. Now she's waiting for her hair to grow back and maybe thinking of revenge. She gets it in the show by blowing up the Great Sept of Baelor (ASOIAF [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral]) with everyone she doesn't like inside it, having her cousin killed near the Wildfire, killing Tyene Sand with the same poison that Tyene used on Myrcella and forcing Ellaria to watch, then capturing the nun who was her jailer and [[Grimdark|leaving her to be tortured to death by zombie Gregor Clegane]]. She is in short [[Thanquol]] disguised as a beautiful blonde woman. Gets anticlimactically squashed by a collapsing ceiling along with Jaime during Daenerys's assault on King's Landing. (her biggest issue? Not dying sooner, for the Seven's sake!)
* Jaime Lannister, ''The Kingslayer'': Younger twin brother (by about three seconds) to Cersei Lannister and commander of the Kingsguard. He loves his sister in every sense of the word and had three children with her. Killed the last king despite his oath, and is widely hated for it, even though everyone agrees that dying was a massive improvement for Aerys. The reason for this betrayal was that Aerys had a huge stockpile of Acme Brand Magic Napalm stockpiled under the city, ready to be set off the moment a siege broke through the town walls, and Jaime's options were to let it happen or kill Aerys before the crazy fuck got ''everybody'' killed. His desire to openly love his sister and win the respect he feels he deserves eventually causes Cersei to reject him. Starts off as an arrogant douche who [[Grimdark|tried to murder Bran Stark, but accidentally crippled him instead]]; as the series progressed he became progressively more bro-tier besides the whole wants-to-fuck-his-sister thing, and then later he even grows out of ''that'' as well when he realizes what a bitch she is, gets thoroughly humbled to boot after losing his sword hand and having some time to rethink his life and study the legacy of his predecessors, many of whom were legitimately righteous dudes. (And realizing that there are several other women who are interested in him.) Also, the only person in his family who treats Tyrion well, along with one of his aunts and two dead uncles. Essentially, a more incestuous [[Blood Angel]] - but more douchey, so make that [[Flesh Tearers|Flesh Tearer]]. In the books, he is currently being lured into a trap by Lady Stoneheart. In the show, he has finally told Cersei to get fucked after realizing that she has well and truly lost it, and rode north to help fight the White Walkers. He survived the Battle of Winterfell, hooked up with Brienne, and then rides south [[Derp|because he just can't let Cersei go.]] Winds up getting shanked by Euron Greyjoy and dies [[Fail|via collapsing ceiling]].
* Tyrion Lannister, ''Halfman'': a very intelligent dwarf who is awesome, but hated by all of the civilized characters in the books, except his brother Jaime who treats him well, Jon Snow who tolerates him, and Varys, who at first saw him as an asset, but grew to admire his political abilities and intellect, even declaring him a friend. He seems to do much better when getting drunk with whores, rogues, bastards and barbarians. His silver tongue is one of his greatest strengths (he's witty and good at persuading people) and weaknesses (he's quick with insults and the truth in a city ruled by sociopaths and liars). Tyrion is also one of the only characters with an actual sense of the bigger picture, and an interest toward steering the world toward an outcome that ''doesn't'' involve a [[The End Times|Warhammer End Times]] scenario. Unfortunately, the world's movers, shakers, and those who generally have the power to make a difference are increasingly either a) dead, b) scattered to the winds or c) hate his dwarf guts. Despite the increasing difficulty and fruitlessness of his task, however, [[Awesome|Tyrion still fights]]. After being framed for killing Joffrey, he killed his own father and fled Westeros. In the books, he is currently in exile in the Free Cities, weaselling his way into leading a merc band and trying to sign them up with Daenerys' forces, recognizing her as one of the few chances Westeros has got of fixing its shit (provided she can get her own shit together, which she's having a bit of trouble with). Since characters in this series tend to either be walking tropes, rip-offs of other fantasy characters, or historical people with different names, Tyrion is probably based on the great [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Vorkosigan Miles Vorkosigan] (who was himself based on a few people including Sir Winston Churchill) and is a nod to King Richard III (a deformed but competent king later demonized by historiographers of his era). Even if he is usually the smartest one in the room at any given time, though, Tyrion is still not above having some derp moments. Exhibit A, when Tyrion asked his father what happened to his first wife (right before killing him), he took an ''obvious'' "I don't know and I don't care" response ("Wherever whores go") as if it was the literal truth. (Admittedly he'd just killed his ex and was probably in the middle of some serious PTSD at the time, which is not great for your brain.) The show version eventually meets Daenerys and becomes her Hand only to [[Fail|fuck up a bunch of stuff]] and lose her trust. He sells her out when he realizes that she's gone round the bend and winds up becoming Hand to King Bran.
* Kevan Lannister: Tywin's younger brother, considered "the reliable one". One of the few decent Lannisters, though saying that he is perfectly happy carrying out Tywin's bidding. Tried to talk sense into Cersei and was later called in to try and fix her mess. He did such a good job of it that Varys decided to personally thank him. With a crossbow. And a group of knife-wielding children. In the show he dies with the rest of the crowd when the Great Sept got nuked by Cersei - the manner of his book death was given over to Grand Maester Pycelle at the exact same time.
* Lancel Lannister: Kevan's son, Tywin's nephew and Tyrion, Jamie and Cersei's cousin. A callow, spoilt but well-meaning nobleman. Pretty much Joffery but mentally stable, not sadistic and capable of compassion and honor. Enters a sexual relationship with his cousin Cersei when Jamie is captured, which Tyrion uncovers and uses to blackmail Lancel into spying for him. He later has a religious experience after nearly dying and joins the Poor Fellows of the Faith of the Seven, gives up his incestuous relationship and tries to convert several of his family members (somewhat successfully with Kevan, unsuccessfully with Cersei). Still alive in the books. In the show, he reports Cersei to the High Sparrow (rather than the High Sparrow cleverly uncovering Cersei's plan and trapping her) and dies horribly. Cersei deliberately set him up for a particularly agonizing and drawn-out end; he's lured into a catacomb under the sept that contains a massive cache of wildfire, gets his spinal cord severed so he can't walk, and is left where he can see candles sitting in a pool of wildfire just a little too far away for him to reach it in time, so that he [[Grimdark|spends his last moments vainly trying to avert a horrible catastrophe before being incinerated]].
* Cersei and Robert's (actually Jaime's) children:
** Joffrey Baratheon: Spoiled brat and sociopath to the extreme. He's basically [[Sigvald]] during his teenage years (and likely inspired [[Phil Kelly|Kelly]] to make the character Sigvald). "Heir" of the throne, and the technical king of Westeros during the War of the Five Kings since he lives in King's Landing and sits on the throne. Turned out to be worse than Aerys. He died and there was much rejoicing. [[Fail|Except by his mother, who instead had sex on his corpse]]. Fourteen years old at the time of his death.
** Tommen Baratheon: The new king on the Iron Throne. Nine years old. Married to a teenaged shotacon wife who's (unknown to him) the granddaughter of his brother's true killer. Trying to litigate the criminalization of beets. Loves [[Cats|kittens]]. He's pretty well-rounded and non-fucked up, which is a miracle considering his parents, both putative and biological. Also seems to be trying to take kinging seriously, but his mom is trying to quash that in her subliminal attempt to hold power indefinitely, so whether it holds is another matter entirely. Prophesied to die before Cersei, which is doubly tragic due to his age and being a much better person than her. In the show, he commits suicide after Cersei blows up the Great Sept (head office of the fantasy knockoff Church of England), killing his godfather, great-uncle, wife, and all his religious friends, because of course her power hunger was more important than his happiness and well being.
** Myrcella Baratheon: Princess, and Cersei and "Robert's" second oldest child. Ten years old. In the books, she had her face fucked up because of Arianne Martell's amateur intrigues, which overlapped with poor planning, general stupidity, and another guy's backstabbing. Before the maiming, she was quite decent and non-evil. Who knows how she'll turn out now with half of her face cut off. Also prophesied to die before Cersei. In the show, she had a crush on Oberyn's surviving nephew but was killed by Elia in revenge for Oberyn's death, but alive in the books though missing an ear. Also, the readership all got on George's balls for maiming this girl, mostly because it was a sign that he had run out of ideas and was basically just milking Diabolus ex Machina ([[Just As Planned|or that's what he wants us to think]]).
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===House Baratheon===

''"Ours is the Fury"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Ascended to the Iron Throne after a successful rebellion against the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen. Produces no less than three claimants to the succession, each one very different from the other. Technically a cadet branch of House Targaryen as their founder Orys was allegedly a Targaryen bastard, who took the original Storm Kings (House Durrandon) deer sigil after killing the last one and fucking his only child Argella and then 200 odd years later, King Egg's daughter married their grandfather. They're pretty much the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet House of Plantagenet].
* Robert Baratheon, ''The Usurper'': Fat, old, former badass who led the rebellion, and now the king who married Cersei Lannister. Then he fucked a bunch of other women and had lots of illegitimate kids. He was killed while mixing boar hunting and drinking, but whether this death was planned or not is uncertain. On the surface, a king with a thing for easy laughs and partying; right underneath the surface, he's irresponsible and leaves the actual ruling of a nation to his staff, deeper under the surface he's pretty much a sad, lonely old bro who would rather not have been king. Comparable to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_England Henry IV], in that both were powerfully built military geniuses who overthrew the existing monarchy and later succumbed to an unhealthy lifestyle.
* Stannis '''The Mannis''' Baratheon: Robert's younger brother, an all-around badass who swings between [[Lawful Stupid]] (more so in the show than the books) and [[gets shit done|getting shit done]]. [[Judge Dredd|believes so strongly in the rule of law]] that he feels compelled to take the Iron Throne for himself despite wanting nothing to do with it. Is advised by a priestess of the God of light, Melisandre, and a lowborn smuggler named Davos Seaworth raised to knighthood and nobility. [[C.S Goto|His character is ruined in the show into an incompetent pawn of Melisandre and gets killed off just because one of the showrunners didn't like him]].
** Shireen Baratheon: Stannis's kid daughter. The sweet, charming, and intelligent little lady who was left with a deformity on her face from a disease called greyscale. Teaches Davos how to read, and is probably the most innocent person in the series alongside Tommen, Myrcella and a few others. Being the grim and dark universe A Song of Ice and Fire is, however, this means that she's likely going to end up becoming fuel for a vicious fire god. In the show she does, but in the books, she is safe and sound since Stannis isn't stupid enough to bring him with her while campaigning. His wife, on the other hand, being such an idiotic fanatical pyromaniac... well, her odds aren't exactly looking that great.
* Renly Baratheon, ''That Gay Guy'': Robert and Stannis's youngest brother. Took Loras Tyrell (a.k.a. Knight of Flowers, Pretty Boy, etc.) as his lover. Decided he was better suited to be king, though the bizarre and outdated laws of the land stated Stannis was next in line (though Joffrey and then Tommen were first since they were [[Pretend|officially]] Bobby B's legitimate kids). Was hugely popular since he had Robert's charisma, which led to him getting the most support, but he lacked Stannis's conviction and devotion to the duty of actually doing the work of a king, or even Robert's ability to wage war. Killed by Melisandre with some "help" by Stannis ''The Mannis'' for trying to steal his crown, though in the books Stannis may not have been completely aware of the role he played in Renly's death. He's basically [[That Guy]] of ASOIAF, since quite a lot of shit is his fault, indirectly or otherwise.
*Gendry Baratheon, the Bastard Son. One of Robert's many, many bastard children, and the one who gets the most page and screen time. He starts out as a humble blacksmith in King's Landing, who first comes to Ned's attention when Lord Stark is investigating the death of Jon Arryn. From there, he gets shipped off to the Night's Watch to avoid the imminent purge of Robert's bastards and winds up becoming friends with Arya and Hot Pie. After some adventuring and sexual tension with Arya (at least in the show), he joins the Brotherhood Without Banners. In the show, they sell him to Melisandre so she can use him for a blood magic ritual, while in the books he just goes on being a smith and doesn't get involved in anything particularly weird or shady. He's helping run an inn as a Brotherhood front/orphanage when he reappears in the books, but in the show, Ser Davos sets him free and tells him to fuck off, which he does for a few seasons. He eventually turns up back in King's Landing, where Davos finds him and recruits him (and his comically oversized LARPing hammer) for Team Snow. He helps Jon capture a wight to show Cersei, makes dragonglass weapons for the Army of the Living, hooks up with Arya, and fights in the Battle of Winterfell, after which Daenerys legitimizes him as the new lord of House Baratheon.</div></div>

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===House Tully===

''"Family, Duty, Honor"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> Lords of the central riverlands. Being the obligatory central nation they spend a lot of the series being fought over like a cake in between fat kids. Basically Poland/the Netherlands, given they have so many rivers and how hard they've been fucked over.
*Edmure Tully: Basically the SoIaF universe's eternal butt monkey (because he happens to be a decent fucking person). Despite being an okay guy, he's also a useless ponce with a dense streak a mile wide and a bad habit of bragging about things he shouldn't be proud of. It took hanging in a stockade for a few months to make him experience some growth. When Jaime was brought in to unfuck the situation and end the siege at Riverrun, Jaime's "negotiation" pressured him into convincing his house to surrender, but he made sure [[Troll|that Brynden got out first]]. In the books, he's currently spending his days at the Lannister house as a hostage to make sure that the Tullys don't try to ruin the situation again. In the show, he disappears until the final episode, where he tries to make a case for himself as king only to get shut down by Sansa.
*Lord Hoster Tully: In GoT the only act he committed of any note was to die. In the books however he is arguably, though inadvertently, the most destructive character once you've delved into his history. The man looked down upon peasants, cripples, bastards, and broken things, which influenced his daughters and primed them for their mistreatment of such through their travels (especially Catelyn's immediate suspicion of Tyrion, [[What|despite the charge and evidence making little sense, but because he's a "Monster" of course he must have done it]]). He denied Tywin's offer to marry Tyrion to Lysa for said reasons, but he also denied Lysa to marry Petyr because of his low birth and her value of being married off to a higher bidder, even if their age differed by at least 50 years and she was pregnant with Petyr's child. He responded to this pregnancy by forcefully aborting the child via drinking Moon Tea, without her knowledge (something he would have nightmares about approaching his death). Not only did this nearly cause her death, but it destroyed her reproductive system resulting in 5 miscarriages and 2 stillbirths (an event that would lead her to aggressive paranoia so fervent that she killed her husband to prevent being separated from her only living child). All of these actions unfortunately spiraled into helping cause The War of the Five Kings.
*Brynden Tully ''the Blackfish'': He didn't catch the memo that he was part of the joke faction, and proceeds to spend the entire series fucking Lannister shit up and generally being a boss. Thought to be the black sheep in a family of fish. (Thus "Blackfish", geddit?) Ended up holed up in Riverrun, and got the fuck out right before the end of the siege, so that the Lannisters couldn't dick him over as a prisoner (or so he can keep dicking them over before he became a prisoner). Also widely accepted by the fans to be a closeted homosexual. In the HBO show, he gets killed when resisting arrest from Tully forces by order of Edmure. [[Rage|And it happens offscreen.]]</div></div>

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===House Arryn===

''"As High as Honor"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Mountain lords turned [[NEET|neurotic shut ins]]. Goes through lords about as quickly as you would expect a castle equipped with a door that opens into empty air. Basically Switzerland/Afghanistan, seeing as how they stayed neutral in the War of Five Kings, their land is covered by nothing but mountains, and they're constantly fighting with the local tribes. They were being entertainingly screwed over by Littlefinger until his death.
*Jon Arryn: Only appears posthumously and is the catalyst for the whole plot. Used to be a foster father of sorts to Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark. The true mastermind behind Robert's Rebellion was killed by Littlefinger via Lysa when he figured out that Robert's kids are bastards of Cersei and Jaime. His death was blamed on the Lannisters to destabilize Westeros.
*Lysa Arryn: Loli bride turned Lady of the Vale after the Lannisters forcibly retired her husband from life, at least officially. In reality, Littlefinger convinced her to poison her husband and blame the Lannisters [[Just As Planned|which pretty much started this whole clusterfuck to begin with]]. A closeted, crazy woman who spends the entire series in her castle "the Eyrie" being useless, breastfeeding her own son at age 10, obsessing over Littlefinger's cock, and [[Derp|refusing to help her sister and nephew in the war she and Littlefinger pretty much started]], which may have guaranteed their eventual horrific murders by their enemies. Finally gets her comeuppance when Littlefinger kicks her out the moon door (post-taunting, of course), putting her out of our collective misery. Long live the Lord Protector.
* Robert Arryn: ''Littlefuck'', Lysa's equally mentally unstable autistic son, who still sucks on his mom's tit and enjoys seeing people "fly" out the moon door to their deaths. He actually seems to be a bit smarter than you would first think and is a really, really good judge of character, except with Sansa. Secretly being poisoned by Littlefinger and Sansa so she can take over the Vale and North. Named Robin in the show because the showrunners were afraid that having two characters with the same name would be too confusing. The show version doesn't get poisoned but turns up in the series finale as the Lord of the Vale.</div></div>

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===House Greyjoy===

''"We Do Not Sow"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[Awesome|A house founded by Cthulhu-worshipping Norscans]]. While not actual Vikings in any sense of the word, there is little other way to describe them. They live on some islands off the coast of Westeros and almost their entire culture is based around raiding and the ocean. Their religion holds it shameful for a man to pay for personal possessions, and states they have to get things either by trade, washing up from the ocean or the "Iron Price": seizing something from the body or belongings of someone he defeated in battle rather than paying or trading for it. Also, only possessions acquired via the Iron Price command respect among the Ironborn. The nastiest form this takes is stealing women as "Salt Wives", [[Slaanesh|effectively making them a society of rapists]]. As an interesting bit of trivia, their local variety of baptism is to be ritually drowned in seawater and resuscitated by their priests, and they don't see drowning as a bad way to go on the grounds that it means their god/gods have accepted them and they'll go to an underwater Heaven that's basically a more X-rated version of The Little Mermaid.
*Balon Greyjoy: Asshole dad, crappy ruler, and general shithead (all very common things in this world, but still) who rebelled against Robert Baratheon and failed miserably. All of his sons were killed, except for Theon, who was taken as a hostage to ensure his good behaviour. Despite being in a position to join either the Lannisters or the Starks during the War of Five Kings and thereby get whatever he wanted from either (independence and the North, or independence and Casterly Rock, respectively), he does the absolute stupidest thing possible and declares himself independent without support from anyone, attacking the North and the rest of Westeros, thereby virtually guaranteeing that he'll be on the receiving end of another one-sided battle once everyone else has sorted their shit out. In the book he at least tried to make one alliance but it was with the freaking Lannisters and not the other Kingdom seeking independence. Never got that far, though, since he was pushed off a bridge during a storm by an assassin his brother Euron sent.
*Victarion Greyjoy: Admiral of the Iron Fleet. [[Gets shit done]] while wearing [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Lokhir Fellheart's]] armour during boarding actions. Does it for vengeance, the lulz and as a ticket to Ironborn heaven (which they believe men can reach if they die in battle or by drowning). Worships both R'hllor and the Drowned God. For all his badassery, is far too stupid to realize that his black Red Priest sidekick's constant rambling about his "great destiny" is inevitably going to end in his burning to death on a sacrificial pyre. Said Red Priest impressed Victarion by surviving being marooned at sea for 3 weeks and turning Victarion's infected arm into a super-strong volcano arm. Seriously. Isn't in the show, which is lame.
*Aeron Greyjoy ''Damphair'': A priestly Alan Moore who drank seawater. Once a fun-loving party animal, he nearly drowned during the Greyjoy Rebellion and became a dour and devout priest of the Ironborn [[Cthulhu]] religion. Confirmed to have been raped by Euron when they were kids. Planned to overthrow Euron, who bribed and manipulated his way into becoming king of the Ironborn. As of the excerpts from the sixth book, he [[Grimdark|Was captured by Euron and tortured to try and make him renounce his faith, including feeding him spoiled food, drugging him and burning him. Later Euron tied Aeron, naked, to the prow of Euron's ship alongside Euron's tortured, pregnant former lover because she showed Aeron kindness by once giving him proper food]]. He tried to console her by saying their suffering will end in underwater Valhalla, [[Awesome|showing Euron failed to make him deny his faith]]. Also left out of the show.
*Theon Greyjoy: Son of the Lord/King of the Iron Islands. Had the personality of a stereotypical high school jock, being an excellent archer and womanizer and proud of it. He was given to Ned Stark by his father after Balon failed to successfully rebel against Robert Baratheon. Swore an oath to Robb, but then ditched him out of a desperate need to please his father. Ends up castrated and acts as the personal slave of Ramsay Bolton after Ramsay puts him through horrific torture to turn him into Reek. Rescued by his sister, but the psychological trauma meant it took a while before he could stop calling himself Reek and start getting back to normal mentally (physically he's now missing a few parts that don't heal or grow back). He's just been reunited with his sister in the books, but is dead in the show, thanks to charging the Night King by himself while protecting Bran.
* Asha Greyjoy: Theon's older sister and a commander of some renown which is quite a feat - almost every man on the Iron Islands except her father either tried to get in her pants or told her to [[-4 STR|stop playing around and go do some actual women's work]], before she kicked enough ass that they respected her. Rescues Theon after he escapes Ramsay but then loses him to Stannis. Is named Yara in the show because the showrunners thought her name sounded too similar to Osha the wildling chick and is also apparently [[PROMOTIONS|bisexual]]. Eventually becomes Lady of the Iron Islands in the show because she's the last Greyjoy standing. Is more or less the only Ironborn who isn't a complete asshole.
*Euron Greyjoy ''Crow's Eye'': A [[Chaos Warrior|sick fuck Lovecraftian pirate armed with unnatural sorcerous powers]] and so evil that Balon banished him from the Iron Islands. Every member of his crew is a mute because Euron ripped all their tongues out. Many of them are also the illegitimate sons [[Beastmen|of women he's raped around the world during his raids]]. Uses an eyepatch to conceal a pitch-black eye, his personal "obviously a villain" mark. Raped his brother Victarion's wife, then claimed she wanted it so Victarion had to kill her. Raped his younger brother Aeron. Also showed back up in the Iron Islands the day after Balon died, despite having been raping and pillaging in Essos before that, which is suspicious as fuck. Now the new Iron King. Plans to conquer Westeros and has some unknown plan to deal with Daenerys. Revealed in the book ''Winds of Winter'' to be [[Erebus|one of the sickest fucks in an entire setting of sick fucks (and that's saying something)]], including having a god complex while hating religion so much he [[Grimdark|tortures any clergymen he captures to try and make them give up their faiths using ironic tortures themed around their religions - such as preachers have their tongues cut out and burning priests of the fire god to death]]. Euron tried and failed to break his priest brother Aeron's faith so he lashed Aeron to the front of his ship to die [[Grimdark|alongside Euron's own pregnant lover Falia]]. In the show he's just a psycho pirate turned king without any magic powers or gear who wants to bang Cersei and Jaime kills him in the second-to-last episode in one of the dumbest moments in an already terrible episode. </div></div>

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===House Tyrell===

''"Growing Strong"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Lords of Highgarden, backstabbers par-excellence, and owners of a lot of fertile land. Unlike the current lot of Lannisters they understand the value of good PR, balancing ruthlessness with being somewhat amicable, political savvy and not being stuck-up on honour. They're basically France. [[Fail|Unfortunately, they've all been wiped out in the show]].
*Mace "The Ace" Tyrell: Lord of Highgarden. Massively fat and overweight, while being stupid, overreaching and constantly mocked by everyone else, he's otherwise known as a friendly man, a good Lord when it comes to management and a good father; unfortunately, this isn't enough to save a man in the Game of Thrones. Gets killed with the rest of the noble houses when Cersei blows up the Great Sept of Baelor.
*Olenna Tyrell: The brains behind House Tyrell's schemes. Known as the ''Queen of Thorns'' for being an outspoken, prickly and venomous old lady. Schemed with Littlefinger to have Joffrey killed, but she carried it out with compressed powder "gems" hidden in Sansa's hairnet that poisoned his wine. Now she keeps her family in line and is hailed as a more progressive version of Tywin. Became a fan-favorite for constantly dropping awesome one-liners and calling out smug and/or unpopular characters like Littlefinger and the Sand Snakes. [[Fail|Killed off in the show]] as Jaime gives her the option of drinking painless poison or whatever Cersei wanted to do to her after beseiging Highgarden. Olenna took the poison, and before she died [[Awesome|revealed to Jaime that she was the one who killed Joffrey and told him to make sure Cersei knows it]].
*Willas Tyrell: Mace Tyrell's eldest son and heir, crippled at a very young age when jousting against Oberyn Martell. Surprisingly, he and Oberyn are still bros, even though the rest of their Houses aren't very fond of each other because of this incident. Probably one of the most pleasant and sensible characters in the books, which might explain why he's yet to make an appearance in the TV show. Very fond of breeding animals, especially horses.
*Garlan Tyrell ''The Gallant'': Second-born son. Badass extraordinaire considered one of the best swords in Westeros, and one of the few people kind to Tyrion. Trains for real combat (often against multiple opponents by himself) unlike Loras, who's a tourney fighter. Single-handedly wrecks many notable knights fighting for Stannis during the War of The Five Kings. And he is the only person other than Tywin to put Joffrey in his place, at his own wedding. Sadly no POV chapter yet and omitted from the TV series (Loras takes credit for his deeds).
*Loras Tyrell ''The Knight of Flowers'': The Tyrell who appears most in the TV series, since his older brothers got adapted out. Considered to be an example of the perfect knight, despite his youth. Is secretly Renly's gay lover and conspired to take the throne with him and his sister. Last seen badly injured in the books attempting to take Stannis' castle. In the show he ends up tortured by the members of the Faith for being gay [[C.S Goto|because the showrunners retconned them to hate gay people]], [[Protectorate of Menoth|later joins their ranks of questionable willingness]], then dies when Cersei blows up the Sept of Baelor.
*Margaery Tyrell: The would-be Queen of Westeros, she has married, in order, Renly Baratheon (gay), Joffrey Baratheon (evil), and Tommen Baratheon (8 years old) and has been crowned as queen three times. While she is nice, she is capable of manipulation. In the show, she marries and uses sex to control Tommen. Was arrested by the resident Chamber Militant The Sparrow and asked for a trial by faith in the books. In the show, this also happens but she tries to be pious in an attempt to save herself but ended up getting killed when Cersei blew up the Sept of Baelor.
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===House Martell===

''"Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Desert dwelling survivalists who pride themselves on having never been conquered by the Targaryen dynasty (though they later married in). Moorish Spaniards, kinda. [[C.S Goto|Their story arc was completely ruined in the show, as Elia and Oberyn's daughters kill Oberyn's brother and nephew for taking too long to avenge him before being captured and killed themselves by Euron and Cersei]].
*Doran Martell: Lord of Sunspear and of royal descent. Still mad at the Lannisters about that whole "murdered-my-sister-and-infant-niece thing". Playing the longest of long games with Varys while trying to keep the rest of his psychotic family members in check. Wheelchair-bound due to his gout. [[What|Killed off in the show by Ellaria as part of her plan to avenge Oberyn]]. Even his actor was upset.
*Arianne Martell: One of GRRM's characters who seems to exists solely to fuck everything up at the worst conceivable moment. Still hot as Dornish girls come. Exists only in the books, where she is currently helping her dad get ready to topple the Lannisters after fucking everything up with her own stupid plan to crown Myrcella, which is what got the poor girl maimed.
*Oberyn Martell ''The Viper of Dorne'': Doran Martell's brother, a bisexual swinger, former mercenary, and a drunkard (and also Inigo Montoya in Dark Fantasy). His girlfriend is a spectacularly beautiful bastard named Ellaria Sand and he has many illegitimate children, mostly daughters, collectively called "The Sand Snakes". Crippled the Tyrell heir in a fight, causing a rift between the two houses; despite this, he's actually best mates with the aforementioned heir, due to Willas Tyrell being straight up the nicest and most balanced man in the series and Oberyn being a somewhat decent person. Known for poisoning his weapons, as well as his battle-cry. Died from a mutual kill, with Gregor Clegane crushing his skull in rather graphically, but Oberyn getting the last laugh, since he got Clegane with a horribly painful and slow-acting venom which stretched his death over days or even weeks, during which time he was ruthlessly experimented upon by a mad scientist, meaning he avenged his sister Elia who Gregor had raped and murdered.
*Quentyn Martell: Didn't realize he was in Dark Low Fantasy and thought he was in High Fantasy, poor bastard. A member of House Martell, sent to marry Daenerys to secure an alliance between the families since the original marriage plan to hook Arianne up with Viserys won't work with Viserys dead. Leaves Westeros and goes all the way to the city of Meereen to marry her, but he's too late, as she marries the Meereenese noble Hizdahr, and like Jorah he's not her type (Dany likes her bad boys). Tries to tame two of her dragons to impress her; the attempt goes wrong, he gets horribly burnt and gradually dies in agony from his wounds.
*The Sand Snakes: Oberyn's children. All daughters he had with various women throughout his travels (all consensual encounters, mind you). Mixed race and all hot with various skills including combat training and mastery of poisons. Working with Doran and Ellaria in the books. [[C.S Goto|Ruined in the show where they don't accomplish anything, are given atrocious dialogue (the "you need the bad pussy" line comes to mind), aren't great fighters and get killed by Euron's men, except for the one who poisoned Myrcella; she gets captured and poisoned back by Cersei so an imprisoned Ellaria is forced to watch her die and decompose.]]</div></div>

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===House Bolton===

''"Our Blades Are Sharp"''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">The Starks' most important (and most despised) vassal, a former arch-rival made of [[Grimdark]] because their entire theme [[Night Lords|revolves around Torture and they're thoroughly awful, dishonorable, sadistic cowards who can be counted on to do every dirty trick possible before even trying to fight fair]]. Their sigil is a flayed man, their castle is [[Commorragh|a complex of constant suffering called the Dreadfort]], and just look at their House motto...all of which shows how stupid the Starks were for thinking they could control them. Tied with Red Wedding collaborators the Freys as the most thoroughly vile house in the entire setting (no mean feat, all things considered).
*Roose Bolton, ''The 'Leech Lord'': A Lawful Evil sociopathic health nut who's called the Leech Lord because he gets leeched regularly, believing they get rid of bad blood. Second-most powerful Lord in the North with ambitions to depose the Starks. Since the Starks are mostly unable to think like crafty people and are blinded by excessive honour this doesn't prove too difficult. He gets his wish when he stabs Robb Stark in the back, at his uncle's wedding no less, and has anyone associated with Robb killed. He then makes over Winterfell in his bloody image and is currently trolling Stannis. Believes in the abolished practice of "[[Rape|Droit du seigneur]]" (a tradition that allowed a lord to have sex with subordinate women, whether they wanted to or not) and killed at least one man for trying to hide his wife from Roose (before fathering Ramsay with her via rape). Believed that he and his son could be as evil as they wanted as long as no one found out. Killed by Ramsey in the show, which Ramsay tried to cover with a lie despite the witnesses to his actions. May also be dead in the books, since the letter Jon receives from Winterfell in book five is addressed from Lord Ramsay Bolton.
*Ramsay Snow/Bolton: <s>A Dark Elf with shaved ears in the wrong universe</s>. <s>The Joker of Westeros</s>. The Chaotic Evil incarnate bastard son of Roose Bolton and a peasant woman he raped [[Grimdark|(under the hanging corpse of the woman's husband, for fuck's sake!)]]. One of the most fucked up people in all of the Seven Kingdoms (alongside the Mountain, Joffrey, the original Reek, the pedophile marauder Rorge and Euron), because he [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|loves to torture and kill people openly for the lulz]], such as Theon Greyjoy, who he crippled, knocked his teeth out, castrated, and brainwashed into calling himself Reek. Reek was originally a peasant appointed to try and control a young Ramsay, but instead Ramsay warped him into a mentally unstable necrophiliac before killing Reek to fake his death, but Ramsay seemed to hold some twisted affection for him. He also sent Theon's severed appendage to Theon's dad in a cutesy box with a letter mockingly detailing his evilness. Will torture anyone who points out his illegitimate heritage even though now he's legally recognized as a Bolton. Also has a pack of hunting dogs he names after women he hunts, rapes and kills. Married a fake Arya Stark and regularly mistreats her, including forced bestiality. Not a fun guy to be around. The only reason he's gotten away with it for so long (as pointed out by his father) is that no one is strong enough to stand up to him yet, but [[Powder Keg of Justice|when they are]] he's going to be killed (especially if his fate in the show is anything to go by).
**In the show, he killed his father with a knife, fed his stepmother and newborn half-brother to his dogs, then married Sansa Stark and deflowered her via rape. Ramsay was such a monster even Iwan Rheon, THE ACTOR WHO PLAYED THE GUY, hoped he'd die horribly. He got his wish: The consequences of Ramsay's actions catch up with him when Jon Snow shows up with an army capable of threatening him, and after surprise reinforcements from Littlefinger and his own fucked-up teamkilling, the Starks crush the Bolton army, forcing Ramsay to flee back to Winterfell. Despite this, the gate is smashed down, and Jon disarms him and beats him quite brutally before detaining him to await trial. Before the trial Sansa sets his dogs on him, which he had deliberately starved so they would eat Jon. Apparently they found him quite tasty. For all that Season 6 of GoT is Skub, there likely aren't many who would object to this moment.
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===House Frey===

''"We Stand Together"''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> House of weasels who are always grumpy and have a thing for overreacting to perceived slights. Wouldn't be that important except for the fact that they own the only bridge over a strategically important river, and regularly extort anyone attempting to cross it...that, and performing the Red Wedding, AKA the Magnum Opus of Grimdark that single-handedly ensures they're the most hated fucks in the whole setting in-universe and out. Simply put, there is '''nothing''' good or nice you can say about the Freys. They're ugly inside and out, cruel, treacherous, thoroughly dishonorable, and aren't even strong warriors, being a mix of incompetent dumbasses and sadistic cowards. They'd all make excellent Skaven (especially considering they could stand to be killed by some Lizardmen).

*Walder Frey: The ancient, terrible, ornery old man in charge of the Twins. Universally detested by his peers (and the audience) for being an amoral, sociopathic opportunist, which he returns in kind for said peers "looking down on him" (can't imagine why), and will readily betray an important ally for immediate gain, or if he feels he has been slighted in some minor way, with the aforementioned Red Wedding being the most infamous example of both. His descendants are literally so numerous that no one except GRRM himself has been able to count them all, so we aren't even going to attempt it (not helped by quite a few of them being named Walder as well). Now dead in the show due to getting his throat slit by a vengeful Arya after she serves him two of his sons as meat pies. </div></div>

===Minor Houses and non-Houses===
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'''Night's Watch'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">The Night's Watch are an apolitical force in charge of manning The Wall, a giant ice wall that separates the relative tranquillity of the south from the Lovecraftian fucked-up-itude of the true north. They are chronically undermanned and undersupplied since nobody believes their stories of a barbarian army or the impending zombie apocalypse. Basically everybody else thinks they're in a game of [[Diplomacy]] and the Night's Watch are the only ones who realize they're actually in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], though it's been so long since the last snow elf invasion that even they had forgotten about the undead hordes and focused too much on barbarians. Too add to their problems, they are overwhelmingly comprised of petty criminals who wanted to avoid the hangman, because "taking the black", as it's colloquially known, also brings with it a full pardon for any crime committed, even murder and treason (even rape, though rapists tend to be despised among the Night's Watch). Taking the black isn't also very popular, as a common joke in the Seven Kingdoms is that out 10 people, only would one would willfully take the black, the rest would rather get hanged. They also frequently serve as a convinient catch-all solution for Lords and nobles who fell out of favor, committed treason or were outwitted in the endless Westerosi wheel of politics; lucky for them because said Lords and Nobles are usually the only ones with any fighting experience that are part of the watch and make up their leadership. They've allied with the Wildings and the North, but in the TV show, the Night's King used the undead dragon Viserion to burn a hole through The Wall.
*Jeor Mormont, ''The Old Bear'': 997th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch at the start of the series. Sees Jon Snow as something of a second son (since his own son Jorah was exiled for enslaving and refused to take the black for his crimes). Leads a ranging north of the Wall to investigate reports that the Others have returned. Ends up killed during a mutiny of survivors after the Others wiped out most of his force.
*Alliser Thorne: Prick of a knight who was favourite to be the next Watch Commander, but was passed over by Jon Snow. Unable to accept Jon Snow letting the Wildlings live on the other side of the wall in an alliance against the zombie hordes, he staged a coup against Jon. It failed because Jon was brought back to life. He is now dead in the show, having been executed for his treason by Jon Snow. Despite of his many personal failings, he's one of the very few capable fighters (and a pretty good one, even) of the Watch and a skilled commander. Took the Black after siding with the Targaryens during the Sack of King's Landing in the civil war.
*Aemon Targaryen: Maester of the Citadel at Castle Black. Despite being the third born son of King Maekar I Targaryen, he declined the right to sit on the Iron Throne. One of the few people in the series to die of old age, at 102.
*Samwell Tarly, ''The Slayer'': Fat bookworm who was forced to take the black after his father Randyl threatened to murder him for being unmanly. Jon Snow's best friend among the Night's Watch, and knows everything because he "read it in a book". Despite being a self-professed coward, Sam became the first person in thousands of years to slay an Other with an obsidian dagger. George Martin himself said Sam's based on Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings. Since then, he has started improving his combat skills and balls (in more ways than one for the latter, finding his spine and losing his virginity). He abandons the Night's Watch to help fight the dead and tell Jon who he really is, and winds up becoming the new Grand Maester by the end of the show.
*Eddison Tollett, ''Dolorous Edd'': Probably the most badass member of the Night's Watch. Responds to situations by making sarcastic jokes about them, and known for being a grim motherfucker in a setting of grim motherfuckers. In the show he [[Awesome|became the new Lord Commander]] while Jon was dead, but gave the title back to Jon when he was brought back to life, and then Jon handed it right back because he needed to go sort out Ramsay Bolton. Dies in Season 8 at the Battle of Winterfell.
*Benjen Stark: The [[Dune|Duncan Idaho]] of this series, the dead guy all the other characters and all the ''readers'' love so much someone has to bring him back from the dead in later books. Benjen is Eddard Stark's youngest brother and the prime motivation why Jon wants to join the Night's Watch in the first place. Joined the Watch for reasons unknown and disappears without a trace even before Jon arrives. In the TV series, he returns as a benevolent Wight that retained his free will and helps Bran to get back to the Seven Kingdoms.
*Qhorin Half-Hand: Badass extraordinaire that killed a shitton of Wildlings in his long time of service, rumoured to have spent more time north of the Wall than anyone living southerner in the setting. Lets himself get killed by Jon in a gambit to earn Mance Rayders respect.
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'''Wildlings'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Groups of nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes who live north of the Wall. Mostly First Men by blood, they have been heading toward the Wall for the past decade with the reputed reemergence of the Others. Nomadic, aggressive, and very much believing in "might makes right", they do not get along with anyone south of The Wall since they view them as "Kneeling weaklings". Basically every Celtic/Scandinavian/barbarian stereotype combined.
*Mance Rayder, ''The King Beyond The Wall'': A Wildling orphan who was taken in by the Night's Watch, he became their best Ranger before he deserted to join his people. He united the Wildlings and lead them south to escape the Others. Also a trained bard, but that was not enough to save him from death in the show while he's merely MIA in the books.
*Tormund Giantsbane: Claims to have a ten-inch penis, and invites his enemies to use their mouths if they want to clean it. Cool as fuck old guy who [[Furry|fucks mother-bears]] in his free time. Tough as nails motherfucker who preaches the merits of using one's cock for everything. He teams up with Jon Snow for the fight against the White Walkers, then fucks off back to the north once the Night King is dead, making him one of the most sensible people on the show. He and Jon go off to be bros at the end of the show.
*Ygritte: Wildling woman who Jon Snow ends up falling for and who returns his affections. Has red hair which is considered lucky among the Wildlings. This being ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', she ends up dying because her worldview is not compatible with Jon's.
*Craster: A sick bastard, formerly a member of the Night's Watch turned polygamous isolationist. By the way, [[Grimdark|his current wives are his many daughters and granddaughters who he fucks regularly to have more children. Girls grow up to become more wives, boys get sacrificed to the Others]]. This keeps the Others at bay - and is implied to be a way the Others reproduce themselves, and that sanctuary is why the Night's Watch barely tolerates him. Fortunately, he's been killed off in the story and his offspring go their separate ways.
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'''Commoners, Knights, and Petty Lords'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Basically any character not associated with any of the Great Houses.
* Varys, ''The Spider'': The eunuch spymaster of Westeros. You can't take a shit in the Seven Kingdoms without Varys finding out where, when, and how watery or dry it was. He does this through paid informants and his "little birds", a spy network of children who sneak through the castle's passageways and air flues to eavesdrop on everyone. Somewhat of a paradoxical character, since his literal dicklessness, reputation and political power make every character extremely vary of him (it's more or less implied that the main thing keeping him in the small council is the fact that he has got enough shit on everyone to blackmail them into submission if they would dare step out of his line) but under the surface, he is the rare example of people in Westeros that isn't an entirely self-serving scumbag and seems to show genuine care and concern for the common folk [[Just as planned|(Even if his machinations frequently put commonors in peril, but hey, such is politics)]]. To that end, he manipulated events that, according to his plan, would end with a Targaryen on the throne, to permanently stabilize the realm and rid it of the aformentioned self-serving idiots. On a sidenote, he's one of the few, if not the only person to fully comprehend how dangerous Littlefinger actually is. In the books, he's currently trying to install an adolescent Targaryen on the Iron Throne (who probably isn't even one, but he got the looks) Dead in the show, having decided to try and put Jon on the throne instead of Daenerys; Jon says no, Tyrion sells him out when he realizes Jon absolutely means it, and Dany has Drogon barbecue him.
* Petyr Baelish, ''Littlefinger'': The Master of Coin (the ASOIAF equivalent of a treasurer) and the closest person the Game of Thrones world has to a [[Daemon Prince]] of [[Tzeentch]], up to even declaring "[[Chaos]] is a Ladder". A dangerous manipulator who manages to trick and steal his way to positions of lordship and wealth because no one takes him seriously, and stabs all the Lannisters in the back when they become inconvenient. As a child, he wanted Catelyn Stark and was tricked into thinking she wanted him when her sister Lysa fucked him while he was drunk. Challenged Catelyn's betrothed Brandon Stark, Ned's older brother who was murdered by Aerys, for her hand in marriage and got his ass kicked because he was a small skinny boy and Brandon Stark was a big strapping man, making that his start of darkness. The guy responsible, directly or indirectly, for the War of the Five Kings because he was the mastermind behind poisoning Jon Arryn, the capture and execution of Ned Stark, feeding several half-truths to Catelyn to motivate her to arrest Tyrion, and eventually Joffrey's death by having Dontos and Olenna Tyrell carry out the plan to kill Joffrey and letting Tyrion take the fall; but no one in the story knows this, not even Varys. People think he can pull gold out of thin air, but he's really been buying debt while letting Robert Baratheon's extravagances and Joffrey and Cersei's dipshittery pull the country into a serious debt of its own. So he's pledged himself to [[Chaos]] and destroying Westeros all because he couldn't have Catelyn as his girlfriend, though he changed his focus to her daughter Sansa now, making him a pedophile. Hasn't yet got his comeuppance in the books, but is currently dead in the show after he was out-gambitted by Sansa and killed by Arya (though the less said about how well executed this was, the better). According to GRRM, he's based on the title character from the Great Gatsby, even though he only really resembles the character when putting on an act.
*Gregor Clegane, ''The Mountain'': A 7' 8" 400 pound mass of testosterone, muscles, steroid overdose, [[Slaanesh|utter disregard for consent]], [[Khorne|and murderous RAGE]], Gregor is Tywin Lannister's top muscle. Killed his own father and sister and permanently scarred his brother. [[Beastmen|Hobbies include rape, arson, murder, and random torture]]; he's also been married a few times but not now with the implication he kept killing his wives. He played an important part in destroying the Targaryens by killing a couple of Rhaegar's kids in rather brutal fashion, then raping and murdering his wife. Spends a few novels doing Tywin's dirty work before a Trial by Champion leads to him dying after being poisoned by Oberyn Martell. Qyburn later resurrected him as... something... called "Ser Robert Strong", and is now even stronger, less prone to psychotic rages, and is completely obedient. He's based on accounts of French knight Gilles de Rais and maybe also the scriptural giant Goliath. In the show he goes on to torture Cersei's nun jailer to death in a brutal and unspecified fashion kills Qyburn during the Siege of King's Landing and then nearly kills his little brother, only for Sandor to tackle him through a collapsing wall and into a gigantic inferno that claims both. [[Honsou|Standing out as one of ''the'' evilest pieces of shit in a world filled with them]], to the point that even the author himself has labeled him the worst character in the series.
* Sandor Clegane, ''The Hound'': Younger brother to Gregor Clegane, called the Hound because of his hound-face helm, his family's heraldry, and being the king's hired muscle without being a knight. He hates knights due to the hypocrisy of being a professional "noble warrior" but mostly since his monstrous brother is a knight, showing it's not so much of a noble promotion. Terrified of fire after Gregor put his head against a brazier for playing with one of Gregor's old toys when they were children, burning half his face, but he's still the second-strongest person in Westeros. A brutal anti-hero with a soft spot for Sansa, but a better person than his brother. After falling sick from Biter's nasty teeth, he ends up being a silent monk burying people in the Silent Isles. In the show, he joins the Brotherhood without Banners and goes north to help fuck up the White Walkers. As of Season 8, he's survived the Battle of Winterfell and is riding south with Arya to put the boots to Gregor. Dies killing his now undead brother in a pretty epic fight amidst the crumbling ruins of the Red Keep.
*Grand Maester Pycelle: A shrewd, dangerous man putting on a "harmless old man act" and a high ranking scholar from the science/medical guild the Maesters. The longest-serving member of the King's advisory staff, and is actually Tywin Lannister's biggest lackey. He convinced the Mad King to let Tywin in as Baratheon's armies were marching on the capital, where Tywin proceeded to sack the city and claim it for Robert. Gets his head bashed in by Varys in the books and murdered by Qyburn in the show.
* Qyburn: Formerly a maester, who was kicked out of the order for unethical experiments on the living (taking people and performing vivisections to be precise). Introduced as a part of a mercenary company serving Roose Bolton, which should be a red flag. He moves up in the world when he's sent to escort Brienne and Jaime back to King's Landing and ends with Cersei employing him to replace Pycelle as "science advisor" and eventually Varys's Spymaster. Serves Cersei loyally as long as she lets him indulge his sick experiments, serving as a black magic variety of the court mage. He has resurrected Gregor Clegane as... something. [[Fabius Bile]] if he traded his robot limbs, eugenics and power armour for necromancy. He overestimated his hold on Gregor and got his head caved in for it as of the second-to-last episode of the show.
*Barristan Selmy, ''The Bold'': Knight of the Kingsguard. Which Kingsguard? Take your pick. He's served pretty much every king since Aerys and understandably feels pretty bad about it. Another sad old man who pretty much just wants to die until he decides to go pledge his services to Daenerys. Even in his old age, he is considered one of the most dangerous men in Westeros. [[Fail|Dead in the show]] (to be fair they gave him a huge last stand), but [[Awesome|alive]] and [[Roboute Guilliman|appointed himself Daenerys' steward in her absence to try and fix Meereen's situation in the books]].
*Melisandre, ''The Red Witch'': A priestess of R'hllor, the god of fire. Proclaimed Stannis to be the messiah-king and is doing everything in her power to make sure he wins (considerable given that she can scry, make shadow baby assassins and set things on fire with her mind). She'd be pretty bro-tier if her god wasn't so vicious. As it stands she's kind of in the grey (in the books, the show seems to zig-zag on her being evil 'cos the showrunners seem to hate religion). Most of the people she set on fire deserved it, and she hasn't ''succeeded'' in killing any babies yet. Show version now dead from suicide via rapid ageing after ensuring the Living defeat the Dead.
*Jorah Mormont: A knight and son of Jeor Mormont, exiled for trying to sell poachers into slavery and eventually joining the exiles of House Targaryen. He is offered a pardon in exchange for spying on the Targaryens but ultimately decides to stay with them after falling in love with Daenerys. Unfortunately, he gets friend-zoned hard. Despite saving her life from an assassin while she was pregnant, she still votes him off the Khalassar after learning he was a spy. He still loves her and follows her in secret, though. In the show, he goes on a quest to prove himself to her and contracts the dangerous disease Greyscale (it's like the unholy lovechild of smallpox and leprosy), but he gets cured and is now back at her side. He dies protecting her at the Battle of Winterfell.
*Davos Seaworth, ''The Onion Knight'': A former smuggler and bannerman to House Baratheon, and a top-tier hype man, pulling speeches out on the spot on several occasions to convince people to support Stannis and later Jon. During Roberts Rebellion he ran a blockade with a cargo of contraband onions to a castle Stannis Baratheon was besieged in. In exchange for the food he had, Stannis knighted Davos, but Stannis's law-worshipping mindset compelled him to remove four digits from his left hand. Despite this, Davos has served Stannis with unquestioning loyalty, because Stannis knighting him gave his children a future. The fact that Stannis's war for the throne has ended up killing several of his sons hasn't dented his loyalty at all. Doesn't like Melisandre because he sees her as a user and her beliefs as brutal. He's a devout follower of the Faith of the Seven in the books and the first season of the show [[C.S Goto|but is clumsily retconned into an anti-religious atheist in later show seasons]]. In the show, he's now pledged to DA NORF and is basically Jon's Hand of the King, except he doesn't get a fancy pin. He survives the Battle of Winterfell and the Second Sack of King's Landing and becomes Master of Ships in the final episode of the show.
*Shae: A former camp follower and Tyrion Lannister's squeeze for most of the story. Fled from an abusive family and became a camp follower to earn a living. Seems to fall in love with Tyrion, but it turns out she's a gold-digging bitch. When Tyrion doesn't marry Shae she sells him out to Cersei for a better offer, then fucks Tywin when she realizes Cersei won't keep her promise. Tyrion found her in his father's bed and strangled her to death with a necklace for betraying him. The discovery of Shae's corpse in Tywin's bed - posthumously outing him as a whoremonger - upsets Cersei to the point she unpersons Shae.
*Bronn: A mercenary who acts as Tyrion's enforcer and personal killer until Cersei outbids him and he settles down with a little wife and title. Routinely kills knights by exploiting how arrogant and stupid they are even after becoming one himself. Only in it for the money, which he'll happily tell you himself. The only character other than Littlefinger to end every book in a better position than he started it. In the show, he makes the very sensible decision to sit out the fighting and wait for his promised castle (Riverrun if Cersei wins, Highgarden if Daenerys wins). He gets Highgarden and is named Lord Paramount of the Reach and Master of Coin in the final episode. Some nobles bitch about the idea of an upjumped thug receiving such high and exalted positions until he points out that their Houses were probably founded by people a lot like him.
* Brienne of Tarth, ''The Beauty'': Surprisingly badass lady knight wannabe (since no women can be knighted), legendarily unattractive but still pretty idealistic despite the shit she gets for her looks. Fate frequently gives her the shit end of the stick, because no matter how hard she tries to finish her quests, she ends up failing or stuff happens that makes it impossible. Secretly crushes on Renly and unaware he's gay. After he dies, Brienne switches her loyalty to Catelyn and helps her bring Jaime to King's Landing as Tyrion promised Sansa's return in exchange for Jaime. She later developed a crush on Jaime. Things don't go well because Jaime lost his hand and the Red Wedding happened. Next, Jaime sends her out to find and keep Sansa safe to make good on Tyrion's promise, since he isn't the complete dick everyone thinks he is. Brienne ends up getting captured by Cat, now known as Lady Stoneheart and an insane undead, who was going to hang Brienne for working with Jaime. Brienne was spared at the last moment to capture/manipulate Jaime. In the show, she's now sworn to House Stark and gets knighted by Jaime just before the Battle of Winterfell and then she and Jaime hook up afterwards, only for him to take off and break her heart. She is now Lady Commander of the Kingsguard as of the final episode.
* Lyanna Mormont: A badass ten-year-old girl who inherits Bear Island after her mother and older sister die horribly in the Riverlands - at least if we are going by the show; in the book, her mother is still alive somewhere in the Neck and her older sister Alysanne is the de-facto head of House Mormont. Her activities include pimp-slapping bitches, leading men twice as old as her, and being completely loyal to the Starks despite all their misfortunes. [[Awesome|"Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is STARK."]] She dies killing an undead giant at the Battle of Winterfell, which is pretty badass.
* Wyman Manderly, ''Lord Too-Fat-To-Sit-A-Horse'': The Lord of White Harbour and one of the few Northerners who worship the Seven. Fervently loyal to House Stark, he pays lip-service to the Iron Throne long enough for his eldest son to return home, all to mask a plan to restore the Starks to power, mostly by destabilising the Frey-Bolton alliance, building a navy, marshalling the forces of the lands east of the White Knife river, "losing" Freys in the wilderness and sending Lord Davos Seaworth to rescue Rickon Stark from Skagos. His favourite food is lamprey, although he has also developed a taste for Frey Pie. Also a remarkably graceful dancer, and can survive taking a knife to the throat.
** Wylla Manderly: Granddaughter to the above. Another badass little girl, her activities include openly declaring undying loyalty to House Stark and dying her hair green. She and Lyanna Mormont would probably be best friends if they met. [[Awesome|"The city is built upon the land [the Starks] gave us. In return, we swore that we should always be their men. Stark men!"]]
* Jon Umber, ''The Greatjon'': At first he seems to be your stereotypical, boisterous Northern Lord. However, he becomes one of Robb's most loyal supporters, being first to declare him as 'King in the North' after Ned's execution. Had his moment of awesome [[Awesome|when he killed and wounded four Freys at the Red Wedding, all the while being drunk and needing eight additional men to take him down.]]
* Beric Dondarrion, ''The Lightning Lord'': Minor lord who agreed to head an expedition to take out Gregor Clegane. This being Game of Thrones, however, his party is ambushed by the Mountain and is beaten rather badly, and he loses his life in the process. Thanks to his drunken Red Priest friend, however, he manages to come back not once, but eight times, and each time he comes back, he becomes more powerful, though at the cost of his memory. He now heads an outlaw faction of grimdark Robin Hood types called "The Brotherhood Without Banners", who are dedicated to punishing those who abuse and mistreat the smallfolk. Ironically, he's one of the few book characters to have died (permanently) in the books but remain alive in the show, except now he's dead for real as of the Battle of Winterfell.
* Thoros of Myr: Aforementioned drunken priest who is dedicated to R'hllor, though at first he doesn't really give a rat's ass about the Red God, as he prefers to party it up with wine and women, but after he 'accidentally' resurrects Beric, he becomes quite serious about his religion and vows to curb his excesses in drinking. Dies on a mission beyond the Wall to capture a wight (show-version). Bane of swordsmiths across the lands, as he likes to routinely ignite his swords with Wildfire when he gets a hold of some of the stuff, which completely destroys the blade.
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'''The Free Cities'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Nine city-states to the West of Essos, for the most part, the old colonies of the Valaryian Freehold. Mostly they are ruled by Merchant Princes. They look down on the Westerosi for being a bunch of up jumped backwards war-mongering morons who are only a few silverware sets and maesters away from absolute barbarism. In turn, the Westerosi look down on the Free Cities as being money-grubbing effete cowards ruled by cheesemongers who use bribery, tall walls and dirty tricks to get ahead in the world.

* Illyrio Mopatis: A rich fat bastard and a Magister of Pentos. Old buddies with Varys and a bigtime schemer.
* [[Officio Assassinorum|The Faceless Men]]: A cult of shape-shifting assassins who worship The Many-Faced God of death based in the free city of Braavos that give up personal identity. They claim descent from escaped Valyrian slaves who considered death to be a better fate than perpetual slavery. Their mission hence became being servants of the Many-Faced God of Death. You can hire them to off your rivals, but they request a steep and equivalent price. They also offer a painless, quick suicide for downtrodden and desparate people by the means of poison. Their motto is "Valar Morghulis": All Men Must Die.
* Xaro Xhoan Daxos: One of the thirteen leaders of the city of Qarth. A flamboyant, languid, bald rich man who looks after Daenerys while she stays in Qarth and gives her many gifts. He wants her dragons as much as anyone else and even tries to marry her despite his homosexual tendencies. He stops wanting the dragons later in the book series after seeing [[RIP AND TEAR|their work in Astapor]], and no longer wants her around as her anti-slavery stance is hampering his wealth, so he offers Daenerys ships to leave the area and declares war on her when she refuses. In the show, he's heterosexual, helps steal her dragons, fucks one of her handmaidens and gets locked in a vault for conspiring to have her killed. He's also black and fat in the show when he's white and lanky in the books, being Qartheen and all.
* Syrio Forel: The former First Sword of Braavos (aka the ruler's personal bodyguard) and later Arya's mentor in King's Landing. He teaches her the way of Braavosi fencing, called "Water Dancing", and sacrifices himself to save her from Lannister thugs, taking down at least six of them with a wooden sword. May have inadvertently set her on the path of becoming a badass assassin by telling her of his belief in the God of Death.

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'''The Dothraki'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">Horse people who live in a country of endless grass plains referred to by others as the Dothraki sea. They only have one city, called Vaes Dothrak, which is less of a city and more of a place they all meet when important things have to be discussed. Have traits borrowed from several cultures, including Mongols and Native Americans, all filtered through European misconceptions of those cultures of course, such as the Dothraki's antipathy for heavy armour, despite the fact that the Mongols were very heavily armoured and also excelled as infantry, see the Battle of Leignitz. They fear the ocean because of its size and the fact that horses won't drink from it, calling it the "poison water".

* Khal Drogo: An Expy of <s>Genghis Khan</s> Yesukhei Baatyr (his son would have been the equivalent to Chinggis Khaan). Leads the largest Khalassar among the Dothraki. Despite being a barbarian warlord, Drogo is surprisingly intelligent and treats Daenerys well. After an assassin tries to kill her he promises to conquer Westeros for her and their unborn son and immediately starts raiding towns for slaves and ships. At one town he gets cut in a leadership challenge and Daenerys gets a captive wise woman to heal him. However, the woman hates him because his tribe destroyed her hometown, raped/slaughtered or enslaved her friends and raped her three times so she curses him to become catatonic (along with killing his unborn son), leading a devastated Daenerys to perform an arguable mercy kill by smothering him with a pillow. After she burns herself, her stillborn child and the wise woman on his funeral pyre, Daenerys survives and it brings her dragons to life. GRRM named Drogo after [[The Lord of the Rings|Frodo's father]].
* Daenerys' handmaidens.
** Doreah: Daenerys' handmaiden and a wedding gift from Illyrio. A woman from Lysene brought by her brother to teach her how to pleasure a man. In the book she dies of fever and starvation crossing a desert, in the TV show, she betrays Daenerys for [[Salamanders|Xaro's BBC]] and gets locked in a vault to starve to death.
** Irri: Daenerys' handmaiden who teaches Daenerys how to ride a horse. [[PROMOTIONS|Also pleasures Daenerys twice after catching her masturbating once]], yet this canonical girl-on-girl action was left out of the show. The character was even killed off there when she survived in the books, but in this case, it was because her actress' visa had expired rather than [[C.S. Goto|author railroading]].
** Jhiqui: Daenerys' handmaiden who teaches her the Dothraki language and squabbles with Irri over wanting one of Daenerys' bodyguards when he becomes a badass. Also dies in the TV show while staying alive so far in the books.

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'''Slavers Bay'''

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">A civilization of [[Stupid Evil]] slavers. The remains of a previous civilization that was once the big powerful empire thanks to having phalanxes of obedient, pain-resistant soldiers which Valyria conquered a long while ago because phalanxes don't do too well against motherfucking dragons. They are ruled by wealthy slave mongers who buy slaves, train them up to do specific things and generally are a bunch of stuck up, decadent, puppy-eating (literally) assholes. Basically a civilization so repugnant even most hippies will be cheering when Dany decides to conquer them.

* The Unsullied: Eunuch phalanx fighting slave soldiers trained the Spartan way to produce totally obedient infantry that never break ranks. They also don't feel pain due to drinking a special drink daily, and each one has to take a new name from the name box each day so they can't develop a sense of identity. At least until Dany "bought" the lot of them, had them sack the city which trained them, and freed them.
* Grey Worm: The Unsullied Commander and a no-nonsense badass. When given a chance to take a new name he keeps his slave name because it's the name he had when freed so he considers it lucky. He is completely loyal to Daenerys, considering her his saviour, and in the show, he falls in love with fellow freed-woman, Missandei. This being ASOIAF, however, he can only watch helplessly as his lover is beheaded in front of him by the Mountain. This drives him into a rage, and he eagerly takes part in the sacking of King's Landing in revenge for her death. After the war is over and both Daenerys and Cersei are dead, he takes the Unsullied forces to Naath, in order to fulfil his promise to Missandei that he'd protect her homeland.
* Strong Belwas: A fat but skilled eunuch gladiator. Loves liver and onions and referring to himself in the third person. Travelling companion/guide of Ser Barristan. Has an awesome scene where he beats the champion of Meereen then mocks the Meereenese by taking a shit in their direction and wiping his ass on their dead champion's cloak. Also saves Daenerys from eating poisoned sweets. [[FAIL|Left out of the show]].
* Daario Naharis: A Tyroshi mercenary captain who dyes his hair blue. Betrays his fellow commanders for Daenerys because he loves her as a queen. Fortunately for him, Daenerys loves him back and they pursue a romance for a time, though she doesn't marry him as she's still otherwise smart enough to know she has to save herself for a political marriage. Goes to Yunkai as a hostage in the war on Meereen. Also potentially a shapeshifter, if the show is to be believed.
*Missandei: A young female slave with a remarkable talent for linguistics and one of the more empathetic people in this dark world, Missandei is freed by Daenerys during her campaign to liberate Slaver's Bay, eventually becoming one of her closest confidants and advisers. While a child in the books, in the show Missandei is a grown woman, falls in love with the Unsullied leader Grey Worm, but later is captured by Cersei and beheaded by the zombified Mountain in front of all her friends, but not before telling her friends to burn the Lannisters to ashes.

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===Gods and Such===
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> The world of ASOIAF has various religions and faiths abound, just like in real life. Similarly, they range between fucking awesome to utterly useless. Dissimilarly, some of them have very tangible, undeniable magic powers. (Though none of that shows up before Daenerys wakes her dragons. Authorial sleight-of-hand, retcon or retroactive restoration of magic to the world? YOU DECIDE!)

*[[Ecclesiarchy|The Faith of the Seven]]: The Catholic Church/Church of England stand-in, which gets both sympathetic (books only) and unsympathetic (books and show) characters associated with it. Holds an anti-slavery stance. The god/s are considered seven aspects of one deity with three male aspects (The Smith, the Father, the Warrior), three female aspects (The Maiden, the Mother, the Crone) and a sexless one representing Death. The places of worship are called Septs, and their system includes Septons, nun-equivalents called Septas and a Pope equivalent called a High Septon. The High Septons all give up their names when they become one to confuse future historians.
** High Septon 1 Fatfuck: A fat, greedy man who used the position for personal gain. He ended up being [[Grimdark|torn apart in a riot]], because the people resented that he had enough food to stay fat while they were starving.
** High Septon 2 Lannister Puppet: Successor of High Septon Fatfuck. Chosen by Tyrion so the Faith would be loyal to the Lannisters. Only ''slightly'' corrupt, being a pro-Lannister yes-man. Murdered on Cersei's order in the book, while in the show he's retconned into a whoremonger who gets deposed by the Sparrows (see below).
** High Septon 3/The High Sparrow: Successor of High Septon Lannister Puppet. After the second High Septon shown in the present day of the story died, the smallfolk burst into the meeting to pick a successor and ordered their chosen candidate to be put in charge when his original successor was caught whoremongering. He'd been a wandering preacher beforehand, and his feet were dark and gnarled from lots of walking. When he reaches the position he starts [[gets shit done|getting things done]]. Since he was appointed by a smallfolk religious movement called Sparrows, he's given the moniker "The High Sparrow". The nobility underestimates him, either due to having other matters or disregard for religious people, but he turns out to be smart, well-meaning and somewhat ruthless. Under the High Sparrow, he and the other clergymen sell their fancy clothes and decorations [[Noblebright|replacing them with simple wool tunics, using the money to buy food and clothes for the poor in King's Landing]]. He also has their Knights-Templar-equivalent reformed to [[Inquisition|protect the faithful and help them root out]] [[heresy]] and sin. He also outwits Cersei and has her arrested and tried for all her evil deeds. While Cersei's scheming does lead to Margaery's arrest, Cersei confesses to some crimes while concealing others, leading to Cersei taking a nude walk of penance in front of the entire city. After this, he somewhat reined in the nobles' politicking to actually look after the commoners and the Faith, though this does make some enemies. In the show, he and the Sparrows are [[C.S Goto|retconned]] from assorted smallfolk and clergymen tired of the nobles' lawlessness and power plays into one-dimensional stereotypes and thinly-veiled jabs at the Catholic Church [[Imperial Truth|in a shoe-horned anti-religion message]]. While they do arrest Cersei and Margaery like in the books, during the trial most of the Faith, including the High Sparrow himself, get blown to kingdom come when Cersei has her agents ignite a massive amount of magical napalm underneath the Great Sept. In the books they're much more like Martin Luther and the Lutherans, except that the Protestant Reformation ''wins''.
* [[Old Ones|Old Gods]]: Native American/Japanese Kame/Druid/nature spirits that reside in places called Godswoods. Their powers are limited to the North, where the last remaining Godswoods remain, but they can grant gifted individuals awesome psychic powers like Warging (mind-controlling animals) and Greensight (Time Travel). For some reason, Martin claims they're based off the Norse Gods. Probably has to do with the way the Vikings made sacrifices to their gods, by hanging them in Ash trees, a symbol for the World Tree Yggdrasil. The Weirwood trees are sacred to the followers of the Old Gods in a similar way. Mostly worship of them is quiet and informal.
* R'hllor: The God of Fire and Light, and like the Old Gods, actually shows evidence for existing. [[/tg/ gets shit done|He gets shit done]] such as fire magic and Resurrection. Has a nasty habit for burning heretics, though. GRRM said this faith is roughly based (read: poorly modelled after) upon Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism. His nemesis is The Great Other: the god of cold and darkness, the leader of the Others, and prophesied to be defeated by the chosen one, or messianic figure: [[Star Child|Azor Ahai/The Prince That Was Promised]], a figure who is the prophesied warrior that will fight with the Great Other/Night's King during the Apocalypse. Interestingly enough, the prophecy may not refer to a single person, but three (Jon, Tyrion/Bran, and Daenerys). Supposedly, one of these three will also receive an [[Emperor's Sword|awesome flaming sword called "Lightbringer"]].
* Him of Many Faces: The god of the Dead of the religion whose followers are the [[Officio Assassinorum|Faceless Men]]. According to his cult of assassins, whom Arya joins, every other god is him in a different form and he requires his assassins to utterly forget their past identities in service to him. Has a heyday during the Battle of King's Landing and the Red Wedding. His most awesome followers are granted shapeshifting abilities and powers to be the ultimate assassins.
* Drowned God: Cthulhu combined with Odin. Runs an underwater Valhalla were all Ironborn go whey they either if they drowned at sea, the men die a manly death or the women die in childbirth. Probably doesn't exist or he would have done something about Euron Greyjoy... at least in the books. There, Euron is [[Imperial Truth|proudly scornful]] of him, and his brother Aeron fruitlessly and endlessly mutters "no godless man can sit the Seastone Chair". In the show, Euron is perfectly happy to go through the traditional Drownie coronation ritual and Aeron performs it.
* The Night's King: This is completely different depending on whether you prefer the [[oldfag|books]] or [[newfag|show]]. Book version: A long time ago, when the Night's Watch was just barely getting set up, its Lord Commander, the thirteenth in line, decided to climb over the Wall and explore some. While in the woods to the north of the Wall, he found a beautiful [[Monstergirls|Other female]]. He fell in love with her, had [[/d/|sex with her on top of the Wall]], which somehow changed him into an albino version of [[Star Wars|Darth Maul]], and set himself up as King of the Wall, making everyone in the Watch his slaves and sacrificial fodder. Naturally, this didn't sit too well with the Starks and the Wildlings, and so they banded together to free the Watch and kick his ass, which they managed to do successfully. Now everyone thinks him as dead or a myth. Show version: he was the very first White Walker ever created by the Children, and he decided to get back at them by wiping out all life. Also, whilst he was apparently beaten in the ancient past and sealed away behind the Wall, he's still "alive" and well, [[Daemonculaba|turning infant human boys into new White Walkers]]. Also, he can apparently raise up entire legions of undead, just by raising his arms and looking completely smug about it; unlike regular Others, who can just raise up maybe a village at most. Given that he's the resident [[BBEG|Dark Lord]] of the series, it makes sense that he can take down a dragon with seemingly little effort (a simple throw of his spear), and resurrect it to be his personal steed a la Arthas. (Whether that particular nonsense is going to show up in the books is up in the air, it's suitably grimdark and not particularly [[derp]] so it might.) Then he used the dragon to blow a hole in the Wall and begin [[The End Times]] for Westeros. But [[FAIL|dead]], thanks to Arya's magic ninja haxx which let her [[what|kill the BBEG and his entire race and army of zombies ''in one blow.'']]
** The Others/The White Walkers: A mysterious race from beyond the Wall, known to [[newfag|HBO fans]] as "the White Walkers". Can be described as ice demons/snow elves with necromancy. Eight thousand years ago, they invaded Westeros during a decades-long winter (even longer than the usual years-long winters) known as "the Long Night". With an army of undead warriors, they proceeded to fuck Westeros up every which way to [[Sunday]] before the locals finally drove them out, established the Night's Watch, and built the Wall to keep them out. Like all fantasy aspects of ASOIAF, they are very cliched. In the TV series, it's revealed that they were created from human captives by "The Children", the pseudo-[[Elf]] fair folk race that lived in Westeros before humanity arrived, as an attempt to create a super-weapon. The idea was since humanity bred faster than the Children could keep up with, they would create icy [[lich]]-creatures that could create [[undead]] soldiers, and these would then wipe out all human life. Instead, it went disastrously wrong because it turned out that the Children actually couldn't control what they'd created, so the Others [[Ork|just want to exterminate '''all''' life.]] In both versions the Night's King is in control.
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==Locations==

'''Westeros''': The continent where about 80% of the plot takes place. Scotland in the North, Siberia/Northern Scandinavia beyond the wall, Moorish Spain in the South, with the rest being England as far as climate is concerned, only much, much larger.
*The North: By far the largest of the Seven Kingdoms in size, and the least in population. A rocky, cold and dangerous landscape where life barely tolerable (although it's still preferrable to the eldrich lands beyond the wall), sometimes it even snows in summer, giving you a general idea why it's quite a shitty place to be in when compared with the more southern kingdoms. Living in it are the Northmen, culturally an inbetween of Northern English and Scots. Most of them still revere the Old Gods and practice traditions that feel very alien to those living in the south, of the First Men culture before the Andal Invasion, still holding out here and the Iron Islands. It's also damn near unconquerable by conventional means due to its largest land border being covered in a noxious swamp with only one secure passge through it. Its ruling house at the beginning of the Story is House Stark, later House Bolton; Its capital is Winterfell.
*Iron Islands: Large, rocky archipelago off the coast of the North and the Riverlands. Their bleak and inhospitable landscape is the major reason why the Ironmen culture, the other hold out of the First Men culture in Westeros which has the unique blend of only political and not cultural Andal influence and lack of Children of the Forest influence as Weirwoods don't grow on islands and only First Men humans ever lived here during those times, is so centered around pillaging and raiding; you can't grow crops on rock. Does have a decently sized economy based around metal working, but nowhere near enough to support its populace. Their capital is Pyke.
*Riverlands: As the name says, the Riverlands are marked by several large rivers flowing through it and the large fertile valleys surrounding them. The historical whipping boy of the continent after the Andal Invasion took over the old First Men realms (minus the North and the Iron Islands), constantly fought over by the Westerlands, the Stormlands, the Reach, the Iron Islands and the Vale, to the point that it was under Iron Islands rule when Aegon Targaryen unified the continent minus Dorne. Gets buttfucked the hardest during the War of the Five Kings by a metric ton; first by the Mountain carrying out a campaign of terror against the civilian populace on Tywins orders and second by most of the major fights between the Lannisters and the Starks taking place there. Honestly, after all the fighting, raping and pillaging happening in the Riverlands, one must wonder how many people are actually still left in them. Their ruling house is House Tully (later House Baelish); its Capital is Riverrun (later Harrenhal).
*Vale of Arryn: Mountainous Region east of the Riverlands home to (supposedly) the finest knights in Westeros due to them having constant field practice in crushing rebellion after rebellion of the native <s>Irish</s> Mountain Tribes (think Forsworn from Skyrim, only a lot more foul-mouthed) and having an absolute abundance of tiny territories to give out. The population lives more densely packed in the few large cities and townships that exist here due and traversing them is dangerous. Its ruling house is House Arryn, its capital The Eyrie, '''the''' hardest castle to take in Westeros as it is built on a mountaintop. Gulltown, one of the cities of Westeros, is the main economic hub.
*Westerlands: The second-smallest Kingdom in size but by far the richest due to its abundance of Gold and Silver Mines. Has a proud tradition of fucking everyone over by the means of money, politics or both combined. Also has a substantial importance as a major trading and naval hub in the city of Lannisport, which is the largest port on the western side of the continent. Its ruling house is House Lannister, its capital Casterly Rock. Casterly Rock was the capital of the old Kings, House Casterly, which was outsmarted by Lann the Clever, who married the last surviving daughter and founded House Lannister.
*Crownlands: The lands directly controlled by the Iron Throne, surrounding a big bay, with a rather pleasant, mild climate. Centered around the capital King's Landing, which gets an entry of its own. Its ruling house is always the house of the current kings. Formerly divided between the Riverlands and the Stormlands.
**King's Landing: The capital of the seven kingdoms and by far its largest city. It houses every important institution on the continent, most importantly the Red Keep, where the King of the Seven Kingdoms resides and the Great Sept of Baelor, the religious center of the Faith of the Seven. Aside from the Red Keep and the Great Sept, a filth ridden, downtrodden shithole that is rife with poverty and criminals whereever you may set foot; the City Guard is openly corrupt and acts more like a government-approved gang of thugs. It seems to be something of an unofficial sport among all chacters in the books to never say anything good the city. Architectually described like Medieval London, at the size of 1600s Paris.
*The Reach: The second-largest of the Seven Kingdoms, and the most populous. Its wide plains, dominated by fields and plantings serve as the breadbasket of the Seven Kingdoms. Also home to the oldest city in Westeros, Oldtown, which in turn is home to the Citadel of the Maesters. Its ruling house is Tyrell, its capital Highgarden. House Tyrell is matrilineally descended from Garth Greenhand like many other houses. The old ruling family, House Gardener, Garth's direct descendants, was wiped out when Aegon unleashed his dragons, with the then Lord of House Tyrell (at this point permanent stewards to House Gardener), was placed in control as he was married to the last Gardener female.
*Stormlands:
*Dorne: The southernmost region of Westeros and the hottest (in more ways than just temperature), consists of rocky deserts in its center and lush, meditterrean areas on its coasts. The Dornish people differ a lot from other Westerosi in ethnicity and culture and have a different origin, that of the migrating Rhoynar people interbreeding with the then relatively isolated local Westerosi. Dorne was also the only Kingdom to successfully resist conquest by the Targaryens and was only brought into the fold through political marriages, and their rulers retain the title of Prince (the Rhoynar and the local Westerosi don't use king or queen, they use prince or princess), not afforded to anyone else not of the Royal Family. Its ruling house is Martell, its capital Sunspear.
*The Wall: A glacier of gargantuan proportions erected by the First Men to protect themselves against the Others/White Walkers long ago that marks the nothern border of Westeros proper and runs across it from west to east for three hundred miles. In the times when the Night's Watch was under full strength, it was an impenetrable fortification against anything that might dare to cross it, not just because of its sheer dimensions, but also the implication that the wall itself is reinforced by eldrich magic keeping the horrors beyond the wall at bay via unnatural means. Nowadays only three of its 19 keeps are permanently manned, leaving wide gaps in the Night's Watch defense against Wildlings, who sometimes climb over it to do scouting missions in the south. The Night King tears a hole into it with one of Daenerys' Dragons in the final episode of season 7, allowing him and his undead army to pass through.
*Beyond-the-Wall:
**Craster's Keep:
**Thenn:
**Lands of Always Winter:

'''The Stepstones''': Formerly a solid land bridge between Westeros and Essos, it was brought down by Children of the Forest magic in a failed attempt to stop the First Men invasion. Now an archipelago of islands infested by various ne'er-do-wells.
*Old Domains:
*Modern Piracy:

'''Essos''': A huge landmess (no, not a typo) about southeast of Westeros and home to many independent city-states west of the big mountain range. Generally agreed upon to be largely desolate wilderness sprinkled in with the occasional kingdoms that seem exotic and alien to Westerosi. Most of its western half used to be the center of power of the legendary Valyrian Freehold, with the Free Cities being colonies of them that survived the downfall of the Valyrian Empire hundreds of years ago. The exceptions are Slaver's Bay, conquered by the Valyrians before regaining independence after the Freehold's collapse, Qarth, Ib and some of the others.
*Braavos: The only one of the nine free cities to not be a Valyrian Colony (excepting the other countries like Qarth and Ib, who don't count among the nine). It was founded by Slaves that escaped their overlord in a marsh on the northernmost tip of Essos. It is mainly known for its massive port and the Iron Bank of Braavos, the biggest bank in the world. It also houses the House of Black and White, the central temple and headquarters of the Faceless Men.
*Pentos: Another large trading port on the western edge of Essos. It serves as the major trading hub between Westeros and the rest of Essos.
*Lys: Located on an island off the coast of Essos. Founded as a resort for Freeholders. A decadent city whose most famous export are prostitutes.
*Myr:
*Qarth:
*Norvos:
*Qohor:
*Tyrosh:
*Volantis: The crown jewel, first colony of the Freehold and considers itself the successor state to the Freehold.
*Lorath:
*Andalos:
*Rhoyne: Destroyed former city of the Rhoynar, who fled the Valyrian Freehold and migrated to Dorne. The former capital is currently infested by Stone-Men, Greyscale survivors who have gone feral.
*Ghiscari Empire and Slavers Bay: Conquered by the Freehold, has multiple city state successors. The biggest place for slavery in the world.
**Old Ghis:
**New Ghis:
**Astapor:
**Yunkai:
**Meereen:
*Lhazosh:
*Qarth:
*Ib: Home of the Ibians.
*The Dothraki Sea:
**Vaes Dothrak: The capital and only permanent Dothraki settlement. It is forbidden to carry weapons or spill blood here (doesn't mean you can't kill through other means).
*Post Dothraki survivor city states:
**Saath:
**Morosh:
**Omber:
*Great Moraq Isle:
*Hyrkoon and successors, and the Big Mountain Range:
*Empire of the Dawn:
** Stygai:
Successor states to the old empire:
*Golden Empire of Yi Ti:
**The Five Forts:
*The Jogos Nhai:
*Asshai-by-the-Shadow:
*Leng:
*Minor Far Eastern nations:
**N'Ghai:
**Mossovy:
**The Thousand Isles:
*The Great Waste:

'''Summer Isles''':

'''Sothoryos''':
Jungle hell.
*Yeen: Made of the same creepy black metal in Stygai, implied to be an old Empire of the Dawn Outpost. Even the death world jungle (as in, not just the animals, the actual jungle itself) refuses to go in there for fear of dying.

'''Ulthos''':

'''Minor non-continental Isles''':
*Naath: About halfway between the Summer Isles and the northeast coast of Sothoryos.

==The appeal of A Song of Ice And Fire==
Exactly what catches the eyes of [[Skub|a given fan/critic/lout who complains about how bad it is anytime the show is mentioned within earshot]] to ASOIAF and its TV adaptation varies from individual to individual. Still, there's a couple of major draws.

'''The Worldbuilding:''' The main reason why this series gets compared to [[The Lord of the Rings]], ASOIAF is literally ''drowning'' under the weight of its worldbuilding, being crammed as full of facts about fictitious regions, histories, cultures, dynasties and races as GRRM can fit it. Your mileage will vary on how ''good'' that info is, but there's plenty of info in it. It is worth noting that much of the vagueness of various aspects of the world's lore comes down to the limited perspectives of each of the characters' point of view, so many places and events are often only known partially through superstition, rumors, and often second hand experiences passed down and muddled over time; all of which play quite heavily into the overall story structure of the series.

'''A vast colorful Cast:''' A lot of works of fantasy get by with a few archetypal characters (the Young Guy out to Prove themself, the Wise Wizard, the Dark Lord, the Mischievous One, the Grizzled Veteran, the Princess, the Dwarf, etc) and maybe a guy or two which rises above this. A Song of Ice and Fire dozens of viewpoint characters and a hundreds of secondaries each with different situations, drives, motives and quirks that make them reasonably interesting. Even if you don't like one of them, there are plenty of others. When they die, it often hits home. Speaking of which...
* '''Lots of Houses anf Sigils''': OK, so this is sort of a joke...except not completely. For those who are artistically minded and love coming up with their own OC groups and/or fleshing out minor characters, this setting really does invite it with the absolutely insane number of houses [[Space Marines|that each have their own distinct logo/color-scheme combo]].

'''Mainstream [[Dark Fantasy]]:''' Dark Fantasy is not exactly a mainstream niche. ASOIAF stands out by deliberately trying to market itself to the mainstream, despite embracing an abundance of dark fantasy tropes; gratuitous violence, sexuality and sexual violence, moral ambiguity, political intrigue, and a willingness to suddenly kill off any character, even the most likeable or heroic of them.

'''[[Low Fantasy]]:''' On the surface, ASOIAF is an old-school Low Fantasy setting, being a medieval-tech world with the story openly focused on the mundane lives of people struggling for political power and though supernatural elements do exist, they tend to be used sparingly.

'''[[High Fantasy]]:''' But if you scratch the surface, ASOIAF is also a High Fantasy setting, which is always the more marketable of the two, with the big backstory about how the world is facing impending doom from an army of wintery [[fey]] and their [[undead]] minions. There are also non-evil higher powers working against them, but they get swept under the rug in the show. Also, [[dragon]]s. As the more marketable genre, it's also inevitably the more skubby one, for whatever that's worth.

'''[[Magical Realm|Gratuitous Sexuality]]:''' More a thing for the TV show than the books; GRRM's scenes were [[Rape|raepy]] in the earlier volumes, and apparently our boy must have overheard the nickname "George Rape Rape Martin (I ''Like'' Rape)", because he dialed back the forced boning in #4-5. The frequent scenes of nudity and sex in the early seasons of the show were a ''big'' selling point for many people (the casting of people from the sex industry for some of these scenes also helped).

'''Not much in terms of generic fantasy tropes:''' Hate how almost every fantasy just has to have things popularized by Tolkien such as elves, dwarves, orcs and all that stuff? You're in luck because ASOIAF doesn't have a "five races" system, their accompanying stereotypes or the plot hinging on a magic item. On the other hand, it does have several generic fantasy tropes, such as [[dragon]]s, [[Medieval Stasis]], [[undead]] and at least two contenders for [[BBEG|Dark Lord]] status, so if you hate them too, well...

==Oh Yeah, About The TV Show==
[[image:KnightsWhoSayFuck.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Yeah, pretty much.]]

{{Skubby}}

After the first three books became hits, many Hollywood producers and directors had come to the sadistic neckbeard, asking him about making a movie adaptation. At first, he was reluctant at best, due to the fact that a lot of his content would've been cut out to fit into a movie trilogy (see the Lord of the Rings live-action films). Then, a couple of dudes, David Benioff and D.B/Daniel Brett Weiss (AKA D&D, or more accurately as of the final season, Dumb & Dumber), decided to contact him and asked him at a local restaurant about turning ASOIAF into a Television show produced by HBO, the top-rated soft-core porno channel. The story goes that George asked them a very specific question (Who is Jon Snow's mother?). Satisfied with the response they gave, he gave them permission to start work on the show, which would be titled after the first book, ''Game of Thrones''. They would later go on to prove that this is not a good way of choosing who should adapt your work.

The television show casts several well-known performers, such as Sean Bean as Eddard, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, Lena Headey as Cersei, and Charles Dance as Tywin. They have also cast some comparatively less well-known actors and even ones new to cinema, such as Sophie Turner (Sansa), Maisie Williams (Arya), Kit Harington (Jon), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay), Alfie Allen (Theon), and Richard Madden (Robb)

Thus, book snobs seem to think that every episode post-season 4 is nothing more than Emmy-bait. Regardless of the fact Kit Harington still [[Fail|doesn't have an Emmy]], there's a valid contention in that regard, with the number of liberties taken overshadowing the initial appeal.

The final season (more on that below) was eventually revealed to be such a train wreck because Dumb & Dumber did not want to work on the series anymore and had let the success with the earlier seasons go to their heads. In their arrogance, instead of handing the reins to someone else, they decided to plan out their own ending and use it as an audition to Disney so they could write for Star Wars. By then, they'd run out of books to adapt, there was no superior writing for them to leech off of and there was no one to gainsay them in their echo chamber of a writer's room (even George himself was cut out). The result was absolutely shit writing that caused a glorious breakage in the [[skub]] dam that left [[Butthurt|many a fan's anus weeping]] (provided they weren't early seasons fans, book series fans, or any of the other assorted onlookers [[Lulz|taking part in the mightiest of keks]]) and, if anything proved <s>George's </s> Ramsay's quote at the beginning of the article true. Goddamn Dumb & Dumber, could you talentless Derp machines do any worse if you tried? Luckily, comeuppance came after them and Disney, having some sense, told them to fuck off with their [[Star Wars]] ideas after the backlash towards the final season. Not that Disney Star Wars has been without its share of controversy and [[Rage]], but you know it's bad when someone gets told to piss off from even that.

The Greatest Irony and Tragedy of the show's writing was that in the first few seasons, with George RR Martin consulting them and with a wealth of material from the first few books to work with, D&D were actually pretty damn good at adapting the books into a TV format. In fact, quite a few scenes were in fact not only adapted, but actually created from scratch outside of the source material. One of the most noteworthy is the iconic introduction of Tywin Lannister in Season 1 Episode 7, where we learn everything we need to know about his character with nothing but precisely chosen dialogue and a rather blunt visual metaphor of him gutting a stag he slew in a hunt, all while brutally laying into Season 1's initially perceived villain, Jaime. Contrast this with Season 5 where the show's major decline began with blunders such as the omission of fan-favorite Lady Stoneheart, literally butchering the Dorne subplot with Martell family team-killing and changing the Sparrows' movement to a militant atheist's stereotype of religion. This decline makes a lot more sense after George himself admitted that Season 5 was the first Season where he was was really locked out of the loop.

Goes to show how much they had fallen when the well ran dry and the show' writing and adaptation process was no longer the finely honed instrument it had started as.

'''TL;DR'''

[[GM|Producers Dumb&Dumber-style change characters and railroad the plot at a whim,]] [[/d/M|the tits and ultraviolence spigot is opened even wider than the books,]] and most scenes are made for the actors to show off their skills at making their signature angry/murder/brooding/etc. faces, and wrapped it up with a season of TV soon to be discussed that even Matt Ward would be 100% justified in pointing and laughing at. Seasons 1-4 are worth your time, 7 and 8 are best ignored, and 5 and 6 are the [[Skub]] ones.

===The Final <s>Dumpster Fire</s> Season===
{{Fail}}
{{HurfDurf}}
{{Plot Armour}}

Seasons 5, 6, and especially 7 all got their share of grief from people. Mostly deserved in the case of that last one, and [[Skub|arguably so]] for 5 and 6 (though the latter did at least finally give Ramsay his just desserts). Season 8 though? Well, read on:

The Final Season kicks off with the Night King's army attacking Winterfell in a battle meant to be epic, but instead so chock full of tactical [[Fail|fails]] from the living, they make General Custer look like Sun Tzu. The most infamous examples include Melisandre not giving the Dothraki flaming arrows, putting soldiers in front of defenses they should be behind or standing on, no flanking charges and hiding the non-combatants in a crypt while fighting necromancers. The battle is resolved when Arya teleports directly to the BBEG and kills him with some sleight-of-hand that destroys his entire army Keystone Army trope-style and ends the winter. Also Theon, Jorah and Melisandre die, but the story sweeps their deaths under the rug like they're nameless background characters.

Then the Westerosi go full-retard and start hating Daenerys. Yes really; Dany helped end a nation-destroying winter plus a zombie apocalypse, has a claim to the throne AND is their best ally against Cersei... but they want her gone. Even Sansa suddenly turns against Dany and starts seeking the throne, despite having no claim to the rest of Westeros and Dany being easily able to kill her for treason. Everyone inexplicably starts wanting Jon to be king despite his attempt to abdicate, and Jon himself even starts thinking Aunt Daenerys might be a bad queen... but that doesn't stop him from [[Incest Smith|starting a sexual relationship with her]]. The fact that Robert's bastard son Gendry is now a lord, giving him a claim to the throne at least as strong as Dany's or Jon's, is swept under the rug. Varys also jumps ship from Dany to Jon for no reason, even trying to kill Dany in an uncharacteristically stupid move. For his efforts, Tyrion reports Varys to Daenerys, who has Varys executed by Drogon's fire-breath.

Then Daenerys press-gangs people who should logically be happy to fight for her into an army to attack King's Landing and brings them there by sea. Along the way Rhaegal, one of Daenerys' two surviving dragons, is killed by ballistae from Euron's ships. This is despite the facts that Daenerys and her dragons should've easily been able to spot the ships, they were flying well out of ballista range and Euron had no way of knowing where they'd be. After Daenerys and Drogon single-handedly destroy the Iron Fleet (amid poorly animated weather*), they reach King's Landing. Cersei's artillery does nothing despite Daenerys, all her advisors and her dragon being within lethal range plus Cersei's lack of scruples. They in turn do nothing but watch Daenerys' friend Missandei, who was captured offscreen earlier, get executed by zombie-Gregor (despite the fact Cersei and co. had no reason to believe Missandei was anyone of import to either capture or execute. Maybe someone left a copy of the script in Cersei's solar next to her Starbucks latte**)

The battle for King's Landing has Daenerys' forces break in and battle through the streets. Meanwhile Jaime snuck though the tunnels [[Fail|to find and reconcile with Cersei. The Hound regresses to his old violent self and tracks down zombie-Gregor to take him down in a battle that kills them both (although most consider this the one bright spot in the episode). Arya gives up on revenge and decides to let Cersei go despite having strong non-revenge-related reasons to kill her]]. The famed Golden Company is quickly killed off and Cersei signals a surrender by ringing the bells (the bells aren't, and have never been, signals for surrender). Then, in the capstone of bad writing for this season, Daenerys' switch flips from good to evil because the writers want it to happen, and Dany abandons her plan of freeing and leading Westeros to purging King's Landing with her dragon and army. Cersei and Jamie die together in a cave-in and Tyrion mourns their deaths despite being ready and eager to personally kill Cersei earlier. This is followed by Dany's Saruman/Hitler-esque speech that has nothing to do with her former character. Tyrion is arrested for criticizing Daenerys by saying "If this is liberation, I don't believe in liberation theology." Yes, [[Derp|the writers think theology and ideology are the same thing]] (an unsurprising mistake, given they shoehorned in anti-religious rants for the past three Seasons despite the books' even-handedness). This last one has proven to be its own personal bit of Skub, as many have argued that Daenerys going evil is in keeping with the cynical themes and tone of the setting. While this isn't wrong on its face, it does nothing to change the fact that the execution is 100% half-assed. Walter White's descent into villainy this is not, or even Anakin's arc in the Star Wars Prequels, which looks like The Godfather compared to what Season 8 does with Daenerys.

In the aftermath, Jon assassinates Daenerys for the King's Landing massacre... [[Derp|right in front of her dragon]]. Drogon, due to Jon's stronger-than-Valyrian-steel-plot-armor, doesn't kill him but melts the Iron Throne ([[What|accidentally according to the showrunners]]) while chucking a tantrum before grabbing Dany's body and flying away. Jon is somehow charged with Dany's murder despite there being no evidence that he did it, but surprisingly none of the surviving characters still loyal to Dany try to kill Jon (such as the Unsullied or the Dothraki). Despite there being several legitimate choices of king still available, including Gendry, the nobles decide to replace a dynastic monarchy with an elective one and make Bran king. Bran is nominated by Tyrion for a nonsensical reason ("he has the best story"), Tyrion somehow getting a say in the meeting despite being imprisoned for treason.

The Unsullied go to Southros under command of Grey Worm (the only one who still has a personality at this point). The Dothraki are forgotten about by everyone else. Tyrion is freed and made Hand of the King to Brann. Brienne is made Commander of the Kingsguard. [[Derp|Bronn is made Master of Coin. Samwell is made the new Grand Maester]] and [[What|the North secedes and becomes independent under Queen Sansa (which definitely wouldn't cause future problems and tensions)]]. [[The Lord of the Rings|Arya sails to the West]] for some unknown reason and Jon is exiled but doesn't care because he gets to go back up north with the Wildings like he wanted. The end.

This trainwreck of a plot is a testament to how two morons can royally fuck up a show beyond any redeeming qualities the cast and crew can put forward. And even then there were screw-ups among the production staff, such as *the animators being unable to decide whether the sky is sunny or overcast when Dany and Drogon destroy the Iron Fleet - which mattered because Dany's plan to not get shot down involved having the sun behind her - and **not removing the actors' water bottles and coffee cups from the set before shooting. Hyperbole is sort of the norm here, but it really is hard to overstate how badly Season 8's finale fucks up. Game of Thrones was ''everywhere'' culturally for most of the 2010s, drawing in huge numbers of people who would otherwise never be caught dead indulging in High Fantasy works with us uber-nerds. Now, the entire Thrones fandom has practically disappeared or gone underground. Honestly, it would be an impressive achievement if it weren't so terrible.

==House of the Dragon: The ''other'' TV show==

{{Topquote|If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.|Benjamin Franklin}}

Deciding that there was still a market for Game of Thrones stuff even after the last season turned the 2010s biggest pop-culture phenomenon into a laughingstock*, HBO bet the bank on some spin-offs, the first of which is now upon us. House of the Dragon is a prequel dealing with the Dance of Dragons, a civil war between two Targaryen factions that ends up consuming Westeros and everyone in it World-War style, and featuring lots of dragons fighting dragons and the standard Westeros fare of fairly bad people doing extremely bad things. Like Game of Thrones before it, it boasts a star-studded cast, a big budget, and a lot of hype. Time will tell if it redeems the failures of the original show or repeats them. If there's a reason to be optimistic (aside from Dumb and Dumber being absent), it would be that the whole story of the Dance of Dragons is written and mapped out, meaning the writers don't have to come up with their own shit to make an ending that George hasn't yet written.

*Given that the premiere was apparently so widely watched it crashed the streaming for many people, they might actually be right.

==GRRM and [[Your Dudes]]==
Want to make your own ASoIF setting for a role-playing game? Well, readers have enough room to fantasize about their own minor noble House (or kingdom during the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms).

A good example of what you could do is the House from the old [[/v/|"Telltale Game of Thrones"]], House Forrester. Their relationship to the canon is as follows:

House Forrester (lords of someplace in the Wolfswood) '''-> is sworn to ->''' House Glover (overall lords of the entire Wolfswood) '''-> is sworn to ->''' House Stark (rulers of the North).

There's also an actual tie-in tabletop RPG now, which uses its own system and looks kind of like [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] with a heavy helping of resource-management strategy feel.
Players are assuming the role of a minor House to guide to glory, or, more accurately given the setting we're in, NOT to ruin utterly in a season or two, which would still be more than many A-list players mustered in canon. Each PC has a specific position within said House, and only the role of official Head is mandatory; the rest could be wife/children/brothers and sisters/all other kinds of siblings, bastards (with rules for obtaining the legitimate recognition), maesters, sworn/subservient knights, or most of anybody else. This naturally opens up near-infinite possibilities for families screwed up seven ways to high heavens, which would make Lannister's brand of infighting-slash-inbreeding look as sane as the High Septon.

The setting is also ill-suited for "adventures in Westeros" style of gaming for two reasons:
#In the grim darkness of low fantasy, a roaming nobody with no banner to talk about, no House allegiance, no nothing isn't generally treated to a Tavern With Quest Givers, but rather more to a Tavern Where You Are Shanked For Your Sword And Boots And Dumped At The Nearest Forest. Heck, even the big wheelers and dealers are routinely seen invited to the latter when they are slow to properly introduce themselves.
#Working on your initially-puny House will quite realistically involve thy neighbours first and foremost, then liege lords from the higher House yours is sworn to, and on occasion shopping around for an advantageous marriage - there simply ain't gonna be that much spare time to "travel to see places". Both of these are also why tourism wasn't a very popular pastime in medieval Europe (aside from Pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Cologne and Santiago de Compostela) and why those who were "living on the road" usually enjoyed the lowest social standing.

A note to aspiring Lords: do NOT, under any circumstances, allow your "combat-optimized" siblings an unsupervised minute in a social setting. Game's "social combat" system is a thing more brutal than the physical one, and it takes a socially-optimized character all of a few minutes to mindfuck one who is not (read: everyone but dedicated diplomats and Heads of the Houses, and not every one of the latter, to boot, as illustrated by several amazing boneheads in canon) into believing pretty much anything short of Grumpkins and Snarks. Stupid NPCs or a stupid GM will make said mindfuck obvious, allowing you to "mindfuck 'em back" without abuse of OOC info; cunning ones will not.

On a side-note; GRRM is said to take a dim view of fanfiction, saying it kills creative ability. This is kind of a double-edged statement, since a lot of George's characters here are either rehashes of his characters from previous works, references to other fictional characters (like Littlefinger and Samwell being based on Jay Gatsby and [[The Lord of the Rings|Samwise Gamgee]]), walking tropes (such as Ned Stark and Robb Stark being the "[[TVTropes|Honor Before ]] [[Lawful Stupid|Reason]]" characters) or historical references (such House Lannister ripping off House Lancaster and House Tyrell being totally-not-House-Tudor - to the point that Margaery Tyrell is played by Natalie Dormer from "The Tudors" TV show). While this makes everything he wrote just another...fanfiction, and his disapproval hypocritical. Still, given the "creative" output of the average neckbeard, he's perhaps not entirely wrong. For another layer of irony/hypocrisy, he sold the rights to make a TV series of the books to HBO, who's adaptation would eventually devolve into a glorified fanfic.

==Games==
[[image:AGot-2nd-ed-cardfan.png|thumb|250px]]
Like any fantasy author who finds themselves unexpectedly in the warm embrace of commercial success, Martin quickly licensed the shit out of his setting; spawning everything from resin miniatures to replica great swords. While most of this is worthless junk to foist on [[Neckbeard|obsessive fanboys]] /tg/ has agreed that a few of the games are made of win. The first two are a collectable [[CCG|card game]] put out in 2002 by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] and a [[Risk]]-esque board game that followed shortly after in 2003. One of [[White Wolf]]'s subsidiaries also put out a [[d20 System|d20 RPG]] in 2005 but it quickly tanked because, come on, [[White Wolf]]. Martin since wrested the rights back and developed a new version with [[Green Ronin Games]].

Now let's have some serious talks about the Game of Thrones games, because they have become some sort of endless source of [[Skub|amusement and frustration]] for the gaming fanbase. Game of Thrones is, roughly speaking, the second franchise with the most licensed board games, after [[Star Wars]]. Some of them have acquired quite a legendary status and a fanbase that goes beyond the book or series fans.

The great juggernaut for all the ASOIAF-based games is [[Fantasy Flight Games]]:
* First and foremost we have [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/a-game-of-thrones-the-board-game-second-edition/ ''A Game of Thrones: The Board Game'']: a game that after two editions still ranks high in /bgg/'s top 100, and has recently had an expansion. The board game has become some sort of meme for the modern board gamers and it could be considered the equivalent of a more advanced [[Risk]], in which dice and blank character got replaced by a very flavourful and brutal combat system and a lot of thematical mechanics fueling the engine. Overall this game has been associated with concepts such as requiring maximum player count to really be entertaining, having an amazing amount of length and depth and being a very faithful representation of the political feeling the series inspired. Almost any boardgamer or wargamer worth his salt has played this game and enjoyed its highs, its lows and the amazing amount of frustrations it brings. This is probably the most well known of all the ASOIAF games and it was released way before Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon back in 2003.<br>
:It also has a digital edition, sold on Steam and Android

* Another game that bears mention, both for its excellent mechanics and its historical significance is [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/a-game-of-thrones-the-card-game-second-edition/ A Game of Thrones: The Card Game]. It is one of the most balanced card game experiences you can get, also full of flavour and with quite a great amount of balance and non-linear thinking. The best part is, unlike certain other popular card games, the game follows the living card game format: players know exactly what each booster pack brings and can buy cards in a more responsible manner, rather than playing bingo and hoping to get a rare card. Also, the sole core set already provides more replayability than some fully-fledged board games.

* Finally, the last game to mention in the [[Fantasy Flight Games|FFG]] venerable trilogy of games is [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/battles-of-westeros/ ''Battles of Westeros''], arguably the most ambitious and least successful of the three. Battles of Westeros was a fully-fledged wargame that used the [[Memoir 44]] and [[BattleLore]] rules as a base, but then evolved into its own by introducing mechanics such as commanders, tactic cards, and very creative scenario rules. Miniatures were made in 15mm and, for their time and scale, they were quite detailed; some commanders are real standouts (for example, Robb Stark's has his direwolf jumping at his side).<br>
:Thanks to its scale, the game was able to provide players with a great number of options and units at a fraction of the price of other board games. With a core set that was already stacked with units and variety, and then faction-specific expansions that added several more units and commanders. The game also came with scenario books that provided narrative play with quite creative rule variants, such as storming palisades, having decoys in escort missions, and bombarding enemies with catapults. One scenario even tried to bring to life the Battle of the Blackwater (the hybrid invasion of King's Landing by Stannis ''the God-Damn Mannis'' Baratheon). The game was incredible and quite a creative wargame, but its main issue was that the setup time was just terrible. Incredibly complex and tiresome when compared to the actual gameplay time.

There are others, such as the ASOIAF-themed [[Settlers of Catan|Catan]] expansion called [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/a-game-of-thrones-catan-brotherhood-of-the-watch/ ''A Game of Thrones Catan: Brotherhood of the Watch''], another card game called [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/hand-of-the-king/ ''A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King''], and another board game [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/game-of-thrones-the-iron-throne/#/products-section ''Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne'']. The quality of those, however, remains to be seen.

And then the miniature-producing Kickstarter juggernaut [[CMON]] decided to produce its own [[wargame]], with AMAZING miniatures. The game began with, of course, a [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/a-song-of-ice-and-fire-tabletop-miniatures-game Kickstarter], and after that, the game has had at least 2 dozen more releases with 3 more factions added.<br>
The game has some mechanics taken from rank and file games, such as [[Kings of War]], combining them with mechanics taken out of "battles of Westeros" particularly the tactics deck. A new page is in the works: [[ASOIAF Miniature Game]]

==Books==
*''A Game of Thrones''
*''A Clash of Kings''
*''A Storm of Swords'': Split into 2
*''A Feast for Crows'': half the characters, the point where the series goes down the toilet
*''A Dance with Dragons'': split into 2 the first is about the other half of the characters, and manages to pick things up a bit
*''The Winds of Winter'': First rumored to be ready by late 2018, then given an official release date of Summer 2020, those times have come and gone and the book is unreleased. Though he has shared chapters of the book.
*''A Dream of Spring'' : Unreleased and unlikely to ever be.
** GRRM will most likely die before writing this, though he has given an outline for how he wants the series to end that might be made public knowledge if he dies before the book series is finished.
*''The Dunk and Egg Series'': A story about a landless hedge knight travelling across Westeros with a Targaryen squire, so he can teach him how not to be an asshole to peasants.

==On The "Grimdarkness" of the Setting==

One important note: While the setting is usually held to be "Grimdark", it is also very true to Real Life in its nastiness, with real consequences for assholes. George himself has said, quote; "No matter how much I make up, there's stuff in history that's just as bad, or worse." Book one is almost exactly the beginning of the War of the Roses, except with England enlarged to a continent's size and the seasons stretched out to let the travel times work. (...And then the dragons wake up, the ice elves and their undead armies return and magic makes a comeback. It's not a perfect analogy. All that stuff is closed in their own sub plots and they don't involve the main continent in the book, that is left to "common" war and plotting.)

For example: The King can order the execution of the head of the leading noble family of the North, for essentially no reason, but now he doesn't have hostages to exchange when their relatives and/or armies come after him seeking revenge. (And all this is modeled on various occasions where more or less '''exactly''' this kind of thing happened in real life medieval Europe.)

In other words: Truly heinous shit goes on, and there's nothing ''stopping'' that kind of shit... but there are ''consequences'' to that kind of shit that act as an effective counterbalance against being seen to do that kind of shit to the smarter nobles in the kingdom. And, because anyone can die, the shittiest characters are no more guaranteed survival than the nicest.

Also worth mentioning that there's reason to think that, despite the quote that began this page, the series may not actually end on [[The End Times|100% downer note]], as Martin has said he hopes his series will end in a way akin to the Scouring of the Shire from Lord of the Rings, which, despite the name, is more of a bittersweet ending. So who knows (though this also presumes the author will actually get around to finishing the series at all).

In sum, whether the setting fully qualifies for "Grimdark" is a matter for debate. Probably the best way of looking at is that it is Grimdark, but in a nuanced way.

==See Also==
*[[/tg/ Song of Ice and Fire Houses]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U7NpSubAJQ Weiner, Weiner weiner]

[[category: Literature]]

Star Wars Setting

2022-08-30T04:30:10Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Villains */

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{{Plot Armour}}
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Describing even the cursory information on the sheer number of characters, amount of history, and various factions in [[Star Wars]] is a massive undertaking, and one that cannot be folded into another page. As such, here is a summary of things who either are influential, [[Awesome]], [[Fail]], hilariously meme worthy, or all of the above.

==Main Characters==
* Luke Skywalker: All-round good guy and idealist, despite being a complete idiot, Luke wishes to learn the ways of the Force to defeat the Emperor and save the galaxy. A Jedi prodigy, he can lift heavy ton space fighters with just his force powers, though he struggles with doubts. Although he starts all brash and teenage and shit, by the conclusion of the trilogy, Luke is well on the way to becoming a wise and powerful Jedi ready to rebuild the Order. Mark Hamill observed that Luke's role in Star Wars is that of the comedic "straight man"; a bland Abbott in a galaxy of Costellos.
** In Legends continuity, after ''Return of the Jedi'' Luke worked to restore the order and trained many generations of Jedi including his niece Jaina and nephews Jacen and Anakin as well as his future wife and son. About Luke's family? Long story short, Luke met a woman named Mara Jade, a former Force-using agent of the Emperor who sought to avenge him by killing Luke. But he and Mara were forced to work together to survive a death world before Luke freed her from Palpatine's lies and Mara joined the Jedi Order, where the two eventually fell in love, married and had a son - Ben Skywalker. Before and after this, Luke destroyed massive remnants of the Empire over and over again and also fought off an even bigger threat in the form of an [[Tyranids|extragalactic invasion]] by Force-resistant [[Dark Eldar|space Cenobites]] called Yuuzhan Vong, where he defeated many including their best fighter. Years later, Luke nearly turned to the Dark Side after Mara was murdered, but overcame the temptation though he violated the Jedi Code by attempting to murder her enemies in revenge. Following this he killed a resurrected Palpatine repeatedly and took on his most dangerous single foe in the form of a Force-Cthulhu called Abeloth (who was so dangerous Luke had to make a temporary alliance between the Jedi, the Republic '''and the Sith''' to defeat her). After this he continued to be a great hero until he died in an unspecified manner some time before the Cade Skywalker era, but still existed as a Force Ghost who guided future Jedi.

* Han Solo: Dashing [[rogue]] and space cowboy who somehow shoots his way out of debt to the mob, ends up a general, and bags himself a princess. Not a bad series' work. His ship, the Millennium Falcon, deserves a mention too for being as iconic as he is. In pre-Disney continuity he was once a Swoop (flying motorcycle) racer turned Imperial Officer who shot his superior that was beating a Wookiee to death and gained a lifelong friend in said Wookiee - Chewbacca. He also had three kids with Leia pre-Disney with two sons called Anakin and Jacen and a daughter called Jaina.

* Princess Leia: The regulation piece of lady crumpet in the movies, Princess Leia was a leader in the rebel alliance and (spoiler!) Luke's long lost twin sister. Also both a capable soldier and politician. Her being forced to wear a metal thong by an overweight space slug named Jabba the Hutt has since cemented her role as sex idol to legions of adoring fan boys, while her general [[Awesome|door-kicking deadshot sarcastic asskickery]] made her a feminist icon as well (this was back in the 80's when the two could be the same). With her home planet and entire adoptive family destroyed by the Death Star, she became a General although somehow retained her princesshood (yes, she's now a Disney Princess). In the pre-Disney EU Leia became a full-on Jedi warrior in the and had three kids with Han, one of whom had a daughter of his own.

* Obi-Wan Kenobi: If, at any point, in any work of fiction, the hero has an old master/father figure who teaches him part of what he knows, makes sure that he will grow up to be a virtuous and decent hero, but ultimately dies fighting a great evil to buy the hero time to escape, then returns as a spirit guide for the hero later, the Internet has probably accused that character of ripping off Obi-wan Kenobi. The prequels show him as a young Jedi and a deuterotagonist to Anakin Skywalker, acting as ''his'' master, teacher, partner, and dear friend before their eventual falling out [[FATAL|ends with Anakin losing most of his major extremities and organs]] and Obi-wan hiding out in a cave waiting to turn into Alec Guinness. In hindsight he was a fucking moron to expect Anakin stay sane with his mother separated forever from him and doomed to slavery in a shithole planet. Certainly this won't torment the kid's thoughts about her, what's that? Tuskens tortured her to death? We are the Jedi, we do not take reve- oh well he went Sith. So much for Jedi and their wisdom. He is a great source of memes within the SW fandom, as well as jokingly referred to as Jesus due to his hairstyle in Episode II.

* Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker/"The Chosen One": The black-helmeted face of evil and the most well known villain from Star Wars (and arguably the most recognizable character in cinema, full stop). Has become an iconic and memorable figure due to his menacing, robotic appearance and ultra-deep, wheezy respirator voice. He is [[Meme|(spoiler!)]] secretly Anakin, Luke's fallen Jedi father, thus allowing him to be able to say the most memorable line in the film series, "''I'' am your Father!" Abaddon wishes he could be this sinister. His children eventually manage to rekindle the spark of human decency in his heart, and he redeems himself by giving up his own life to save them and destroy the Emperor. Hates sand. Fun Fact: his portrayal required four actors in the original trilogy: body, voice, face and a stunt double. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okAyvguQucs His scene at the end of ''Rogue One''], where he goes absolutely berserk and tears some puny rebels to shreds, is probably the best in the movie, and one of the best in Star Wars as a whole. [[awesome|It ends with him standing in open space]], something originally intended for the original film and the original reason he was designed with the armor in the first place. The scene was well received, so Disney decided to have him go berserk again in the Star Wars: Rebels TV show (several times) and the video game Jedi: Fallen Order, before giving Maul a scene like it in Clone Wars. To this end, Vader’s recent portrayals (which have taught both neckbeards and the new generation of fans alike to be fucking terrified of him) have led many to claim that the changes to his character is the only thing Disney got right in their ownership of Star Wars (well, that and The Mandalorian. And the Clone Wars(*cough* Grievous)). Hreeeeee-kchooooooosh...

* Padmé Amidala: The future Darth Vader's waifu who spends most of the prequel trilogy being a hopeless idealist (though still has enough presence of mind to keep a blaster handy when diplomacy fails). Swaps out outfits and hairstyles at a near constant rate. Get's choked by Vader and dies giving birth to Luke and Leia, which ironically Vader was trying to prevent in the first place after seeing a vision. [[FAIL|Way to go, dumbass]]. Haven't you ''read'' a work of fiction with that kinda prophecy in it before? Much more skubby than her daughter, largely on account of the writing for her love story with Anakin being poorly received, as well as Natalie Portman's performance being divisive.

* Qui-Gon Jin: Liam Neeson as a Jedi. [[Meme|As such, he had a particular set of skills, skills to recognize a Sith plot]], and would've uncovered and exposed Palpatine if it weren't for Darth Maul's sword going through his gut. In life, Qui-Gon was known to be a gadfly who frequently disagreed with the dogma of the Jedi Council, instead putting his trust in The Force and eventually discovering The Chosen One in a little slave boy on Tatooine. Was the master of Obi-Wan, and tried to teach Anakin the basics from beyond the grave. Qui-Gon had learned the secret of immortality before his death, and passed on his knowledge to Yoda in a spiritual journey, and later to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Thanks to him, he was able to preserve the legacy of the Jedi long after the purge.

* Ahsoka Tano: An orange, female togruta jedi padawan that helps tell the story of growing up. When she was first introduced in the skubtastic Clone Wars movie, she was basically annoying beyond belief and attached to the notoriously reckless Anakin Skywalker. However, she began to grow on fans, eventually becoming a fan favorite. Initially, she dressed only a little better than a Dark Eldar wych, raising serious moral questions about a girl her age dressing that way, but this issue was resolved in season 3 of the clone wars. Her character grows from beyond the simplicity of an <s>(un)</s>amusing wisecracker, much like her master, into a wiser, kinder woman, whose actions speak louder than her words. In the penultimate season of the Clone Wars, she leaves her master and the Jedi order, and some believe that she unintentionally caused Anakin Skywalker to fall to the Dark side (It certainly denied him the title of master since the standard way of gaining that is to raise a Padawan to knight). She reappears in Rebels, where she acts as an agent coordinating rebel cells, and takes on the wise guide and teacher for Ezra and Kanan, two other jedi who are fighting the Empire. Thought to have died in the second season, she is revealed to have been saved, and was alive even up to season 2 of The Mandalorian.

== Disney Main Characters ==

* Rey: Protagonist of the new trilogy. Most people either think she's a sloppily written Mary Sue and wish-fulfillment character for the writers' female-empowerment fetish or that she's a fine protagonist and the former group is just being salty about new things and/or a bunch of [[Neckbeard]]s and [[/pol/]]s. The sequel trilogy's Jedi and maybe the most immediately competent of the three (the others being Luke and Anakin). What invited critique in the first place is the fact she is readily bestowed new, often unexplained abilities as ''the'' means of moving the plot forward, and the few failures she has either turn to successes, or have next to no consequences. While it was foreshadowed she would have piloting skills with the pilot memorabilia in her home from which the audience was supposed to infer she knew how, Disney had to later specifically point out "she literally plays flight sims anytime she isn't working, that's the shit on her table". But since the memorabilia didn't look like a flight sim, some viewers concluded this was an asspull by Disney. To the credit of the writers however, the foreshadowing implies X-Wing obsession so it makes sense that she royally trashes the Falcon trying to escape TIE Fighters with it (like everyone else who played the old X-Wing video games). She also has fucking god tier Force talent, able to pull off Force techniques that took the previous protagonists years to learn such as the Jedi Mind Trick. The sequel semi-explained this with an actual asspull by suggesting the Force balances itself and with only one remaining trained Force user below a master left alive she pretty much got cheat-coded to be at his level as Light Side opposite...although that ignores Luke not gaining the same cheats and the Force users left alive in the Disney EU who have no Dark Side opposites while also relying on information from that same EU (the trippy metaphysical Force entity kind) so it only works if you turn off your brain and give up. Apart from all that, Rey is a scavenger who grew up parent-less in a wreck on a desert planet, earning from the scraps of old Rebel and Imperial machinery. While she's been seen using the Light Side of the Force for the most part, the Dark Side allegedly tugs a great deal in her. She also has a vision of herself as a Sith with a double-bladed red lightsaber similar to Luke's tree vision on Dagobah. Due to a spate of leaks, numerous details were revealed before the release of the film such as her being Sheev's grandaughter and the fate of her parents; Rey's parents hid her on Jakku because they were being hunted and were killed shortly after leaving. After Rey joins forces with Kylo to defeat Palpatine, she actually dies... only to be brought back to life by <s>Pokémon tears</s> <s>true love's first kiss</s> Kylo Ren using the Force to give his life to save hers, and the two share a kiss before Kylo dies. She ends up on Tatooine and with the last of the Skywalker line dead (by technicality, the Force powers always came from Palpatine so it just means Shmi's bloodline is dead) Rey, while gaining no new personality to speak of, [[Blood Ravens|takes the Skywalker last name as her own]] since she will never know her actual last name now. As one might expect from a character touted as a strong female protagonist, Rey is propped up by failures of men, sometimes turned failures after the fact for the purpose of redistributing their successes to her. Because of this Rey remains the only character alive with any Jedi training.

* Finn: A First Order Stormtrooper (serial code FN-2187) who has doubts about the First Order after a battle where he has to shoot innocent civilians and ends up defecting to the Resistance, allowing him to actually aim worth a damn. Finn ends up carrying ''The Force Awakens'' thanks to the acting talents of John Boyega. He probably would have made a much better main character than Rey because at least ''he'' has a fucking ''reason'' to go on a space adventure and undergoes actual character development. He’s basically Kyle Katarn, only he didn’t get to steal the Death Star plans or become a Jedi. The second movie unfortunately rendered Finn a character without an arc, as discussed below. Had a really cool scene where he fights a former squadmate with a lightsaber, before said [[FAIL|squadmate beat him with a big electric stick.]] He also had a second cool scene where he attempts to fight on a trained dark Jedi (not a Sith) with that same lightsaber before getting badly injured, showing tremendous fucking balls (and implying that Kylo Ren, after being shot by a laser crossbow that flings stormtroopers in the air, is about on par with a pissed off Stormtrooper with a lightning sick). Revealed to be Force-sensitive in Rise Of Skywalker, and finds an entire division of Stormtroopers on Endor who quit the First Order as a group the same way he did as an individual; the leader of them replaces Rose as his love interest, despite the same movie implying heavily he has an unrequited love for Rey (later in an interview JJ said he was trying to say he was Force-sensitive, while some fans think his knowledge that she is Palpatine's grandaughter was what he was supposed to say which meant a "why didn't you tell me" plot would follow). Ends the franchise as the general of the ground forces of the Resistance, a famous galactic hero, and probably going to be trained as a Jedi. So yeah, Finn is canon Kyle Katarn from start to finish.

* Poe Dameron: An X-Wing pilot and one of the best pilots in the Resistance who gave Finn his nickname. Poe is the son of an ace pilot and an elite Rebel soldier, who was seemingly conceived in an Ewok hut during the Yubyub song and grew up with a holy Force tree in his yard that was a gift from Luke. Gets captured by the First Order but gets rescued by a defecting Finn and they both escape using a TIE Fighter. Assumed dead by Finn after crashing the TIE Fighter, though ends up coming back shooting down an entire squadron of TIE Fighters. Its never really stated why did he leave Finn behind in the crash site, how did he leave the planet or why did he pretty much abandon his mission of trying to find BB-8. As such he's barely in The Force Awakens. This is because the original script George Lucas proposed for Force Awakens used Poe as a means of Finn escaping, whereupon Finn takes it on himself to complete Poe’s last mission and eventually replace Poe in the Resistance. After Poe’s actor lamented that he dies in every movie, Poe was made to survive the crash and Finn gained a fearful coward who becomes a hero subplot, which unfortunately left both characters with nowhere to go for character arcs. Poe is far more important in The Last Jedi, <nowiki>but not in good ways. He disobeys orders and leads an attack on a First Order capital ship which not only results in the destruction of most of the surviving Resistance small fighters, but delays their escape long enough for the First Order flagship (so large it is essentially a giant capital city for the First Order) to catch up with them and massacre the Resistance. Poe then mutinies when the now-comatose Leia’s subordinate Holdo is put in charge of the Resistance (Ackbar was killed before that because his Voice Actor died, leaving Holdo as highest ranking officer) to enact his own plan using Finn...which fails, resulting in the deaths of most of the rest of the Resistance and the loss of their last capital ship. Poe’s counterattack also fails, and by the end its only thanks to Rey and Luke that anyone survives. By the end, there’s barely enough Resistance left to fill up the Millennium Falcon, although the First Order got it just as bad thanks to Holdo’s last act. In short: Poe is Magnus the Red tier of fuckups (for the same reason too, not being trusted with the truth but with even less justification).</nowiki> OR ALTERNATELY : Poe actually scores a massive victory for the Resistance as he destroys a massive dreadnought that would have wiped out a base on the ground and then some with a squadron of a dozen bombers '''and one fighter to protect them''' at the price of said bombers that were so stupidly designed they would basically kamikaze as their payloads are dropped gradually meaning the first explosion would start a chain going all the way up to the bomber itself. So basically, Poe destroyed a massive enemy asset at the price of some worthless ships but he still gets demoted because he had the common sense to not follow the order to retreat '''as the bombers were already hovering over their target and were completely defenseless in the first place and would have been even worse off during a retreat'''. This order makes so little sense, it's safe to assume it was only put in here so Poe could disobey it and the audience would understand he's a hotshot who doesn't respect the hierarchy while he was in the right in terms of tactics and strategy and it's already a miracle he got the raid to succeed. Essentially, claiming Poe fucked up is like saying blowing up a pillbox full of enemy soldiers and loads of ammo stockpiled in it with a single grenade is "fucking up" because you maybe probably possibly could have saved the grenade for later and made even more damage. If Poe hadn't had the dreadnought destroyed, it would have with ease one-shotted their ships and their base if they would have even got there (especially as the First Order could track the resistance and therefore the Dreadnought would've simply followed them and blown them up immediately). Not to mention that the bombers where the worst designed starships to date. No big loss there. In other words, he is the only reason they survived. Revealed to be a former Spice smuggler who had a criminal crew in Rise Of Skywalker, which is the bulk of his character development for most of the movie since he otherwise just banters with Finn and Rey. He gets friendzoned by his ex twice (his abandonment of their crew '''really''' screwed them over and she decides to forgive him for it, so its not like its out of nowhere to not want to shag) and leads initially the small Resistance fleet before the combined forces of the militias and pirate crews and Rebel veterans suddenly show up, meaning he lead the biggest navy in the entire setting and does it well which mostly makes up for the stupidity of the Last Jedi "character arc".

* Luke Skywalker has become a [[Neckbeard|grumpy old man who just wants the Jedi Order to die with him since he's been disillusioned in people not being shitty now that his shitty-feeling self is considered the least shitty person in the universe.]] [[Rage|He also tried to kill his nephew because he had a bad dream.]] (something many fans, and even '''Mark Hamill himself''' considered out of character for Luke). It takes a direct Force-powered intervention from Leia as well as Yoda's Force ghost telling him "don't worry, we both fucked up and the kids still love our <strike>toys</strike> legends" to get him to nut the fuck up and help stop the First Order by embarrassing Kylo Ren in front of everyone. It got to the point where [[The Last Church|he tried to burn a sacred tree with contained the last books about the Jedi code]]. Yoda appeared as a Force ghost and told Luke the Force weren't limited to buildings or writings, destroying the tree which supposedly contained the last books about the Jedi code and history which turns out to be because Rey had already stolen said books and the destruction of the tree prevented Luke from discovering that fact, ensuring the Jedi will continue regardless of Luke's faith crisis. Of course the old codger gets to become a Force Ghost that resides mostly on Ach-To, so lets see if we won't see our boi Mark again in some future movie or series.

* Han Solo has, unfortunately, suffer from how Harrison Ford always went back and forth on wanting to continue the franchise, mostly because he thoroughly hated Solo and wanted him to die pretty much from day one, only to be thwarted in Empire and again in Jedi by the character's popularity. Ford agreed to return for Episode 7 when Disney finally gave him his wish, having Solo fail to redeem his son Ben and getting a metaphorical and literal lightsaber through the heart for it. Post-Disney Han's origin is covered in a solo movie named Solo. It's generally considered skub.

* Leia manages to somehow [[Roboute Guilliman|survive getting shot into space]] using her force abilities in TLJ, probably the most ridiculous part of the film (which is no mean feat considering the rest of the film). Due to the death of her actress Carrie Fisher (given the amount of cocaine and partying she'd done over the years it was amazing Carrie lived as long as she did) Leia only appears in Episode 9 using altered unused footage from Episodes 7 and 8 along with some dubbed lines, where she's shown training Rey then just dies by fading away.

* Dinn Djarin: the titular Mandalorian from the series of the same name. Dinn belongs to a radical sect of the Mandos called the Children of the Watch, who follow an uber-conservative version of the Mandalorian Creed in which they must not allow anyone to see their faces. Dinn is still an honorable, if reserved and standoffish warrior who works for the Bounty Hunter's Guild in the post-Endor galaxy. He ends up breaking one of his contracts when he's hired to kidnap a young Jedi child named Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) and turn him over to the Imperial Remnant; Dinn instead chooses to be the child's protector and deliver him to whatever Jedi remain in the galaxy. During their adventures he bonds with the child, and eventually learns that not all Mandos follow his extreme version of the Creed, eventually removing his helmet for Grogu's sake as they tearfully part ways. But then, Disney remembered that this duo were breakout stars that gave the franchise a massive shot in the arm, so they ended up reuniting shortly after during Din's latest team-up with Boba.

* The Bad Batch: Officially known as "Clone Force 99", they're a Special Ops squad made up of clones with genetic defects that give them a tactical advantage. Initially introduced in the Clone Wars series, before getting a series of their own. Because of their unique traits they were partially immune to their Inhibitor chips and thus didn't initially obey Order 66, later getting on Tarkin's bad side for being too disobedient and getting branded as traitors. Crosshair betrays them as his inhibitor chip still works; they're joined instead by Omega, the only known female clone of Jango Fett, and apparently part of a contingency plan where she and Boba Fett were to become the new gene template for the clone army. The clones witness the rapid transformation of the Republic into the Empire as they live on the run, likely to include the "decommissioning" of the clone army as a whole. Members are:
** Hunter: Team leader, his "trait" being enhanced senses. Hair and red headband, knife skills, and being a badass commando make his Rambo inspiration obvious. Becomes a father figure to Omega and the moral compass of the team, protecting them from their former brothers and an empire that wants them dead.
** Wrecker: Team bruiser and man-child. [[Space Marine|Is super strong, loves a good fight, and wears bulky black and red armor with skull imagery]]. Though sometimes a victim of the Worf effect, he's generally allowed to be fairly cool. In keeping with his gentle giant image, he takes a shine to Omega sooner than many of the others.
** Tech: The brainy one, which is conveyed by Dee Bradley Baker giving him an English accent. Also more mellow and less abrasive than most of the other squad, getting along fine with the "regs" who the Bad Batch as a whole often disdain and dislike working with.
** Crosshair: Vindicaire Assassin in Star Wars, being a cold-blooded sniper with incredible aim who wears black armor and is fanatically loyal to his fascist employers. With special reflectors he can make his blaster bolts ricochet off of solid surfaces. The team's asshole, he unsurprisingly betrays them in the aftermath of Order 66, though he still cares about his former teammates in his own way, even saving Omega in the Season 1 finale. Wants the rest of the Bad Batch to join him in working for the Empire.
** Echo: Originally a regular Clone Trooper, he was one of the titular rookies in the fan-favorite Season 1 episode, and by the end of the series was the only one still breathing. Now is a member of the Bad Batch, the cybernetic modifications he got while a prisoner of the Separatists making him more than ordinary Clone.
** Omega: A barely useful waste of...(sees giant mouse giving evil eye)...uh, I mean, sweet, endearing kid who befriends the Bad Batch and joins them on their adventures. Revealed to be a female clone of Jango and currently the only known one, making her effectively the Bad Batch's cute little sister despite technically being OLDER than them. Main source of Bad Batch's Skub. Also blonde despite being a Jango clone, likely a subtle reference to how Jango's sister in Legends was blonde. That or she's got some of Maketh Tua's DNA thrown in.

* Cal Kestis: [[Zero Punctuation|Young "Luke Skywalker"-type hero and giner]]; the main character of the Jedi: Fallen Order and upcoming Jedi: Survivor vidya games. Was in hiding after Order 66 on a scrapperyard before being found by the Inquisitorius and taken on a planet-hopping treasure-hunting adventure with former Jedi master Cere Junda and the small-time smuggler Greez. Cal has the ability to use Psychometry, a Force-power that allows him to absorb memories and thoughts connected to items (a Force power made famous by Quinlan Vos), which has made it difficult to live with the lightsaber of his dead mentor. Personality is fairly stock for a Jedi, but does manage to fuck up two Inquisitors, battalions of Stormtroopers, Purge Troopers, vicious fauna and flora and the occasional bounty-hunter with nothing but a scratch on him. Has a thing for ponchos.

== Side Characters ==
* C-3P0 and R2-D2: Two robots trapped in a sexless gay marriage who are the only minor characters to have been in all the movies so far, and even in stories like The Old Republic outside of their millennia of existence will usually have an equivalent. C-3P0 is the shiny golden humanoid robot who constantly fusses about keeping the furniture clean and worries that his pies are getting overdone in the oven while R2-D2 is the brash, brave husband figure who swings into action regardless. He looks like a salt shaker next to the Dalek's pepper shakers, although is he more a plucky rabbit to their rabid wild cats. He's also an angry motherfucker; in Revenge he iced two battledroids by setting them on fire, and his killcount throughout Clone Wars raises the question why the Republic isn't using R2's instead (explained nx the fact that Anakin never resets his memory and thus goes from [[Servitor]] to AI). The robots mostly have comedy roles in the movies, since they might threaten to upstage the human actors if they became too useful, though R2 has an electric cattle prod and serves as the party's computer skillmonkey, while C-3P0 saves the day with his mad linguistic skillz at least once per film in the original trilogy. They starred in their own cartoon series that was surprisingly good. In the pre-Disney EU the two are rarely joined as they are in the films. R2 frequently joins Luke on adventures, giving him someone to talk to during otherwise solo adventures, providing a Doctor Watson like figure even if the droid doesn't add much to the conversation. C-3P0 on the other hand stuck with Leia and assisted her in her duties as mother and head of state. In post Disney continuity the writers don't seem to know what to do with them and they're mostly just there; at least until Rise of Skywalker, where C-3PO's l337 tranzlation skillz are again important to the plot. Both are occasionally funny.

* Chewbacca: The original furry in space, the dog you can have a beer with in the space Winnebago. Nothing sexy about him; he is just hairy, huge, knows how to pilot a space ship, fix stuff, fire a <s>fucking space crossbow</s> gun, and generally get shit done which strangely makes him the coolest furry ever. Best friends with Han, has a family that we can all agree did not appear in the terrible Christmas special that does not exist (he got a much more badass family in the Galactic Battlegrounds games, so go with that). Hates Trandoshans like all Wookiees, since Trandoshans are almost always assholes and are particularly assholish to Wookiees. The prequel trilogy revealed he's REALLY FUCKING OLD thanks to Wookiee lifespan. In post-Disney lore, he is one of the few characters who has lived through the ''entire saga'', including the Clone Wars, the rebellion against the Empire and the resistance against the First Order. In the post-Disney continuity he ultimately generally ignored in endings and the plot overall (ironic that he was the first major character who died in the pre-Disney lore and he's one of the few still alive in post-Disney lore).
**In the pre-Disney continuity he was a slave that the then-Imperial Han saved, then he helped Han save the galaxy. He was also tough as nails having survived numerous injuries and abuse that would've killed most Wookiees, and Wookiees are already tougher than humans. His actual death was getting mooned to death by extragalactic space cenobites - as in they used a gravity manipulation device to smash a moon into the planet Vector Prime while he was accidentally trapped on it. He was hailed as a hero across the galaxy (with the boast among Wookiees that [[Awesome|Chewbacca was so tough, it took something that can wreck a planet to kill him]]) and the fanbase cried or raged at his death; even the authors who killed him off went on record to say they were sad about his death and only did so for the sake of plot.

* Lando Calrissian: Suave, charismatic, and an expert con artist, this guy is the original pirate king in space. He betrays Han and co. when Vader invades his city, later regrets it, and then atones by saving the cast from the Empire as well as the populace of his city at the same time, then helps save Han from the mafia, and finally leading the fleet that blows up the Death Star 2.0. Consistently one of the only two film characters to maintain his original actor in the EU, with Billy Dee Williams showing up for video games, audio dramas, promotional shorts, and the occasional malt liquor ad.

* Yoda: Ancient wise grand master of the Jedi Order who a tiny green alien is. Never named, his species was. Because of his size and age, most assumed just a harmless old teacher he was, your nice old granddad like. His pulling out a lightsaber and engaging a Sith Lord in combat at the end of ''Attack of the Clones'', one of the most surprising and popular fights of the series is. Incredibly powerful in the Force, he is, rivaled by the likes of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Sideous. Became a big franchise mascot he did, despite a surprise for the audience he was meant to be in his first appearance, ruining it for future generations. A unique way of speaking, he has. A very popular target for parody, it has become (though the original trilogy indicated it was just one of many things he was doing to annoy Luke as a test, since he doesn't talk that way to Obi-Wan). A symbol of the Jedi Order's blindness and rigidity in the prequel era, he was. But had a spiritual reawakening, after his journey following the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn. Even after death, a wise mentor he became.

* Wedge Antilles: The anti-redshirt. Has almost no lines in the original movies but somehow survives all of them, even blowing up the second Death Star with Lando. In the EU he is one of, if not ''the'' best starfighter pilot in the galaxy, and co-founder of the über elite Rogue Squadron along with Luke. It also establishes he was the son of humble (mobile) gas station owners who got killed by pirates. After tracking down and killing the pirates, he tried to live to a normal life, but failed when Imperials killed his alliance sympathizing girlfriend. Eventually rises to General after realizing his refusing promotions was screwing the career of everyone under him. Has a weakness of being more of a tactician than a strategist, which extends to his personal character which often fails to see the big picture. The other character to maintain his original actor in most EU works.

* Admiral Ackbar: Giant tactical fish who has the need to point out obvious traps in memetic fashion. Leads the rebel fleet in the sixth film. Dies in the eighth. He has a huge fanbase despite only appearing in a few scenes across the entire film saga and is one of the meme-faces of the fandom alongside Obi-Wan, Anakin and Palpatine. His survival and high rank made him quite prominent in the EU's New Republic works. Pre-Disney was much of the same except he died during the Yuuzhan Vong War (the same war that led to Chewie's death in the Legends).

* Jar-Jar Binks: Solely exists to fuck up everything (and we do mean EVERYTHING) at the worst possible moment. This guy is so hated by everyone in and out of universe that his actor received severe backlash - including '''death threats''', and he even considered suicide because of it - even though he had nothing to do with the writing while also sympathizing with fans' complaints and Lucas shitcanned his role down into a very brief cameo at the end of Episode 3. He's actually something of a tragic figure representing someone good who tries to act to save the galaxy but ended up ruining it instead. All of this only gets more palm-to-head-worthy since Jar Jar was created as a fun kids characters, rather than anything truly important... But of course, [[neckbeards]] gotta rage. Got a depressing meta style sendoff in the Aftermath book after Disney got the rights, which is a shame since it was hinted at in the Clone Wars series that he would marry a powerful alien queen who thinks he's a sex magnet. No really.

* Mace Windu: The original only black dude in space (because everyone forgot about Lando), he was the hardest-as-nails Jedi master of the council during the prequel trilogy and the best swordfighter in the Order, hence his unique purple lightsaber. That, and Sam Jackson wanted his own color to stand out. If Anakin hadn't interfered, he would have killed Darth Sidious and none of the original trilogy would have taken place. His subsequent anti-climatic death in the movie is regarded with annoyance by his fans. His mastery of the Force allows him to channel his anger and enjoyment of battle into his combat style [[Bullshit|without being corrupted by the Dark Side]], basically getting as close to the Dark Side a Jedi can get and still be a Jedi. He can also detect what he calls "shatterpoints", which lets him detect weaknesses to either mess people up in combat or exploit the "for want of a nail" proverb to turn situations to his side. Has a novel, Shatterpoint, which is pretty much Heart of Darkness IN STAR WARS.

* CT-7567/Captain Rex: If the Clone Troopers are the equivalent of Guardsmen, then this guy is the equivalent of the likes of [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|Gaunt]] and [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken|Straken]]. The defacto second-in-command of the 501st Legion under Anakin Skywalker, he fought in nearly every major engagement during the Clone Wars, leading his men through hellish battles like on Geonosis at the beginning of the war and on Mandalore at the end. He has a strong sense of morality and cares for the lives of both the men under him and the officers above him, which meant that he often came into conflict with asshat commanders like the Jedi knight Krell (who treated their troops as little more than disposable cannon fodder). He even managed to face off against dark-side Force users and live- something very few non-Force users are able to accomplish (To get a better picture of what this is like, imagine a sergeant in the guard facing off against a Chaos Space Marine, and living). After the war and his beloved Republic's transformation into the eventually-despised Empire, he and two other clone commanders went into retirement on a backwater world, fishing for worms the size of skyscrapers on an old walker they converted into a mobile home. He was brought out of retirement by a combination of the rebels of Phoenix Squadron, his old friend and commander Ahsoka, and the Empire being their usual backstabbing, overreactive selves, and so resolved to bring down the corrupt regime and restore the nation he had served out of pride (although most clones were programmed to follow the Republic, and specifically the Chancellor, many ended up choosing instead to follow the ideals of the Republic rather than the people in charge, and some even managed to overcome Palpatine's programming via removing the chip he had planted in their heads during the cloning process). To that end, he participated in many Rebel missions. Making him the old man you see with Han Solo's commando group in RoTJ was toyed with, but ultimately rejected due to the character already having an identity in the EU and him having the wrong ethnicity.

* Corran Horn: A Correllian detective who becomes a member of Rogue Squadron during the New Republic. Later becomes a Jedi. His unique bloodline makes him inept at telekinesis, but gives him the unique power of energy absorption. Often accused of being a Mary Sue by people who miss his huge ego and over confidence problem even though right from the start Wedge has to berate him on his putting himself before the squadron. Constantly makes bullheaded mistakes like ignoring his low fuel, causing him to run out of fuel, trying to use his girlfriend's dad infamy to his advantage on someone, before learning ''that's her dad'', thinking having a lightsaber and some ''very'' basic training made him invincible, which would have killed him if bacta didn't exist, and smugly mocked Exar Kun in his temple under the mistaken impression he's physically powerless, only to get mauled in return and needing rescue from Mara Jade. He had legitimate criticism about Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy and told Luke off when Luke tried to warn Corran about the lure of the Dark Side of the Force. Corran was once a police officer and God only knows how corrupt the Correllian police can be, so he's seen his own dark side from "down in the trenches" as it were. Also the only Rogue to ever get downed by SAMs.

* Booster Terrik: A jolly but hot-tempered smuggler boss with a prosthetic eye. Helped Wedge find and kill the pirates who killed his family. Currently working/had to work to reestablish himself after a stint in Kessel, courtesy of Corran Horn's father Hal Horn. Father of Mirax Terrik. That his daughter is dating the son of the guy who put him away drives him crazy, but he eventually gets over it by coming to think of Corran as a Rogue instead of CorSec. Has a serious rivalry with Talon Karrde's organization. A crazy bluff eventually (and inadvertently) leads to him being the sole private owner of an Imperial Star Destroyer, which he operates as a mobile black market known as the Errant Venture.

* Aayla Secura: The space waifu of many a generation of star wars fanboys. A hot Twi'lek jedi chick who dressed skimpy and kicked butt. She was such a popular side character that Lucas took notice of her and added into the second and third prequel movies. Her reason for ditching the traditional jedi robes and showing her midriff was to show pride in Twi'lek culture, as her race tends to be viewed primarily as slaves rather than as an important part of the galaxy. Much like Ahsoka, she wasn't entirely defined by being a hot chick, but had other redeeming characteristics that made her likable, like being mechanically inclined, kind, wise, and somewhat mischievous. Much like Captain Rex, she had a great relationship with clones under her command, and it was rumored she and her Clone Commander had a romantic attachment to each other. Suffers from two tragedies: her death in Revenge of the Sith was brutal, and Disney hasn't done anything with her character since they acquired the franchise. In pre-Disney continuity, Aayla and Jedi master Kit Fisto were rumored to have a romantic attachment to each other.

== Disney Side Characters ==

* BB-8: The R2-D2 replacement and mascot of the new trilogy. Poe's buddy robot, started out as the plot device that the First Order was after in The Force Awakens, saves Finn and Rose's asses twice by taking down prison guards and piloting an AT-ST to attack Stormtroopers in The Last Jedi as well as Poe's in the comic. Saves Rey in Rise and reactivates a small antique droid companion that can speak Common AKA English, giving him his own C-3PO.

* Maz Kanata: An orange alien who knows a lot about the Force. In her backstory she was a Force-sensitive that’s somewhere in Yoda-tier age, but was never trained as a Jedi and instead used her talents to survive among the “third faction” (Hutts, smugglers, mafias, Mandos) while remaining as friendly to the “light side” factions as Hutts are to the “Dark Side” factions. Apparently also a supreme badass, judging from her brief appearance in TLJ. Definitely fucked Chewbacca and somehow survived. She procured Anakin’s/Luke’s blue lightsaber from the depths of the Bespin gas giant simply because she wanted it, and gave it to Rey in Force Awakens as well as some grandmotherly advice to her and Rey. She appears briefly to give the heroes contact information for a codebreaker in The Last Jedi. Joins the Resistance proper for the final movie, but not actually doing much onscreen other than spending some time with Leia.

* Saw Gerrara: Originally a member of the Space Viet Cong, this guy doesn't fuck around. Torture civilians? Check. Massacre entire patrols of Imperials? Check. In fact, his methods were considered so extreme that even the Rebel Alliance wanted nothing to do with him. Strictly speaking, he's a pre-Disney character as his first appearance on-screen was as part of the Clone Wars TV series; his first episode airing the same month that Disney acquired the franchise, making him one of the few characters to make the transition from the small screen to the big screen. Though he gets deaded within the first 30 minutes of Rogue One and does absolutely nothing of any value other than hinder the protagonists long enough to pad the run time, he has a lot more of his back-story filled out in the Rebels TV series. He was played by actor Forest Whitaker, so at least there's that.

* Sabine Wren: One of the main protagonists from the Star Wars Rebels show. A Mandalorian woman with a flair for art, explosions, and kicking Imperial ass, she is probably one of the most recognizable characters from the animated side of Disney canon. At first, she was a patriotic Imperial, designing weapons for the Emperor and his vassal ruler for Mandalore, Gar Saxon, until Gar decided to test one of her weapons on a group of Mandalorians, leading her to be labeled an oath-breaker by her people and cast out from her home-planet of Krownest by her mom. She then spends the events of the TV-series with her new surrogate family, the crew of the rebel freighter *Ghost*, and eventually recovers an ancient sword revered by her people, leading her to reconcile with her past, her birth family, and her people. Now, after the Battle of Endor, she is on a quest with Ahsoka Tano to find her 'totally-not-boyfriend', the Jedi Ezra Bridger, and Grand Admiral Thrawn, as they disappeared into the Unknown Regions following the events of the series finale. Was considered "another Disney female Mary Sue" until she acquired some nice depth in the last season of Rebels, however event before that their are several good moments with her such as her getting captured by Sith Inquisitors and used against Ezra and her fights with Kanan. Overall she is a very likable character and one of the better characters in Rebels.

* Amilyn Holdo: An [[Tumblr|overbearing, purple-haired “Rebel hero”]] and one of the key admirals of the Resistance. If you don't like the direction the Disney canon is going in, this character is your Jar Jar Binks and probably is to you even if you do approve/tolerate it. Her only role was to basically die in style but unfortunately she was pretty forgettable and nobody actually cared when she was atomized, even if it was a really fucking cool death. Tie-in material tried to fix this; the only real requirement for joining the Resistance was "didn’t think Leia was crazy for thinking the First Order was going to perform Star Wars 9/11”, and Holdo was only the captain of a small frigate before her battlefield promotion due to the entire chain of command other than the other frigate commander dying or being incapacitated by a single torpedo blast to the bridge of the Resistance flagship. As a matter of fact, [[skub|her "super-duper secret plan" ends up getting most of the Resistance killed after Finn and Poe fuck it up]], due to the fact that she decided to [[skub|not tell the freshly demoted highest ranking pilot who had just lost the resistance the last of their bombers her plan, causing him to mutiny]], and she only partially redeems herself via [[What|FTL ramming their command ship into the First Order command ship, destroying most of the FO fleet]], which is briefly visually spectacular but [[fluff]]-wise highly.... [[skub|take a guess]]. In the original script there was a subplot about there actually being a First Order spy aboard with the audience knowing in advance that there was a plan that spy could have ruined, but in an absolutely stunning display of terrible choices none of it was even filmed and the story was not changed to cut the references to that dropped plot.

* Rose Tico: A maintenance worker who acts as a tagalong for some of the most boring and annoying parts of The Last Jedi. After losing her sister in the beginning of the movie, she catches her idol Finn (who has apparently become something of a celebrity within the Resistance over the course of the week or so since he defected) trying to desert ship in order to warn Rey not to rendezvous as they were being chased by the First Order's fleet since Leia had given her a beacon indicating a rendezvous point (something that is entirely forgotten about for the rest of the movie, since Rey doesn't even use it to meet up with the Resistance at the end). She later went along with Finn to the Gilded Age planet to find the expert capable of helping them deactivate the First Order's tracking system, and despite literally growing up on a planet like that she still thinks its a great idea to just park their fighter on a luxury beach and run straight into a casino full of arms dealers wearing their military uniforms which results in the two being arrested and meeting a random criminal who sells the two out to the First Order because he overhears them literally explain their entire situation, despite the aforementioned "growing up as either a slave or a poor servant, its kind of unclear" backstory which means she should probably know more than the guy who literally only knows life as a Stormtrooper about shit like that. Her lust for Finn's BBC drives her to cockblock his heroic sacrifice on Salt Hoth before confessing his love for him at the worst possible moment in a plot point that will likely go nowhere. Also delivers the worst line in the entirety of the franchise: "[[What|That's how we are going to win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.]]" Which is even worse because Finn was not fighting a hated foe since he has no hatred towards his enemies and was instead just sacrificing himself for the people he loves. This quantum singularity of [[bullshit]] led to a substantial fraction of TLJ's backlash being directed at her actress despite the fact that she had nothing to do with writing any of it. Said backlash also basically single-handedly torpedoing whatever reputation the Star Wars fandom had with the greater public prior to this. Was an interesting character- how some heroes could come from unlikely places- that got handed shit writing in a movie that was way too crowded with a huge ensemble to begin with, and almost zero development. In The Rise Of Skywalker, instead of giving pithy speeches about love and being oppressed she spends her time doing actual ground crew technician work between battles, when characters are meeting to plan their next move she speaks like a high-ranking member of the Resistance (by process of elimination, but still), and the most important thing; '''she actually gets to participate in a battle and shoots some motherfuckers''' in an attempt address the "her figures don't sell" problem. The plot point of her being in love with Finn is not addressed, like in any way at all, and she has very little screentime so she's pretty much been simultaneously upgraded/downgraded into being the Wedge to Finn's Luke. That last part didn't go over well with a lot of people given her bigger role in VIII, leading to accusations that IX was pandering to the /pol/ crowd by giving Rose so little to say or do. Despite (or maybe because of), getting shafted in the movies proper, the actress has proven fairly game about reprising her role in voice-acting for various projects.

* Torra Doza: D.Va in Star Wars. No seriously. Young female, wears a blue and white bodysuit with gloves, is a pilot, likes video games, cheerful personality, she's got it all...except for being in something that's actually popular. Unfortunately, Torra had the bad luck to be a character in the widely reviled Star Wars: Resistance, which basically guaranteed a status as Skub at best and hated at worst.

== Notable Pre-Disney EU Characters ==
* Thrawn: (See *below under villains since despite being created as part of the Legends - in fact, the 1991 book he debuted in is what began the Star Wars Expanded Universe - he was brought back into canon by Disney)

* Mara Jade: A Force-sensitive former agent of Emperor Palpatine, Star Wars second strong female character after Leia (Nomi Sunrider wasn't high profile or developed enough) and a fiery, snarky, sexy redhead. Taken from her parents at a young age and raised as a servant to Palpatine, Mara trained with him and with his royal guards to become one of several high-level Force-using operatives with the title of "Emperor's Hand", though she used the cover story of being a dancer that Palps liked called Lianna. A life of hard work gave Mara a liking for challenges, and she completed numerous missions for him, living the high life under his patronage. Upon Palpatine's death, he gave Mara one last command and a Force geas - kill Luke Skywalker. Bereft of the Emperor's patronage, without job skills besides spy and assassin and unable to find Luke, Mara was forced to live paycheck to paycheck in numerous jobs until becoming a smuggler under Talon Karrde. When Mara finally met Luke, she tried to kill him but ened up in survival situations that forced them to work together. When she finally learned the the truth of her master and killed and escaped Palpatine's compulsion when she killed Luke's clone. Mara then joined the Jedi Order, and over the years Mara's grudging respect for Luke grew into love - which Luke ironically developed before Mara did despite Luke saying he didn't like fiery women like Mara, and the two eventually married. Then a Yuuzhan Vong agent infected Mara with a deadly bioweapon, and she only survived through using the Force to keep it at bay. When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded at large, she fought while struggling with the virus, being cured of it around the time her and Luke's son Ben was born. After the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, Mara led the Jedi alongside Luke and fought in wars against various aliens and the re-emergent Sith. Years later her nephew Jacen turned to the Dark Side and became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. When he tried to corrupt her son Ben, Mara tracked him down to kill him to protect Ben. During the fight, Jacen killed Mara via cheap shot with a poisoned dart. But before she died, Mara told Jacen off while using the Force to alert Luke and Ben and say goodbye to them (Mara's death was one of the main reasons the book series was hated by fans). She later appeared numerous times as a Force ghost, visiting Luke - at one point to give him tips on how to fight Abeloth, and warning her great-great-grandson Cade Skywalker against the Dark Side. Due to being a sexy redheaded woman with a backstory as a spy-cum-assassin (emphasis on cum for neckbeards) for an evil government before joining the good guys, plus her fiery disposition and penchant for black catsuits, Mara's probably a deliberate ripoff of Black Widow from Marvel Comics (ironically, this didn't stop Disney retconning her from the lore despite Disney now owning both the Marvel brand and Star Wars franchise).

* Ben Skywalker: Son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Named for Obi-Wan Kenobi's pseudonym, Ben grew up learning the ways of the Jedi from his parents. He was close to his uncle, aunt and cousins too. Ben was nearly lured to the Dark Side when his cousin Jacen became a Sith but resisted, and any bond between them was destroyed when Jacen killed Ben's mother Mara. Years later when the Jedi got word of a lost tribe of Sith emerging and an emerging Force psychosis started spreading among the Jedi, Luke, Ben and the Jedi Order went to resolve the problem, Ben joining his father in re-tracing Jacen's steps to try and gain insight. Things went from bad to worse when the Jedi and Sith encountered the Lovecraftian Force Entity Abeloth, a shapeshifting being described as a dozen times stronger in the Force than Luke and able to use both sides of it. Things were so desperate, Ben accepted when Luke got the Jedi and the Sith to form an alliance against her. During this time, Ben encountered Vestara Khoi, a Sith apprentice and daughter of one of their leaders. While firmly on the side of the Jedi, Ben found himself often working alongside Vestara in their mission to stop Abeloth, and was attracted to her; for her part, Vestara reciprocated Ben's feelings but was hindered by Ben's disapproval of Sith. Eventually they confessed their feelings, and the two became a couple (with Vestara also leaving the Sith and trying to become a Jedi). Said co-operation proved invaluable when Abeloth kidnapped Ben and Vestara for the final part of her master plan. After Abeloth's ultimate defeat Vestara, after a ruthless act while fighting Abeloth, became convinced she had much of a Sith mindset to be a Jedi, reverted back to the Sith, ended the relationship by zapping Ben with Sith Lightning before fleeing. Heartbroken but resolute, Ben resolved to track her down and redeem her if possible (unbeknownst to Ben, Vestara was also heartbroken about leaving him).

* Jacen Solo: While George Lucas always had a story idea for a son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side, Jacen Solo was the first incarnation, and a major influence on Disney's Kylo Ren. Born to Leia alongside his twin sister Jaina, he was a skilled Jedi, and often tried to be a calming influence on his younger brother Anakin Solo. Played a pivotal role in the Yuuzhan Vong War, killing their military commander Tsavong Lah and their true leader. However, his experiences during the war took a toll, and Jacen started struggling with the Dark Side. Falling into corruption of a Sith Lady, Jacen fell pretty hard. He became a Colonel in the Galactic Alliance and took control of their secret police and converted it into his own Personal SS division. He [[What|legally coup]] the Chief of State and turn the successor to the NR into a evil democratic republic.

* Jaina Solo: Jaina Solo was a Human female Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order and member of the Jedi High Council. Daughter of Han and Leia, twin sister of Jacen Solo and older sister to Anakin Solo, she inherited her father's mechanical aptitude and her mother's Force sensitivity, resulting in her eventual training at the Jedi Praxeum. During her time there as a youth, she had many adventures, including helping to thwart the Second Imperium, where she helped Zekk abandon the dark side of the Force and join the ranks of the Jedi. She became a distinguished pilot during the Yuuzhan Vong War, which also saw the death of her brother Anakin Solo and the birth of her cousin Ben Skywalker. Becomes the Jedi Saber, the Order's sword against the dark.

* Kyle Katarn: A stormtrooper commander who turns mercenary after learning the Imperials were responsible for the death of his father. After being one of the many people who stole the Death Star plans, he destroys an Imperial super soldier project essentially solo. After this he gets wrapped up in the head inquisitor's plot to revive the Empire and gets trained as a Jedi by a force ghost. Straightforward and prone to snark, but also very easy to trick. Partner (if not more) with hot space Asian Jan Ors. Considered one of the more powerful force users in the New Republic, even outside the games where his power level is rather over the top. Where Luke (and most Jedi) keep the dark side away with spiritualism and positivity, Kyle does it through sheer force of will.

* Talon Karrde: A suave rogue smuggler captain who became the new smuggling and black market kingpin after Jabba died. Compared to his predecessor, he's pretty benign given his preference for tariff evasion and illegal goods over straight up extortion and slaving and being a father to his men instead of someone who executes minions on whims. His favored product is selling obscure and/or stolen information. Explicitly what Han might have become if he didn't join the rebellion. Likes punny ship names, with his flagship the Wild Karrde (Wild Card, plus a pun on his last name) and secondary ships like Lastri's Ort (Last Resort), Uwana Buyer (You want to buy her?) and Amanda Fallow (A man to follow). He makes a business arrangement with Mara Jade when she's trying to track Luke down to kill him, where he provided her information if she worked for him temporarily. Years later he acts as a friend in the black market to the Solos and Skywalkers.

* Bevel Lemelisk: An old EU Character that hasn't been quite retconned out yet (even if Director Krennic and Galen Erso more or less took his place in the overall plot), Lemelisk is the Albert Speer/Wernher von Braun of the Imperial war machine. A genius architect and engineer with a serious boner for mass destruction, he designed the Death Star and several others of the Imperial Superweapons, like the discount Death Star battlestation ''Tarkin'' (kinda like a Proof-of-concept prototype for the Death Star concept) or the ''Eclipse''-class of Super Star Destroyers. He bore the brunt of Palpatines anger for the Death Star's destruction, who had him tortured, executed and ressurrected via cloning several times for his failures. After the Empires defeat, he ended up working for the Hutts and worked on a Death Star knockoff called the Darksaber (which he purposefully sabotaged by not pointing out obvious design flaws and the overall shoddy construction work), where he was captured by the New Republic and executed for war crimes.

* Tsavong Lah: An alien [[Horus|Warmaster]], Tsavong was a member of the Yuuzhan Vong species and in charge of their military during most of the Yuuzhan Vong War. His most notable accomplishments were conquering Coruscant and indirectly causing Anakin Solo's death. Tsavong was a skilled tactician but a poor strategist, [[Commander Kubrik Chenkov|a ruthless fanatic who's willing to throw countless lives away to achieve his goals]]. Also took on the Vong Nom Anor as his advisor, despite hating Anor's self-centeredness and lack of piety. At one point Jacen cut off his foot, so Tsavong [[Awesome|cloned an extinct super-predator so he could prove he was still badass by killing it and using one of its feet as a prosthetic foot]]. Also got caught up in a plot by the [[Haemonculi|Shaper Caste, seeking to control him through his body modifications]]. He also dearly loved his dad - a retired military officer he'd often turn to for advice, to the point that his death made Tsavong mentally unstable. Came to view Jacen Solo as his archnemesis, and was eventually killed by him.

* Nom Anor: A Yuuzhvan Vong member of the Intendant caste. After the events of ROTJ, Nom arrived with a Vong advance force as a saboteur to undermine the galaxy in preparation for the Vong invasion/Yuuzhan Vong War. During this time, Nom worked in disguise to manipulate various groups and even clashed with the Chiss Ascendancy... [[Not As Planned|the capture of some of his agents also clued the Empire in to the coming Vong threat]]. He was also such a selfish schemer even Thanquol would turn his nose up in disgust and a major [[Troll]]; before revealing his true identity, when negotiating with Leia he often dress up and act like Darth Vader just to mess with her. Also notable for being an atheist while the Vong as a whole are characterized by being deeply religious. Before the war, Nom infected Luke's wife Mara with a Vong bioweapon that caused a terminal illness, forcing her to use the Force to stop its progression. When Mara confronted Nom, he tried and failed to kill her and was sent packing. After being heavily demoted, Nom tried to rally the outcast class under the guise of a prophet, only to throw them away when they weren't useful to him. Nom later found his way onto the Supreme Overlord's flagship ([[Asdrubael Vect|not that supreme overlord]]) during the battle to retake Coruscant. When the Supreme Overlord was killed and the ship started falling apart, Nom tried to kill the heroes three times but was always thwarted. When offered the chance to escape with the heroes, Nom realized he'd burned all his bridges; he didn't fit in anywhere and was too proud to reconsider his life choices or face punishment for his role in the war. So Nom chose to stay behind and die on the exploding flagship. Essentially [[Fabius Bile]] as a self-centered alien bureaucrat.

* A'Sharad Hett/Darth Krayt: A human Jedi-turned-Sith. Born A'Sharad Hett, he was born to a Jedi and his wife who somehow managed to live among the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine, he eventually joined the Jedi Order, becoming a Padawan of Jedi Masters Ki-Adi-Mundi, and later, An'ya Kuro. When he was only a teen, Hett's father was murdered by the Jedi assassin Aurra Sing, who was later defeated in a duel by a young A'Sharad Hett. During the Clone Wars, he served the Republic as a General. He met and eventually befriended Anakin Skywalker after Skywalker struggled to come to terms with Hett's Tusken heritage. He managed to survive the Clone Wars and Order 66. He was eventually captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, who [[Haemonculus|tortured and experimented on Hett]], which drove him to the Dark Side.

* Darth Talon: A female Twi'lek from the EU comic series "Star Wars: Legacy" who became a Sith Lord in Darth Krayt's One Sith in 137 ABY. Best known for being one of Star Wars most fanservice-y characters on account of her attractive, tattoo-covered body and always wearing skimpy skin-tight clothing (though the character's creators have gone on record to say her appearance is meant to be primal not sexualized, and the skimpy outfit is to show off her tattoos). Apart from the fanservice, she's also visually distinctive for being a rare red Twi'lek and the aforementioned black Sith tattoos. Appointed personal assassin of Darth Kryat, Talon was sent to kill Luke's descendant Cade Skywalker, then later chosen to be Cade's Sith teacher when Darth Kryat tried to induct him into the Dark Side. During this time, Cade and Talon drew close and w slept together, which may have been Kryat's plan (Cade and Talon are shown kissing, and in one scene Cade is shown getting out of bed while a naked Darth Talon is sleeping next to him). Interestingly, George Lucas' original plan for a sequel trilogy involved Talon corrupting Han and Leia's son to the Dark Side of the Force and Talon was nearly in the Disney trilogy and there is early concept art of her.

* Abeloth: A Lovecraftian female entity strong in both the Light and Dark side of the Force, and one of the most powerful beings in any Star Wars canon. She first lived as the Servant, a mortal woman who served the powerful Ones on an unknown jungle planet over a hundred thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. Over the course of her life, she became the Mother: she kept the peace between the Father's warring Son and Daughter and became a loving part of the family. But she was still mortal—she grew old while her ageless family lived on—and she feared she would lose her precious family. In a desperate attempt to hold onto the life she so loved, she drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge. Her actions corrupted her, transforming the Mother into the twisted, immortal entity known as Abeloth. Has numerous titles such as the Bringer of Chaos and Beloved Queen of the Stars (the latter self-proclaimed). Spent millennia trapped on a planet by the Ones, though she'd escape only to be re-imprisoned once more.

* Natasi Daala: Tarkins lover (which, in a surprising twist for the kinds of stories Star Wars tells, was actually reciprocated), the first woman in the Imperial Navy to hold the rank of Admiral and certified badass. Sets herself apart from other Imperial leaders by being much less of a self-interested power-hungry warmonger and instead being fiercely and unquestionably loyal to the Empire and its ideals, which in turn also made her reasonable enough to not want to rule the Imperial Remnants like Thrawn or others, despite being more than capable of it. Her relationship with Tarkin and her sizeable aptitude as a tactician earned her the position to guard the Ultra-Top-Secret R&D base at the center of the clusters of black holes known as the Maw, where she commanded a small flotilla of four Star Destroyers. After having been isolated from the Empire for over a decade after the Battle of Yavin, never wavering from her posting in spite of the suspisous lack of new directions coming in, she was alerted to the fall of the Emperor when Han Solo accidentally crashed right into her turf. Being mightily pissed off, she proceeded to wreck shit for the New Republic just because she could. Later, she allied with Pellaeon, killed a bunch of imperial remnant warlords and helped him fight the New Republic in a series of battles, but vanished without a trace after she ordered her ship to make an unguided hyperspace jump and was declared dead, but not without giving Pellaeon a code with which he could call her she the need arise.

== Villains ==
* Darth Sidious/Sheev "Can't Peeve the Sheev" Palpatine/The Emperor: A creepy old wrinkly dude who sits in his badass evil throne constantly screaming "[[Just as planned]]!" And occasionally frying fools with force lightning. About on par with [[Nagash]] in terms of plain assholery (not to mention being crazy powerful). Built a giant planet-destroying weapon, then built another, bigger one as a trap when the first one blew up. He is very clever, managing to scheme and outwit everyone in the prequel trilogy (not particularly hard, given that every good guy in the prequels was written to be a complete dunce), moving them all into place so he could take over the galaxy (although he still needed a big superweapon anyway to hold onto said power) in the original trilogy and even manages to make [[Just as Planned|everything move to his design]] in the sequel trilogy. Chews so much scenery they had to resort to computer-generated imagery. [[Meme|He is the Senate]]. His survival in the third Disney film was so baffling and unexplained that even the characters had to admit that it made no sense; then again, he was only brought back because Disney had no other choice, having killed off Snoke too soon and Kylo Ren not being a credible enough villain on his own.

* Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin: [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Tywin Lannister]] [[Indrick Boreale|IN SPHESS]] (although, given that Star Wars came first it might be more accurate to say Tywin is Tarkin in Grimdark Fantasy). Ruthless, ambitious, and cold, Grand Moff (Governor) Tarkin is the epitome of all that is Imperial in the SW Universe, and represents all the non-Sith elements that makes the Empire so evil. Started out as a career officier in the republican navy, became promoted by Palpatine after he put down early resistance movements against the Empire with ruthless effiency (including literally crushing protestors with a Star Destroyer). The Clone Wars also showed that he briefly served under Anakins command, where their philosophies showed be to quite compatible (Tarkins cold pragmatism combined with Anakins fierce determination to get the job done at any cost) and became the basis of a deep mutual respect for one another. Also happens to be one of the few characters outside of the force users to figure out that Vader was Anakin on his own. His idea of ruling pretty much comes down to [[Konrad Curze|"They can hate me as long as they fear me"]], which is symbolized ultimately by the Death Star. [[Derp|However, he uses the stick far too often and hardly uses the carrot]], and this policy backfires on him horribly when he destroys Alderaan, a Core World and one of the founders of the Old Republic- for instead of cowing the galaxy into submission, it, along with the Battle of Yavin which saw himself and his battle-station destroyed, [[Fail|galvanized half the galaxy into openly declaring for the Alliance]]. Before the Prequels rewrote the origins of the Imperial superweapon programs entirely, he pioneered the idea of weapons like the Death Star and worked hard to lobby political support from Palpatine and the military for their construction, and was the man in charge for a great number of military R&D developments until his death.

* Jango and Boba Fett: Father and son, though the son is actually an unaltered clone of his father. Badass, mostly-silent mercs who get shit done and come from a line of Spartan/Viking/Māori warriors in space called Mandalorians. Mandos are real hardasses who can go toe-to-toe with Jedi, and the Fetts were no exception. Sadly, both had very anticlimactic deaths, though Boba survived his in the EU, through the power of being too popular with the audience to kill permanently, later having his survival added to Disney Canon. With both of his former employers dead (Jabba and the Empire), and having just survived a fate worse than death and separation from his father's armor, Boba seems to have had time to reconsider his past decisions. He becomes an honorary Tusken after helping out a Tusken tribe that kept him alive, and after getting his armor back from Din Djaren, decides to take Jabba's old position as crimelord of Tatooine. Despite being Jabba's number one enforcer for years, he finds the job a lot harder than it looks, fending off Hutts and local gangs while trying to live up to his Mandalorian heritage and sense of honor. Both of them, ''especially'' Boba, are long-time fan-favorites, but there is also a very vocal and obstinate faction of haters who ''never'' shut up about Boba Fett's falling into the Sarlaac and his limited role in the movies proper. [[Rage|No matter how many times Boba's survival and numerous showings of badassery outside of the movies are pointed out, you can count on the Fett haters to stick to their guns as stubbornly as an Imperial Guardsman down to his last lasgun rounds.]] Sadly, the underperformance of Book of Boba Fett has ensured that the Fett-bashing is likely to continue, with Boba's softer characterization being one of the main points of contention.

* Jabba the Hutt: Obese slug who is a cross between a Mexican drug cartel kingpin and Mafia crime-boss. He runs his criminal enterprise from an old palace-monastery on Tatooine. A [[/d/]]eviant at heart, likes to fap to hot alien chicks dancing for him until they try to escape, then faps even harder when he feeds said chicks to Rancor. His power is such that the Republic, and later the Empire, had to negotiate with him to be able to have some influence in the Outer Rim, because even Sheev Palpatine knows that you don't do shit in the Outer Rim without dealing with the Hutts first. Gets strangled to death by a bikini-wearing Leia with her own chains, because symbolism. In short, he's one of Slaanesh's despite looking like one of Nurgle's.

* Thrawn: *Star Wars [[Creed]], if Creed was also a philosophical blue-skinned, red-eyed alien who loved art. Originally introduced in the pre-Disney EU/Legends, Thrawn was so popular Disney soon brought him back into the Disney canon (with a few tweaks to his story). Thrawn was renowned for being one of the few high-ranking aliens in the Galactic Empire and one of the Emperor's best subjects. He originally served as a member of the Chiss Ascendancy, but after being backstabbed (Disney canon retconned this into a ploy; he's still loyal to the Chiss, but pretended to be an exile so he can use the Empire as a buffer state) he signed up with the Galactic Empire and worked with Darth Vader - having met him back when the latter was still a Jedi - and even the Emperor himself. In his tactics, Thrawn notably employed his analysis based around understanding the philosophy and art of his enemies, and was a very capable commander. Always one step ahead of his opponents, Thrawn would frequently outplay both rebels and political rivals by anticipating their actions well in advance, sometimes even using their own plans against them. Literally the only things that can stop Thrawn are insubordination, and things he can't anticipate or control like The Force (and he even found an effective countermeasure for the Force in the form of some Force-resistant Sloths). Thrawn quickly became very well-liked with fans, to the point many considered him the best thing to come from Star Wars since the original trilogy.
** He also set up a vassal Empire called "the Empire of the Hand" to combat an alien menace encroaching on Chiss territory that was considered a threat to the Empire; pre-Disney this was the Yuuzhan Vong (AKA the Far Outsiders, AKA the space cenobites who killed Chewbacca by dropping a moon on him), post-Disney it's Vong-knockoffs called the Grysk. Pre-Disney Thrawn was killed by the betrayal of his Noghri bodyguard but he is alive and well post-Disney, and was last seen when Ezra used the Force and space whales to yeet Thrawn's ship into the unknown regions with all of them on board. His actual name is the near-unpronounceable Mitth'raw'nuruodo. With his philosophical nature and fetish for art collecting, he's probably a deliberate ripoff of M'Quve from ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', but good luck getting Zahn to admit it.
** Out of all the Empire's elite command, Thrawn stands out not just for being a tactical genius, but also for being a stone-cold pragmatist without falling into Tarkin's genocidal dickery or Vader's open disdain for his own men. He prefers to handle situations with subtlety and long-term success rather than with violence or cruelty for short-term gains (though he'll use the latter if he thinks it's required). Had he not been saddled with working for such an openly tyrannical dictatorship, he could easily have been a more heroic (if ruthless) military leader when faced with an actual threat to the galaxy at large.

* Gilad Pellaeon: The Watson to Thrawn's Sherlock, Pellaeon was a veteran Imperial Navy Officer in the Legends canon with a career stretching from the Clone Wars to the Vong War. Well liked in-universe and out for being a reasonable, fair-minded person with a sense of honor. Basically the complete opposite of guys like Tarkin. As such, he often gets the role of "Token Good Imperial", with the implication that Thrawn was setting Pellaeon up as his successor.

* Count Dooku: An elegant, charismatic, gentlemanly Sith lord and master fencer who had dreams of liberating the galaxy from Republic control, but didn't expect his partner in crime to be a backstabbing douchebag (seeing how he was a full-blown Sith Lord by the time of Attack of the Clones, he really should have seen that coming). Was born as a planetary noble, but gave it all up when he became a Jedi, only to get it all back when he gave up being a Jedi to lead the secessionist movement against the Senate's corruption. In spite of all his unethical activities, including assassination plots against virtuous Separatists while actively promoting war criminals in the CIS military, Dooku genuinely believed that the New Order was going to wipe away corruption in the galaxy, and that even the Jedi would have a place once enough of them saw things his way. Turns out, Palpatine had been playing him just like everyone else during the Clone Wars. Hates Anakin/Vader for not being a gentleman.
** In the novels he's also an alien-hating human supremacist who believes the Empire's purpose is to establish humanity as dominant in GFFA; He'd do well as a citizen of the Imperium if he just changed which Emperor he revered. While actually a very cool villain in the EU, because he was so underdeveloped and underused in the movies proper, most younger or more casual fans (IE: anyone who hates or doesn't care about the EU), tend to dismiss him as boring, making Dooku the "unfavorite" of Palpatine's three apprentices despite being played by Saruman himself, Sir Christopher Lee (RIP).

* Darth Maul: Horned Sith only concerned with bloodshed and fighting. He'd do well as a Khornate Champion. Had his legs cut off then was brought back more badass than ever, making him obsessed with getting revenge on Obi-Wan, as well as Sideous for casting him aside. He creates a massive criminal syndicate and even conquering the Mandalorians to create a small army that posed a serious threat to Sidious' plans; that is, until he was utterly stomped by Sidious himself, then gets killed in a duel with an elderly Obi-wan almost 18 years later. Wields a sick-looking double-bladed lightsaber, doesn't actually gets a single line in the first film dubbed in by a different actor, and played by famous martial arts master Ray Park. He was a silent badass in the movie but for some reason he was made very talkative in the animated series. The EU gave him a backstory as the scion of a species of Sith-aligned Force witches that ''The Clone Wars'' later made canon. The director of ''Solo'' picked him out of a hat to be the leader of the nefarious criminal gang Han gets stuck working with, which is not unreasonable given his previously established connections. Despite being a rage-filled maniac, the TV shows gave him a lot of depth, as he recognizes that there are bigger forces at play in the universe, and by the time of his death, puts his hope in the Skywalkers finally defeating Sidious.
** In the Legends canon, he was resurrected by some Dark Side cultists very shortly before A New Hope and sicced on Darth Vader so the writer could have an excuse to give the fans the fight they'd been clamoring for since 1999. Vader sent Maul back to the grave, but not easily. Then his brain was salvaged by some mad scientist and kept alive (somehow), with Maul interacting with the world in a limited way through holographic projections. Luke Skywalker pulled the plug on it though, letting Maul finally die for good.

* General Grievous: An alien cyborg even more fucked up than what Darth Vader would become (being a robot body that was a canister for his eyes, brain, and vital organs), Grievous was the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army during the Prequels and the Clone Wars TV series (both versions), and a sadistic Jedi hunter. His competence is usually portrayed two totally different ways; in the 2D animated TV series (created by the same guy who made [[Samurai Jack|Samurai Jack]]), and other EU material created prior to the second Clone Wars cartoon, he is portrayed as an awesome, unstoppable killing machine who roflstomps experienced Jedi Masters, and is only bested by Mace "The Ace" Windu. In the CGI series and the third film, he is an [[Stupid Evil|incompetent, froth-mouthed imbecile]] with a record of failure that even [[Abaddon]] would laugh at hysterically. (Sadly, the latter was what Lucas originally intended him to be - even if the former is way more awesome). By the end of the clone wars, Grievous and his atrocities against civilians became the public face of the Seperatist cause (while Dooku kept Grievous actions a secret from his allies); The death mask of Grievous became a potent symbol in Imperial propaganda in order to associate resistance to the Empire with the horrors of the Clone Wars - just as Palpatine intended. Ironically, in Legends the Empire gave copies of GG's mask to some of their secret weapons (Terror Troopers and Terror Biodroids namely).
** Actually has a somewhat-tragic past in Legends: he was a great and virtuous hero on his primitive planet, but Dooku arranged for the Separatists to shoot Grievous' shuttle down and harvested his shredded body to repurpose him into their general/assassin. Dooku also lobotomized Grievous in way that reduced him to a raging killer. When Grievous recovered, Dooku then pinned blame for the shuttle crash on the Jedi and Republic, turning him into the OG raging murder-machine we all know and love. In all, a considerably more grimdark past than his other versions.
** In the second Clone Wars cartoon, his backstory is kept vague, but Grievous claims he deliberately chose to become a cyborg in order to become better at killing Jedi (and actually becoming extremely good at it, at least in the first CW, where he cuts down four Jedi with ease). Hated being mistaken for a droid, being compared to a droid and all Jedi - especially Obi-Wan Kenobi. His competence ping-pongs around even more violently than before: Grievous [[What|loses to a barely-trained Padawan]] and [[EPIC FAIL|the fucking Gungan army under Jar Jar and Captain Tarpals]] in a couple episodes while [[grimdark|committing on-screen genocide against the Nightsisters]] and going toe-to-toe with Jedi Masters in others. He was voiced by one of the folks at Lucasarts, who submitted his audition under an alias to make sure he'd get a fair shake. Along with Anthony Daniels, he reprises his role more often than most other Star Wars movie actors.

* Clone Troopers: The predecessors of the Storm Troopers. These soldiers were vat clones of Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett cloned in large numbers, trained from birth in combat and clad in environmentally sealed suits of their famous gleaming white full body armor. Despite being genetically engineered to be perfectly obedient automatons, the Jedi they served under encouraged their individuality, and they began giving themselves names and unique tattoos and haircuts. But when Palpatine activated their inhibitor chips via Order 66, the clones' autonomy was completely overridden (the effect appears to only last a couple weeks, but it is extremely intense) and they executed the Jedi without hesitation. The original clonetroopers served the Republic against the Separatists, and were turned into the stormtroopers after Palpatine's total take-over. A very small minority of clones had their chips successfully removed and fought against the Empire, especially those who formed close bonds with their Jedi generals or local freedom fighters, but the vast majority of the Clones were more loyal to Palpatine than to the Republic itself, and didn't need much convincing to stick with the Empire, with or without inhibitor chips.
** Various sources (even within legends) disagree on the exact reasons why Palpatine replaced the clone troopers: the rebels blew up the gene-banks, the Kaminoans rebelled and created their own clone army, the clones were too susceptible to targeted genome-based biological weapons, or that the clones served their purpose and were too expensive to maintain, especially with their accelerated aging. Remaining Clones either were retired, served as instructors and in the case of the Commandos and the 501st Legion (having proven their loyalty and competence over and over, including at the Kamino uprising), kept serving in pure Fett-template units as Vader's personal enforces. Even they were retired after Hoth due to being too old.
** In Disney Canon, the clones were expendable once they served their purpose of killing the Jedi; removing them from the equation freed up resources for the Death Star and reduced the Empire's dependency on Kamino's cloning facilities. However, enough clones started to mutiny or desert that the Imperial military accelerated their replacement with recruited Stormtroopers.
** The old EU canon had a different take on why the Troopers had little trouble with executing Order 66; where the order was merely one of many (151 in total) contingency plans that would be enacted by either the chancellor or the senate if the existence of the Republic or the functioning of its governing institutions were vitally threatened (the irony was certainly not lost on Palpatine) and were just part of the normal training program of the soldiers. Order 66 was buried under plans for events like the Senate being blown up, the Chancellor becoming incapacitated, Coruscant being destroyed etc. What made Order 66 so insidious was that the Jedi thought it was a protection against renegade force users (not unheard of with Dooku and Ventress running around) and that Palpatine masterminded his scheme in such a way that the legal prerequisites of Order 66 - Jedi staging a coup against the Chancellor or the Senate, which technically was what happened when Windu attacked Palpatine (even more explicitly so in the Novelization, where Windu planned to install the Jedi council as an interim government until the Senate would elect a new chancellor) - was fulfilled with no one there to question it. Combined with the Troopers inherent psychological conditioning and more than one Commander holding serious grudges against many Jedi ensured that the Order would not be questioned even by those Clones who were fond of their generals.
* Stormtroopers: The soldiers of the Galactic Empire. Unlike the Clone Troopers, the vast majority of the stormtroopers are enlisted, typically from the underclasses of war-torn and impoverished worlds. Contrary to popular belief, Stormtroopers are ''not'' the rank and file in the Imperial army, and are more skilled and fanatical, akin to Marines. Still, Stormtroopers are a step down in quality from Clone Troopers (including their armor, with a surviving clone trooper making a point of how awful it is compared to his old wargear), but by this point the Empire didn't really need that many high-quality soldiers when it was more concerned with keeping civilian populations under its thumb. Since the First Order doesn't have a good dental plan to bring in recruits, they instead resort to [[Schola Progenium|kidnapping or buying children and raising them as soldiers]] to fill their mook quota. They are unwaveringly loyal and obedient to the Empire, ruthless and brutally efficient foes in combat, and incredibly precise shots with their state-of-the-art weapons. Naturally, these qualities all go out the window when they encounter the protagonists, but that's life when you're wearing a [[helmet]].
**There are some explanations as to the inconsistency in Stormtrooper quality; one is that the Imperial army is so vast that quality differences are inevitable. Stormtroopers that are an actual threat will defend the core worlds or accompany the more "serious" units, such as the 501st legion. Lesser recruits get sent to rim world backwaters or meat grinder conflicts, making them easier prey for the odd band of rebels or pirates. The rebels learned the hard way, though, that trying to fight a conventional way against the former was just asking for trouble (the Battle of Hoth being the biggest defeat in their history). That being said, by the Original Trilogy, the Empire hadn't fought a war even close to the scale of the Clone Wars before the Rebellion, so there were a lot of inexperienced troopers as well.
** Amusingly enough, Legends indicates that many of the Clone Troopers that actually stayed with the Galactic Empire ''hated'' the Stormtroopers, considering them a pack of incompetent idiots with no sense of their surroundings and terrible aim (which can be taken as a canonization of their memetically awful competence). One source even had Commander Cody (yes, that guy from Revenge of the Sith and the Clone Wars CGI cartoon) stating that he'd sacrifice an entire platoon of Stormtroopers for one real Clone Trooper and noting that Fett would probably kill the lot of them himself.
** Lastly, these boys comes in literally ''all'' the flavors. Variants based on environments (Snow, Desert, Shore and many more) and roles (Heavy, Incinerator, Commando and the elite Death Troopers), ensuring that the Star Wars brand always has a new bunch of cool soldier dudes to make toys off of. When things has to get really dangerous for the heroes, the elite variants are brought in, like the Storm Commandoes, Death Troopers and (in Episode IX), Sith Troopers (no relation to the troops of the same name used by the Sith Empires pre-dating Palpatine).
** On the point elaborated above, Stormtroopers remain a separate institution within the Imperial military, kind of like the Waffen-SS or Napoleons Imperial Guard, with their own resources and command structures separated from the rest of it. The actual rank-and-file in the Imperial military is the aptly named Imperial Army which sees very little representation in any Star Wars media and many writers completely forget about. The brief occasions where the Army is represented in any capacity are the AT-ST pilots in Episode 6 and the poor schmucks slaughtered by the dozens in the awesome-as-heck Battle of Minban in ''Solo''.

* Inquisitorius: Darksiders trained by the Empire. While the Rule of Two prevents additional Sith Lords, it says nothing about other force users under their command, especially if they're not given full access to Sith lore and thus can't properly challenge Sith Lords on equal footing. It is not known if Darth Bane expected the Imperial Inquisition or if he would have approved of the Emperor bending the Rule of Two such. Their job is primarily to ferret out the remaining Jedi and other force users, but they are also used for all manner of wet work and internal affairs. Since their first mention ''way'' back in ''The Star Wars Sourcebook'', they have served as enemy force users that while still dire threats could still ''conceivably'' be defeated by the player characters. The source of many prominent antagonists in the expanded universe, including Jerec.

== Disney Villains ==

* The Inquisitors: The Disney version of the above, here reimagined as fallen Jedi who have taken up hunting their fellows for the Empire and wielding spinning double-bladed lightsabers while doing so. Actually rock a pretty boss set of designs overall, but sadly most of them are underdeveloped in both personality and backstory, with the exception of the Grand Inquisitor and Fallen Order's Second Sister. They have a "brother/sister" naming system. By the Original Trilogy, the Inquisitorious appears to have been either disbanded or severely reduced in size, as there were hardly any surviving Jedi left to hunt down, and in the end Vader took over much of their role, especially since they were not full Sith they were much weaker in power potential.
** Grand Inquisitor: Head honcho. An Pau'an who used to be a Jedi Temple Guard before going bad. Voiced by Lucius Malfoy / Admiral Zhao and similarly evil. By far the coolest (and most competent), villain in Season 1 of Rebels, so of course they killed him off. Also shows up in live action in Kenobi where Third Sister stabs him, but his showing up in Rebels later suggests he walked it off, which was confirmed outright in Episode 5 of the Kenobi mini-series. His spirit is cursed by Vader to continue serving him in death as a trap for Jedi, and was only defeated by Luke Skywalker during his search for a replacement lightsaber after ''The Empire Strikes Back.''
** Second Sister: Main villain of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and as mentioned above, easily one of the more well-developed of the bunch besides GI himself. Once the Padawan of Cal's mentor in the game Cere, and hates her something fierce for feeling abandoned by her, leading to the Empire capturing her and giving her the [[Inquisition]] / [[Dark Eldar]] treatment. Just when it seems like she ''might'' make amends with Cere, Vader, unhappy that Second Sister failed him, cuts her down on the spot.
** Third Sister: Another one of the better fleshed-out Inquisitors. One of the main villains of Kenobi series on Disney+, hunting him in the hope that Vader will give her a promotion in exchange...or so it seems. Turns out she actually just wants a chance to get close to Vader so she can kill him for murdering her fellow Younglings during Knightfall. But of course, Vader's way out of her weight-class. Can pose and parkour like a superhero, and has a [[Angron|bad temper even by Dark Side standards.]] Character and actress got crap from the [[/pol/|usual offenders]]. The original script gave her less confusing motivations as she didn't know that Anakin was Vader and she blamed him and the Jedi Council for causing Order 66, so she was a more willing (if misled) participant in all the atrocities she'd commit as an Inquisitor.
** Fourth Sister: Another Inquisitor introduced in Kenobi. Looks a bit like a Twi'lek but isn't listed as one. Not much else to say.
** Fifth Brother: One of the more prominent male Inquisitors besides the GI (enough so that he shows up in Rebels and the Obi-Wan mini-series). Like Third Sister he covets the Grand Inquisitor's position, and the two dislike each-other. Confirmed by the creators as being blind in Rebels, but able to see through the Force. Killed off in Rebels Season 2 when Maul wipes the floor with him.
** Sixth Brother: Minor Inquisitor who's main moment in the sun is fighting Ahsoka and getting killed by her.
** Seventh Sister: One of the two main Inquisitors in Rebels besides Fifth Brother. Voiced by Sarah "Buffy" Michelle Gellar, who is also the wife of Kanan's voice actor, which the writers reference by giving Seventh Sister some flirting. Is a Mirialan like Barriss, but it has yet to be confirmed that the two are one and the same even though it would make sense. Killed off in Rebels Season 2, when Darth Maul takes a page out of Kenobi's book (oh the irony) and cuts her in half.
** Eighth Brother: Throwaway Inquisitor who also dies the most embarrassing death of any Inquisitor to date (his helicopter lightsaber malfunctions and he falls to his death). Cool helmet though.
** Ninth Sister: The "muscle" of the bunch, being big, brutish, and filled with rage. Though beaten by Cal Kestis on Kashyyyk, her death hasn't been confirmed, so we might see more of her.
** Tenth Brother: So far exclusive to the comics, he was once a Jedi in the Clone Wars who tried to off Mace Windu, which went as well as you'd expect. Since Jedi tend to frown on executing people, they sent him into exile...which allowed the Empire to pick him up and turn him into an Inquisitor. Whoops. He eventually bit it when a Jedi manipulated several [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Purge_Trooper Purge Troopers] into Order 66-ing his ass, in a moment of positively delicious irony.

* Agent Kallus: Continuing Star Wars' proud tradition of unsubtly named characters, Kallus is Rebel's equivalent to Asajj Ventress, being the semi-competent, semi-bumbling secondary villain who gets a redemption arc. Was involved in a massacre of Zeb's people, but had not actually ordered said massacre and feels kind of bad about how it all went down. Later joins the Rebel Alliance after Thrawn outs him as a spy. Rocks some Wolverine-esque sideburns, but not the weird haircut to go with it. Art crew considered making him a Chiss based on the concept art, but it seems they decided there's only room for one in the Empire's hierarchy.

* Kylo Ren: A Dark Jedi (not Sith, they technically went extinct with Vader, Sheev, Dooku, and Maul) who is actually the son of Han and Leia, Ben Solo, which the Internet absolutely refused to shut up about after it was leaked. He's mostly based on Jacen Solo from the EU (a son of Han and Leia who became a Jedi then fell to the Dark Side and became a Sith) with his new name likely taken from EU character Kybo Ren and having the same real name as Luke's son from the EU with Mara, Ben Skywalker. He idolizes his grandfather, Darth Vader and wears a black suit and a mask to show this. He wields a unique crossguard lightsaber. People thought he would be a badass after seeing the trailers but after seeing the movie, he turned out to be a half-naked pussy looking like a gay Turkish oil wrestler who very often gets temper tantrums and gets his ass kicked by a teenage girl (though to be fair, if he had been a complete badass, everyone would’ve just complained that he was a rehash of Vader. So, you know, rock and a hard place. Also he only had his ass beat since he was already shot by a bowcaster and stabbed with a lightsaber, so fighting even in spite of that is pretty badass). Kylo's character became significantly more fleshed out in TLJ, ironically making him one of the only characters to have actual development in the whole movie. Between that and Kylo's actor Adam Driver being really bro-tier about the whole situation (he even appeared in a skit as Kylo which also included poking fun at Kylo's emo traits), Kylo has managed to win over many fans, with some citing him as probably the most interesting character in the Sequels. Serves Palpatine before turning on him with Rey and gives his life to heal her, scoring a kiss with her before he dies redeemed as Ben, ala Vader dying as Anakin. This relationship between Rey and Kylo ''sharply'' divided the fanbase and created some extreme reactions. The worst cases were some extremely rabid Kylo/Rey shippers who insisted Adam and Daisy Ridley - Rey's actor - become a real-life couple (despite both being in separate relationships), to the point that they '''harassed Daisy Ridley's boyfriend on social media, harassed Adam Driver along with his family (including stalking them and sending messages hoping for the deaths of Adam's wife and/or newborn son) and made death threats against JJ Abrams''' (far surpassing practically any other Star Wars backlash, even the death threats thrown at Ahmed Best - Jar Jar's VA - and the purported backlash against Kelly Marie Tran - Rose Tico's actress); it cannot even be “justified” (and justified is used ''very'' loosely here) as the ravings of butthurt ultra-fanboys, this crossed the line into full-on bullshit. To repeat, this one was Skub incarnate. Most fans either adore the Reylo ship or absolutely hate it with a passion.

* Snoke: Supreme Leader of the First Order who speaks to his underlings through a massive hologram. <s> Very little is known about him at the moment. Though many fan theories say that he is Darth Plagueis, the old master of Palpatine who was assumed dead (everyone assumes every new Darksider is him, though, so grain of salt) the powers that be have repeatedly denied the theory (though it's admittedly a better guess than suggesting that Snoke is [[What|Mace Windu, Boba Fett, or a clone of Darth Vader]], which we would like to stress are [[Derp|actual fan theories]])...unfortunately, we will have to wait for an inevitable comic book or novel to explain it, since he [[RAGE|gets killed like a chump by his own servant, Kylo "Emofag" Ren.]] It is possible he may return given that the ring on his finger has inscriptions that translate to various rephrasing of “survive death” that is carved from the stone of Darth Vader's lava castle (yes, you read that right), but that may actually be a nod to Palpatine’s EU resurrections.</s> Turns out to be a genetically engineered pawn of Palpatine's, like he was literally born looking as shriveled and injured as he did and had some kind of fabricated backstory like an organic Blade Runner Replicant, whose sole purpose was to babysit the First Order and get Ren to fall to the Dark Side. So in sum, a dime-store Palpatine knock-off. Of course, the explanation we got in Episode IX was still pretty weak so it took Lucasfilm years after the fact to finally give him a proper story; Snoke was a failed Palpatine clone who was still pretty strong in the Force, so Palpatine used him as his proxy in getting the Imperial Remnant back under his control and to help him find Rey, his only viable descendant. Snoke didn't like being Palpatine's puppet so he engineered a plot to have Ren kill Rey and the two of them would overthrow Palpatine. This failed however, as Palpatine knew that Ren would turn on Snoke and that he'd get his hands on Rey eventually. ''Would've been nice if they planned that from the start...''

* General Hux: The First Order's Tarkin equivalent and a moustache-less ginger Hitler in space. Delivers a pretty cool speech, but can't fight to save his life. The backstory for Hux is his father was an Imperial hero, and Hux wants to be the First Order version of his old man and lead the FO to a final victory. Hux openly dislikes Kylo Ren and has frustration with the Force-users borders on meta at times. Spends most of TLJ as a foil to the edgier and more toyetic bad guys, but he seems to be the only one to have noticed how impractical the Empire/FO's fuckhuge weaponry can be when you're fighting something smaller than a planet and have lost the element of surprise. Becomes Kylo Ren's comic relief ginger prison bitch at the end of TLJ, although he has an interesting scene where he was about to finish off the unconscious Kylo until he woke up. Sent some very simple info to the Resistance in Rise Of Skywalker that set off the movie plot (mostly by making them take the info they already had seriously) and later helped the main characters escape, and was immediately shot for his efforts. He is never mentioned again.

* Captain Phasma: A First Order operative in charge of instructing the new Stormtrooper legions, Phasma serves as the Boba Fett of TFA - which is to say that she does nothing of note other than stand around and look cool until she figuratively and literally gets thrown into the trash in Force Awakens. Lucasfilm have apologized for overadvertising the character in the lead-up to the film since she was just supposed to look cool and do nothing like Boba Fett originally did but the huge presence of her in the marketing implied she was going to be a major character (remember, Jar Jar and generic Battle Droids had far more merch than Maul during the release of Episode 1) and have promised to give Phasma an actual role and backstory for TLJ that will play into Finn's story. (This turned out to be bullshit due to the fucked-up nature of TLJ's production, but the reshoots managed to give her a good showing anyway.) Her backstory was released in a novel where she was a tribal on a planet the Empire stripped into the stone age, who backstabbed her tribe for a stronger tribe, backstabbed her second tribe and brother to rescue a stranded Imperial officer and join the Empire, backstabbed her mentor to become the supreme commander of the Stormtrooper Corps in the First Order, then in the comic series she was shown to have survived the trash compactor when a Resistance bomb blew it up and she entirely disregarded everything (including saving Starkiller Base or Kylo Ren) to backstab and frame one of her subordinates for lowering the shields then promptly hunted him down to “bring him to justice”. So [[Skaven|she’s a spear-wielding backstabber extraordinaire.]] At the present she's got a nasty scar on one eye where her hyper durable helmet was busted in, and fell into a fire on a shattered starship to her confirmed demise. Worth mentioning that even many folks who liked TLJ considered this an unsatisfying send-off.

* Commander Pyre: The gold and male version of Phasma, and often the closest thing [[Fail|Star Wars: Resistance]] had to a big bad due to being in charge of most of the First Order's operations in the show. More active than Phasma usually is, but still not likely to become anybody's favorite new villain. And then he died, and no-one fucking cared.

* The Knights of Ren: The Dark Side warriors who Kylo is the leader of, each one having their own unique look and signature weapon. Also probably one of the biggest bits of [[Fail]] in the Sequel Trilogy on account of being teased in the first movie but completely absent in the second, and saying and doing absolutely nothing in the third before being unceremoniously killed off. Seriously, if you're one of those people who grouses about Boba Fett not having enough to do in the Original Trilogy, the way these guys are handled will drive you crazy. To put it into perspective, a ''non-canon LEGO short-film on Disney+'' gave these guys more characterization than the actual Sequel Trilogy did.

== Old Republic Characters ==

* Revan: Simply put, you'd be hard-pressed to find an EU character with a bigger following than Revan and with good reason: the protagonist of one of the most beloved Star Wars games of all time, ultra-powerful, awesome design, red and purple lightsabers...he's got it all. This is reflected in how he's one of the only EU characters to get an official LEGO minifigure, action figures, a Gentle Giant bust, etc. For backstory, Revan was a bit similar to Anakin in that he was a talented but headstrong young Jedi who during the course of a war (in this case the Mandalorian Wars), got corrupted and fell to the Dark Side. From there became a Sith Lord who waged war on the very Republic he had led/saved before being betrayed by his cowardly dipshit apprentice Malak. One quick round of mind-wiping later, and the Jedi and Republic had themselves <s>a new tool and patsy</s> an important new ally for stopping Darth Malak, who had quickly proven to be a much worse Sith Lord than Revan had been (go figure). That's where the player comes in. After defeating Darth Malak, and remembering his true identity along the way, Revan goes off to fight an "I can't believe it's not Palpatine" Sith Emperor dwelling in the Unknown Regions and disappears. Later returns in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but how the game and its expansions portray him and end his story were divisive to put it mildly. Which is why we're going to skip right over that minefield in favor of giving a neutral summary of it in the timeline section.
**Interestingly, the kind of Sith Lord he was differs somewhat depending on the source. The first game actually depicts his Sith Lord phase as being fairly par for the course: wanting power for power's sake, social darwinist, etc. But the sequel and other sources have instead cast him as more of a [[The God-Emperor of Mankind|visionary who was trying to save/prepare the Galaxy for approaching horrors but also felt that only he had what it took to lead the effort, hence his war of conquest.]]

* Jedi Exile / Meetra Surik: The main character of the second game, and nowhere near as popular as Revan despite the fact that the fondness for her game is at least as strong among older EU fans. Started out as a general under Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. During the big battle of Malachor V, she activated a doomsday weapon that won the battle, but killed so many people and fucked up the planet so hard, that Meetra was shell-shocked and became cut off from the Force. Oh, and kicked out of the Jedi Order. The second game begins with her slowly rediscovering her connection to the Force under the guidance of a mysterious woman who totally won't later turn out to be a villain with an agenda. Her adventures take her to places recovering from the recent Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, and she gets to team up with some of the few surviving Jedi Masters until her mentor kills them near the end of the game. After putting the old woman out of her misery and also stopping the other Sith Lords who have been treating the Galaxy like their personal murder-playground, she follows Revan's lead and disappears into the Unknown Regions. Her anti-climactic death in a subsequent novel drew all sorts of white-hot [[Rage]].

* Carth Onasi: Quite possibly the skubbiest character to ever come out of a Star Wars video game. A Mandalorian Wars veteran and your first permanent party member in the first game, his betrayal by his old mentor and then said mentor's bombing his homeworld and killing his wife has left him with major trust issues. But he's also the romance option if you're playing female, and so many a fan ships him with the female Revan even as others find him whiny and annoying. In a case of history repeating itself, his voice actor would go on to voice ''another'' party member in a Bioware game set in space who is a polarizing romance option for female players. Also shows up in the second game as an NPC, so long as you don't decide that Revan was evil in the first game. "If you find Revan, tell him... tell him that Admiral Onasi is carrying on his duty".

* Bastila Shan: A Jedi with a talent for Battle Meditation (a Force power that basically makes the user's side significantly better in a given fight), Bastila is the one who faced down Revan when Malak betrayed him. Outwardly haughty, holier-than-thou, and a complete stickler for doing things the by-the-book Jedi way. Actually very insecure, and one of many examples of Bioware's fondness for the defrosting ice queen archetype. The romance option for male Revans (and by extension his canonical love interest), she gets captured by Malak later in the game and tortured into becoming his new apprentice, at which point the player has to decide to join her or not. Canonically, Revan doesn't join her but instead gets her to rejoin the Jedi. The two of them get hitched in the period after the game, but then duty calls so Revan has to abandon his wife, much to the unhappiness of many a KotoR fan. Her love story with Revan is roasted by HK-47 in the second game, while Bastila herself makes a return appearance in a minor role.
** Satele Shan: Bastila and Revan's descendant, and having the same voice actress and preference for double-bladed lightsabers as the former, and a similar talent for Battle Meditation too. Appears in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Also had a kid with a Republic soldier as it turns out and later formed an unlikely friendship with the Sith Lord Darth Marr. Said kid was a Republic Spy and was one of the best bros in SWTOR.

* HK-47: In running for the most popular character to come out of KotoR other than Revan himself, HK is basically a blend of Bender and Deadpool, being a sociopathic-but-funny anti-hero who enjoys violence, advocates for violence as a solution to all problems, and calls everyone meatbags (except his beloved master of course). Has a strange verbal quirk where he says the kind of speech he's going to say before saying it (IE: if asking a question, he'll first say "query"). So popular that he later showed up in an expansion for Star Wars: Galaxies despite that game taking place ''thousands of years after his debut appearance''. Got some would-be-replacements in the second KotoR game in the HK-50s, and hates their guts. SWTOR would also give him a successor in HK-55, as well as yet another appearance from the original...before he gets scrapped. As already stated, he shows up on Mustafar later, so he must have gotten rebuilt at some point.

* Canderous Ordo: A Mandalorian veteran of the war who has become a cynical and ruthless mercenary before deciding to join Revan. Actually very pro-Revan, respecting him for being a good warrior and tactician and actually being able to kick his people's teeth in. Becomes the new Mandalore in the second game. So in short, basically the Boba Fett of his day, and accordingly is one of the more popular characters. Unfortunately got his legacy tarnished when the Mandalorians joined the Reformed Sith Empire in the Great Galactic War, though they dodged the karma backlash until thousands of years later in the Great Peace of the Republic.

* Mission and Zaalbar: A young twi'lek and her Wookie buddy, they're ostensibly the game's Han and Chewbacca, but are actually very different. Mission is the spunky-but-somewhat naive female with a can-do attitude who manages to be interesting and not insufferable despite what that description might suggest, and Zaalbar is a depressed exile who's brother is a sociopath that's willing to sell his own people into slavery for profit. Sadly nowhere to be found in the game's sequel.

* Juhani: A Cathar (no, not the Medieval Christian sect condemned as heretical), Jedi who is introduced as a failed Padawan who's in a sufficiently bad mood that she's caused all of the planet's local Kath Hounds (basically lion-dogs) to get extra-aggressive. Dealing with her is part of the player's Jedi Trials needed to pass to become a Padawan, and assuming the player doesn't off her, she later joins as a party member. Probably most famous/remembered for being one of the first LGBT Star Wars characters, and her girlfriend will fall to the Dark Side if you did kill her. Alternatively, female players can hook up with her also.

* Jolee Bindo: A cranky old man living in Kashyyyk's shadowlands who is actually a Jedi living in self-imposed exile. Something of an "unorthodox" Jedi, he adheres firmly to the good parts of the Jedi belief system while relentlessly roasting the bad and dumb parts, such as the Jedi's general aversion to love and families. This, coupled with his often hilarious "back in my day" cranky old man lines, have made him another one of the more popular characters to come out of the first game.

* Atton Rand: He is as Atton as Atton will ever be! Initially appears to be a Han Solo clone, but it turns out this is a front to hide something much darker: he's a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars who, pissed that the Jedi sat the war out but had no problem fighting him and his fellows when Revan became a Sith Lord, reinvented himself as basically a serial killer of Jedi. Eventually, his conscience caught up with him and he struck out on his own. As the ship's pilot and a romance option for female players, he takes over some of the roles of Carth Onasi, but is a lot less skubby, his overall reputation with the fans being a lot stronger (everyone likes a bad boy). Meetra redeemed him into being a Jedi.

* Bao-Dur: Zabrak Carth, being like him a staunchly pro-Republic goody-two-shoes who hates Mandalorians and gets into arguments with Canderous. Is missing an arm but replaces it with an energy field that connects the metal hand to the shoulder, which is different from most Star Wars characters who lose limbs. Also has a pet remote and helps the player character get their first lightsaber. Notably, he is one of the only characters who's futures Kreia isn't able to glimpse into at the end of the game, suggesting the writers either had specific plans in mind for Bao-Dur in an unmade sequel...or that they just got lazy. Meetra also made him a Jedi.

* Brianna the Handmaiden: Only joins if the player is male (and yes, is a potential love interest option). Due to being a handmaiden to the most insufferably puritanical Jedi Master ever, she's been fairly indoctrinated to have an extremely black and white view of what is and is not acceptable behavior for a Jedi. Dislikes Atton (and vice-versa), and may be Kreia's daughter. Member of the Echani, a species that look a lot like humans but white haired and apparently all martial artists. Don't let her slender figure fool you; she's one of the best melee fighters in the second game, especially if made into a Jedi or Dark Jedi. Giving her a double saber is just mean, and is definitely the best leader on the Dxun team for the party splitting on Onderon and Dxun mission (though Atton's skill-set and Visas' power make them good alternatives to the point that the game guide recommends picking one of them, Mira and Bao-Dur are also good picks as team members to stealth through the mines and slice respectively). Canonically traveled with Meetra even though she was female and became a Jedi.

* Mira: One of the many, many tough, sarcastic redheads in Star Wars' old EU, she's a bounty hunter who, unusually for a character in Star Wars, is actually reluctant to kill people and prefers to avoid doing so. She also has a wrist-launcher that shoots out various projectiles. Has history with the Mandalorians but doesn't really identify as one. One of the more popular characters to come out of the sequel, but you won't get her if you're Dark Side unless you start off Neutral or Light Side on Nar Shadda and ''then'' turn into a dick after getting her on your team. As many people prefer Mira, this is exactly what some Dark Side players do. Meetra made her a Jedi.

* Hanharr: The Anti-Chewbacca, being a bloodthirsty, vicious psychopath who was doing the whole "evil Wookie bounty hunter" thing long before Black Krrsantan was ever a thing. Joins the player if the latter is Dark Side and fittingly for a Wookie who would have done well in Khorne's service, is a melee powerhouse. Actually very depressed to the point of secretly wanting to die, which is part of why he hates Mira for not killing him/constantly hounds her and attacks her; he's always hoping she'll put him out of his misery. Also [[Grimdark|killed his own tribe to keep them from being enslaved due to deciding they were better off dead.]] Mira put him down on Malachor V after she realized that his suicidal state made it impossible to help him.

* Mical the Disciple: The Handmaiden's counterpart, joining only if you're playing female (canonically he accompanied the female Meetra). A very nice and pleasant guy and one of the least morally compromised of the sequel's party members. And this in turn is exactly why some people find him boring relative to the more flawed Atton, though he's also often compared unfavorably to the Handmaiden as well due to the feeling that she's more useful in fights. Secretly a spy for the Republic, though most would say its not much of a secret. And guess what, Meetra made him a Jedi.

* Visas Marr: A Miraluka who has been Darth Nihilus' "apprentice" (by which we mean slave) for an untold period. Unsurprisingly leaps at the chance to ditch him for the player character the first chance she gets. A romance option for male players, to the absolute fury of the Handmaiden (to the point that she might stop speaking to you depending on how things go). Can be talked into killing herself to hurt her ex-boss in the final battle with him, but because Visas is cool hardly anyone takes this option even if playing Dark Side. Gets bonus points for being voiced by Kelly Hu. Canonically Meetra redeemed her to the light side (though it's not a redemption so much as a "literally anything is better than her current situation").

* GO-TO: No, no. Not [[C.S. Goto|he-who-must-not-be-named and who is universally despised and shunned]]. This is a different GO-TO, who is a droid that runs the Galaxy's largest crime syndicate. Looks exactly like the torture droids used by the Empire despite existing well before the Empire's time. An interesting character, but as he's considered pretty useless in a fight, most players hardly ever use him. Canonically blown up on Malachor after he got stuck with Bao-Dur's remote during the final mission of KOTOR 2.

* Vrook Lamar: Where Jolee Bindo is a funny cranky old man Jedi Master, Vrook is the opposite. Generally fitting the negative perception of "humorless jerk Jedi Master who preaches and lectures a lot", Vrook is one of the few characters to appear in both games. Dark Side players will kill him, and for all his grumbling, this old geezer has the skills and power to back it up. Doesn't save him from Darth Traya in the canonical Light Side path even with Master Zez-Kai Ell and Master Kavar being with him though.

* SWTOR PCs: A Jedi Knight, a Jedi Consular, a Republic Special Forces Soldier, a Smuggler, a Sith Warrior, a slave-turned Sith Inquisitor, a Bounty Hunter who can join the Mandolorians, and a Sith-Imperial Spy. The Eternal Empire/Eternal Throne expansions are basically a continuation of the Jedi Knight's story, though the Outlander's actual background is purposefully kept vague and the story can be tackled with any class. With that said, the story makes a heck of a lot more sense if its one of the Force-Sensitive classes (as otherwise you have silly things like Arcann losing to a Smuggler or a Bounty Hunter). Since their names are player-generated, each one has a title that the fanbase knows them by. Specifically:
** Jedi Knight: The Hero of Tython
** Jedi Consular: The Barsen'thor
** Republic Trooper: Havoc Squad Commander (or by the callsign, Meteor)
** Smuggler: Voidhound
** Sith Warrior: Emperor's Wrath
** Sith Inquisitor: Lord Kallig (actually a surname, the Inquisitor was a slave unaware of the lineage from Sith Lord Aloysius Kallig, later changes to a Darth title that differs depending on your alignment, Imperious for Light Side, Occlus for Neutral and Nox for Dark Side)
** Imperial Agent: Cipher-9
** Bounty Hunter: The Great Hunt Champion
** The one who went on to become the expansion PC is referred to as the Outlander, later the Alliance Commander and after the anti-Zakuul coalition dissolves simply as Commander. For the purposes of default timeline, we will assume that the Hero of Tython is the PC as that makes the most sense story-wise.

== Old Republic Villains==

* Darth Malak: Revan's former apprentice who turned on him because that's what Sith Lords do, and because Malak is a jerk. Unfortunately for the Republic and Jedi, it soon became clear that if Revan was like the Emperor of Man or Vlad von Carstein, Malak was closer to Abbadon or Konrad von Carstein, being that ever-disastrous mix of vicious and stupid. Where people often talk about Revan as a [[Tzeentch|tactical and strategic genius with a real talent for scheming and planning out victories]], Malak always goes for the [[Stupid Evil|bluntest, most brutally violent solution]]. Can't find a single person on a planet? [[Exterminatus|Bomb it]]. Wants to get Jedi on his side? [[Inquisition|Torture them until they join]]. And so on. As a consequence of pissing his master off at least once before betraying him, he's missing his lower jaw, hence the machinery where it used to be. We get a look at him without it on towards the end of the game, and its appropriately grisly.

* Darth Bandon: Malak's utterly generic and forgettable apprentice, who is basically the writers thinking "what if we did Darth Maul, but without the [[Awesome]]?Just about the only memorable thing he does is kill the Republic Soldier Trask Ulgo who helped amnesiac Revan escape the ship crash in the beginning of the game. Fittingly, he's disposed of by Revan and then basically never brought up again. Like Calo Nord, he leaves behind an outfit that doesn't look anything like his actual outfit.

* Darth Traya / Kreia: The main villain of the sequel, though she initially appears as an enigmatic mentor to the Jedi Exile. Generally remembered for her unique philosophy that is often highly critical of both the Jedi and the Sith, and is later revealed to hate the Force itself due to viewing it as a malicious deity (the lead writer has actually admitted that he basically used Kreia as a mouthpiece for things about the Force as a concept that bothered him). This unique perspective on the Force and her regular challenges of the player's actions, motives, and beliefs, has led to Kreia becoming a favorite among fans and critics alike. That her view of the Force is factually incorrect does little to change this (though to be fair, she doesn't have the benefit of knowing everything the audience knows). Was also Revan's Jedi Master as part of her backstory, and clearly still has fond memories of him, as he's one of the only characters she speaks about in an even remotely flattering way. There's also evidence to suggest that she might be the mother of one of the other party members, the Handmaiden, but this has never been conclusively confirmed.

* Darth Nihilus: Another fan-favorite to come out of the KotoR games, Nihilus is the poster-boy for the sequel despite not being the main villain and in fact having the least characterization of the three main Sith Lords. But, he's got the coolest look and has the highest intimidation factor, so he became a huge hit with fans anyway. Voice sounds vaguely like a toilet getting backed up and/or audio from Minecraft, but its much creepier/cooler than that sounds. Specializes in Drain Life, a Force power where the user sucks the life of a person or persons and gives it to themselves. Has become so addicted to using this power that he's become basically a wraith and needs to sate his hunger constantly, even on the planetary level, making him vaguely a Star Wars version of Galactus. Sadly, you can't ever wear his mask in the game, but you can get it as an item after killing him. To SWTOR's credit, you can wear it there.

* Darth Sion: A walking corpse of a Sith Lord whose main shtick is regenerating over and over again, hence his current physical appearance. Gets a crush on the Exile if she's female, and the Exile eventually convinces him to let go of his pain, causing him to die for good. Weirdly, he was also an alternate skin for Galen Marek in the later Force Unleashed game when no other characters from KotoR were.

* Atris: If ever there was a single character who perfectly embodied every negative stereotype about the Jedi, and was everything fans criticize about the Jedi distilled into a single character, it would be Atris. Self-righteous, rude, and more dogmatic and sanctimonious then a bus full of puritans, Atris quickly established herself as a hated character, especially with her constant insulting and lecturing of the Jedi Exile. She also kept the Exile's original lightsaber that she was forced to surrender because she's that petty. Turns out, of course, that she's fallen to the Dark Side from her study of Sith Holocrons, making all of her posturing and bluster completely hypocritical. Her Handmaidens are assholes too, with the exception of the one who joins you. The good news is, because she's gone Dark Side, you don't need to play a villain to have an excuse to cut her down. Though making her eat her words by sparing her and lecturing her right back as she realizes how badly she has been fucking up since the Mandalorian Wars started is on an entirely different level of satisfactory. Meetra most probably spared her and let her spend the rest of her miserable life in depression.

* The HK-50s: The "next-gen" HK-47s that appear in the sequel. Unlike HK-47, they are very much ''not'' on the player's side and are a recurring enemy throughout the game. A subtle difference between them and the original, is that while HK-47 enjoys knowing how to kill efficiently and/or with style, the HK-50s just enjoy killing period. This is why HK-47 hates them.

* Calo Nord: The first KotoR game's equivalent to Jango/Cad Bane, being the top bounty hunter of his day who dual wields blaster pistols. Doesn't save him from getting killed by Revan and company when they go to the first of four planets in their Star Map hunt. Short in temper and stature both, but weirdly leaves behind a shiny set of silver armor after he dies that fits everyone in the party perfectly despite being taller than him (with said armor also looking nothing like his outfit in the game).

* Darth Malgus: Though he was initially dismissed as a lazy blend of Vader and Malak when first introduced in SWTOR's announcement cinematic, this big, bald Sith has actually developed a solid following after both SWTOR and a tie-in novel told from his perspective came out. Where many other Sith in the Empire Malgus is a part of are alien-hating assholes with no real redeeming features, Malgus is depicted as more egalitarian. And while a believer in Sith ideals, argues that wars and other conflicts are necessary for people to grow and realize their full potential. Pulled a Kaiser Soze on his wife when his enemies tried to use her against him, and after a failed bid to become the new Sith Emperor later turned on the Sith in the pursuit of his own agenda, making him something of a spiritual successor to previous Old Republic Sith villains Revan and Traya. In short, he's generally seen as one of the better characters/things to come out of the fairly skubby SWTOR game and tie-ins.

* The Sith Emperor: Very blatantly a Palpatine rip-off who serves as the main villain of SWTOR. Revealed to have been the one who finished corrupting Revan and Malak to the Dark Side before sending them out to pave the way for his arrival. Revan and Malak of course, had other ideas, but the Sith Emperor's longevity meant he was still around to launch an invasion of the Galaxy anyway 300 years later. His backstory is that he's a parasitic body-hopper who transfers his consciousness every time a new, more powerful vessel comes along, and also has the ability to suck ''everything'' from a planet in what is an even more extreme version of what Nihilus does. Not just people's lives, but color, sound, the Force itself, etc. This is seen as so messed up that the few Sith who know the truth about him want him dead as badly as any of the Jedi. Unfortunately, the Emperor's body-swapping shtick continues after the player beats him, and he gets a new form and voice in Immortal Emperor Valkorion. In this body he's even more ridiculously powerful and <s>basically becomes Fire Lord Ozai in space</s> forms his own faction to try and wipe out both the Jedi and the Sith. Gets killed, but his ghost sticks around to cause more trouble, until that's taken out...and then a fragment of him persists even then and has to be taken out too. Since the fragment of the Sith Emperor's essence was wiped out, the jerk's (hopefully) gone for good, but if the game and its expansions have taught us anything at this point, always assume that the Sith Emperor will come back in some way or form down the line. For the purposes of timeline, the Hero of Tython is held to have killed him for real with the destruction of the last fragment.

* Arcann and Vaylin: Valkorion's children. As siblings who are the kids of a heartless, despotic ruler with great power, with the son having facial scarring as a result of his dad's actions and initially being a villain before redeeming himself, they are basically Zuko and Azula in Star Wars. Like their old man they're nothing to scoff at in power, especially Vaylin who has inherited her dad's psychopathic traits (much like Azula relative to Ozai). Furthering the Avatar parallels, Arcann's voice actor also voiced Koh the Face-Stealer. Despite being Dark Siders, neither one is technically a Sith, and both use yellow lightsabers instead of red. Vaylin is later implied to have soul hopped to one of the Jedi apprentices the Emperor's last fragment tried to take over, though further details are TBA as SWTOR is still on going.

== One-Appearance Characters / Other Characters of Note==
* Owen and Beru Lars: Moisture farm couple and Luke's aunt and uncle (sort of, its complicated), who raise him on Tatooine. Effectively Luke's Ma and Pa Kent/Uncle Ben and Aunt May. And like Uncle Ben, their murders prove a major catalyst for Luke's transformation into a hero. Owen's main claim to fame is roasting Obi-Wan figuratively before later getting himself roasted literally. Isn't actually one-appearance, turning up in the prequel as their young selves and again in the Obiwan series where they defend their home from the Third Sister of the Inquisitors, ''successfully''. We can imagine they died fighting those Stormtroopers now.

* FN-2199/"TR-8R": a First Order Stormtrooper who wields a badass riot baton in combat. Appears only in The Force Awakens and notable only for two reasons; he shouts "Traitor!" at Finn, and then he kicks his punk ass despite the latter wielding a fucking lightsaber. Such is the stuff that memes are made of. Gets a bit of backstory that he and Finn trained and grew up together, hence his outrage at seeing Finn fighting for the opposite side. Even if he goes out like a punk to Han Solo, by all accounts, <s>FN-2199</s> TR-8R is what Phasma '''should''' have been. [https://image.prntscr.com/image/VFRN0EFuQkCz3pkBYGCN2Q.jpg He would make a great commissar].

* Jyn Erso: Appears in Rogue One. A former member of the Space Taliban (Rebels who refused to group up with the rest of the Rebels due to their extreme willingness to do evil shit to kill evil assholes) who is captured by the Rebels so they can talk to Space Bin Laden (Saw Gerrara, a character who guest-starred in a few episodes of the cartoon Rebels and pretty much shows up to die in Jyn's movie) about rumors of a planet killer being fueled by Space Iraqi oil crystals (that makes lightsabers work), one that was partially designed by her father. Jyn is angry all of the time because her life sucks, she watches every parental figure in her life die in front of her, most of them over the period of a single day, and the movie hopes this will hide the fact that she really doesn't do much other then flip authority figures the bird. Her name mirrors that of Jan Ors, partner-in-crime of legendary badass Kyle Katarn which is REALLY not as well-received by the fans of the series her movie retconned as Disney thought it would be (to be fair, the old EU had around ten different versions of the Death Star plans being stolen which many fans just figured were combined into the one Leia had, so that doesn't mean Kyle and Jan can't ever be made canon again). Gets killed when Tarkin used the Death Star to destroy the facility in an attempt to stop the Rebels transmitting classified information, but Jyn and Cassian got the Death Star plans beamed into space before that.

* Cassian Andor: Appears in Rogue One. A Rebel spy and assassin, Cassian angsts about the fact that he lives in a political thriller about the space mafia VS the space Nazis set mere days before the simple good and evil morality of the original trilogy kicks in. His only friend is a droid, but that's not exactly as unusual in the setting as the movie implies it is. Shares an award with Luke for not getting the girl in the end...kind of; they do share a final hug and possible kiss in the elevator before he died with her getting atomized by a partial-strength shot from the Death Star. The Disney Canon variant of Kyle Katarn, who was an Imperial officer turned Rebel turned Jedi Master, who is so badass he shaves with a lightsaber. A massive waste of character. UPDATE: We're now getting a TV series based on him, so there's at least that?

* K-2S0: Appears in Rogue One. What C-3P0 would be if he grew a pair and got a stronger droid body. A reprogrammed Imperial tactical droid and Cassian's only friend. Does that thing where he spits out survival odds in stressful moments. Caught a grenade in mid-air then tossed it back at it's original thrower without even looking, shot Stormtroopers (even took out two by [[Angry Marines|picking up a third stromtrooper and whacking them with him]]), and delivered some great deadpan lines which endeared him the audience - even those growing more jaded to these new movies liked him. So of course he dies first in order to establish that shit gets real during the last twenty minutes of the movie, although he died holding the line so Stormtroopers wouldn't reach Cassian and Jyn and his last act was smashing the control panel with his bare hands so at least he went out as cool as he came in.

* Chirrut Îmwe: <s>Discount Jedi</s> The real star of Rogue One. A blind martial artist who may or may not have force powers, can beat a squad of Stormtroopers with a staff, shoot TIE Fighters out of the air, and could take your girl if he wanted to. Haha, jk, he's totally homo for his bara partner-in-crime with the badass autocannon. Dies in a bombing run, but he doesn't fear death. Even his actor (from the badass "Ip Man" series) admitted that he was shoehorned into the movie in a desperate attempt to make China give a shit about Star Wars (which failed, because China really just doesn't give a shit about the franchise). Chirrut is memorable mostly because he belongs to the "Order Of The Whills", notable because "Whills" were a thing George Lucas kept wanting to use in the original trilogy (immortal beings who were supposed to be telling the story, hence "a long time ago", later the spirits that make up the Force itself, and finally an order of warriors that Leia was supposed to found after Luke's death in a sixth movie before he decided to take a break then do prequels instead. Basically Space Moirae).

* Baze Malbus: Chirrut's best mate and self-appointed bodyguard. Has three lines, but comes off as memorable because of his hellgun-looking backpack mounted autocannon with a scanvisor that lets him hold down the trigger and headshot stormtroopers until they are all dead. In early scripts Chirrut was his father figure, in the finished product they're ambiguously gay even though the director intended there to be a "finding peace with the pastor who heard his confession after a very grim life" vibe. Dies shortly after Chirrut, and actually makes a connection with the Force in his final moments. Quite a bit of work went into designing his visual style and his backstory, not a single bit of which ended up in the movie.

* Orson Krennic: Director of the Imperial Military Research Division and Rogue One's villain. Forces Jyn's father into building the Death Star for him, causes the death of Jyn's mother, then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie getting roasted by the more competent Imperial characters because he's a fucking moron with a grudge. He's typical of the average Imperial who doesn't wear Stormtrooper armor in the Expanded Universe as well as Disney canon, notable mainly for giving off "Resident Evil villain" vibes.

* TZ-1719 / Jannah: Appears in Rise of Skywalker. The leader of a unit of First Order Stormtroopers who, upon being ordered to shoot civilians, all laid down their guns at once despite there being no communication between them to do so. Implied to be Force sensitive, with the accidental subtext being that she simply subconsciously Force-tricked her troops into not being evil anymore. They stole their dropships and escaped to Endor, living a non-tech lifestyle by taming some kind of goat aliens as mounts. She personally took on the name "Jannah". Her primary purpose of the movie is to replace Rose as Finn's love interest since they couldn't decide on hooking Finn up with Rey or not (for problems such as "would it offend racists into not buying merch, would it be seen as sexist to end her journey with a Disney Princess ending of getting a relationship, etc"). Further unfortunate subtext is how TZ is quite literally just Rule 63 Finn, although it fixes the "Finn Problem" that has been pointed out where suddenly Stormtroopers dying can be seen as a tragic loss of a potential hero by adding the idea that "<strike>Kanye was right, slavery is a choice</strike> good characters who end up as Stormtroopers can just choose not to shoot the non-combatants so anyone that doesn't deserves to die like the nameless <strike>loot pinatas</strike> mooks they are. The end of the movie adds <strike>spinoff bait</strike> the implication she is Lando's grandaughter, or at the least he has an idea of who she was taken from as a baby.

* Qi'ra: Han Solo's old girlfriend and partner introduced in ''Solo: A Star Wars Story,'' filling in for a number of older EU characters (don't worry, the Disney Star Wars comics had already given Han an ex other than her anyway). Grew up with Han on Corellia before getting forced into the Crimson Dawn, which is like the Mafia in space except run by Darth Maul instead of the Hutts. Helps Han survive an unobtainium deal gone bad, then backstabs her boss to become her gang's alpha dog and Maul's personal agent. Too bad this will probably never be followed up on outside of tie-in novels thanks to how bad the movie did. Also kinda awkward they made her Maul's Personal Assistant right after Rebels killed him off, meaning that Star Wars fans felt absolutely no curiosity about how the entire thing was going to go. She was still kicking around the Galaxy and is now involved in the Bounty Hunter Wars. Qi'ra is played by the famous Emilia Clarke which is one of the many reasons she is popular

* L3-37: While K-2S0 brought droid characters to an awesome new high, L3-37 brought them to a new low. While not being as bad as Holdo and Rose, and being far more memorable than the chick, the spy dude, the TIE Fighter pilot dude, and the two Asian dudes from Rogue One (admit it, you don't fucking remember more than two of their names at best), she suffered the most from the reshoots the movie underwent. The /v/-tier name is only the warning label on this crock of shit. A droid that constructed a body for herself from spare parts and wound up as Lando's version of Chewbacca, L3-37 is a [[SJW|woke robot feminist in space by direct admission of the writers, with everything that implies]] while also being a revolutionary leader who gives no fucks about any disgusting meatbags and at the same time is physically romantically involved with Lando while giving romantic advice to other characters and at the same time is all about profit and shooting up the place while using other droids as just pawns in her rampages (did we mention this character REALLY suffered from the reshoots?) Her body is destroyed in an escape attempt but ends up as one of the droid brains running the Millennium Falcon (yes, the same computer C-3P0 complained about in the original trilogy; draw your own conclusions.) Long story short, the feminist/sexbot/droid-supremacist/human loving/spree killer provides constant tonal whiplash. Did we mention that since she began without having a body there was no reason to stick her in the Falcon which is a fate worse than death based on about 1/4 of her characterization, it adds a LOT of disturbing subtext to Lando's fondness for the Falcon and the fact that Han basically just kept it after winning the game despite knowing Lando's lover was trapped forever inside, the implications for the conversations she had with Threepio during Empire Strikes Back, and the fact it was kept abandoned by a criminal on a desert planet for at least a decade means she's probably gone even more insane? Fan reaction is mixed, but only between "worst character ever, would prefer to watch Jar Jar and Holdo star in a sitcom combining the bad parts of both original EU and Reboot than watch the movie again" and "had potential, was disappointed, still don't like the name".

* Iden Versio: Created for DICE's Battlefront II as the protagonist of the story mode (though she's also playable in multiplayer). The leader of a small squad of Imperial Special Forces (because apparently the Empire can't get enough of black armored elites despite already having Shadow Stormtroopers, Storm Commandos, Purge Troopers, and Death Troopers). Modeled to look like her actress. Initially rabidly pro-Empire, but changed her mind during Operation: Cinder due to Palpatine's posthumous orders to take the rest of the Empire with him if he ever died. Becomes a New Republic soldier along with the one member of her squad who decided to go with her, and then later married him. Dies around the time of the Sequel Trilogy, but takes the member of her squad who ''didn't'' side with her with her. General consensus is that her shift to the Light Side either shouldn't have happened at all (so players could have an Imperial protagonist from start to finish like in TIE Fighter), or needed to come way later / be less sloppily done.

== Nations and Organizations ==
* '''''The Galactic Empire''''': Ever seen an evil, fascist space empire imposing itself on the galaxy with huge, evil spaceships and cool mooks? Then it was probably inspired by the Empire. Itself inspired by the brutalist designs of Nazi Germany, the First Galactic Empire is overall ''the'' classic authoritarian dictatorship, propped up by legions of obedient but easily disposable troops, cool propaganda that paints them as the saviors of the galaxy and ambitious officers ready to be choked for their failures. The Empire was created from the infrastructure of the Republic when Emperor Sheev Palpatine took singular power of the Republic Senate, ostensibly to keep the galaxy safe after the Clone Wars, but totally because he was a powerful Sith Lord who wanted to get his evil fascist dick hard. Once the galaxy got wise to this, the Empire used fear to keep them in line, which is one of the reasons why they took a liking to huge Star Destroyers and Death Stars, since they look fucking terrifying. While evil overall (as our [[Emperor|Lord and Savior]] George of the Lucas proclaims it), individual people go from normal people who knows no better since they've lived with propaganda up their exhaust ports all their lives to genuine psychopaths like Palpatine and Grand Moff Tarkin. Even so, The Empire still possessed deep flaws; apart from the authoritarian top-down rule, the Empire also wasted significant resources on its inefficient military, and their constant poaching of the Galaxy's brightest minds and permanent wartime economy meant the rest of the galaxy stagnated. Severe competition in the officer corps meant that infighting and backstabbing was not uncommon, either, and that the politically connected could still advance ahead of truly competent officers (that is, until their incompetency finally pissed off someone above them, as seen with Vader choking Admiral Ozzel). The Empire eventually broke apart after the Battle of Endor where the Emperor was killed (allegedly; it's more complicated than that...), his apprentice turned (back?) to the Light Side of the Force and the second Death Star blown up. The remains of the Empire's military became the Imperial Remnants who fought the New Republic and each other for control of resources.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Legends)'': in the original continuity, the Empire splintered into different warlord factions after the death of the Emperor and took several decades for the New Republic to defeat. At various points these remnants continued to threaten the New Republic for a long time, including the splinter lead by [[Creed|tactical genius Admiral Thrawn]]. They did team up temporarily to fight off the extra-galactic invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong. Eventually the largest remnant, which had greatly mellowed out its policies since Palpatine's death, made peace with the New Republic. It would continue to exist into Cade Skywalker's era 130+ years after the Battle of the Yavin, where it would split into two major factions; one that was more overtly associated with the Sith and reminiscent of the pre-Rule-of-Two Sith Empire, and the other lead by a royal family of Force sensitives more akin to Grey Jedi. After a war, the One Sith (faction name of the last Sith group) aligned faction is defeated, tries to go back into the shadows but is destroyed by a renegade One Sith, Darth Wredd, who wants to return to the Rule of Two but dies before taking an apprentice leaving the Sith extinct. The Fel Empire joins the New Republic successor government and the Jedi for to form the new galactic government.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Disney)'': In the Disney canon, the Emperor had a two-part plan in the event of his death; firstly, he'd destroy most of his remaining forces in Operation Cinder (this plan appears stupid on its head, but does serve a few purposes; it prevented Warlords from using Imperial resources to carve out their own empires, it tested the loyalty of the remaining officer corps, and denied assets to the New Republic. But mostly he was just a bitter asshole who wanted to take his ball and go home). In the second phase, those considered worthy enough were to retreat to secret fortress worlds in the Unknown Regions. Most of the remaining Imperial forces surrendered not long after the Battle of Endor, but various warlords still existed in the Outer Rim for at least five years since the fall of the Empire. The New Republic decides to just ignore them because fuck it Jar Jar Abrams wanted Rebels vs. Empire again, couldn't be asked to explain it and had no plans for the rest of the trilogy anyways. Considering how a large part of the Galaxy's history can be characterized as "Core Vs Outer Rim," and how the region had always been hard to control, its likely that the New Republic didn't want to fuck around with such a large clusterfuck of a region when they were still trying to consolidate the core, which unfortunately allowed for opportunists like Moff Gideon to grow in the shadows. There's also good evidence that Grand Admiral Thrawn, who's already been integrated into Disney Canon, will once again be a major power player in the Imperial Remnant. Whether he's still working for the Imperials in the Unknown Regions or in it for himself, we'll have to wait and see.
The problem is 90% has been retconned multiple times now and Operation Cinder has suffered from having four different interpretations. Currently evidence points to a Imperial Civil War broke out been again retcons and retcons have frequently become a problem. As such their are several schools of interpretation and the amount of factions.
1. The Yomo Council: A faction which rejected the authority of Gailus Rax and Coruscant. This group was Imperial Army elements and their families which ended getting brutally attacked by the Loyalist Shadow Wing and the New Republic.
2. The Jakku Remnant: The term for the Imperial Forces at Jakku during the battle under Fleet Admiral Rax. This was the force you see at Jakku and was the one who was defeated at the battle. After the battle the Imperial Forces are either killed, Captured a tried as War Criminals, or fled the battle to other Imperial Forces.
3. Moff Gideon's Imperial Remnant: Also known as Gus' boys, these are the main Imperials scene in The Mandalorian. They are pretty good shots and made up of Imperial Veterans. The only reason they Do not kill Mando is because of the literal plot armor. They also had Dark Troopers and some specialized Imperial Assets. Their is a implication from Behind the scenes interviews that Moff Gideon is backed by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
4. The Iron Blockade: A faction led by a Imperial Governor name Adhard who lockdown the Sector and pretended palps was dead, despite the balantant evidence to show otherwise. He held tough control of the Sector and had is own Purge Trooper Squads and custom Imperial Logo.
5. The Outer Rims Remnants: A group of Imperial forces who rejected the FO as a bunch of larping Fags. They decided to fight against them and the Emperor because they saw them as traitors to the Empire they had fought for. These guys are kind of a cool idea of something not explored.
6. The Core World Remnants: These are planets like Fondor, Kuat, the Deep Core, and Coruscant. They kept some Imperial Forces as defense forces and they desire the return of the Empire. Despite be banned by the New Republic from building armies and navies they built tons of weapons and warships from the FO without the NR [[FAIL|realizing]]..... When the FO took out Hosnian Prime, these forces joined up with the FO as sympathizer and auxiliary forces.

* The Republic: Before the Empire, the galaxy was governed by a ''huge'' representative democracy, seen in the prequel movies. It's corrupt as fuck, and not really capable of much other than ignore the fact most of the galaxy is already at war with itself, entire species are being wiped out in ethnic purges faster than they can be counted in a census, and slavery is pretty much everywhere. Acts like one nation, functions as an economic forum for oligarchs while planets police themselves to varying degrees. And since, by law, the Republic had no army before the Clone Wars, planets that were too poor to fight off pirates and slavers had little recourse. Besides failing to act on the many atrocities happening in the galaxy (and those they do intervene in ended up sowing resentment into the future Separatists), a major issue was that Republic policies gave special treatment to the prosperous Core worlds and large corporations over the remote and impoverished Rim worlds. Don’t fuck with Hutts, leaving them to do whatever they want in most of the galaxy, and until Sheev took over and made it the prelude to his Empire the only thing they ever did to get shit done is ask the Jedi to deal with it, whatever it is. The scary thing is that in the final years of the Republic, the Senate voluntarily laid the groundwork for the Empire long before the Declaration of the New Order and nobody even noticed it happened until decades later, when Palpatine received his emergency powers at the start of the Separatist Crisis and the opening of the Clone Wars. As Maul would point out before the end of the War, the Republic was already gone.

* The Old Republic: The early Republic. Far less corrupt, and had a standing army made up of what can charitably be called a mix of rent-a-cop security and elite paramilitary volunteers, the Special Operations department was top notch (although it had a bit of a war crimes problem and had a humiliating defection in the Cold War phase of the Great Galactic War that only didn't destroy them because the rookie and the cynical intel officer in the defecting Havoc Squad and the hacker, the Sith Imperial defector, the demolitions unit and the prototype battle droid assigned to them to rebuild were even better than the traitors and managed to convince three to surrender and killed the psychos) and the Navy as well as the armored land units were great, infantry and random conscript from wherever not so much. It was also far smaller, as the Republic only gradually expanded in stages across the galaxy, with humans leading most colonization efforts. Still rely heavily on Jedi, but mostly just for dealing with Sith. Hutt territory is more formal rather than them operating everywhere.
** Ruusan Reformation: 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, after the apparent destruction of the Sith, the Republic underwent a massive reorganization that made it into the Republic, but started with a dark age due to the damage caused by the war. Used to reconcile a problem in the films where the Republic is said to have existed for both 1000 years and "a thousand generations". This also solves how many details about pre-Prequel works had substantially different depictions of the Republic and Jedi from what the prequels wound up doing, and how there were wars when a character says there hasn't been a full scale war since the formation of the Republic.

* The New Republic: The post-Empire government that the Rebellion forms.
** Legends: Leia rules for a time, trying to manage the various monsters of the week and Imperial remnant groups, gradually stepping down to more minor titles to avoid being another Emperor. Then they have to deal with things like the extra-galactic cenobite invaders that cause a galaxy-wide holocaust while her Jedi kids died or flirted with being evil. Eventually it forms the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a confederation that includes a less-evil Imperial remnants (which it had been at peace with for a while) and some other powers, remaining a stable force combating Sith and their empires ever. During this time, Leia's granddaughter was prophesied to bring the Light Side of the Force into ascendance while a female Force-Cthulhu tried to co-opt the prophecy for herself. After Luke defeats her, a few decades are skipped and the Federation is defeated by a Sith backed Imperial Remnant faction, the Fel Empire. The Sith then backstab the Imperials and kick off the Sith-Imperial war. The Federation and the Jedi help the loyalists defeat the One Sith, and the Sith themselves are rendered extinct after Darth Wredd (who wanted to bring back the Rule of Two) kills them all and dies before taking an apprentice, leaving the Federation, the Fel Empire and the Jedi (who had suffered another purge before the Sith back-stabbed Emperor Roan Fel, who died at the hands of his Gray Jedi/Imperial Knight Bodyguard in the final battle after falling to the Dark Side and succeeded by his daughter Marasiah) to form the last known government, the Galactic Federation Triumvirate.
** Disney: Focused on defeating the Empire, then dismantled the Rebellion militarily. Focused mostly on being an intermediary with independent planets, paying for each one in the alliance to have their own militia with treaties to support each other if attacked, while the Republic itself had a small fleet to bolster anyone in need. Despite sounding like the setup for World War 1, it actually is like the US/Soviet Cold War with the Imperial remnant then its successor the First Order, until the FO performed a Star Wars 9/11 and used a planet killer weapon to destroy all the planets in the sector of the New Republic capital then invaded the independent planets. [[what|Being essentially destroyed with their capital system despite being the galactic government which should have contingencies for such events since existence of planet killers is common knowledge]], the planets focused on their own survival until Lando performed a short planet-hopping tour to rile up the militias and all the scum, villainy, and pirates who wanted to see the true death of the Empire/First Order. During its reign it had far less control over the galaxy than the Republic or Empire, but clever administration and assigned leadership of the militias made traditionally dangerous and lawless planets like Tatooine finally civilized. Its ultimate fate is now unknown.

* Confederacy of Independent Systems: aka the Separatists. Due to the rampant corruption in the Republic, a lot of systems were very unhappy with the state of the galaxy and wanted out. However, many of these separatists included extremely powerful corporate goons, such as the Trade Federation, who simply wanted more power for themselves, and were willing to lease out their droid armies to that end. While outwardly they were simply disgruntled and neglected planets who wanted independence, in reality the CIS existence was deliberately engineered by the Sith in order to further their goals in the creation and maintenance of the Empire. Under the leadership of Count Dooku, they formed a formidable alliance that would threaten the core worlds of the Republic with the biggest army ever created, eventually leading to the Clone Wars that would throw the galaxy into one of the bloodiest conflicts in centuries. And despite Dooku's purported political idealism at the start of the war, the more idealistic and politically motivated worlds who wanted to escape the Republic's corruption found themselves sidelined by the big Corporate worlds who controlled the war effort and stationed their droid armies everywhere. As the war progressed, bloodthirsty war criminals like General Greivous made the Republic fear and loathe any hint of disloyalty, which was a major PR problem for the early Rebellion. One of the big ironies is that, because the CIS turned out to be just as corrupt as the Republic, many Separatist worlds begrudgingly sided with the Empire as the "lesser of two evils" in their minds. The fact that the CIS was made up of powerful, alien corporations from the Outer Rim also served to justify the Empire's xenophobia, nationalization of virtually all heavy industry, and subjugation of worlds far away from the Core. Because the Separatists were simply an expendable puppet of the Sith, Palpatine had no qualms about sending Vader to destroy the remaining leaders once he secured his Empire and they'd outlived their usefulness. The Empire then proceeded to dismantle the remaining Confederate groups along with pirates and other anti-central government forces in the Reconquest of the Rim. Several remnants continued resistance and some helped Order 66 survivors escape. After the Rebel Alliance was formed, surviving Confederate Remnant forces joined it, for those who joined the CIS to fight against Old Republic corruption happily, and for those who were full on separatists somewhat unhappily as a lesser of two evils. Until at least 1 BBY one Imperial Moff, Conan Antonio Motti, referred to them as a threat alongside rebels and criminal enterprises. Presumably, the last few organics holdouts joined the rebels or took the opportunity to disband after the Death Star was destroyed. Handfuls of Droid units that didn't receive the deactivation signal remained active on Tatooine, Lok and Kashyyyhk and were destroyed by the Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG characters. A large leftover unit was present on Geonosis and were destroyed in a Galactic Civil War battle there in 3 ABY. A single Droideka, which had been infiltrated into the Outbound Flight voyage, was out of range of the shut down order and was destroyed by Luke and Mara in 22 ABY during their expedition to the Outbound Flight crash site, ending the last relic of the Confederate cause that was still nominally obeying CIS Parliament orders.

* The Rebel Alliance: After Emperor Palpatine's political takeover succeeded and the Jedi murdered in a [[Horus|galaxy-wide act of backstabbery]], Senators Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, Mon Mothma and a small group of sympathizers come together to form a resistance group, knowing fully well that the new Galactic Empire won't be going quietly with their new "doctrines", especially since the Empire's militarization only increased following the end of the Clone Wars. Prior to the Battle of Yavin, the "Rebel Alliance" was more like the "Rebel Coalition of guys who loosely agree on some things," being made up of individual cells under the coordination of a High Command unit. The rebellion's supporters were an odd mixture of former Separatists, Republic loyalists who found themselves betrayed such as Kashyyk and Mon Calamari, and the occasional Imperial defector who found Imperial service either too immoral or too dangerous. For the next twenty years, the Rebellion will infiltrate, sabotage and generally frustrate the Empire as best they can, but unfortunately doesn't manage to really make a big difference; that is, before a certain Luke Skywalker gets swept up by them and leads them to their first, grand victory against the Empire's first Death Star. From here on out, the Rebellion does their best keeping themselves hidden from the Empire while maintaining strong relations with their allies, who, while few, did let them create a small fleet of outdated vehicles. Eventually, the Rebellion's hard work bears fruit after the second Death Star blows up and the Emperor goes missing. From here, the Rebellion and their members become the New Republic.
** The Resistance: From a first look, the Resistance looks extremely similar to the Rebellion visually (they are called "The Resistance" for Pete's sake!), but there's a little more going on under the hood. Feeling her hairbuns tingle with fear, Leia Organa realizes the First Order will become a galaxy-wide headache soon and moves to get the New Republic to give a shit - except they don't, because her father was Vader, and thinks she's a military maverick that just wants to feel important. Leia then begins to fund a secret militia of her own, looking for supporters among fellow senators and calling in old friends. The result is... Less than ideal. Functionally just a strikeforce of some twenty fighters and one or two capital ships (who by now are über-mega outdated), the Resistance can do jack ''shit'' against the First Order, who literally commands entire space empires by force. By the Force Awakens, they're pretty much fucked - but luckily gets themselves two new heroes to add to the fold (one who is among the most naturally talented forces users ever seen), re-connect with Han and Chewie AND find a fucking map to Luke Skywalker's personal pillowfort he left for some 5-10 years ago. Eventually fucked up after destroying the Starkiller Base and grinded to metal spacedust by a prolonged space chase, they eventually manage to ignite resistance in the entire galaxy, which gets a ''fuckhueg'' navy of ragtag ships to reinforce them at Exegol.

* Sith Empire: The Old Republic's mortal enemy. In the many millenia leading up to the Ruusan Reformation, the Sith Empire held a significant chunk of the northeastern galaxy, holding thousands of worlds under their iron grip. The Sith engaged in several major wars against the Republic, oftentimes defeating the Republic and nearly exterminating the Jedi, only for their own empire to descend into chaos as Sith Lords backstabbed each other once they no longer had a common enemy. This pattern would continue until Bane killed all the remaining Sith Lords and instituted the Rule of Two, plotting to take over the galaxy and exterminate the Jedi through slow and careful planning rather than overwhelming force.

* The Hutt Cartels: Essentially the space mafia, if the mafia had the clout to influence the national government (like in Russia during the 90s with the Russian Mob). The Hutts managed to drive of the Rakatan Infinite Empire despite having no FTL at the time due to the Rakata losing their connection to the force. The original Hutt empire, after fighting some wars of expansion against neighbors and fellow tyrants in Xim the Despot's regime suffered a massive civil war known as the Hutt Cataclysms which ruined their original homeworld and made them move to Nal Hutta (Nar Shadda is it's moon). To prevent things getting this bad, cartels were established between influential factions, all answering to the Council of Elders made up from the heads of houses. Hutt Space is nominally ruled by the Council but it essentially practices anarcho-capitalism and takes its cuts to rule the core planets and lets the cartels compete out of the core however they wish. If there's an affair that's illegal by legal standards, the Hutts probably have a hand in it. Keeps to themselves and doesn't care much for what the Sith and Republic is up to, though Jabba the Hutt, owner of Tatooine, takes part in the original trilogy because of Han Solo's longstanding debt to him, and Jabba had one of the biggest criminal empires at the time, competing with giants like the ancient Black Sun. Gets helped and funded by the Empire to do their dirty work and gets killed for his efforts, so there's a good reason why they keep out of all that. Hutt space has significant overlap with the cartels, but the two are technically separate as mentioned above, with the Council of Elders acting as a government for Hutt Space and as a mafia council for other holdings by the cartels. They get invaded during the Yuuzhan Vong war, but effectively form a guerilla force tying up major assets and reassert their rule after the Vong were defeated. After dealing with some slave revolts around the time of the Second Galactic Civil War and selling arms to Darth Caedus's uprising, they continue as they were until the Fel Empire (reformed Imperial Remnant), backed by the Sith, defeats the Federation. When the Sith backstabbed the Imperials, the Hutts secretly provide support to the Fed Remnants and Imperial Loyalists battling the Sith in the Sith-Imperial War. After the Sith blow up a Hutt temple, they officially declare war and join the anti-Sith coalition. Presumably they joined the Galactic Federation Triumvirate with at least nominal autonomy after the Darth Wredd Insurgency and the destruction of the Sith in 138 ABY.

* The First Order: If the Empire was the textbook fascist dictatorship, Disney's First Order is the Nazi Party itself as a military organization/cult. After the Imperial Remnants began fighting amongst themselves, an Imperial admiral fled to the Unknown Regions to rebuild her version of the Empire. Here the First Order grew slowly as former Imperials joined them and they subjugated small local fiefdoms and kingdoms. Eventually the previously unknown Sith Lord Snoke took control as their Supreme Leader and Ben Solo joined him as his apprentice, becoming Kylo Ren. The New Republic eventually learned of the First Order, but thought they were just a paper tiger with no real power. In actuality, their military tech and capabilities were quite high for how relatively small they were... Oh yeah, and they had created a superweapon built into a trench in the planet Ilum that could ''destroy a whole star-system''. Eventually they fired the thing and waged a war of subjugation on the anarchic remains of the New Republic.
**RETCONS: The First Order apparently never existed until about 8 years before TFA meaning a lot of this does not make sense. Its assume a minor civil war happened in the Unknown Regions but again the FO is not given much lore. They also apparently had a fleet bigger the Empire's fleet at its Height..... just do not bother.
** SPOILERS: Behind the scenes, the Emperor had manipulated the creation of the First Order to retake the galaxy, using an artificial body double (Snoke) to take direct control while hiding on the Sith homeworld. The plan was to eventually add his own fleet of Star Destroyers with planet-destroying capabilities to the First Order and form the Final Order, the one and final armada to take the entire galaxy through force and fear.

* Galactic Federation Triumvirate: The last known galactic government at the ends of the Legends continuity, formed from the Fel Empire, the Federation and the Jedi after the One Sith are defeated by a joint coalition of Fel Empire loyalists, Federation Troops and Jedi in 137 ABY. In 138 ABY, renegade One Sith Darth Wredd, wishing to restore the Rule of Two, manipulates the One Sith to destroy themselves and kills the survivors in the Darth Wredd Insurgency, before being killed himself without managing to take an apprentice in the last known battle, leaving the Sith extinct and the galaxy at least nominally unified by a well armed government.

== Significant Worlds ==
Theres a fuckton of planets in the Star Wars Galaxy, so we'll limit this list to the more noteworthy ones (mostly the ones that show up in films).

* '''Tatooine''': A run down desert world orbiting a binary star system on the outer rim of the galaxy. Its close proximity to major hyperspace routes and its location in Hutt space makes this otherwise unremarkable planet relatively strategic for illicit trade (ie: Space Juárez). It has a few dingy little cities, towns and farms home to a collection of criminals, smugglers, people scraping by and slaves with some basic order imposed by Hutt Crime families. The oral history of the native sand people suggests that it was considerably more lush before its inhabitants pissed off the Rakata, but the source for that notes oral histories are generally inaccurate. Surprisingly it is the most visited world in the franchise, showing up in every one of the six original films but ''Empire Strikes Back'' ''and'' appearing in countless other works due to the Skywalker family's connection to this craphole.

* '''Naboo''': Lush planet between the Mid rim and outer rim, shared by both humans and gungans. Naboo's settlers are descended from Alderaaneans (Leia's home planet), so their culture and politics are extremely similar with a strong emphasis on pacifism, philanthropy, and high art (and ironically, early supporters of the Rebellion). Interestingly, the planet core is connected to the planet's oceans, though travel through the core is quite dangerous due to the leviathans living there. The planet hadn't been terribly important right up until the Trade Federation came knocking to demand tax payments over its trade routes (though in reality Naboo had ''massive'' untapped plasma reserves, and the Tradies wanted free reign to drill), which began a series of conflicts culminating in the Clone Wars. Relatively close to Tatooine, which is how the Jedi end up discovering Anakin Skywalker during the conflict when they're forced to evacuate the Queen of Naboo.

* '''Coruscant''': The Capital of the Republic and the Empire, a Ecumenopolis in which basically every square meter of it's surface is covered in a multi-kilometer thick cityscape. <s>So, Trantor. It's fucking Trantor.</s> Several sources claim it to be humanity's homeworld, or else where humanity initially expanded from since their enslavement by the Rakata. Originally found in George Lucas's notes as "Imperial Center", [[Timothy Zahn]] named it Coruscant (pronounced chorus-saunt and is similar to Coruscate, which is a fancy way of saying to sparkle) in the Thrawn Trilogy (as Imperial Center was clearly not the original name) and Lucas was convinced to keep the name when it came time to make the prequels. Before the prequels, pronunciation in audio books was all over the place. Descriptions of the city are not unlike your typical [[Hive city|Hive City]] (if not as extreme), where the elites live in the upper levels where the sky is still visible, while the lower class live in the dark, crumbling foundations, but with a more Art Deco vibe rather than Gothic. The actual planet surface is mostly landfill now, and the lower levels got increasingly uninhabitable after the Yuuzhan Vong terraformed the planet and later the Force-Cthulhu Abeloth made some new volcanoes. Not much is shown of Coruscant in the Disney canon after the prequel era, and its not even the capital of the New Republic. Supposedly J.J. Abrams wanted to blow the planet up but was told "no" by literally everyone.

* '''Yavin IV''': Jungle moon of the gas giant Yavin. The temples on this moon used to house a warrior race that had been enslaved by the Sith before being driven to extinction; it then became the secret base of the Rebel Alliance, which became the staging area for the Alliance's battle against the first Death Star. After the superweapon's destruction, the Empire launched a conventional attack and the Alliance was forced to relocate to Hoth. After the Thrawn Campaign, it became the site of Luke's new Jedi Academy which, after a brief incident with a Sith wraith haunting the place, flourished until yet another galactic war forced them to relocate.

* '''Hoth''': An obscure snow world devoid of any intelligent life, and seemingly named after a legendary Jedi master of old. It became the new headquarters for the Rebel Alliance after the fall of Yavin Base. It was established ''way'' back in the Newspaper comic that it was chosen by the rebels after Luke crash landed on it and encountered a pair of malfunctioning [[Android|Replica Droid]] prototypes fleeing from their creators. Further sources have expanded on its reasons for being chosen to include the fact that it's just off of a major trade route, which concealed supply runs (and is why Bespin is within backup drive distance).

* '''Bespin''': Gas giant with a breathable upper atmosphere. Home to Cloud City, an independent city that makes its income through mining Tibanna gas (used in blasters). Bespin's independence was used as political leverage when Vader arrived and extorted Lando Calrissian into betraying the rebels to him. After Vader double crossed Lando, the Rebels would later liberate Bespin from the Imperials.

* '''Kamino''': Ocean planet that technically exists outside the Galaxy proper, in between it and what is known as the "Rishi Maze," which was why it was a bitch to find. The inhabitants are expert geneticists, and the place is really hard to get to without knowing exactly what you're doing, making it the ideal location for growing the Republic's clone army. Kamino's cities were destroyed by the Empire shortly after the Clone Wars, as they had decided to switch to recruited soldiers; we don't know much about what became of the Kaminoans themselves other than some were forcibly recruited into more specialized cloning programs. Legends had a revolt break out by the Kaminoans making their own Fett clones which was put down and the planet was irrelevant afterwards.

* '''Geonosis''': Desert world inhabited by bug people. Was used by the separatists to build their armies and strategize, eventually becoming the site of the first battle of the Clone Wars. Geonosis is actually even more of a creepy hellhole than Episode II suggests, as the Geonosian Queen can use worms to turn corpses into zombies and mind control living hosts. During the Clone Wars, Geonosis was the first construction site for the Death Star, since it was technically the Geonosians who made the schematics in the first place. Most Geonosians were wiped out by the Empire when the Death Star was moved for completion.

* '''Utapau''': Temperate planet characterized by its massive sinkhole cities. General Grievous tried to rally the Seperatists here after Dooku's death, but was killed by Obi-Wan in the ensuing battle.

* '''Kashyyyk''': Forest/jungle planet and home to the wookies, who live in gigantic tree houses connected by enormous suspension bridges. The interior of the jungle, known as the Shadowlands, is full of a wide variety of dangerous lifeforms, so the wookies stay close to the canopy. During the Republic it was an important trade world due to its location at the junction of several trade routes, highly prized resources, and the expert craftsmanship of the wookies. Despite their loyalty, during the Empire the wookies were severely subjugated and enslaved (with the help of Trandoshans) and their trees were chopped down for the valuable wood and sap. The Empire never truly took it over but did manage to pollute it to all hell.

* '''Mustafar''': Lava planet and the last holdout of the Separatists. Darth Vader makes his base here after he is forced to don his iconic armor, proving that he did have [[Meme|the high ground]] by plonking a gigantic black tower on the surface. The planet has a strong affinity with the Dark Side, attracting various Sith cults in its history.

* '''Ilum''': Small alpine planet covered in ice and snow and by the time of the prequels the galaxy's only known significant source of Kyber crystals, the core ingredient in a little thing we like to call "the lightsaber". Traditionally a place for Jedi to do pilgrimage to find their own Kyber crystal at, as Jedi initiates find that the only crystal visible to them in the caves is the one they're destined to use.
** In Disney canon, the Empire turned one half of the surface into a gigantic strip-mine several hundred kilometers down into the crust. It was eventually rediscovered by the First Order and turned into an actually moon-sized laser cannon called Starkiller Base (This is poorly explained within the films; its not even identified as Ilum except in side stories. The idea is that like the original Death Star, the superlaser is powered by gigantic kyber crystals, and Ilum happens to be well inside the Unknown Regions yet its location and route were still known thanks to Jedi pilgramages).

* '''Dathomir''': [[Death World]]-style hellhole and home of Darth Maul. Filled with gigantic brambles, noxious swamps, poisonous critters and savagely insular tribals. The native inhabitants use the planet's natural Dark Side energy to do all sorts of creepy and arcane shit, including necromancy. Nearly all of its magick-using females were wiped out by the end of the Clone Wars, leaving the planet to decay.

* '''Malachor V''': The last battlefield of the Mandalorian Wars, which blasted the entire planet into a Mars-like wasteland thanks to a superweapon deployed, ironically, by the Jedi. The Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians all regard it as perhaps the most critical place and moment in their respective histories despite it being a lifeless desert littered with crumbling temples and the rusting armor of countless thousands of fallen warriors. The general takeaway is this: Nobody EVER wins on Malachor. It is a tomb-world, a monument to the devastation wrought by pursuing raw power to beat your enemies.

* '''Dagobah''': Uncharted swamp planet where Yoda went to live in exile. Noteworthy for the Dark Side cave, a naturally-occurring phenomenon where the dark side would tempt anyone who entered. Briefly the EU made the cave a remnant of a random dark force user Yoda fought there, but this was retconned away when it was implied Yoda had never visited the place before his exile, then the Clone Wars series made it so Yoda ''did'' visit Dagobah before his exile. This would just be a random detail if not for a significant character having his backstory linked to this event.

* '''Endor''': A gas giant also known as Tana at the end of the Outer Rim before Wild Space (and it probably was in Wild Space before one of the most significant events in Galactic History took place there). The Empire built the second Death Star in its system.
** '''Sanctuary Moon''': Better known than the planet itself is its forest covered moon that the Empire build the shields for the under-construction Death Star 2 on. It's home to the short, furry and deadly Ewoks. It was the nominal capital of the interim Alliance of Free Planets and New Republic for two years till the capture of Coruscant.
** '''Kef Bir''': Ocean moon of Endor. Despite the Death Star II being in orbit of the Forest Moon, Disney decided that the wreckage landed on Kef Bir because JJ wanted an ocean setpiece. No explanation is given other than "wibbley-wobbly hyperdrivey-wimey." The LEGO Skywalker Saga game even takes a bit of a shot at it.

* '''Death Star''' & '''Death Star II''': We're fudging the definition of world here, but its not an exaggeration to say this thing is the size of a small moon and has a very sizeable population. While the Death Star II was incomplete, it was substantially bigger and more deadly. Its main purpose was the protection and operation of a garguantuan superlaser capable of blowing up an entire planet in a singular shot. This thing was able to get around with a battery of hyperspace engines, but still took a fair amount to time to get around in order to get within firing range. Curiously enough, the idea for the superweapon came from Tarkin, but was designed by the Geonosians of all people, which then terrified the pants off the Republic that the Separatists had a superweapon prompting them to start reverse-engineering the design ([[Just as planned]] as far as Palpatine was concerned). Its design ties back to their Genosian origins, who where insectoids living in large anthills with little regard for the concept of "up" or down". As a result, the Death Star became notoriously awful as a posting among its crew, many of which had problems with orientation and becoming nauseaous.

* '''Alderaan''': A perfect pacifist planet until the Death Star blows it up. The planet Leia was raised on by the Organas, and actually shown to have been very nice prior to its destruction, with lush forests and snow-capped mountains.

* '''Felucia''': Another jungle-world, but this one looking like something conceived by either Dr. Seuss or someone from the 60s who got a hold of the good stuff. Rancors can be found here, and some have been tamed by the natives, truly bizarre-looking beings that look a bit like tye-dye, technicolor tree-people who are all Force-Sensitive.

* '''Taris''': Ostensibly an Outer Rim version of Coruscant, in that the planet is a big city that really leans into the whole "what most people think of when they think of a far future city" aesthetic, beneath the shiny exterior is actually a pretty shitty society. Basically, it's society is like Pre-Civil Rights America in space (with aliens as stand-ins for out-groups), and that's before the Sith show up and put the whole planet under quarantine. Beneath the Upper City is the Lower City, which is a slum that gangsters constantly fight over and with shitty apartments that are more likely to house crazed killers or the aforementioned gangsters than honest citizens, as well as looking like they've been abandoned for years. Beneath ''that'' is the Undercity, which is where the descendants of Taris' failed <s>proletariat</s> uprising are consigned. Them, and Rackghouls, who, as the name implies, are basically Ghouls in Star Wars, but as there are no Elves, no one's immune (unless you have some handy Rackghoul serum). So to recap, its a planet that hates aliens, has crime-filled lower levels, and is much more [[Grimdark]] in its overall set-up than the average Star Wars planet. The Imperium would be proud...or would be, if Malak hadn't then bombed the hell out of it. Even thousands of years later, much of the planet is said to still be in ruins.

* '''Telos''': A mix of futuristic cities and natural environments, so unlike Coruscant and Taris it isn't all one big city. A major Republic world, and then Malak bombed it, leaving it badly scarred. As such, the Republic launched a restoration project to try and get the planet back on its feet. Or, in the words of Atton Rand, "a dying world the Republic is trying to breath back to life". Also houses a secret (and defunct), Jedi academy in its polar region, where ultra-bitch Atris and her similarly obnoxious handmaidens reside.

* '''Dantooine''': Farm planet. Fairly idyllic by all appearances, enough so that the Jedi in Legends had an Enclave here for a time...until Malak bombed it (you may be noticing a pattern by now). Even after this bombing though, the planet remains a major agricultural center up to the Clone Wars and beyond. First mentioned in A New Hope as a location Leia gives for the Rebel base to try and save Alderaan (it doesn't work). One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Manaan''': Water-world, but a lot less rainy than Kamino. Source of Kolto, the top healing substance in the Galaxy prior to Bacta. Once that stuff got on the market, Kolto became obsolete, and Manaan and its fish-folk inhabitants fell into decline something fierce. One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Korriban / Moraband''': The homeworld of the Sith, and as to be expected, a place that tends to scream "this is an evil location". A ton of Ancient Sith Lords are entombed here, as is a Star Map (in Legends anyway). The Sith also naturally had an academy here too, which was basically a Hogwarts for sociopaths before it became abandoned. So saturated with the Dark Side that its affected the local wildlife, making most of them vicious, fearsome looking monsters (though who knows what they eat with no apparent herbivores or plant life around).

* '''Jakku''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Tatooine clone (such that when the first trailer dropped, a lot of people thought it ''was'' Tatooine). Where the war between the Rebels and Empire ended in the Disney Canon, being the site of the latter's last stand and with ruined Star Destroyers and other wreckage still littering the place. As such, its mostly populated by scavengers, but in a feeble effort to convince you that it isn't a ''complete'' Tatooine clone, they aren't all Jawas this time.

* '''Hosnian Prime''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Coruscant clone (and again, folks initially thought it ''was'' Coruscant). Gets the Alderaan treatment from Starkiller base, meaning it rips off of two previous planets for the price of one (still better than actually destroying Coruscant though, which according to rumor is what JJ ''really'' wanted to do).

* '''Ach-To''': The planet Luke Skywalker flees to in the Sequel Trilogy. Apparently the planet where the Jedi originated (which is Tython in Legends). Mostly a lot of water, with at least one big landmass that's where Luke's holed up. Rey goes there to get training from him, but that clashes with Luke's whole "I don't want to be a Jedi anymore" bit. Briefly reappears in Episode IX when Rey considers doing what Luke did before his ghost talks her out of it. Also home of the [[Skub|"love 'em or hate 'em"]] Porgs.

* '''Canto Bight''': A mostly barren planet that hosts a giant casino where rich bastards can go. Seems to be a general dress code of only black and white allowed, and filled with wholesome activities like gambling, arms dealing, child labor, and war profiteering. So a lot of glitz and glamor standing side by side exploitation and "rich people are jerks" stuff. So basically Pre-Revolution Cuba in space. Generally considered to be where a bunch of largely unnecessary stuff happened, even by folks who ''didn't'' hate Episode VIII.

* '''Crait''': Site of an abandoned Rebel base that the Resistance remnants flee to at the end of Episode VIII, leading to a vaguely "Battle of Hoth" esque fight involving the First Order's own version of AT-ATs. As one Youtube LEGO video aptly put it, the ground is white but the dirt is red for no real reason other than that it looks "cool". Also, apparently its salt and not snow. So like, a salt-Hoth. Or something.

* '''Exegol''': A world shrouded in darkness and perpetual lightning storms that is where Palpatine and his cronies have been hiding out since losing the Galactic Civil War. How such a large number of people existed or thrived on such a dead world is never explained, but it does manage to give the other Sith world Korriban a run for its money in the whole "obviously evil death world" department.

* '''Rakata Prime / Lehon''': Home of the Rakatans, and where the species has become trapped ever since their empire fell. Actually a pretty lush and scenic place, though as Rakatan tribes and small-but-still-deadly Rancors roam about here, one vacations here at their own risk. That, and the same thing keeping the Rakatans from leaving (the Star Forge), also causes ships that get too close to crash-land, making it a ship's graveyard. By the time of Darth Bane, the planet seems to have become deserted, the Rakatans having apparently gone extinct.

* '''The Maw''': Bears mentioning for being one of the more unique places of the EU. An unusually dense cluster of black holes near Kessel whose gravitational anomalies make it the ideal backdrop for risky hyperdrive spice smuggling operations. Strongly implied to be the work of an unknown precuror civilization, the Maw was considered to be largely impassible, if not for the work of top secret scouting operations that the Empire undertook to find a place to house a big R&D facility kept from the public eye. Within the Maw station, developments like the prototyping of the first Death Star and several other imperial superweapons took place, protected by a small flotilla consisting of four Imperial Star Destroyers.

==Species==
One important thing to note about alien species in Star Wars is that almost all of them were originally singular costumes added to the films for background color or to make a character stand out, then had a species name and culture retconned onto them by Expanded Universe writers. As a result, most species' "personalities" are just shallow clones of the character they're derived from. Many of the species seen in the original trilogy were given names and backstories by [[Star Wars RPG|the original RPG from West End Games]] that became canon as every other EU novel to come after used Star Wars D6 as a reference. All entries after humans are alphabetized.
* '''[[Human]]s''': They originated in the Galactic Core, but have spread to most inhabited planets, first as slaves to a now-extinct species of precursors and then through initial space exploration with pre-hyperdrive generation ships. As a result there are a lot of [[Abhuman|"near-human"]] species kicking around that are basically just weird-looking humans and pretty much the only species humans can crossbreed with.
** '''Mandalorians:''' Bobas/Jangos. A society of space [[Spartans]]/[[Vikings]] with cool armor. Actually not human majority initially (Unless you are a Disney fan), originally made up of a species called the Taung. The Taung had a habit of adopting orphans of other species to the point that when shit hit the fan and they died out following a war with the Jedi, their culture was preserved by other species who remember them as their Progenitors. As it stands, a Mandalorian can be of any race (the adopting the orphans-thing was something else the Taung passed down) but are usually human. Way, way back during the Old Republic, they were death-worshipping genocidal crusaders who were used by the Sith to crush the Republic and provoke the Jedi into war. In more modern times they mellowed out and mostly work as mercenaries or bounty hunters (and for a brief time, even flirted with pacifism), though some extremist sects like the Children of the Watch still exist, clashing with mainstream Mandalorian culture. Following the Empire's purge of Mandalore, the Mando's Beskar Armor became a priceless resource (As only Mandos knew how to make Beskar Iron, a near-impenetrable material and one of the few that can block blaster bolts and lightsabers), with the surviving Mandos sometimes being hunted just to be stripped of their armor.
** '''Corellians:''' Hans. Literally an entire culture of dashing rogues and space cowboys who like to go fast and smuggle shit (and penniless street urchins looking for their big break to become dashing rogues and space cowboys). The Corellian Engineering Corporation made the YT series (of which the Falcon is officially part of, though its modifications are extensive enough to make listing CEC as its manufacturer a [[Wikipedia:Ship of Theseus|Ship of Theseus]] problem) and many of the Rebel ships seen in the original trilogy. Nearly ruined their planet with starship factories, but now they've gone green and relocated all of their heavy industry to space stations. Their home system reeks of precursor meddling and is detailed enough to be a setting in itself, complete with a Big Dumb Object in the middle (Centerpoint Station) for PCs to fuck with.
* '''Aqualish:''' Ponda Babas. Vaguely spider-like (from the neck-up) aliens who are easily one of the ugliest looking species in Star Wars. Generally portrayed as violent thugs, though not always. Apparently they don't usually get along with Biths.
* '''Bith''': Another species that debuted in the original Star Wars movie, and because they did so as a band playing the famous Cantina theme, they were naturally given the species-wide hat of being musicians (though some Bith do pursue other careers). Their bulbous heads are probably owing to their being a fairly intelligent species, as they are big on mathematics and science as well as music. Generally a peaceful species.
* '''Bothans''': [[Meme|Died to bring you this information.]] A species of [[Beastmen (40k)|wolf-men/horse-men/goat-men]] (depending on which author/illustrator) who are almost universally spies thanks to that one-off line from Mon Mothma. When you remember these are hairy-ass, man sized, cloven beastmen, it seems like the bothans would be the shittest race for something as subtle as spywork. In truth the best and early EU works portray them as something far worse than spies: politicians. The most prominent Bothan is Borsk Fey'lya, a Bothan politician who used his role in the acquisition of the second Death Star plans to maintain a place in the New Republic's senior leadership and uses his position for personal gain like any proper politician should. Now possibly NOT wolfhorsegoatpeople, thanks to some Lucasfilm [[Troll|source]] being all like “uh actually, it’s never explicitly stated that they’re aliens, maybe they’re humans, *WINK*”. Let’s hope they’re humans - or at least less dumb than wolfhorsegoats. EU Bothans were as ridiculous a concept as [[Derp|force cancelling weasels]].
** '''Half-Bothans''': Satyrs/Fauns in Star Wars. Seriously, look up a picture of them and that's exactly how they're drawn. Don't seem to be too common, suggesting most humans in Star Wars ''aren't'' Furries.
* '''Chiss''': Thrawns. Near humans with blue skin, dark blue/black hair and red eyes. They dwell in the Unknown Regions, with they’re own fancy schmancy empire, crack navy and altogether superior technological advancements that make the rest of the galaxy look fucking backward (see blaster resistant clothes...whereas [[Derp|fucking stormtroopers in armor can be knocked down by arrows loosed by Care Bears]]). Known for being superb pilots, traders, negotiators, tacticians and all round scheming bastards with Danish accents.
* '''Dugs''': Sebulbas. Except, most of them aren't Podracers, instead being even more explicitly criminal in their professions (gangsters, drug dealers, members of Black Sun, etc.). Usually abrasive, arrogant, pushy, and violent. They share a homeworld with the Gran, which leads to some tension. Understandably hated in-universe by most.
* '''Duros''': Seen once in ''Hope'' during the cantina scene. Naturally they're one of the most important species in the EU despite not having a canon character until The Clone Wars introduced us to Cad Bane. Enslaved by precursors alongside humans, they were among the first to develop FTL travel based on salvaged hyperdrive technology and are the only non-human species to have an equivalent of "near-human" in a few "near-Duros" species. Look a bit like classic sci-fi Gray Aliens, as well as the Tau, but without the whole "Space Stalinism" thing.
* '''Echani''': Similar to humans in appearance, but most if not all of them have white or silver hair. They're also a culture of martial arts experts, specializing in armed and unarmed combat and even being able to "read" their opponents to an extent. [[Bretonnia|Generally seem to prefer melee combat and have comparatively less impressive ranged weapons]] (at least to hear Mandalorians like Canderous tell it).
* '''Ewoks''': If skub became a species, Ewoks would be a contender up there with Gungans and Yuuzhan Vong. Small koala-like creatures, similar to Jawas, that live on the forest moon of Endor, Ewoks are super primitive and live in tribes. They end up playing a big part in the Rebel victory in ''Return'' by attacking Imperial stormtroopers and destroying some walkers. Their reception didn't seem too bad at first, but in the following decades they've become reviled by many, not so much for their design but more for the idea that small bears with spears and rocks could defeat what were supposed to be the Emperor's finest troops. Some people don't mind them (and they were ''definitely'' profitable for merchandise) but others hate them and say they're a prime reason that attitudes toward ''Return'' have gotten increasingly negative over the years. That being said, people tend to overlook that Ewoks have a dark side to them; remember how they were going to eat Luke, Han and Chewie? Some EU material reshaped them into brutally savage death world survivors who practice some shady tribal customs, but are also well-accustomed to hunting much bigger and more dangerous creatures than themselves, which would make them fighting the Empire a little more credible.
* '''Gamorreans''': Space [[Orc]]s: Pig-like, brutish, stupid and violent. Constantly at war with each other, their clan identity is so strong they'll try to kill each other if from opposing clans if they meet off-world. Frequently brought into the galaxy as slaves or by clans trading labor/muscles for outside resources. Like Wookiees, can't physically speak Basic. Unlike Wookiees, only their clan matrons and some high ranking men are literate in their native language.
* '''Geonosians''': The franchise's token bug alien race, because every space setting needs bug aliens. Hugely vital to the CIS due to their homeworld being one of the main planets the Droid armies were built on. Various sources describe them as as rather arrogant. [[Skaven|They're hive-like, seem to treat their warriors and minions as expendable, and use a mix of polearm melee weapons and ranged weapons with green projectiles no one else has]]. Genocided by the Empire in Disney's Canon.
* '''Gran''': Three eyed goat (?) like aliens with rough, tan skin. They are quite nice and peaceful with excellent vision, especially in distinguishing color. Unfortunately for the galaxy at large, Gran exile most of their criminals: They consider being unable to see the rich and beautiful environments of their homeworld a fate worse than death. These exiles often fall into criminal groups.
* '''Grysk''': A near mythical species from the Unknown regions, where starships usually can't go because the hyperspace along its border is a level of fucked-up that only warp storms can match. Little is known about them except that they live on a spacefleet, have a fierce warrior culture, are humanoids with tapered skulls, their weapons and armor are ritualistically disfigured on the right side and they had a penchant for [[Tesla|electrical weapons]]. Likely Disney's replacement for the Yuuzhan Vong, since Space Cenobites with bio-tech is too weird and grimdark for Disney. tl;dr the Grysk are the Rak'gol to the Yuuzhan Vong's Tyranids.
* '''Gungans''': Jar-Jars. These guys suffer from an extremely poor choice of poster-boy (compared to Wookiees who have one of the best possible poster-boys of their species). You may think that just because Jar-Jar is one of the least intelligent (and most hated) characters in the entire Star Wars galaxy, the rest of his species are too, and this is certainly how a lot of people feel. But if you can look beyond Binks you'll see that the Gungans are pretty cool in their own way. Remember that, canonically, Jar-Jar is considered a disgrace in Gungan culture before the Battle of Naboo and after the rise of the Empire (as Senator Binks directly enabled it). Masters of organic technology, they live in bubble-buildings under the sea and have access to bioelectric spears and booma (essentially organic shock grenades fired by the [[Sling|various]] historical throwing devices) alongside [[Awesome|army-wide shield generators]] (in defiance of everyone else in the galaxy deriding them as primitives). Like the Wookiees these guys have a warrior-culture to be proud of, but unlike them they have at least made the effort to have a go at learning to speak basic (even though they still need to work on it). Due to their cartilaginous skeletons they are especially athletic and dynamic, making them pretty good fighters if they are trained properly, and in a rarity for a sci-fi species they have a racial weapon that's actually entirely practical (sling hurled explosives continue to see use today). Certainly if you want an accurate Gungan poster-boy, look no further than Captain Tarpals, who manages to hold General Grievous up in a duel for several minutes with nothing more than his spear. Oh, and their king is voiced by [[Awesome|BRIAN BLESSED]]. Still, for most folks, being the species of Jar-Jar is a hard thing to forgive, but like with many things from the Prequels, time has been a bit kind to their image. Worth mentioning that the writers are acutely aware of how much people find Gungans annoying, and so take shots at them now and then.
* '''Hutts''': Jabbas. (Fun fact: "the Hutt" was just a title in the original trilogy and Jabba was just some random slug dude. The original film didn't even intended for him to be an alien!) Naturally they're all mini-Jabbas who live in a clan/crime-family/zaibatsu type of arrangement known as the ''kadjic''. Kind of like the Mexican drug cartels in that they have their own corner of the galaxy that they rule independently, even after they join the Empire they pay the Moff to look the other way when they do shady shit. (They're always doing shady shit.) Because the Hutts own exactly one third of all organized crime (and a significant number of planets) in the galaxy and it is the third (after Basic and Binary) most widespread full language, Huttese is a good language to take, especially for criminal-types . Be warned! Hutts have four fingered hands and their numbering system uses base eight! Despite being looking and acting like fat [[neckbeards]] they're actually insanely strong and their less bulky youth are very agile for their size. They LOL at the Force, so the RPGs tend to give them a huge bonus to resist mental influence.
* '''Jawas''': Utinni! They roam Tatooine (and a few other planets) scavenging technology and selling it. A handful of sources mention they are [[Ratfolk|rodents]] under the hoods. Popular with the fans, but sadly we haven't yet gotten an (official), Jawa Jedi or Sith.
* '''Kaminoans''': A tall, gaunt species with super long necks hailing from a water-world who's species-wide hat is being expert cloners. Anyone who has a thing for clones always goes to Kaminoans to do the job, including the conspiracy behind the Clone Army that fought in the Clone Wars. Unfortunately for them, the Rise of the Empire led to their downfall in both Disney and Legends, though the circumstances between the two differ.
* '''Miraluka''': A species that look very similar to humans, but for two major differences: they're all blind, and they're all Force-Sensitive. That first part's not as debilitating as it sounds thanks to the second part, as they effectively "see" through the Force. If Visas Marr from Knights of the Old Republic II is anything to go by, they can see what alignments other people are, with good guys being blue, ultra good guys being glowing dark blue, bad guys being red, super-evil bad guys being glowing red, and neutrals being a yellowish-white.
* '''Mirialans''': Luminara Undulis. Look a lot like humans, but with skin along a green/olive spectrum and also often black diamond markings on their cheeks, forehead, and/or chins. As the setting's resident "green-skinned space babes" (other than Twi'leks), they naturally have a bit of a following with the fans.
* '''Mon Calamari''': Ackbars. An aquatic species whose long history of making airtight vehicles for travel in three dimensions has made them excellent ship-builders. During the early days of the Rebellion the Mon Calamari were one of the few species to successfully throw off the Empire during Operation Domino and not be subject to immediate reprisal thanks to their isolated location and strategy of mining hyperspace routes; basically they turned their system in to Space-Finland and the Empire gave up suiciding ships into them. Those weird-looking bubble ships from ''Return of the Jedi'' are built by Mon Calamari.
** '''Quarren''': Another background species from ''Jedi'' who share their homeworld of Dac with the Mon Calamari. Prideful isolationists who stick to the depths, with their main contact to the surface being trading deep sea mined materials to the Mon Calamari. Look more than a bit like [[Illithid]]. Quarren and Mon Calamari have a complicated (by which we mean bad), history and hate each other with a passion, with each species taking opposing sides in the Clone Wars.
* '''Neimoidians''': Nute Gunrays. [[Meme|They will not survive this.]] Their reproductive cycle is really weird: they produce lots of grubs which are raised in warrens fighting over a limited amount of food; this results in only the biggest, most paranoid, and most greedy surviving. Unlike how this usually goes, this process makes the Neimodians prone to hoarding resources and wary of danger. They're also fouler than [[Luke]] when it comes to hygiene; their homeworld's principal export is considered to be Type-B Brainrot, and even the Republic had the place functionally quarantined because of the sheer number of diseases they shit out.
* '''Noghri''': Primitive, short saurian people who happen to be some of the deadliest non-Jedi melee combatants and assassins in the galaxy. Darth Vader bought their loyalty by saving them from the environmental damage a crashed ship caused. They are a major part of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, which they were invented for. Thrawn still has one as a sidekick in ''Rebels''.
* '''Pykes:''' humanoids with bulbous heads and small beady eyes, and typically wear decorative masks. Don’t let the appearance fool you, the Pyke syndicate is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the galaxy as they have a stranglehold on the underworld’s number one resource: Spice. Yes it’s a blatant reference to [[Dune]]. No, it doesn’t give you freaky superpowers, it’s just a very powerful narcotic. The Pykes control the Spice supply chain for the entire galaxy, taking in mined pre-spice from various planets (most of it coming from Kessel, located deep inside a maelstrom that makes navigation extremely hazardous), having it refined on their homeworld in Oba Diah, and then distributed to every corner from Tatooine to Coruscant. The Pykes allow independent smugglers to do supply runs for them but expect their cut, regardless of the smuggler’s success or failure. If you’re really unlucky, they’ll just kill you on the spot, since their leaders are constantly high on their own product.
* '''Rakata''': The aforementioned precursors, developed by [[BioWare]] for the ''Knights of the Old Republic'' game (though there were a few mentions of precursors here and there before that). Formed an "Infinite Empire" long before the Republic using dark side powered hyperdrives only they could use. When they gradually lost their force sensitivity their empire fell apart. Responsible for why there are so many Humans and Human off-shoots everywhere: They were seeded throughout the Infinite Empire as a slave species and abandoned when it fell. Also ''enormous'' assholes as it turns out, doing everything from eating people to genocide and basically having a level of sociopathic awfulness that wouldn't be out of place in 40K. There is no evidence they existed past the Old Republic era, where a few fractured and primitive survivors were seen on their home planet and this planet was devoid of life by the time of the Ruusan Reformation.
* '''Rodians''': Greedos. Their home planet being a death world full of predators means they are often aggressive and put hunters in high regard, which is the EU excuse for most Rodian characters being criminals. Despite being somewhat popular with the fans, they tend to be given the role of blaster/lightsaber fodder, especially in the KotoR games where hordes of Rodian goons and thugs are a relatively common sight. Those Rodians who want to live longer seem to generally gravitate towards jobs like bartenders and merchants if the KotoR games are anything to go by. That, or politicians, but as Senator Farr reminds us, that can be hazardous too.
* '''Shards''': Sapient crystals. They are incapable of movement and don't speak the way humans do. They can however control droid bodies they are implanted into. Several are force sensitive which led to a Jedi teaching them the ways of the Force. The Jedi order shunned these "Iron Knights" and excommunicated the master responsible. This wound up benefiting them though, as the master and his students were able to survive the Jedi purge due to the obscurity this granted. When Luke's new order emerged they welcomed the Shards with open arms.
* '''Sith / Sith Purebloods''': Red skinned near-humans with bony tentacles growing out from near their nose and an affinity for the dark side, especially illusions. Natives of Korriban, the order most people know as Sith were a result of exiled dark Jedi interbreeding with them and adding their knowledge of technology. So diluted with human blood they were extremely rare by the Old Republic era and believed extinct by the time of the prequels. A few small mostly primitive pockets had been discovered however, but were covered up by Palpatine so he could grab more dark side goodies. More or less invented whole-cloth for the EU.
* '''Sullustans''': [[Dwarf|Short, tunnelfaring, crafters who can drink a lot without getting drunk]]. Vaguely simian near-humans with flappy jowls, large ears, and black eyes that originally evolved for tunnels. Their SoroSuub company is one of the largest tech makers in the galaxy, and likely the largest that isn't Human run.
* '''Tarasin''': Invented whole-cloth for the Living Force campaign for [[Star Wars D20]]. Lizardmen with scales that change color based on their emotions and frilled necks. With focus they can control their colors enough to camouflage themselves and even "speak" silently amongst each other. They had a high degree of force sensitivity, though if this a result of their species or their home system being a place where the Force is strong is unknown.
* '''Togruta''': Diet Twi'leks. Humanoids with lekku and hollow horns that allow echolocation. Shaak Ti and Ahsoka were Togruta.
* '''Toydarians''': Wattos. Blue tapir-looking dudes from Hutt Space who can hover on fly-like wings. As their source character is a hilariously offensive Jewish stereotype, the EU largely ignored Toydarians until ''The Clone Wars'' reinvented them as a vaguely Cambodian monarchy on a mud world. Mind tricks don't work on them (only money). Of the non-Watto Toydarians who showed up pre-Clone Wars, they're mostly surly and greedy like Watto, but with the Jewish stereotypes downplayed for obvious reasons.
* '''Trandoshans''': Bossks. Brutish, scaly [[Lizardfolk]] capable of regenerating severed limbs and absolutely obsessed with hunting shit. Have had a continuous species war with the Wookiees since before FTL was a thing, which is a ''long-ass time'' in Star Wars (well over 150,000 years), owing to the fact that the two species share a home system. Their religion is about scoring "points", with the only known method of gaining them is violent action and the only known method of losing them is being captured alive by enemies. The system was first mentioned a mere three years after ''[[Doom]]'' so the fact that they essentially see life as a giant, violent video game is likely pure coincidence. Despite this they aren't universally evil, though they often are. Have their own Predator <s>ripoff</s> homage movie.
* '''Tusken Raiders:''' More commonly known by civilized folks as "Sand People," they are the native race of Tatooine and are your typical desert-dwelling nomadic raiders, with the added twist of having a major cultural taboo against showing any flesh (including their faces) and having "blood spitters" as part of their biology. One of Tatooine's two primary non-human races (the other being Jawas). One of the first alien species encountered in the franchise, yet never as fleshed out as others. Even the actual name of their species is unknown; their current name originates from the first Human colonists, who named them 'Tusken Raiders' after their repeated assaults on Fort Tusken. Fiercely xenophobic and violent, the Tuskens typically have an antagonistic relationship with the other peoples living on Tatooine, usually raiding moisture farmers or sometimes outright kidnapping and killing civilian homesteaders, or even massacring small frontier towns, and in turn being seen by most as [[Always Chaotic Evil|pure monsters]]. In reality they have more nuance than they're often given credit for, and more recent appearances have made them a bit closer to portrayals of 19th Century Plains Native Americans; not taking crap from trespassers, but honorable and fair with those who respect them. Its been shown to be entirely possible to live peacefully with the local tribes if you can communicate and work out a deal with them (that you don't break). Their civilization is quite ancient, with them remembering when Tatooine still had seas and having adapted to both the harsh desert and salvaging the technology of foreigners into blaster-muskets. They also seem to be one of the few cultures in Star Wars that haven't heard of women's liberation, because with the exception of a female Tusken warrior in [[Skub|the Book of Boba Fett]], the female Tuskens seen thus far all seem to tend to the home and not be armed warriors.
* '''[[Twi'lek]]s''': Technicolored humanoids from Ryloth (which is about as far as you can get from the core worlds without leaving the major hyperspace lanes) with weird head-tails ("lekku") that they have instead of hair. Enough have been transported off world, generally as slaves, they can be found anywhere, and many have never seen their ancestral home. Given it's a borderline death world whose chief economic exports are drugs and slaves, they aren't missing anything. Their most interesting physical quality (aside from the girls being hot) is that they can communicate silently with their lekku. TORtanic tried to rationalize their fetish for enslaving their own as being the result of a precursor project to design the perfect slave species, but nobody cares about this because TORtanic is <s>shit</s> Skub.
* '''Wookiees:''' Chewbaccas, and one of the only species to be named in the original films. Huge, swole sloth people that do not live on Endor and can't speak (but absolutely understand) Basic. Most are actually pretty peaceful and intelligent and they have produced a lot of highly skilled engineers. They also have a reputation for being the best [[Navigator]]s in the galaxy, in part because their highly secretive Navigator's guild has plotted all sorts of shortcuts across the galaxy - plus you better be bloody good at orientation, pathfinding, and being able to make your way back to your treehouse at days end if your entire planet is a fucking forest. They highly value people who save their life, becoming their eternal friend in what is known as a Life-debt; this is how Han met Chewie. They have retractable climbing claws, but a cultural taboo on using them in combat leads to those who do so being exiled as "madclaws". Has the unfortunate distinction of being the first species in Star Wars lore to have their home planet and culture detailed... via the ''Star Wars Holiday Special''. Despite the infamy and single airing, the broad strokes survived the entirety of the Expanded Universe's lifespan and would reappear in ''Revenge of the Sith''.
* '''Yuuzhan Vong''': Humanoids with pallid skin and tapered skulls [[Tyranids|from another galaxy and who only use organic technology]]. Native to a living planet called Yuuzhan'tar which they worshipped as a god, their first contact experience was [[Necrons|an interstellar robot war]]. They weaponized their biotech and defeated the invaders - and in so doing gained [[Khorne|a taste for war and conquest (plus a hatred of machines) that led them to invent a war god and conquer their galaxy]]... [[Fail|which they later destroyed through infighting]]. The destruction of their homeworld [[Culexus|cut them off from the Force, unintentionally making them mostly immune to it]]. Their attempts to undo this gave them [[Dark Eldar|a species-wide fetish for pain and body modification]] instead. Centuries later they found and invaded the Star Wars galaxy, leading to a galactic war that decimated the New Republic, caused multiple genocides and had a death toll around '''365 trillion''' ([[Lamenters|including Chewbacca]]). Luke and his family ended the war by killing the various Vong leaders and finding Yuuzhan'tar's offspring, Zonama Sekot. The Vong colonized Sekot, were reconnected to the Force and became terraformers as penance for the war. Rendered part of the Legends by Disney. Some fans consider the Yuuzhan Vong a fresh blast of originality that provided a threatening and utterly badass new foe (even Dave Filoni has tried at least twice to pull the Yuuzhan Vong into his projects), while others consider them a nonsensical edgelord race that relied on major retcons to make sense.
* '''Zabrak''': Mauls. Near-humans with mostly bald, spikey heads and two hearts. Those black markings Maul had are actually ritualistic tatoos that Zabrak men often get. They were pretty divided internally till the Empire decided to oppress them all and force them to join together. Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar of the Jedi Council were also Zabraks.
** '''Dathomirians''' are a sub-species of Zabrak native to Dathomir who supposedly interbred with humans to create a new group, though their origins have been neglected in current canon. Even so, the females of this sub-species do not have the spiked heads typical of other Zabraks, looking more like ashen-skinned humans. Strictly divided along gender lines, with the bulk of the females forming the Nightsisters while the men are [[Drow|relegated to the role of slaves and breeding stock]]. Darth Maul is the most prominent Dathomirian in the films and TV series, with Asajj Ventress close behind.

==Ships, Superweapons and anything in between==
*Imperial-Class Star Destroyer: The iconic dagger-shaped grey icons of Imperial might from the original trilogy, most prominently featured in Empire strikes back. Star Destroyer in itself was a classification for the largest capital ships in the Republican Navy that simply stuck when the Empire took over. Equipped with devastating firepower that outclassed any other type of warship at the time and its own dedicated regiment of ground troops together with fighter and bomber support, a Star Destroyer was built to serve as its own independent strike group to police the Empire and defend it from outside threats completely independently. The Rebellion was scared shitless of the things, as nothing in their arsenal could hope to withstand a direct encounter with them for long and one showing up almost always meant very bad news for them.
*Executor: The FUKHUEG mega-ship that served as Vaders flagship in Episode 5 and 6. So huge that it is even in-universe classified as a "Super-Star Destroyer", with it being about 20 kilometers in length. Built in the years between A new Hope and Empire strikes back, the Executor and the class of dreadnoughts of the same name had the purpose of serving as flagships to the Imperial sector fleets and as a supplement to the Death Star to intimidate any world into submission with a metric ton of weapon systems that afforded it the firepower to glass a sizeable unshielded planetary settlement within minutes. The ability to posess one of these precious few ships (about nine were built in total) was often used in the old EU to indicate the power level of the villain of the day. Most of them ended up being destroyed, but at least found their way into the hands of the New Republic, where they became its foremost power projectors should the need for such arise.
*TIE-Series: The Empires standard pattern of small space vessel and very recognizable for it. Their base construction was built around the core concept of having a cheap, disposable and mass-produced ship that needed very little fuel and maintenance to be operational in order to cut down on the costs for equipping the enourmous numbers of ships in the Imperial Navy. The base model is the TIE-Fighter, equipped with two ion engines (hence the name, TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine) powered by the large solar panels that made up its "wings" and twin-linked laser cannons capable of destroying most fighters it would come into contact with. Despite being blisteringly fast and maneuveable, the design had a lot of serious downsides when compared with more sophisicated designs like the X-Wings the Rebels used; in order to cut down costs, the amount of protection afforded to its pilots was almost non-existent, having no armour to speak of, no shield generator and not even life support systems, requiring the pilots to wear pressurized suits when going on a mission. They also lacked Hyperdrives, although given their intended purpose as short-ranged carrier-based strike craft this is mostly irrelevant.
**TIE-Fighter: Aformentioned base model, the basic star fighter for the Imperial Navy.
**TIE-Bomber: The basic bomber/torpedo boat model of the TIE-Series. An enlarged version of the Fighter with differently shaped solar panels and a massive bomb bay that could either house bombs for conventional bombing campaigns or Proton Torpedoes for destroying enemy battleships up close.
**TIE-Interceptor: A new and improved version of the Fighter, with distinct arrow-shaped Solar Panels and improved propulsion systems, making it even faster than regular TIE-Fighters while also having improved firepower.
**TIE-Defender: Probably the most advanced ship of the TIE-Series, this baby took all the good things from the TIE-Fighter and Rebel-Ship models into an extremely deadly package, boasting shield generators, hyperdrives and weapon systems that transformed its role into a space-superiority-fighter/fast torpedo bomber hybrid. These advanced systems however meant also that it was quite expensive and rare.
* The Sun Crusher: If ever there was a non-living object that can be described as a [[Mary Sue]] this is it. Just go to the Wookiepedia page as anyone who thinks to elaborate on this is suddenly overcome by an urge to smash their heads against the nearest wall. TL;DR: its the original Starkiller Base (IE an even more powerful Death Star), and like Starkiller Base one of the less beloved things about the franchise's post-RotJ period.

==The Galaxy (and beyond)==
The Galaxy Far Far Away is a spiral galaxy about 120,000 light year in diameter. It is home to an unusually high number of populated planets and species. It has a few smaller satellite galaxies, though only one is ever visited in the entity of Star War media and only in an obscure short story (but visitors from the others have come).
*The Deep Core: The innermost part of the galaxy. Due to a high number of black holes, and dense star clusters, only the outer most areas are explored. The sole exception is a top secret Imperial bunker world of Byss, also Empress Teta (a world that once rivaled Coruscan in population, named after the badass who broke Naga Sadow's attempt to destroy the Republic with the Old Sith Empire) is just on the inside of the border between the Deep Core and the Core.
*The "Core" worlds: The most populated and best mapped part of the galaxy. Holds the actual capital of the Republic/Empire/New Republic, and some of the biggest sources of culture. The earliest known home world of Humans and Duros, but the Rakata taking these species as slaves leaves the world of their origin a mystery.
*Colonies: The first areas that was expanded to after hyperspace travel came about.
*Inner Rim: The next set of areas colonized. By the time of the films, they’re pretty developed.
**Hapes Cluster: An independent system of stars ruled by the matriarchal Hapes Consortium. Even for Star Wars, it's incredibly dense in populated worlds. They took in a large number of Separatist scientists at the end of the Clone Wars and by the New Republic it has unique technology that's more advanced in some areas despite lagging behind in some other areas.
*Mid rim: An even further area of expansion. Where the Mid Rim ends and the Outer Rim begins is a bit vague, with a lot of the outer Mid Rim being barely if at all better off than the Outer Rim.
*Outer Rim: The farthest reach of the galaxy. Civilization is sparsely populated, neglected by the galactic authorities and/or largely dominated by the independent and cruel Hutt Empire.
** Hutt Space: An autonomous section of the galaxy ruled by the Hutt clans ("Kajidic"). How, exactly, head of state (or any government function) is determined and what titles they hold is unclear, but there seems to be some Hutt that somehow becomes on top of it. A lack of extradition agreements with the Republic renders it a haven for criminals, who in turn kick money back to the Hutts. It joins the Empire during its existance, only to continue its shifty ways after early Imperial attempts to wipe out crime fail and regain independence after Palpatine's death.
*Corporate Sector/Tingel Arm: The "northern" most edge of the galaxy. Over 400 years before ''The Phantom Menace'', the Republic had the brilliant idea to develop an unpopulated section of the galaxy: Get a bunch of large companies to do it in exchange for some autonomy, resource rights and lower taxes. [[Not As Planned|Naturally this went poorly]], and the whole place is a [[Cyberpunk]] style megacorp controlled dystopia. Originated in the Han Solo books, one of the first expanded universe books ever, and the fluff from there has seen little change.
*Unknown Regions: The vast, largely unexplored due to similar issues to the core, western chunk of the galaxy. It actually has several native hyperspace capable civilizations forging their own empires by the New Republic era, one of which was already active over 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin.
*Wild Space: Wild Space is the area of the galaxy that ''is'' charted and open to Hyperspace travel, but unsettled and most of the detail on the maps is lacking. Holds the Rishi system, the only publicly known path to the Rishi maze (a state secret path in the Outer Rim's Rothana goes to Kamino).
*Rishi Maze: The only one of the satellite galaxies to be visited by those from the main galaxy, able to be accessed by traveling a chain of systems stuck between the two. The one short story that actually goes there describes it as a mess of radiation, but this could be the particular system within the maze. The only people known to live here are exploiting the natural resource deposits and hiding from The Empire. More well known is the cloner planet of Kamino, which is between the main galaxy and the maze.
*(unnamed) Yuuzhan Vong galaxy: This was the home galaxy of the EU race the Yuuzhan Vong, their original homeworld of Yuuzhan'tar, the planet Zonama Sekot, the reptoid Chazrach, and possibly the Silentium (who made first contact and war on the Vong) and the Abominor droid civilizations . The galaxy was a spiral galaxy like GFFA and had a vast number of sentient races in it; however, the Yuuzhan Vong [[Tyranids|wiped the others out]], save the Chazrach [[Dark Eldar|whom they instead enslaved]]. The Yuuzhan Vong referred to it as the "ancestral galaxy", and much of it was destroyed when [[Horus Heresy|the Yuuzhan Vong started fighting among themselves after dominating the galaxy]], with its current state of what's left of it unknown.
*Firefist Galaxy: Another one of the orbiting galaxies. The only contact the main galaxy has had with it has been sending probes. Home to the Faruun, Maccabree, Nagai and Tof, all of which arrived during the early New Republic fleeing the problems of their home or in pursuit. All of this comes from the Marvel comics (with some smoothing in the details in reference books), but despite the general oddness of fitting the Marvel comics into more modern canon and many silly concepts in those comics, the presence of these species and their conflict is largely accepted because, unlike the ''other'' extragalactic visitors, it's not very disruptive to overall canon to include them. Given that Disney now owns both Marvel and Star Wars, we may see more of them.

==Technology==
Star Wars appears to be a fairly standard sci-fi world (because it ''set'' that standard), but there's many subtle nuances that are easily missed
* Hyperdrives take ships to Hyperspace where they can travel and arrive at other destinations at FTL speed. Using a hyperdrive takes careful calculation to not only arrive on target, but avoid hitting anything on your way there.
** Each hyperdrive has a class, which multiplies travel time. At the time of the Rebellion, the standard was 2x, with newer/upgraded ships often packing class 1x and the Millennium Falcon (proclaimed to be the fastest ship in The Galaxy) had a class 0.5 as a result of modifications that made it unreliable. Anything larger than a fighter has a backup hyperdrive of much higher class (typically double digit) to ensure the crew can limp to the nearest populated system in the event of failure of the primary drive.
** Most travel occurs along the great hyperspace lanes, where the way is known to be clear and calculations are more established.
** Vehicles have to start up their shields ''after'' they complete their jump, which makes them vulnerable if you can predict where they are coming from. This makes launching an attack purely to target any reinforcements possible.
** Hyperspace itself [[Warp|is weird]], and standard procedure is to avoid looking outside long term during travel to prevent people from going nuts. Communications while in hyperspace (except to ships making the same jump) are near impossible. Leaving hyperspace without the ship you came in on is impossible, and ejecting someone during travel ensures their death.
** There's a handful of instances of of hyperdrive failures sending people to Otherspace, an alternate dimension populated by a ship graveyard and hostile bug aliens with organic technology.
** One thing that's often overlooked is that modern hyperdrive technology is adapted from the dark side powered hyperdrives of the ancient Rakata after they lost the ability to use The Force and could no longer travel to maintain their empire. The result is that even [[Adeptus Mechanicus|experts don't have a total understanding of ''how'' Hyperspace works]].
** Hyperdrive is quick, a good hyperdrive capable ship can get you across the galaxy in at most a day.
** Interdictor ships are capable of generating artificial gravity well to stop travel through their path and prevent ships from getting away. These first appeared in the Mandalorian Wars of the Old Republic, using spammed tractor beams to fake gravity wells, but these couldn't keep pace with hyperdrive improvements and disappeared till a superior successor technology was developed in the Imperial era. During the early days of the New Republic, Admiral Ackbar devised a tactic of using of such ships to prevent ''ally'' movement, ordering one to power up if it detected sabotage on a planned target had failed so the incoming attackers would be pulled from hyperspace far enough away to retreat. It would be Thrawn however that would prove the true master of such maneuvers, developing a system that allowed reliable same-system hyperspace jumps during tactical combat, hence it's name, Thrawn Pincer. Thrawn himself nicked that idea from Plo Koon and Saesee Tin when they wanted to bomb a planet but also bypass the superior blockade around the planet.
* FTL communication comes in four forms, all with their own issues.
** Holonet: The best known method for FTL communications. Vaguely comparable to the early internet, with news, primitive BBS, email, and some other stuff. Quite rare once you get past the developed core areas, and expensive to use both in setting it up and bandwith costs. Only military command vehicles and those for heads of state are likely to have personal holonet transceivers.
** Subspace relay: The cheaper alternative to the holonet is subspace relays. Relatively slow and has problems with dropped communications, but still FTL. Most capital ships have subspace transceivers, and some smaller vehicles are known to have them as upgrades. Comparable to snail mail, with shopping being a mail order order system like the Sears Catalog (view catalog, send order and payment, await shipping) rather than online shopping.
** Hyperspace Courier: Has all the problems of courier communication, and all the problems of hyperspace combined. Despite these faults, it's often the only choice for the most remote systems or if someone is disrupting the above two (like in a war) and always the only way to send physical goods.
** The Force: Occasionally powerful Force users are seen communicating via The Force across very long distances. This requires both parties be strong in The Force and have a very close connection. Even then being able to do anything more than sense the other is in danger is a crapshoot.
* Blasters use energy to excite special gas that is then expelled to deadly effect. Most blasters have an alternate stun setting which provides less-lethal takedowns. Stun setting is quite reliable and consistent even on physically tough species like Wookiees, though it's not safe to use on pregnant women and outside of specialized stun-only blasters the range is rather low. Despite being energy weapons, they have quite a kick. Routinely dismissed as "slow" despite multiple sources contradicting this idea. How fast they are is somewhat debatable (and differs depending on which canon), but they're considered more advanced than Slugthrowers (detailed below), implying that Blasters are better overall.
** [[Stubber|Normal firearms]], known as slugthrowers, are also present. Compared to blasters they're cheaper, cause bleeding, are far more dangerous to block with a lightsaber (it'll usually just melt the slug and make you get hit with molten metal instead), can be suppressed, and lower maintenance requirements, but have less initial stopping power, lower capacity, can't stun, make far more noise without a suppressor, and have heavier ammo. Considered more primitive than blasters, which is why you rarely see them (well, that and the powers that be preferring Star Wars to not be rated R).
** Ion weapons disrupt electric systems, but cause little structural damage and only minor burns on living creatures. This allows them to disable droids or ships without totally destroying them, making them important in capturing them.
** [[Sonic Weaponry]] exists, but it's considered an odd fork (as powerful as a slug thrower with none of its benefits) by everyone outside of water worlds and Jedi hunters.
* Replusorlift keeps vehicles, industrial equipment and some droids floating off the ground a good distance. Most spacecraft have repulsor systems as well, which is how they're able to operate in atmosphere despite their poor aerodynamics.
* '''[[Robot|Droids]]''' aren't a true species, but are playable in all RPGs. They're supposed to be really smart appliances, but Star Wars technology is so fucked up that a few develop sapience if left on too long without formatting. Despite this droids aren't considered people by the galaxy at large because sapient droids are as rare as non-evil [[drow]] and most of the time leaving droids running for a long time just makes them slower and buggier until they can't do their jobs anymore, like Windows, or, at best, overly attuned to a specific user. That a good number of sapient droids have learned to bypass that pesky "no killing" clause doesn't exactly encourage experimenting with it and trying to replicate it either.
** Class 1 droids are designed to preform scientific applications like medicine or lab work. Since they were designed to be used in fixed locations most, but not all, have limited mobility.
** Class 2 droids are designed to preform technical labor like repair work. Since they are expected to work within artificial locations they are generally on wheels or treads and have short, non-human shapes. One notable subcategory of Class 2 droids are Astromech Droids (like the famed R2 series), which are designed to plug into fighters and bombers where they function as a co-pilot, navicomputer and in-flight repair.
** Class 3 droids are designed for human interaction, with jobs like translator or chef. Some lower end Class 3 droids were made for positions like waiter. Almost all of them are roughly human shape, with the main exception being those built by and for non-humans that instead resemble their intended masters.
** Class 4 droids are the most varied but have one thing in common that clearly separates them: They are made for combat and (except for a few armed with only stun weapons) don't have programming against killing. Class 4 droids vary in intelligence from blaster turrets with some targeting AI to clever and ruthless assassins/commandos. Even [[Android|Human Replica Droids]], designed to be indistinguishable from humans, are technically Class 4. Many Class 4 droids have their nature obfuscated by building them into the shell of a Class 1 or Class 3 droid.
** Class 5 droids are made for manual labor like heavy lifting or a power generator with legs. They are barely intelligent, rarely have names and almost never become sapient. They are however cheap and quite common.
* Cloning: Fairly realistic on most accounts. You take a gene sample, use it to make an ova, grow it in an exowomb and decant it as an infant you raise to adulthood. The main difference is that SW cloners are much, much better at it, with a vastly higher success rate compared to real life plus the ability to do accelerated aging for army building. The Kaminoans are the best at this. Generally, Force-Sensitives can't be cloned, and when they are, they most often come out as physically and mentally unstable nutjobs who need to be put out of their misery. "Perfect" Force-Sensitive clones are exceedingly rare, to the point that (again), most in-universe consider it impossible.
* Cloaking devices come in two types.
** The first was dependent upon crystals that became rare due to overharvesting. Use of a superweapon for deep excavation allowed an imperial research project to toy with the idea of fitting an entire squadron of fighters equipped with one.
** The second, the hibridium model, used a different rare material and was developed near the end of the Empire, though didn't see use till after the fall. It was substantially (though still only relatively) cheaper but had two unique drawbacks. The first was that it also blinded the ship to the world outside and rendered it unable to communicate as well. These problems would briefly be overcome with the use of the Force instead. Afterwards the Remnant gave up on it as mostly useless, and agreed to ban it during the peace treaty with the New Republic.
** Personal "stealth field" generators also seem to exist, unrelated to these. They simply dampen sound and bend light to make the wearer harder to spot and difficult (but not impossible) to see. Presumably these aren't upscaled for vehicle use because of the real world problem with such a concept of being completely useless against any sensor beyond just human level vision (still being blatantly obvious to thermal, as well as radar if they're big enough ect.).
* In many ways, while technology is advanced it's still in the mindset of 1983, if not 1977. As mentioned above, the internet (at least the interplanetary one) is quite primitive and poorly connected. Even though everyone has a tiny radio set (Comlink), there's no such thing as cellphones (you have to broadcast to a channel and hope whoever you want to hear something is listening). Aside from portable computers, which are quite expensive, and datapads, which still have limited functionality, most non-droid technology only does one thing. Unlike the 1913 rail and M-Lok equipped guns of the 90s onward, weapon accessories either need to be made for a single model or hand-fitted by an expert. Video games are either professional simulators or extremely primitive.
* Energy shields come in several variants
** Ray shields protect from energy weapons but are useless against physical attacks. Most ships are equipped with ray shields.
** Particle shields protect from physical attacks but are useless against energy attacks. Generally only bigger ships are equipped with particle shields while smaller ships such as fighters only have ray shields.
** Planetary shields are the reason why ground battles happen and why orbital superiority isn't enough to secure a planet. They can withstand even the most severe bombardment for weeks, with only weapons like the Death Star being capable of penetrating them almost instantaneously. As a result, it is generally more feasible to land troops on the planet.
* [[Lightsaber]]s are the most iconic weapon of the setting, being plasma-based melee weapons only used by crazy space [[wizard]]-[[monk]]s.
* [[The Force]] isn't so much technology as something in between a religion, [[magic]] and [[psionics]]. This is ''the'' element that turns Star Wars from [[Space Opera]] into [[Science Fantasy]].

==Setting History==
{{stub}}
Bear in mind the highly contradictory nature of canon and many sources from EU to Disney means any attempt to truly form a concrete history would take an in-depth scholarly pursuit of all sources and debate amongst the global community while taking into account upcoming new results that can entirely rewrite the record. You know, like real history ([[Tolkien]] did an admirable job, but nothing quite says plausible history like something everyone has an opinion on but nobody that anyone wants to listen to has fully researched). At any rate, what is presented here is an abridged version of the lore history prior to the Original Trilogy, using the most complete accounts, and combining the EU AKA “Legends” with the Disney canon when not contradictory (because despite having supposedly wiped it out of canon, there are frequent callbacks to parts of it). Though in fairness, Legends lore is far more fleshed out and takes priority in practice. Since it is under construction, it will probably be split into different sections (or we'll put parentheses showing whether it's Disney or OG, going in year order). As a note, most dates are referred to Before or After the Battle of Yavin (with both 0 BBY and 0 ABY existing) for the sake of out of universe convenience. There are various in-universe calendars, but this is pretty much the standard at the time of the end of the story and is the easiest to follow IRL. Thus, when the contradictions majorly start after Episode 6, the format will be Legends-5 ABY, Disney-5ABY, Legends-6 ABY and so on.

* The universe begins, life begins to evolve. A lot of small things happen that tie into other stories, but aren’t worth mentioning outside that story.
* The unknown Celestial race holds dominion around a hundred thousand years Before the Battle of Yavin, they mysteriously vanish soon afterwards.
** Before disappearing, a set of force wielding physical gods known as the Father, the Daughter and the Son help them to seal Abeloth "The Mother", a mortal who lived with them and in desperation for sharing their immortality did some extremely bad dark side Force stuff and turned into an eldritch abomination, in the Maw Cluster of black holes using Centerpoint Station, a super weapon in the partially artificial Corellia System.
* The first galactic civilization (that we know of except whatever the Celestials were, if they even count as a formal polity) are the Rakata, cruel aliens who uplift various other species for slaves and food in the Rakatan Infinite Empire. This explains most aliens that are just paint and simple face prosthetics away from being human, as well as recurring traits like bipedalism.
** The Rakata encounter the Sith species, who also use the dark side. The Sith drive them off after a costly battle thanks to Sith King Adas sacrificing himself.
*** The Sith'ari prophecy is made to indicate a worth successor to Adas who would bring the Sith to the height of their power, Bane would be the Sith'ari more than twenty thousand years later.
** At some point the Rakata encounter the Hutts, and the result is the Rakata being nearly wiped out. Hutts did not possess space travel, nor would they until much later so how the fuck that happened isn’t clear, though it is mentioned that they lost their connection to the Force (universally the Dark Side due to species wide enforcement of being an asshole) after an unknown illness.
** Time progresses and the Rakata are forgotten from general knowledge outside of archeological and historical circles, even then only Force sensitives really know the major significance other than "big empire that collapsed before the Republic was even a dream".
* Civilizations develop and discover space travel, then hyperspace travel. Initial hyperspace colonization and mapping is risky, requiring oftentimes blind jumps and the hope there isn’t a star or something where you end up.
** Blind jumps result in colonists losing contact with the rest of the universe and evolving on their own, explaining some groups that are VERY similar but not the same species (for example, Miraluka are lost human colonists who ended up on a planet with poor light and over generations they evolved to not have eyes, but instead all have a Jedi-tier connection to the Force to “see” with).
* The Force-users find their jumps guided to a specific planet, with aliens from many diverse backgrounds guided to a planet (First Tython in Legends, changed to Ahch-To in the Disney canon. Later material for The Mandalorian brought Tython back alongside Ahch-To as both being early Jedi planets and nobody knowing for sure which was actually the first).
** Bringing their own religions, traditions, and cultures, the Force-users develop schools of thought on the philosophy. Eventually one group decides the meaning of life for the Force is to destroy evil (like [[Paladins]]), and wages war on the others saying “you’re with us or against us”. One group resists which saw honor and personal development as the meaning of life (like [[Cavalier]]s). The rest were split between the two.
** The Paladin-like aggressors were victorious, slaughtering and driving off the Cavalier-types. The Paladin-like Force-users would become the early Jedi. The Cavalier-types would find pain and misery in exile after multiple Great Schism's, sinking deep into worship of power and personal gain. After the Third Great Schism caused by Jedi Knights Ajunta Pall, Sorzus Syn, Xoxaan, Remulus Dreypa and Karness Muur wanting to study the Dark Side after the balance started falling towards Light Side use lead to the Hundred Year Darkness civil war, they are exiled. The exiles find and enslave a species of aliens and stole both their dark Force/alchemy teachings as well as their name when Ajunta Pall killed the last King Hakagram Graush, the Sith, and interbreeding with them to build the Old Sith Empire, Pall as the first Dark Lord of the Sith.
*** The Hundred Year Darkness leads to the invention of Lightsabers, inspired by Rakata Forcesabers, though initial examples like the one Karness Muur used require energy batteries on belts connected by cables.
*** Karness Muur discovers the method of immortality when he transfers his spiritual essence to his Muur Talisman amulet created by Sith Alchemy. Dreypa, his rival, makes a stasis coffin to hold Muur in, said coffin is later named the Jebble Box and is misidentified as a Jedi artifact.
** This becomes a recurring pattern in Star Wars history regarding good and evil Force-users. Good creates its own evil by standing up and declaring themselves good and morally correct, turning any challengers to their orthodoxy towards the Dark Side (look, it comes up whenever Lucas or some other writer wants to go back to the Taoist roots of The Force). Good then defeats the evil it created once evil has almost won, and they reestablish order with some oppression in an attempt to prevent another evil which restarts the cycle.
** The Chosen One to bring balance to the Force prophecy is made. Anakin Skywaker would fulfill this prophecy a thousand years after Bane fulfilled the Sith'ari prophecy.
* Humans and Duro, the first two species to discover hyperspace travel from Rakata technological remnants, eventually meet. The planet they meet on has been implied to be the human homeworld, the Duro homeworld, Earth, and various other things, but it doesn’t matter, final decision settled on as Human homeworld with any connection to real Earth slashed and Duro homeworld being described as another planet in another part of the galaxy. It becomes Coruscant (the homeworld of the Taung, a.k.a. OG Mandalorians, and also the homeworld of the human predecessor race, the latter won and drove off the Taung to Mandalore), and they create the first Galactic Republic in 25553 BBY.
** The exiled Taung found Mandalore, a martial society of warmongers and Social Darwinists, on the planet of Mandalore, which along with it's moon and nearby systems has a massive amount of the substance known as Beskar, capable of making Lightsaber resistant armor.
* Various expansion wars occur after the Republic is founded, including a religiously motivated 1000 year long pro-human genocidal regime, the Pius Dea cult, taking over, brought down by the Jedi and those sick of their shit after their reign, leading to a few decades of Jedi Grandmasters pulling double duty as Supreme Chancellor to restore democracy and arrest leftover cultists. Other wars also occur such as the the Hutt Wars with Xim the Despot, the Hutt Cataclysms (a major series of Civil Wars and natural disasters that ruined the Hutt Empire and instituted the Hutt Cartel system and founded the basis of the galactic criminal underworld), and a series of wars on and off for 20000 odd years over whether Coruscant or another planet (Alsakan) is to be the capital.
** Two important worlds that need to be noted are Corellia, which has disproportionate influence in the founding of the Republic and even has the right to declare neutrality in civil disputes due to economic power of its status on the most important hyperspace shortcut in the galaxy (as well as the Celestial influenced state of their system), and Kuat, founded by pre-Hyperspace human colonists launched from Coruscant and the premier shipyard in the galaxy.
* Eventually the Sith return to destroy the Jedi after two Republic scouts accidentally stumble upon Korriban, the Sith species home planet and now the burial site for the Dark Lords, and return while being followed, kicking off the Great Hyperspace War.
** The Republic is almost destroyed, but survives, and led by Empress Teta (the Empress of a member world that is) in turn smashes the Old Sith Empire led by Dark Lord Naga Sadow.
** The Sith slink back into the shadows. The Jedi start their other big tradition, over-correcting from their past mistakes and creating new ones, by beginning a time of non-interference in galactic affairs and a general desire only for peace.
** During this time, Darth Vitiate (born Tenebrae as the illegitimate son of Sith Lord Dramath [[Grimdark|who raped one of his slaves]]) exploits the defeat and manipulates 8000 fellow Sith Lords to a secret ritual to live forever. It goes [[Just as Planned]] for Vitiate as he consumes the souls of his fellows to become immortal (but not invincible) and names himself Sith Emperor of the Reformed Sith Empire. He secretly builds his forces from the remaining Sith armies and lords.
** Duringthe final battle of the Great Hyperspace War a Sith ship crashes into a planet and the survivors become the Lost Tribe of Sith.
* Freedon Nadd, Jedi apprentice, is denied knighthood and falls to the Dark Side after finding Sadow's tomb and his spirit. He causes the Beast Wars on Onderon and its moon Dxun and rules for a hundred years before dying, his cultists becoming weirdo beast rider types who plague Onderon.
* Two Jedi Knights, Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma fall to the Dark side after finding Dark Lord Marka Ragnos and Nadd's spirits respectively and become Master and Apprentice in that order. After Ulic kills his brother and former fellow Jedi, he returns to the light and kills Exar Kun during their war to destroy the Jedi. Ulic wanders around for a while and then dies in his former lover Grand Master Nomi Sunrider's arms, who had become Grand Master after Exar Kun and Ulic's war ended with the formers death.
* Mandalorians, the space Mongols/Aztecs, start attacking the universe because all they understand is war (and because the Taung species is dying out, leading to them allowing worthy foreigners to join, humans end up as the vast majority).
** This massive war almost wipes out several species but the Jedi do nothing. Eventually one of their number, nicknamed the Revanchist and his friends Alek and Meetra Surik are dispatched to investigate, and upon finding the atrocities committed decide to forsake the Jedi wuss way and break the back of the Mandalorians.
** The Revanchist takes the name of Revan after picking up and putting on the mask of a female Mandalorian who refused orders to massacre civilians and died defending them.
** During the fighting, Mandalore the Ultimate orders Serocco and Jebble nuked from orbit, killing everyone who failed to escape and leaving Jedi Assassin Celeste Morne stranded on Jebble in stasis, which she had gone in to to keep the Muur Talisman which contained to soul of Karness Muur, one of the Dark Jedi exiles who founded the Sith Order, from escaping. The stasis coffin is the same one built by Remulus Dreypa to keep Muur in.
** Revan kills Mandalore the Ultimate in single combat, leaving the Taung extinct. After learning that Mandalore the Ultimate was manipulated through his final words, Revan and Alek go to Dromund Kaas to investigate, then fall to the Dark Side and create a fascist government centered on Dromund Kaas (actually the hidden capital of the Reformed Sith Empire who brainwashed the leader of the Mandos). The Sith Emperor had brainwashed both of them.
** Revan becomes Darth Revan and Alek becomes Darth Malak, which almost destroys the Republic, again (a third recurring theme), with the only loyalists remaining being Surik and her chief engineer, who had returned to the Order after the final battle at Malachor V where they fired a super weapon, the Mass Shadow Generator on Revan's orders which the brainwashed Revan used to kill the other loyalist Jedi, before Revan and Alek went off to open revolt.
** A Jedi named Bastila Shan is sent to assassinate their leader Darth Revan, but believing in redemption instead she wiped his mind. The two went on an adventure while Revan was trained as a Jedi again, and he defeated his apprentice Darth Malak and dismantled his own army (also did a bunch of racing, theme #4).
** Afterwards, the remaining Fallen Jedi institute the First Jedi Purge under the Sith Triumvirate, Darth Nihilus (who vored planets after being reduced to a husk by the superweapon Revan used at Malachor V), Darth Sion (who was so edgy he had to be convinced to let go as he was too angry to die), and Darth Traya (a.k.a. Kreia, actually Jedi Master Arren Kae, who wanted to destroy the force itself) and their followers, survivors of Malak's remaining army.
** The only loyalist Jedi survivor of Revan's initial force, Meetra Surik, having been exiled from the Order after being the only veteran to return, comes back and destroys the Sith Triumvirate (redeeming the only apprentice they had, Visas Marr, in the process) along with her companions (including Visas and her old chief engineer) who she trained as Jedi, plus Revan's old war buddy/current Mand'alor (Mandalorian king) Canderous Ordo and an asshole droid.
** Revan's companions and Meetra's companions then presumably rebuild the Jedi Order and the badly damaged Republic over 300 years, while Revan and Surik go to Dromund Kaas to finish off the Emperor (Revan not telling anyone like a moron, while Surik just went to help her friend) but are betrayed by their ally Darth Scourge, who foresees the Emperor is not going to die for three more centuries.
** Surik ignonomously dies, while Revan is tortured for 300 years while managing to keep the Emperor from attacking the Republic when it is vulnerable.
* A clusterfuck of things happen.
** The Sith create a nearly galaxy-wide coalition to start a civil war with the Republic. The Sith have overwhelming advantage, but are so backstabby and hedonistically asinine they fail to accomplish anything major after the initial strikes, though Darth Malgus manages to sack Coruscant and the Jedi Temple.
** Things cool of for 12 years in a Cold War, then heat back up again and are disrupted when the Sith Emepror (who as stated was the guy who manipulated the Mandalorians and brainwashed Revan) is apparently killed by the Hero of Tython (who is then promoted to Jedi Battlemaster) aided by Darth Scourge (who the Emperor life-extended to serve as his personal assassin, while plotting to kill the Emperor).
** Revan splits in two from the 300 year torture, and after the torturers (the edgiest Sith ever, the Dread Masters, who were personally trained by the Emperor) get killed by the SWTOR player character of your choice (story-wise, the Hero of Tython makes the most sense as the Jedi Knight so will go with that for the purposes of timeline), who had also apparently killed Darth Malgus when he got pissed at the [[Stupid Evil]] of the other Sith and tried to make his own empire, and tries to bring the Emperor back to a physical body, with the protagonist and their allies barely stopping him.
** It turns out the Emperor manipulated Revan's last efforts and used the bloodshed there to transfer all of his spirit to where he was actually focusing on, the Eternal Empire at the planet of Zakuul he made over the past few centuries, after finding a super robot fleet in the planet of Iokath and possessing a local hero named Valkorion. His body is destroyed by the protagonist, and the Emperor's son Arcann (who killed his light-side twin in a rage) invades both the Republic and the Sith Empire.
** Meanwhile, the protagonist is placed in carbonite for five years, while Arcann used the Emperor's supposed death to drum up support for his regime in Zakuul. He is defeated and (due to Light Side Republic Loyalist Jedi Knight being the most reasonable choice for storyline purposes) is redeemed to the light side. His sister tries to take over, and is killed. A large part of the Emperor's soul is destroyed after trying to take over the SWTOR protagonist.
** Afterwards, the Republic and Sith Empire return to war over the remaining superweapons on Iokath and the SWTOR protagonist rejoins the Jedi and the Republic. Empress Acina (who took over the Reformed Sith Empire after Darth Marr, regent after the Emperor faked his death, was killed after being captured along with the protagonist prior to the 5-year timeskip) dies in the fighting and Darth Malgus returns, having survived and rebuilt as a cyborg.
** The Emperor finally loses control of the Force and all three of his personalities (Tenebrae, Darth Vitiate and Valkorion) are destroyed, finally killing him for good and thus letting Revan and Meetra become one with the Force. The protagonist continues heroics and defeats/captures some Dark Council Sith Lords (and Malgus, presumably in the next expansion as of the time of writing - which happened and he was captured by the Republic, further details TBA as SWTOR storyline continues) and the final phase of the Great Galactic War eventually ends in Republic victory, the Reformed Sith Empire shattering to pieces.
* Around 2000 years before the Battle of Yavin some dickwad Jedi falls to the Dark Side as Darth Ruin and reignites the brewing low intensity conflict as the New Sith Wars at full scale as the first undisputed Dark Lord in a millenium since the Sith Empire Remnants shattered to insurgencies and individual Dark Side cabals. Ruin instigates the Fourth and last Great Schism of the Jedi.
** The Sith eventually reform into the Brotherhood of Darkness to prevent the mass backstabbing that restarted with the New Sith Wars and bans the title of Darth, with all Sith Lords being equal (though of course, [[Communism|some are more equal than others]], like fallen Jedi Master Skere Kaan).
** After a thousand straight years of war, a Galactic Dark Age settles in and ruins major tech infrastructure and companies, fixing the dissonance between movie era tech being worse than literally thousands of years ago. The last three hundred years until 1000 BBY are particularly brutal, killing FTL communications past the Mid Rim sans courier and brings the Republic to its knees.
* 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, Sergeant Dessel, transferring from the Sith Army to the Sith Academy after his force sensitivity was discovered, thinks the Brotherhood of Darkness is a bunch of bullshit. He decides that the Dark Side can only have two Sith, one Master to embody power and an Apprentice to crave it, after finding Revan's edgy fanfiction he wrote after the Mandolarian Wars and before the Jedi Civil War in a Sith Holocron. He names himself Darth Bane and manipulates Lord Kaan into building the Thought Bomb, a Dark Side Force weapon.
** The Brotherhood of Darkness are defeated at the (Seventh) Battle of Ruusan. They detonate the Thought Bomb, which wipes them out along with the Army of Light, a Jedi army formed in desperation by Lord Hoth as a last resort to save the Republic, as the Army of Light sacrifice themselves to force Kaan to detonate it early and end the New Sith Wars, [[Just As Planned|exactly as Bane planned]].
** The Rule Of Two is instituted by Bane who takes Zhannah as his apprentice, preventing the Dark Side clusterfuck that happens when too many assholes exist as “equals” in one faction. The Jedi almost destroy the Sith as Zhannah is caught spying in the Jedi Temple and is forced to retreat, chased by three masters and two knights.
** Bane and Zhannah defeat them and Zhannah's cousin is made insane by her Sith Sorcery and attacks the Jedi task force sent after them, who are forced to kill him. Thinking that was the Sith they were looking for the Jedi pat themselves on the back and go back to Coruscant to report the Sith being destroyed.
** Zhannah defeats Bane and takes Cognus as her apprentice. Cognus takes Millenial (yes, Darth Millenial) as her apprentice, who disagrees with the Rule of Two and goes to Dromund Kaas to start the Prophets of the Dark Side, who worship the Dark Side. Cognus takes another apprentice and things continue as they hide, plan, research, and backstab in secret for 1000 years.
* After this apparent victory, the Republic undergoes the Ruusan Reformation, beginning the Great Peace of the Republic in which no major war occurred.
** The Jedi are greatly weakened in political authority and demilitarized. They also begin strictly enforcing the age maximum for training people as Jedi. Having lost its best and brightest save for Grand Master Faye (namely, Lord Hoth and Master Valenthyne Farfhalla) in the Army of Light's sacrifice, degenerate into Lawful Stupid morons with the Ruusan Reformation, which states that the Jedi can no longer create an army, and that the Jedi are under the command of the Senate, although they still have their own Council for internal stuff. They decide to vigorously enforce the age limit and become more and more detached from the people and the small good deeds that help reinforce the light side in an individual (demonstrated in SWTOR with the Hero of Tython, whose dead master as a Force Ghost instructs him to give labor and medical assistance in a small village to help reinforce his soul).
** The Republic disbands its military except for a small anti-piracy force in the Judicial Forces and leaves actual defense to Planetary Defense Forces.
** The Republic massively decentralizes and executive, as opposed to legislative or home planet/sector, power starts falling back into Senators hands for the first time since pretty much the Pius Dea period as Supreme Chancellors and Vice Heads essentially become first and second among equals to other Senators, thus making the executive and legislative significantly accountable to the larger and more bribe friendly Senate rather than the government.
* Due to the infrastructure damage, a period of [[Medieval Stasis]] sets in, turning for example battle droids from multi legged hyper mobile tanks and super deadly assassins to crappy shit tier fodder infantry outside of expensive special models.
* Megacorporations gain power in the sparser regions of the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim as the republic falls into a combination of absurd political corruption and Inner Rim/Core Worlds exceptionalism, to the point that some corps have Senators of their own (not even bribed, literal voting members presumably elected/bribed the electoral offices from corp owned worlds). Senators essentially become mouthpieces of planetary interests or big business and vote based on who bribes them.
* 65 years before the Battle of Yavin, a man from Naboo's House Palpatine (dubbed Sheev in Disney canon) became the apprentice to a Sith Master named Darth Plagueis.
** He learned secrets of Sith Alchemy and pretty much any other plot-related evil shit that writers want, takes on the name Darth Sidious, then killed his master and began a (very convoluted) plan to wipe out the Jedi, rule the galaxy and wage war on things outside the galaxy, and live forever. Just assume anything that happens from here until his death is [[Tzeentch|because of him]].
** Palpatine takes on an apprentice, an older Jedi who left the Order due to its hands-off approach to galactic governance. The now ex-Jedi Dooku Serenno reclaimed the fortune and title of Count he had relinquished to join the Jedi and was secretly contacted by Palpatine to slowly cajole him over years.
* A Jedi named Sifo-Dyas has a prophecy that the galaxy will soon be at war, and concocts an elaborate plan to get an army for the currently armyless Republic using money from criminal organizations and the genetic material of a Mandalorian descended from the old warriors. He’s killed by Palpatine ([[Just As Planned|the guy that planted the idea in his head]]), who takes over the project via Dooku and had each clone implanted with a secret control chip that would override their training and loyalties when Sheev gave “Order 66”.
* As the Republic weakened due to corruption and the rising power of corporations, and the Jedi weakened due to Sheev’s (and his predecessors) tampering with the Force via bullshit Alchemy handwaves and becoming detached from the common people weakening their compassion and the light side, planets and organizations within the Republic began to act aggressively. Sheev was behind many of their moves as his public identity rose as the Senator of his home planet of Naboo.
** As aforementioned, many organizations gained enough power to have Senatorial representatives, making corporations as powerful as entire planets and causing the clusterfuck of alliances and conflicting interests to render the Republic almost powerless.
* The Trade Federation, a simple shipping company that had its own Senator and via shared interests controlled many, MANY more, began using its private army to blockade planets. They did this to secure exclusive contracts with the goal of controlling all trade everywhere eventually, and even hold power over the Republic due to its lack of military.
** Sheev as Sidious reveals himself to be heavily invested in their projects, and they gladly accepted his patronage. He advised them to upscale their ambitions and blockade the planet Naboo, which was far more powerful politically and economically than their previous targets, 32 years before the Battle of Yavin.
* We leave the mists of backstory/dubious canon and enter into the Movie/TV Canon.
** Two Jedi, an apprentice and a master (Obi-wan and Dooku’s old apprentice Qui-Gon) were sent to negotiate an end to the blockade. Fearing that the Federation had gone into dangerous territory, the leaders contacted Sheev, who ordered them to kill the Jedi and continue the blockade as if nothing had happened.
*** The Jedi escaped to the surface of the planet and escaped with the planet’s leader Queen Amidala. They were delayed due to engine problems from the escape, and stopped at Tatooine where they picked up a slave boy named Anakin who was Force-sensitive (implied to be an experiment from Sheev’s Alchemy to create life as he learned under Plagueis, abandoned after accidentally rendering Anakin's mother pregnant with no father, bot Plagueis and Palpatine deeming it a failure). Meanwhile Sheev’s own apprentice Darth Maul had been sent to ensure his plans were carried out. A couple of weeks after this Palpatine kills Plagueis and becomes the Dark Lord.
** Sheev convinced the Queen to start a movement against the administration of the Republic, which was joined by the majority of the Senate; even the corrupt were sick of everyone else’s corruption.
*** This destabilized the Republic leadership, shuffling Sheev into power as Supreme Chancellor and putting his lackeys in charge. Meanwhile, the queen and Jedi returned to Naboo and lead a revolt, defeating the Trade Federation and leaving their leadership as prisoners of the Republic, but Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin dies at the hands of Sidious's apprentice Maul and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi is left grieving and Maul believed dead as he was cut in half by Kenobi.
*** Sheev worked behind the scenes to keep them from being prosecuted for their actions while making plans to turn Anakin Skywalker, who had been found and chosen for training by the Jedi as part of the Chosen One Prophecy (by Obi-Wan, who had literally just become a Knight after Qui-Gon's death, so that was a dumb fucking call giving the kid who needed a father figure to a rigidly dedicated young man in mourning who had almost failed out of the Jedi into the Jedi Service Corps due to relative weakness in the force), into a future asset.
** Sheev progressed his plan for a war to further destabilize the galaxy by pitting the various corporate powers he controlled as Darth Sidious against the united planets he controlled as Supreme Chancellor. This leads to a Separatist movement with both sides financially powerful, both sides possessing armies, and both sides feeling they were the ones who were wronged and both firmly in Sith pockets, the Separatists as a disposable tool under Dooku (who, after Maul's believed death, had become Sidious's apprentice Tyrannus) and the Republic primed to vote for Palpatine to gain more and more power.
*** The “Clone Wars” began after a series of events orchestrated by Dooku where the Jedi discover and deploy the clone armies against Separatists who had been planning to execute the Jedi and former queen of Naboo as revenge on behalf of the Trade Federation.
** Sheev manipulated both sides of the conflict to deplete the strength of all participants. The Separatists were led by the cyborg General Grievous, Count Dooku (Sidious planned to replace both Maul and Dooku from the beginning, with Anakin) and the corrupt Separatist Council essentially acting as Count Dooku's mouthpiece, while the Republic forces were led by the Jedi Master Mace Windu and Grand Master Yoda.
** Public opinion began to turn against the war, and groups of Senators who had previously been allies of Sheev began meeting in secret and planning for militarizing their planets so there would no longer be a need for an army of the Republic.
** When the time was right Sidious orchestrated a finale of battles which resulted in the deaths of Dooku and Grievous, then enacted Order 66 to slaughter almost all of the Jedi and turned Anakin to his side as Darth Vader. He declared himself Emperor and the Republic his Empire, eliminating much of the old government over time, and allowing cronies to make it into the ranks of a galactic military dictatorship which used powerless puppet governments on the local level.
** Separatist remnants continue resistance and a majority of them are defeated in the Reconquest of the Rim.
** Small rebel cells popped up everywhere, which would eventually unite under the surviving members of the old Senate following Palpatine using Vader's "secret" apprentice to lure them out and failing to kill them as said apprentice turns to light and sacrifices himself (the plot of The Force Unleashed).
** The Great Jedi Purge comes to an end one year before the Battle of Yavin with Master An'ya Kuro being killed by Vader, leaving several dozen Jedi alive as the Empire shifted focus to fight the Rebels, now united as the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The Alliance is led by Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, two Senators.
** The Emperor dissolves the Senate and orders his military second Wilhuff Tarkin to use the newly built Death Star, a planet killer super weapon, to enforce his rule, while his civilian second Sate Pestage handles the bureaucracy.
** Han Solo, would be Imperial Officer, quits the academy after saving Wookie Warrior Chewbacca's life due to personal aversion to Imperial policy and turns into one of the best smugglers in the galaxy (having a Wookie owing a life debt to you really helps in fights, by the way).
** Vader turns out to have fathered twins with Padme Amidala, the Naboo senator after Palpatine became Chancellor, who died due to her life force being drained after giving birth to Luke and Leia. Leia got sent to live with Bail Organa and his wife in the idylic paradise Alderaan as Princess, while Luke got given to his in aunt and uncle at the sandy shithole Tatooine, utterly worthless except as a shadowport since the Rakatans bombed it to dust in such a way as to render minerals mined from it useless due to ion fluctuation after the world defied them. When we said the Jedi degenerated into [[Lawful Stupid]] morons, we meant it, given it was Obi-Wan and Yoda, basically the two big name Jedi of several dozen who had their heads screwed on straight, who made this decision.
** In 0 BBY Leia, by this time a very active but powerless Senator, acquires the Death Star plans after various different missions gather bits and pieces of it and rushes to Tatooine to get Obi-Wan's help on her fathers orders. Obi-Wan was on Tatooine to help guard Luke. Leia's ship and its escorts are intercepted by Vader and his units and her corvette attempts to escape from the battle only to be boarded by Vader's personal elite unit since the Clone Wars, the 501st Legion. Leia is captured but two droids, C-3PO (a protocol droid built by Anakin as a child) and R2-D2 (an astromech that used to belong to Naboo and was used by Anakin in the Clone Wars) manage to escape with the plans which Leia gave to R2-D2. The droids crash onto the planet in an escape shuttle.
{{Star Wars}}

Age of Enlightenment

2022-08-28T02:28:35Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Situation in Europe */

{{Skub}}
[[file:HMS Endeavour.jpg|300px|thumb|left|When you have tall ships like this you can reach across the world]]
The '''Age of Enlightenment''' (or often just '''The Enlightenment''') is a rough period from about 1600-1650 to 1800 in which Europe rose in prominence, strength and especially in knowledge. Roughly speaking it was when ideas and events that were forming in the [[Renaissance]] came into their own. Maritime trade steadily improved thanks to steady improvements in the art of shipbuilding and navigation, to the point the era is often known as/overlaps with the Age of Sail, as well as new ideas on how to get a voyage off the ground as joint stock companies began to grow. Instead of a ship's captain financing a long voyage or having a patron who funded it, both of whom could be ruined by failure, hundreds of people could invest in a company with a fleet of ships spreading the risk about. This coincided with an increase in the population due to the introduction of New World Crops and other such improvement in agriculture. Both of which led to the growth of cities and the rise of literacy and the merchant classes. People to whom education was of a paramount import both for practical reasons (writing contracts, keeping inventory, managing a business empire, keeping track of world events that they could capitalize on, having a career in law) and because this could be a way of accessing the nobility by marriage who could overlook commonerhood in one with a pile of money and could act in accordance with their increasingly complex fashions and etiquette which often involved studying the [[Classical Period]].

The result of which was that there was a growing class of wealthy people that had been politically sidelined around Europe reading up on the latest developments, sharing their ideas through letters, meetings and books and responding to others. Many of them began to question the established order of things and old dogmas such as the notion that the path to knowledge was through revealed truth and submission to religious and monarchical authority simply because they were in power. From the classical age they drew upon ideals of reason, logic and discussion but rather than just blindly accepting the words of Aristotle or Plato or replicating the "pure discussion/rhetoric" form of philosophical discourse and began backing up their claims with systematic observation and review by their peers. From their works and experiments gradually saw a new surge in Natural Philosophy which would gradually give rise to Modern Science and with it breakthroughs in in engineering.

Their efforts generated useful results in a variety of fields, which got them more patronage from the established powers. Science became popular for many Monarchs of the time for practical and political gain, as who would not want to have an Enlightened Monarch with a keen eye to modernization? That said, the Merchant class (or Bourgeoisie) also extended its reach into the political sphere and promoted the idea that everyone (for a certain value of everyone) had legal rights. In England due to political dealings (including a coup by a pretender King that involved the British Army looking the other way) and dynastic squabbles the House of Commons rose in prominence in the British Government (though they did build on the precedents of previous times) by 1689. These ideas would be taken further a century latter in England's colonies during the American Revolution and further still in the French Revolution.

This has been a rather rosy description of this period so far, though there is a fair deal that should not be overlooked. Spain and Portugal both ruled over huge chunks of South America setting up garrisons, missions, mines, plantations and ports and little else to suck the regions dry of resources while the Dutch did similar horrible things to [[Dune|monopolize spice production]]. The notion of Racial Slavery arose as well as racial psuedosciences such as phrenology a formalization of prejudices continuing trends starting in the Renaissance. The assholish racism due to arbitrary differences thing started here, rather than the entirely practical resource related hatred. Nations got into wars specifically to impose bullshit tariffs on each other to screw each other over. The dominant economic outlook was mercantilism, which basically said that trade was a Zero Sum Game in which someone always got screwed over so a country should always seek to screw over everyone else.

One particularly low part of the period was scurvy. This "disease" killed millions of sailors, and nobody could identify the cause. Today we know that scurvy is not a disease at all, and it is really a lack of Vitamin C, but it took till '''1753''' for James Lind to publish a paper on how citrus fruit and acidic foods cured and prevented scurvy and even then he wasn't entirely sure ''why'' this worked. Even then it would not be till the early [[Industrial Revolution]] that sauerkraut (which is preserved with salt and fermentation instead of heat) was issued to prevent it. We now know scurvy affected sailors because they ate entirely preserved food and, in addition to the general difficulty in preserving fruits and vegetables long term, heat, key to most preservation, destroys vitamin C. Further, vitamin C dissolves in water and is lost if the cooking water is discarded, which means even if you did have preserved food with vitamin C, boiling vegetables (one of the most common preparation methods) outside of a stew/soup will kill the nutrition value. Still even if the exact reason why was unknown, citrus fruits were ''eventually'' carried by ships to ward off scurvy. The general fruit of choice were lemons except for the British whose colonies instead grew... Limes, hence why the British even to this day are known derogatory or semi-derogatory as "''Limey''."

==The Golden Age of Piracy==
If you have ever seen a pirate movie, or read Treasure Island, this is the period where it probably takes place. Between the 1650s and the 1730s, organized and legal privateering (authorized by a letter of marque and reprisal) became a very common weapon in the numerous wars between the colonial European powers in order to disrupt the supply of precious materials, gold and other stuff from the American colonies and Indian companies to the European mainland. This period was quite brutal for many colonies involved, for example Macaribo (modern day Venezuela) alone was sacked 3 times in the span of just ten years.

This first golden age paled in comparison to the second, which lasted between 1707 and 1721. The aftermath of the first major paneuropean war of the century, the War of the Spanish Succession, left a lot of trained and press ganged seamen unemployed, which in turn used their newfound skills to take over several ships and plunder their way to endless riches. At least in theory. While being a pirate earned you a modicum of freedom when compared to your average european peasant or factory worker at the time (or a lot in the case of blacks, a not insignificant number of pirates of that time were former slaves) life at sea was very harsh, and by the time the Europeans started to crack down on piracy in earnest, the risks of piracy started to outweigh the benefits to many. It should be noted that your typical pirate crew was fairly democratic: when a pirate crew formed they laid out a charter with rules that were generally followed, pirate captains were elected by all crewmen and loot was split fairly evenly and there were clauses for compensation for those guys who lost a hand or something in battle.

The end of the golden age is universally agreed upon to be around 1721, when the last former privateers that still operated from Madagaskar were hunted down and mostly executed. An attempt to revitalize piracy to profit off the African slaves that were still in high demand in the US states where slavery was legal (even more so when the Great Powers of Europe one by one outlawed Slavery in their colonies) was made by the Barbary states in north africa occured in the late 1700s, until the US and Royal Navy crushed those fleets.

For more roleplaying and worldbuilding inspirations, consult [[Pirate|this page]].

== American Revolution ==
{{topquote|No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.|United States Constitution: Section 9, Article 8}}

From 1607 to 1776 England (both in terms of the English Crown and English People going to lands claimed by the Crown) had established a series of colonies on the eastern coast of North America which grew in population, wealth and general capacity. After the Seven Years' War for a variety of reasons which ranged from new taxes levied on the colony that they had no say in to pay for the entirety of said war, mercantilist policies in which Colonists were forbidden from trading with anyone other than the British home islands and could not have any industry of their own, treaties with natives whose land the colonists wanted for themselves, the quartering of soldiers in people's homes and laws which allowed Catholics to hold public offices in newly conquered Quebec unrest gradually built until it came to a head with the outbreak of war between the Colonials and the English Government and its loyalists. The Colonials threw together a rag-tag government to train and mobilize and support a new army with support from the French and eventually managed to win out against the English forces and achieve independence. After a bit more political shuffling when it became obvious that a loose confederacy would not work the United States of America was formed.

The important fact of this was that the new United States of America was a nation which was fundamentally built on Enlightenment ideals. Socially not much changed in the immediate aftermath of the American Revolution, the 13 Colonies was controlled by an elite of wealthy men which were subject to the crown but mostly handled local affairs on their own along with some representative government and afterwards the early US was controlled by the same elite of wealthy men alongside some representative government without having to deal with crown officials. However the system of government which was created was one which broke with the longstanding European tradition of hereditary monarchy backed by the church. The British had already employed some of these in both the Home Islands and those ideas were transplanted to American in the graftings, especially the Magna Carta, but America's Founding Fathers had no truck with kings or lords or the idea that the right to rule was bestowed on them by God which made them fundamentally better human beings. Instead governments should be accountable to their people, and the Constitution and its appended Bill of Rights would be the ultimate law of the land that no ruler could overturn.

This is not to say that they got everything right the first go. The Franchise was still limited to only White Men and even then there would be some residual property requirements which would not fully fade away until about 1830 and the issue of Slavery in particular would fester until it came to the head in the Civil War and was abolished with the Emancipation Proclamation. Even so the US would be a prototype which many people would seek to emulate elsewhere politically to various degrees.

== Situation in Europe ==
Europe experienced drastic changes in this period in both positive in negative ways. Christian world dominance and rapid rise of European powers that began with Age of Colonialism was practically cemented in this time-period. New colonial powers, such as England, France and Netherlands started to participate in colonial expansion along more traditional powers of Spain, Portugal and the often overlooked Denmark, whose colonial history actually preceded those of the former. Society and state structures became much more centralized as monarchs started to crack down on the priviledges of feudal lords to seize more power over the state they ruled for themselves, building the first modern centralized nation states. As a sideeffect, the petty and middle-class nobility saw their importance and influence dwindle rapidly as they were being demoted from local lords of their own fiefdoms to being figureheads in political plays all instigated by their monarchs to keep them from thinking too hard about this "being forced to hand power to the King" ordeal. While this was the typical development for most of the western hemisphere, there were a couple of nations where this development didn't take place in the archetypical french way, with the biggest outliars being England, where Parliament became an instrument of commoners and nobles to negotiate with the King and vice versa and most notably Poland-Lithuania, where the local nobility resisted the idea of handing over power to the monarch so fiercly that they turned this game on its head and effectively seize total control from the Polish King over the state, building one of the first rudimentary, if dysfunctional and easily corrupted modern-style democracy.

This is also the time when the stagnating rival of European powers, the Ottoman Empire started its steady decline after Suleiman the Magnificent. The fact that they had a civil war due to a lack of succession protocols was a part of this, as was general conservatism, a bureaucracy which became increasingly prone to thinking exclusively in religious terms, a corrupt military and the rise of their European rivals. So naturally, everything changed when Absolutism kicked in. This is also the period when [[Kislev|Tsardom of Russia]] emerged and with claim on being the Third and Final Rome, began giving regular beatings to Ottomans to centuries to come. In particular, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great oversaw considerable modernization and expansion. Much of the crisis also had to do with mismanagement and general non-uniform administration and maltreatment of Christian population. Also, despite being called "Turkey" anachronistically and historically, the Ottomans were an extremely elitist state, where even the word "Turk" was associated with nomadic Turkoman or Anatolian peasants and was used in a context like we use word "retard" nowadays. Due to this, the court elite were alienated from the population of the Empire and ended up having revolts every time they didn't win a war, and had to raise taxes.
[[file:Louis XIV of France.jpg|250px|thumb|Right|King Louis XIV, proclaimed the "Sun King" which all the other kingdoms of Europe orbited and were bathed in his radiance. The French Court was not known for subtlety.]]
Undoubtedly, the star of Age of Enlightenment was France, which emerged as a global player and a place where practically every relevant ideology at the time originated From. First thing to note is the aforementioned Absolutism under Louis XIV, who curtailed power of the aristocracy in favor of a stronger central government and expanded French influence throughout the world by both wars and diplomatic pursuits. Overtime, however, absolutism practically begat ideas of Enlightenment, conceptualized by the French philosophers that opposed tyrannical rule of the monarchs, rather supporting more democratic and free states.

That is to say, not everything was all well and good at the time. Wars became more massive and deadly with more use of gunpowder. Numerous countries such as England experienced civil turmoil. Courtly lives in numerous countries such as France became vain and luxurious while lives of general population didn't change as much, causing discontent amongst the populace. And finally, the latter combined with Enlightenment, led to the events mentioned below.

== French Revolution ==
The French Revolution came about from various reasons; be it from the spreading of new ideas to natural disasters and mini Ice Age that increased the price of grain. However, the lion's share of the fault came with the generally decadent court life. In a financial report by Jacques Necker, minister of Finance under Louis XVI, [[Bretonnia|the largest part of the state expanses were for the pensions and salaries of useless nobles, financed by taxes and works of peasants and serfs that lived like shit]]. France faced a large financial crisis at the time, amplified by the country's participation in numerous wars.

To deal with the issue, Louis XVI invited the traditional organ representing entire nation, the [[High Lords of Terra|Estates General]], to assemble. However, there was a simple problem with the organ: [[derp|it was retarded]]. French society was divided into three estates: Nobles, Clergy, both of which were one to two percent of the population, and Third Estate. And each got one vote. So yes, 98% of population could not overcome the rest by voting. With that being said, some of the nobles and priests were also discontent with this illogical system, so when the Estates General failed, some joined the Third Estate that refused to disband. That and the dismissal of lowborn Necker led to unrest, revolt and culminated with the storming of Bastille, signaling the French Revolution.

That is to say, at first, revolutionaries had a simple goal: establishment of a constitutional monarchy, and they guaranteed the safety of the king. However, the strong negative and outright menacing reaction from neighboring monarchies combined with the fact that Louis XVI was a fucking moron that tried to flee the country led to complete abolition of the monarchy and trial of Louis that led to his execution being decreed with one vote deciding everything. Numerous revolutionaries actually opposed the execution, mostly citing that this would lead to wars with neighboring countries.

However, a more serious concern was the fact that it would set a VERY negative precedent in general and would mark the start of much, much, much more political executions and repressions. This fear turned out to be justified, as after Louis XVI's execution, everything went downhill: After the provisional government fell under the sway of the most radical faction of the revolutionaries, the guillotine chopped off heads of numerous revolutionaries on flimsy pretense, peasants and workers lynched former nobles, militant anti-Christians desecrated churches and cathedrals and strove to remove all Christian influence, which only reinforced the hatred from pious Christian population towards the revolution which deepened the chasm in society, and in general chaos took over the country. It became obvious that an iron fist was needed to bring back stability and order and such appeared, namely from a certain Corsican manlet.

== Napoleonic Wars ==
Napoleon Bonaparte came in power as a Consul after the coup d'etat, declaring "Gentlemen, Revolution is over", marking the beginning of the Napoleonic era. Sadly nowadays the much more noble deeds of Napoleon are ignored. He stabilized the country, created an effective administration, built up infrastructure and, for Americans' eternal despair, adopted and spread the metric system. His Magnum Opus was the Napoleonic Code that forms the legal basis for numerous modern day countries. On a personal level, he is known to be honorable and respecting even to his enemies. One example is his admiration to Pyotr Bagrationi, a Georgian general that served under the Russian Empire and engaged Napoleon in Borodino.

However, he is mostly remembered for his utterly devastating wars of conquests. He invented new doctrines of warfare that concentrated on extensive usage of artillery. Later, he abolished the republic and proclaimed himself [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]]. under his rule, France engaged in numerous wars against virtually every one else in Europe, with intervention in Spain, continental blockade of Great Britain or war with Austria that abolished the Unholy German Abomination (aka. Holy Roman Empire). The most disastrous of Napoleonic wars was the invasion of the Russian Empire. While both sides engaged in battles at first, [[Kryptman|Russians eventually turned to scorched earth policy, burning their own farms and settlements to the ground and when Napoleon finally reached Moscow, he took an empty and burned city.]] Out of supplies, tired and being raided by Russian guerillas, Napoleon's Army, originally consisting of 650k men, returned to France with 70k. With his magnificent army gone and France drained of manpower, the French army was finally defeated by a coalition of forces at Leipzig despite the Emperor's determination.

Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was first exiled on Elbe, but after the whole 100 days accident, Napoleon was exiled to island of Saint Helene, where he spent rest of his life. Once the man that shook the very foundations of the continent, he now lived in exile and disgrace with his pride and confidence shattered. This marked the start of Congress of Vienna, which acted as the foundation for European international politcs until the start of World War I.

==Europe After Napoleon==
With dawn of the Epoch, the Continent and the world was considerably changed. In this period, Europe became the dominant power of the world, but it was also devastated by constant turmoil. With the development of more efficient gunpowder and adoption of Napoleonic tactics, warfare tactics completely changed, became more deadly and unforgiving, with devastating forces of artillery being used more rapidly. The new ideologies shook the old regimes and the French Revolution sparked later revolutionary and civil movements in other countries throughout XIX century. The Congress of Vienna formalized the rule of five major powers throughout the world. After the Napoleonic Wars, although she retained her core territories, France became extremely weakened and was slowly overshadowed by the United Kingdom that was entering its Golden Age.

==Notes==
* This period in military history has been called "the Age of Lace Trimmed Warfare". Between muskets and field [[cannon]]s, armor was gradually abolished due to the immense cost of the new standing armies that gradually replaced the mercenary armies of former periods, while the idea of giving every soldier in your army clothes that are all the same gradually caught on. The fancier the better, since an army which still looked well dressed after a month on campaign was obviously disciplined and professional; iconic examples included the French musketeers and the English redcoats. Big blocky formations gave way to lines of soldier two or three ranks deep at most which could bring as many muskets to bear as possible supported by cavalry with sabers and pistols.
** The way armies were fielded also changed dramatically. The Thirty Years War, while mostly fought on German soil, showed every participant how difficult it was to keep mercenaries in line, especially when the money dried up or there was nothing left to plunder. The big mercenary and levied armies of prior centuries gave way to the standing army, sworn to serve King and Country as a cadre of professionally trained and drilled soldiers and officiers. Improvements in bureaucracy, more effective taxation and a population boom also made conscription a viable option, although it would some time until that idea truly catched on. The military organisation reforms introduced in these times also persist to this day, with terms like Lieutenant, Platoon and Division.
* During this period was fought the Seven Years' War, the first global conflict which saw fighting on every continent save Australia and Antarctica.
* Pretty much everywhere in the world would be affected in some way by European powers by end of the Age of Enlightenment. India would fall under the control of the British East India Company, China's economy would become reliant on Western silver, Africa would be affected by the Slave Trade and the Americas and eventually Australia would be colonized and settled. Even the Japanese who closed themselves off adopted a surprising amount of Western ideas through the Dutch in what's known as Rangaku.
* Speaking of the British East India Company, corporate warfare and piracy were rife in this era, and the line between the two was vanishingly thin. The distinction between pirate and privateer was often a matter of one's point of view, and even the proper navies were down for a bit of prize taking. The various trading companies were practically real-life [[Rogue Trader]] dynasties, with the power to raise armies and wage war in the name of profit. For example, in 621.M2 the VoC executed [[Exterminatus]] on the Banda Islands so they could import more [[Grimdark|cooperative slaves]].
* In England and France at this time a few engineers were looking into more effective ways of producing thread, making cloth, casting iron for cannons and sowing seeds with various contrivances. One particular issue they had to deal with in England in particular was the matter of fuel. Wood was becoming scarce during the Enlightenment as more people were burning it and more ships were being built. To save on wood, people began burning coal in large quantities instead, but their mines had a nasty tenancy of flooding. In 1712 Thomas Newcomen made an machine which burned coal to pump them out, which James Watt would refine and improve on fifty years later. Developments which were easily overlooked at this stage, but gradually the stage was set for Revolutionary change.
** Speaking of Coal, the development of the process of turning Coal into Coke in 1714 was also a pretty game changer. Coke is Coal that has been refined by heating it up to 1000°C and freeing it of Sulphur, Water and other substances that would contaminate raw iron. Coke quickly replaced charcoal as the primary fuel for furnaces (on the merit that it is far more efficient; you need a tenth of the amount of charcoal required to melt any given quantity of iron) which made the large-scale production of iron and later steel possible.
* Crops that originated in the New World included the potato, tomato, corn, pineapple, pumpkin, peppers, tobacco, vanilla and chocolate ([[Wikipedia:New World crops|among others]]). While not a crop, all but [[Wikipedia:Rhipsalis baccifera|one species of cactus]] (which doesn't even look like a cactus) are native to the New World. If you see these in something set before this era or cactus in a European/Asia/African desert, call someone a hack.

==The appeal of the Age of Enlightenment==
The Age of Enlightenment is the prelude to the modern world. Its basic ideas and features were taking shape and growing but are not quite there yet, are still largely overshadowed by the Ancient Regime (the old order of things with kings, nobles and the Church) and they were still constrained by many limitations which had been the case since the Bronze Age. Scientists (sometimes organized into bodies such as the Royal Society) were uncovering the world's secrets and making important discoveries in the areas of biology, astronomy and physics while kings set their sights on building empires on which the sun would never set and you had grand financial chicanery such as the South Seas Company, but people still relied on guys with ox carts to bring in their daily grain and take away their crap, law enforcement was handled by gangs of thugs hired out by rich people to keep the riff-raff away from their properties and in many places when people built buildings they still used literal rule of thumb. In spite of that there was a notion of historical transformation about. By the 18th century, an increasing number of people had become cognizant that they had in many ways surpassed their ancestors in numerous fields both practical and theoretical, some of whom could see that greater achievements still were yet to come.

As for a specific of the era this was a high point for the idea of Absolute Monarchy. Realms where power had been consolidated in thrones to be distributed for good service to among nobles which had become less subordinate rulers and more components in the apparatus of government. With this came the idea of the Enlightened Monarch, an educated and cultured man or woman who'd be up to date on natural philosophy with the strength and power to rationalize his/her kingdom, do away with superstition and bring in a new age of elegant humane efficiency.

This is also the height of the Age of Sail. Of tall ships of the line bristling with cannons, fast frigates and pirate ships raiding merchantmen on the high seas with all the action and swashbuckling therein. It's also a time of global reach, where a poor farmer's son might travel to burgeoning colonies, the ports of rival nations and to distant foreign parts with strange ancient civilizations if he spends time on a ship. The battles of the day with their line infantry, cuirassiers with a brace of pistols and sabers and field artillery are distinctive. The epoch was known for its massive battles and advance of artillery.

The inspiration derived by Napoleon deserves a separate mention. His entire history, from humble beginnings to the expedition in Egypt to coup d'etat to becoming the Emperor that trashed everyone and everything on its path to final exile, despair and disgrace served as a great, great inspiration for people throughout centuries.

==Enlightenment inspired Games, Factions and Settings==
While not set in our world but the [[Age of Sigmar]], the lore of the [[Kharadron Overlords]] follows a certain pattern which caters to the Age of Enlightenment, with the coming of Chaos and the abandonment of their gods and allies being something akin to the religious wars, plagues and social strife which ravaged Europe during the late medieval ages, many duardin were forced to migrate to new territories, like the Europeans of the early modern age these refugees were forced to reevaluate their beliefs and culture, and, like them, they shifted from putting their faith no longer in traditional religious systems and absolute monarchs, but in technological development and plutocratic meritocracy. During the five centuries of the Age of Chaos the Kharadron Overlords not only survived the onslaught of the Dark Gods but thrived, building sky-cities and floating ports, developing scientific weaponry and tools based on the substance known as aether-gold and establishing tradelines among them, by the beginning of the Age of Sigmar they are arguably the most technologically advanced race of the setting, with energy-projected weaponry, armoured airships and a set of laws which allows them to pull back from doomed battles and democratically choose or demote, without shame or blood, their own leaders.

{{Time Periods}}
[[Category: History]]

Renaissance

2022-08-28T02:15:11Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Notes */

[[File:Pike and Shot.jpg|400px|thumb|left|Men in breastplates with swords, spears and muskets. [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Hey that sounds kinda familiar...]] ]]
{{topquote|Welcome to the Renaissance! <br>
With poets, painters, and bon vivants. <br>
And merry minstrels. <br>
Who stroll the streets of London. <br>
A strummin' the lutes. <br>
In puffy pants and pointy leather boots! <br>

Welcome to the Renaissance! <br>
Where we ooh and aah you with ambiance. <br>
We're so progressive. <br>
The latest and the greatest. <br>
We bring it to you with much ado. <br>
Welcome to the Renaissance! <br>
Where everything is new!|[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggrk3Z7lqYY Something Rotten!]]}}

==Romanboos==

The '''Renaissance''' is a period of time and history which had its origins in the 1300s in Italy and would gradually spread across Christendom and beyond. It started with scholars like Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Dante, who came across some old pre-church Latin writings and thought to themselves that it was really great stuff. They then started writing more things in homage to the ancients, sparking off an entire movement. As more people took an interest in those ancients, they started to uncover things, and make art and other objects in emulation of them. It's also around the time that people began to think about history. This is where we get terms like "Dark Ages", "Middle Ages", and "Antiquity", applied to the nascent concept of periodizing history before what they would regard as the Renaissance.

The word roughly means "rebirth" in English, more specifically it refers to the revitalization of Civilization after the Medieval Period. Various Italian City States gradually grew in wealth and prominence through maritime trade as well as connections with Byzantium and the Middle East and banking. The merchant princes of Italy would invest that wealth to make more money, but also into grand architecture, the arts, literature, engineering and academics ranging from studies of the [[Classical Period]] to natural philosophy. Things which were seen as noble pursuits in their own right but they were also as signs of wealth and prestige and ways of currying favor with other influential figures ("The Cardinal would be glad to back your bid after your magnificent assistance on the new Cathedral"). Eventually, ideas from Italy would begin to spread out and took root elsewhere in Europe. Cities once again began to grow across Europe.

==Political happenings==

This was fine and dandy in of itself, but in coincided with other big changes. Kings began to consolidate power for themselves with a mind of keeping the squabbling vassals in line. [[Gun]]s were making an increasing impact on the battlefield. In Spain, the Spanish managed to drive the Muslims out of Iberia in the Reconquista and emerged as a new powerful European state. Not too long after that, thanks to improvements in ship design and navigation methods, Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India and later an Italian guy named Columbus set out sailing west across the Atlantic to prove <s>to the ignorant masses that world was round</s> that you could get to India by circumnavigation without starving to death first and ended up finding the Caribbean, thus beginning the colonization of the New World began by the Spanish and Portuguese at first, followed by the French, Dutch and English later. Add to that some religious upheaval which shook the foundations of Christendom in the form of the likes of Hussites and eventually the start of the Protestant Reformation and you got a turbulent period of upheaval, to say the least, ultimately culminating in the Thirty Years War, which was the first time people not directly victimized started realizing that maybe this war thing isn't all that good (it took a thorough ass fucking of the continent and the lesson didn't stick).

The broad strokes of the Renaissance wars were that the Protestants and Catholics hated each other, each side bringing in more and more forces until the entire continent was ablaze. This is also the period where modern day political thought was put in shape with Machiavelli's ''magnum opus'' "The Prince", bringing concepts such as pragmatism and balance of power to the forefront. An ostensibly religious war would lead to hilarious abominations like Catholic France (''de facto'' run by Cardinal Richelieu at the time, no less) allying with Protestant Swedes (That Exterminatused large portions of Germany) against Catholic Habsburgs as alliances shifted.

Physically and politically at the center of all this, the Holy Roman Empire was a shitstorm for most of this era and had mostly themselves to blame. They kept trying to rule the French but the French had their one really competent king who [[Emprah|refused to die]]. Meanwhile the Pope was having problems with the English, who also had their one really competent king who didn't like the Pope telling him he couldn't have a divorce, along with his daughter, who was even better at the job. The Spanish colonized everything, found a literal mountain made of silver and built the biggest overseas Empire ever seen only to lose it all to dynastic struggle, inflation, deindustrialization, and getting their prized armada destroyed by the English. The Venetians were making shit tons of money dominating the Mediterranean, the Swiss were killing people for money, and the Italians were killing each other over who was the more Catholic. '''And with few exceptions, almost every one of them be at one point fighting against, and at another point allied with, every other one.''' It was that crazy.

== Protestantism ==
The Christian denomination of Protestantism also emerged during this time. Depending who you ask, Martin Luther was either an [[this guy|enlightened reformer]] or whiny [[rules lawyer]]. [[Nazi|(He definitely was a massive antisemite even by the standards of his time, though)]]. He started out as a Catholic monk but got fed up with the degree of brazen corruption the Pope was endorsing and the clergy's deviation from the tenets of Christianity. Luther wasn't the first Catholic to call out the corruption, but he was the most noticeable and proactive. So after nailing a list with 95 criticisms to a cathedral door, Luther decided to start his own practice of Christianity... without blackjack or hookers. This went about as well as you'd expect (he was declared a heretic and hunted as a renegade), but what the Pope and Hapsburgs (the dynasty that effectively controlled the title of Holy Roman Emperor) hadn't counted on was how incredibly unpopular they'd made themselves over the years.

You may have heard of the Borgia family and how they got away with some pretty brazen acts while they controlled the papacy, including bribery, incest, and murder; the truth is, the papacy had been in severe trouble for many centuries, including a period where the Papacy was so tightly controlled by the French that they relocated the seat of the Pope from the apostolic Rome to the backwater town of Avignon and back again; when the hold of the French Kings started to loosen up a little, it devolved to the point where three people claimed to be pope at the same time. Lutheranism and its more radical strains like Calvinism ripped through the Dutch, German, and Austrian parts of the Holy Roman Empire, making it essentially ungovernable as a single whole - not that the Holy Roman Empire was ever whole to begin with, even before Spain came into the picture. Protestantism also started making inroads into other countries. Radical Zwinglians and Calvinists set up in Geneva and Zurich, establishing theocratic regimes where all forms of fun (dancing, excessive eating, drinking) were strictly verboten. It swept into France, where it intersected with power struggles among the nobility for the throne to nastily split the majority Catholic kingdom.

This might have been crushed had it not been for one nation. England was ruled by Henry VIII, who was a devout Catholic but [[That guy|wanted his marriage annulled]] (his only living children were daughters and his wife was too old to produce more children) and there was a major roadblock to getting it: he'd gotten the Pope's personal dispensation to marry his sister-in-law after his brother had died and asking for a reversal meant sending a message to the Pope, who was at the time a prisoner of the Holy Roman Emperor, his wife's nephew. The Pope declined for obvious reasons (read: he didn't want to upset the guy who was holding him prisoner), so Henry got the Archbishop of Canterbury to step in and give him the annulment, which meant breaking with the Roman Catholic Church and forming his own branch of Christianity. This was further reinforced by his daughter Elizabeth I, who essentially made the monarch the head of the new religion and forced any clergy to pledge loyalty to the Queen above all else. The average English noble and peasant alike were remarkably on-board with this, as the whole "England vs the Continent" mentality was already firmly entrenched from about four centuries of previous wars. However, many Protestants felt that the Church of England was still too much like Catholicism, with its head of state essentially taking the role of the Pope. These Puritans (and the much less violent Quakers) would cause problems for the British Crown later on. But either way, with England the continental Protestants received a potent ally in opposition to Catholicism as the English sided with the Dutch against the Holy Romans, except when they sided with the Holy Romans against the French.

Things came to a head with the Thirty Years War, the first major conflict between the nations of Europe following the widespread adoption of gunpowder. It began with German princes holding more power than the Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemian (Bohemia now being called the Czech Republic) Protestants not wanting to be ruled by an anti-Protestant Emperor and throwing a group of imperial ambassadors out of a window (yes, really) in protest. Incumbent Ferdinand II reacted by destroying a Protestant church and his officials started killing Protestant protestors. While nominally the war was over Protestantism vs. Catholicism, politicking played an important role in the ever-shifting alliances of the nations involved. For example, despite being devoutly Catholic themselves, France was more concerned with keeping the Hapsburgs at bay, and supplied aid to the Protestants in the North (while harshly suppressing their own Protestants as a threat to the French Crown).

Eventually Louis XIV came to the throne in France (and ruled for '''72 years''', the longest reign of any king in recorded history) and quickly proved to be even more brutally cunning than Richelieu. With that the Habsburg ambitions died and everyone agreed to the Peace of Westphalia, which is regarded today as the foundation for National Sovereignty. This also tends to mark the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the "Early Modern" period, or the "Age of Enlightenment."

== Meanwhile in the East ==

In the Middle East, we've got the final death of Eastern Rome and the meteoric rise of the Ottoman Empire. Undoubtedly the most iconic empire of the period, which established the first modern professional army with the Janissary corps and thoroughly butt-fucked the Balkans for centuries to come. For a time they were the terror of Europe, a bushy-bearded, turban-wearing Muslim foe against whom Christendom would need to unite in order to survive, while on the high seas, their allies on the Barbary Coast terrorized coastal towns from Italy to Iceland. In that era, their only true rivals were the pesky Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire. A major feather in the Ottoman Empire's cap was invading, besieging and taking over the city of Constantinople from the Byzantine Empire, which was later renamed Istanbul. The Sultans of Turkey ruled luxuriously from the grand palace in Istanbul, surrounded by their [[Slaanesh|massive harems of concubines]] and armies of viziers. However, by the tail end of this period, the Ottomans era of rapid expansion would come to an end as the Ottoman state transitioned into a more sedentary imperial polity. Just like the Romans, the cracks started appearing when the brilliant golden age ruler (The Five Good Emperors, ending with Marcus Aurelius, for Rome and Suleiman for the Ottomans) was replaced by his incompetent drunken tyrant son (Commodus and Selim II).

In East Asia, the Ming Dynasty has reached the apogee of its power, having sent massive fleets of ships to the west between 1405 and 1433 in a show of power that ultimately came to nothing. It would soon fall into decline as economic problems, troubles at the Mongolian border, the Japanese invasion of Korea, and natural disasters sap the imperial court's ability to keep things together. The breakdown of order near the end of the sixteenth century led to a growing power vacuum that would be exploited by a confederation of Jurchens under the banner of the Aisin Gioro clan, soon to be known as the Manchu. After spending decades building up their strength, the newly-proclaimed Qing Dynasty get their opportunity when a massive peasant revolt captures Beijing, leading to the suicide of the last Ming Emperor in 1644. With the help of a turncoat Ming general, the Qing sweep into power and fully consolidate themselves as the imperial sovereign of what we now know as China. Not wanting to associate with those they still considered barbarian, the Joseon Dynasty of Korea shut its doors for the next couple hundred of years.

<s>One thing worth noting is that after the Ming (and later Qing) secured their power, they decided that the Middle Kingdom was too good for everyone else and isolated themselves from the rest of the world (apart from demanding tribute from nearby countries, a time-honored Chinese tradition). At the time, they could genuinely claim that they were the most advanced society on the planet, but this closing off to foreign ideas would have major consequences in the following centuries. It also caused a butterfly effect on European trade; the only way to acquire Chinese goods was to pay for it in gold and silver (though eventually trading in European firearms technology). In turn, this fueled European colonial ambitions in the New world, and eventually imploding the Spanish and Chinese economies once the silver supply dried up.</s> Contrary to most popular perceptions of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Chinese were in regular contact with the outside world throughout this period, up until the nineteenth century when the doors were blown wide open by the Opium Wars. The aforementioned fleets of ships testify to both their capacity and willingness to reach new shores. The court let in Jesuits, whose knowledge of astronomy, painting, and other European arts were well appreciated, at least until the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor. In 1689, the Qing concluded the Treaty of Nerchinsk with Russia, more or less establishing the border between both polities for over a century, and also highlighting the fact that the Middle Kingdom didn't simply lord themselves over other peoples.

At the same time however, the Ming also feared invasion by barbarians. Recall the experience of being ruled by the Mongols, which the mandarins detested because the Mongols were foreigners who employed other foreigners to govern their lands. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Ming were in trouble, because of all of the aforementioned problems which challenged the rule of the court; their response was to start circling the wagons, which included the cessation of all maritime trade, which was infested with piracy anyhow. Having taken advantage of those factors to overthrow the Ming, the Qing were very keen to make sure that the same didn't happen to them, particularly as the Manchu were seen as not entirely native to the Middle Kingdom, whatever that meant for the time. As the court became more and more aware of the Jesuits' intentions to convert the population of the empire to Catholicism (which would have required acknowledging the authority of the Pope as superior to the Emperor) and noticing how Europeans were setting up fortified outposts throughout Asia, they decided that it was not in their interests to allow heavily-armed proselytizers to roam freely. Thus, by the eighteenth century, the Qing began to lay down rules that restricted European presence on the mainland.

Furthermore, unlike Europeans, the Chinese had no real reason to actually go on those voyages of discovery, in large part because they were at the heart of an existing trade network. They produced many of the things which had compelled Europeans to travel abroad in the first place, namely silk, porcelain, and later, tea. They also did not have a compulsion to seek out spices because they were practically made in their backyard. Because of the Qing's enormous population, they had an abundant labour force for both agricultural production as well as the manufacture of goods. There were also geographical factors to consider: China had plenty of frontier that could be opened up for siphoning off excess population. There was very little reason to bother braving the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean when pretty much all trade took place in Asia. They continued however, to trade with Europeans because of their need for silver to fuel their economy: having seen how the issuing of paper money by the Ming led to runaway inflation, the Qing insisted on a bimetallic standard using copper for everyday transactions and silver for trade and taxation. This would eventually lead to problems later on as the supply of currency simply could not match population growth and indeed, began to decline as supplies dried up, but we won't go too deeply into those problems here.

A little further east, the Renaissance contains the part of [[Japan]]ese history most people care about: the Sengoku Jidai. This is the part where they cut each other to pieces with swords and shoot holes in each other with guns (as opposed to the other parts where they cut each other to pieces with swords, or the one part where they do both to others). Japan comes into contact with the wider world outside of Asia, as the Portuguese landed on their shores, bringing Jesus and guns with them. The late Sengoku would be strongly influenced by the latter, as Japanese warlords seeking an advantage over their rivals adopted firearms into their armies, which contributed to the rise of massed armies of ashigaru conscripts under Oda Nobunaga. Nobunaga was well on the way to uniting Japan under one leader for the first time in forever until his loyal retainer Akechi Mitsuhide turned on him for unclear reasons. Nobunaga's lieutenant Toyotomi Hideyoshi finished the job and decided to invade Korea, which failed for a number of reasons: the rough geography of the peninsula, strong resistance on land and sea by the Koreans, and Ming reinforcements meant that the invasion stalled and was eventually abandoned.

When Toyotomi died in 1598, his son Hideyori's regents fought each other for control. The winner was Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was declared shogun in 1603. Ieyasu abdicated in 1605 and passed the role to his son Hidetada, but retained de facto political power. When his army killed Hideyori in the 1615 Siege of Osaka, there were no challengers to Tokugawa rule. To prevent future rebellions among the baronial daimyo, Tokugawa forced them to maintain a second residence in the shogunate capital of Edo, where they would have to spend about half of every year, both to keep an eye on them as well as to siphon away resources that could be used for a revolt; likewise, to tame potentially unruly veterans now that the fighting was over, he made most of the fighting men into samurai, who then gradually transformed into a caste of scholar bureaucrats and enforcers. Ieyasu's 1614 Christian Expulsion Edict forced out all foreign missionaries and traders except for a small Dutch trading post, likely to ward off European colonial interests in Japan. After Ieyasu's grandson upheld the ban, the Bakumatsu period began.

== Notes ==
* For the average peasant in the Renaissance the changes were as a rule not so great and usually weren't even noticeable. As far as they were concerned beautiful paintings, fine statuary and magnificent architecture were all well and good and they'd admire them if they had the opportunity to see them but for all of that the grain still needed to be harvested and the cows still needed to be milked just like in their grandfather's day and as their grandchildren would do after they passed. They were more likely to be conscripted into a new army if war came, but this was hardly a world-shattering event for most people and not something they would be inclined to see as an improvement.
* Infantry returned to prominence during this period. New weapons such as arbalest crossbows, matchlock arquebuses, and pikes played a role in this, as did cheap munitions plate, but more importantly, than that armies became more centralized and systematic than the old feudal systems as the beginnings of standing armies began to take shape. The nobility generally resisted this when they could since it meant that the crown could boss them around more, but the general trend was well underway because these forces were just better at fighting wars. Cannons also played a role in the process, as did navies, though artillery would take some time to come into its own.
*Cannons destroyed castles (literally and figuratively). Cities stopped extending their walls and started growing around them because there was no point. The sorts of walls needed to stop cannons meant static defenses after this era would be purpose built fortresses guarding invasion choke points.
*This was a golden age for mercenaries. Raising and maintaining a standing army was time consuming and expensive and as such if a King wanted extra soldiers for a war it was usually cheaper for him to hire out one or more companies of battle hardened troops for a campaign for a standing rate, rations and a cut of the plunder for the conflict. It was not uncommon for a single company to switch sides in a conflict depending on who could pay them more, and some mercenaries such as Francesco Sforza became major power players in their own right.
*The decline of the lower nobility in Europe that had already set in in the later middle ages was in full swing by this period. Advances in administration made many petty lords more of a liability than a boon, most prominently evidenced in the War of the Roses but also because many of them spent their fortunes and lives in pointless feuds between houses, greatly diminishing their importance to the social structure of the Kingdoms they lived in. This resulted in most European countries becoming much more centralized as a result, middle and upper-class commoners filling the economic gap left behind by the petty nobles and while they remained a part of the societal elite in most countries, their overall influence on the politics of their homeland was much more limited than before.
*Production guilds and workshops begin using early mass production techniques not seen since Rome, supporting larger militaries (with larger price tags). The Venetian Arsenal is said to have been able to build new merchant ships in a day using prefabricated parts.
*The Dutch begin their 500 year war to push back the sea using windmills. This inadvertently leads to the invention of modern banking, insurance, and fractional share investing.
*Feudalism began to decline as the idea of the Nation-State started to take root. Nationalism would become more prominent in the early modern period to coincide with the Enlightenment, but for now, modern countries were starting to take shape, as people began to think of their homelands as distinct cultural-geographic regions instead of the property of ever-changing noble families. At the same time though, this was when the infamous Habsburg family would come to power and control a good chunk of Europe, owning Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, and all territories owned by those states.
*While many classical texts had been lost in the West, many had been preserved in the East, with some advances in the sciences provided by scholars under Muslim rule. These texts returned to Europe due to increased trade with the East, which started with the Crusades. If you wanted to be educated, you had to be well versed in Greek, Latin, and even Arabic. With the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, many Byzantine scholars escaped to Italy (including some members of the last imperial dynasty) bringing the knowledge preserved in Byzantine Empire to the west, which played a key role in the Renaissance.
* The printing press made its debut, ensuring that all those rediscovered classics spread very quickly throughout Europe as the first modern universities took shape.

== The appeal of the Renaissance ==
The Renaissance is the closing of the middle ages. A lot of its mechanisms were still in place in various forms, but things were beginning to change. There were knights in Shining Armor and they were still formidable battering rams, but they were facing new competition from pike squares and arquebusiers in a rather distinctive combo. Chivalry was gradually on the wain even as armor plates were forged proofed against shot. All the while there was a lot of shrewd political scheming and intrigues. Why mobilize a thousand levies and a hundred knights to kill someone when a few drops of poison or a well-placed stiletto could accomplish the job cheaper and with far less fuss? The game of dynastic power is still being played, but with a rules update that favors a more subtle style.

At the same time, mechanics and engineers were tinkering and contriving a wide variety of new machinery. If one was to ascribe a heroic ideal to the Renaissance it would be the Renaissance Man, an archetype reflected in the likes of Leonardo DaVinci, a brilliant Engineer, Scientist and Artist all rolled into one. On the battlefield, the men of power were beginning to take notice of these new novelties and so active patronage of inventors was encouraged. At the same time, explorers and conquistadors carve their place in history by finding new lands, settling them and conquering [[Bronze Age]] societies. For those who want to see what Da Vinci could’ve accomplished if he was more of a mad scientist (I.e. if his tanks and other war machines were actually built), [[Clockpunk]] has you covered.

In general, if you like your medieval fantasy to have a dash of the modern in it, the Renaissance is where you look for ideas. Besides, the stuff associated with this period is frankly pretty. This period is listed as an art history thing more than anything and it did provide plenty of classics. William Shakespeare operated at the tail end of this period as well, though since he was a big classics nerd many of his plays dealt with earlier time periods.

== Renaissance-inspired Games, Factions, and Settings ==
* Some human nations in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] tend to be heavily Renaissance-themed in technologies: the most obvious example is [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|the Empire]] with its Da Vinci-flavored [[Steam Tank|Steam Tanks]] and extensive use of firearms. Same can be said about [[Kislev]] in some ways, as it's mostly inspired by Ivan the Terrible Russia and even has Streltsi unit (that were historically introduced during Ivan's reign) in [[Mordheim]] and [[Total War: WARHAMMER]]; [[Nippon]] (see the reason below); partially [[Tilea]] and [[Estalia]] (Tilea has Roman influence too, and politically Estalia reminds of medieval Spain); and, most likely, [[Marienburg]]. The exceptions are non-human (with probable exception of [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dwarfs]]) and [[Chaos]] factions, painfully medieval [[Bretonnia]], most likely medieval [[Cathay]] and [[Araby]], and lastly inspirationally uncertain [[Border Princes]] and [[Kingdoms of Ind]].
* Virtually any [[Japan]] analog as nobody, not even the Japanese, cares about pre-Sengoku Japan (except maybe the Mongol Invasions) as a setting and nobody makes settings modern enough to have a post-sakoku Japan analog. Seriously, when the Meiji Revolution happened it was like one night you go to sleep and it's Japan as its always been for forever, and the next morning you wake up and there are soldiers in the streets with bolt action rifles harassing people for not building gunpla and buying KFC for Christmas.
* [[Golarion]] edges closer to renaissance than straight middle ages.
fill me
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{{Time Periods}}
[[Category: History]]

Siege Weapon

2022-08-28T00:22:35Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Chemical Weapons */

Let's say you're a medieval lord with 5,000 knights, men-at-arms and peasant levies you've decided to attack and conquer a lesser lord who has 1,000 fighting men of similar abilities. If you line your guys up and fight out in the open, you'll crush him. But the coward/sensible leader does not do this and instead holds up in his [[castle]], which has high walls and heavy gates to keep people out, a large supply of rocks to drop on the heads of people trying to climb said walls, safe vantage points to shoot at attackers before they get to the walls and graineries, larders, wine cellers an cisterns which can keep his troops fed for months. You have several options available to you. You can try to storm the castle while your guys are shot and get rocks and burning sand dropped on them. You can try to starve them out, which is going to take months, suffer casualties from raids and camp sickness, lower morale as people are away from the friends and family and incur massive opportunity costs as the peasant levies could be farming, or you could employ '''Siege Weapons'''.

Note that while most siege weapons were used offensively against fortifications, some could be used defensively, whether against infantry formations or to destroy enemy siege weapons.

== Types of Siege Weapons ==
==Historic==
===Battering Ram===
One of the oldest and simplest siege weapons, the Battering Ram is, at its most basic, a log that men use to try and break down a door or section of wall. Over time people got ideas like swinging it from ropes to make it easier to smash into enemy fortifications, an iron cap on the log to help it smash through tougher materials, and strong roofs to keep the men inside from being crushed by falling rocks, scalded with boiling oil or shot by arrows. Notably under Roman law, any defenders who failed to surrender after the first ram touched their wall were basically fair game. You could throw in the towel before then, but afterwards if the Romans won they would kill you, enslave your wife and loot everything you owned.

===Ballista===
One day a Greek man looked down at his [[crossbow]] and thought "what if I made it bigger?". They came with two designs: a ridiculously large ''Oxybeles'' (which was essentially a larger version of the gastraphetes crossbow with wooden prods), later known as a ''scorpion'' (which was commonly used as anti-siege-weapon weapon mounted on fortifications) and an "even bigger mounted crossbow" called the ''ballista'' (which used coiled rope for torsion rather than wooden prods). Adding a windlass turned chain and a hopper magazine resulted in the ''Polybolos.'' Contrary to popular belief ballista is not an oversized crossbow - as the tensions, stresses, and material resistances scale differently and cause huge wooden bows to break and huge metal bows to deform from straining under such pressure. Thus Greeks devised a system that uses twisted ropes in which bow arms are fixed to store energy to the point it can hurl spear-sized bolts with enough power to break gates and warship hulls. In Roman times, the ballista was said to be terrifyingly effective in terms of both accuracy (to the point of picking off individual soldiers) and power (with tales of it piercing armored warriors and leaving them impaled to a tree).

* '''Polybolos''': roughly meaning “multi-bolt thrower” in Greek and also known as a "repeating ballista," the Polybolos more often resembles a big crossbow than a ballista since the arms are fixed to the "stock" and don't twist around to fire it; though some versions do use arms wedged into tense bundles of twisted ropes like regular ballista. The repeating ballista was fired by turning a wheel connected to a chain drive forward to cock it, then turning it the other way to load it again from a hopper on top of the stock and fire it. Turning the wheel at the back of the crossbow counterclockwise pushed a sliding plank called the mensa (like that from the Gastrophetes/Oxyboles) forward. Once driven forward sufficiently, the latch claws at the back of the plank are pushed up by a lug under the plank and hold the drawstring in place. Then, turning the wheel clockwise drew the drawstring back as the plank slides backwards. At the same time, the motion of the plank drives a screw threaded pole (in contact with the plank by a block with a sliding nut) to rotate and load a bolt (via a built-in notch on the rod) onto the body of the plank from the hopper on top. Pulling the wheel back to the very end will bump the latch on another lug that triggers the latch into releasing the drawstring and firing the bolt.

* '''Springald''': Also known as the "skein-bow," it was the transitional successor to the Ballista before the arrival of cannons, the Springald began replacing it in the 11-12th century. While it used coiled rope and torsional power to fire bolts, rocks, and even containers of Greek Fire, it physically differed visually by looking like a cubical scaffold with the arms swinging inward rather than outwards like the ballista.

Serving as highly accurate artillery (multiple stories exist of single soldiers getting sniped by bolts), Ballista was used by both the Greeks and Romans and later through Medieval times, for a long time coexisting with early gunpowder artillery until development of cannon technology made it obsolete. Not only were cannon barrels relatively simple to cast and maintain, but they were not as finicky or vulnerable to humidity or weather compared to wood and rope.

===Catapult===
Using weights and levers, ancient and medieval people found they could throw rocks, balls of metal or whatever else they had handy into walls to knock them down. If they had dead bodies handy, they could fling them ''over'' the walls of an enemy city and wait for them to get sick and die, as the Mongols did. Alternatively, a pot of incendiary liquid or something soaked in oil being lit on fire and then thrown over the wall to start fires worked nicely, as did explosives.
* '''Mangonel''': One of the more basic types of catapult and probably what you think of when you imagine one. What actually constitutes a 'mangonel' is a little unclear, as there is not set historical definition for the type of weapon the name describes. They had an impressive range, able to hit targets over 1000 feet away.
* '''Onager''': A siege weapon commonly used by the Roman Legions, employing the torsional tension of twisted rope and the whip-lash effect of a sling to hurl very large projectiles. Onagers were mainly designed for attacking fortifications from within the confines of other fortifications (as in Roman-style siegecraft), and thus were quite short-ranged. Confusingly, some onagers are mangonels, but not all mangonels are onagers.
* '''Trebuchet''': The big daddy of catapults, it was the biggest, most destructive and longest ranged catapults in history. This was the go-to weapon for sieges until gunpowder became practical. Unlike most catapults, which used torsion to power their throwing arm, trebuchets instead used a weight and gravity to do the trick.
**'''Floating Arm Trebuchet''': A normal trebuchets when fired has a weight on short end of the throwing arm and a rock attached to a sling on the long arm, both ends swing in Arcs as its fired and the weight and throwing arm both curve. The Floating Arm Trebuchet on the other hand is very different. Unlike a normal trebuchet, the floating arm has the throwing arm attached to wheels that roll freely in a channel. The weight is lifted up, straight up (unlike a traditional trebuchet where the weight is moved along an arc), which pushes the throwing arm back on the channel. When fired the weight drops straight down, the arm rolls forward and the throwing arm is whipped forward as its weight makes it rotate on the axis very quickly. If you're thinking "''Gee that sound complicated for medieval engineering''", then you're not wrong. The Floating Arm Trebuchet is a modern design used mostly as an engineering student project. It may not even be that practical a design on its own merits since '''Yankee Siege II''', A traditional Trebuchet design was the record holder in the 2013 "Pumpkin chunking contest" beating out multiple floating arm designs (although that may be because increasing the range requires a greater drop distance, which then risks damaging the track from the impact of the arm).
* '''Grenade Catapults''': In the first world war (yes we are talking about a catapult designed used in the Great-freaking-war) soldiers had a problem. Namely they did not have any accurate way to deliver explosives. Artillery hit hard but were better at shelling the snot out of an enemy position then hitting one strong point, meanwhile hand grenades had accuracy but only about as much range as you could throw them. To solve this problem the answer was the use of slings and rifle grenades for short (but past throwing range) distances and the invention of small infantry mortars able to lob explosive accurately at a medium range. These however took time to design, test, produce, train with and deploy, and soldiers on both sides needed a solution NOW. The German solution was a weapon called the ''wurfmaschine'', literally called the 'throwing (wurf), machine (Maschine), it was a spring powered catapult that could hurl grenades about 200 m (220 yd) away. In response the British invented the Leach trench catapult (Which was more slingshot then catapult but they called it a catapult so it's going on this page darn it!) which was about as good at throwing grenades. The French took an oversized crossbow, named it Sauterelle (grasshopper) and used that. While phased out as soon as newer weapons arrived (specifically, mortars that could actually be carried by hand into a trench rather than the big honkers seen in previous eras), the various WW1 grenade catapults are a quirky addition in the history of siege weapons.

===Siege Ladder===
Sometimes the best answer to a large wall is to simply go over it. The siege ladder was invented with this in mind, allowing men to climb over the walls.

*'''Sambuca''': Like a siege ladder, only built for D-Day. They let roman soldiers on ships charge up onto the walls of enemy citys.

===Siege Tower===
If a Siege Ladder didn't work, the solution was to make it bigger and with protection. Siege Towers allowed men to climb up without having to worry about anyone attacking them from the sides or simply knocking the ladder over. There were also platforms on top to allow archers to fire at the defenders.

===Sappers===
A good way to weaken enemy walls was to dig under them, weakening the foundation and making them more prone to fracturing and collapsing. What sappers would usually do is once they were certain that they were directly underneath the enemy’s walls, they’d stash a whole lot of flammable materials and douse it with pig fat (not live pigs, they’re significantly less flammable and more prone to running away) then set everything on fire to collapse the supports and cause a cave-in. It was a dangerous job, but it was effective, so long as the enemy didn’t catch on and start counter-mining. Would-be attackers would oftentimes be literally smoked-out and suffocate if they were discovered. Cave-ins were also rightly feared.

As modern cities typically have tunnel systems running through them (e.g. for subways, access to water pipes, smuggling), sapping and mining still see some use in urban warfare situations where a heavily fortified building needs to be brought down but anti-aircraft defenses prevent the use of bombers to do so. Moreover, sapping was used extensively by both sides on the western front in WW1, where a team would dig a tunnel until they were underneath the enemy's trenches, and then dig out a cave which was then filled with explosives. The explosions from these dug-out mines were some of the largest non-nuclear explosions mankind ever produced, with some of largest being noticeable as far away as London and Cologne. As a result, extensive countermeasures existed too; you could listen to the walls with a stethoscope or place a bucket of water on the floor of a trench, whose surface would ripple from the microvibrations of the enemy digging underneath. If someone noticed the enemy, a counter-tunnel would be dug underneath and filled with a smaller amount of explosives to bury the enemy in their tunnels. Some of these explosives-filled mines were both never cleared of explosives nor detonated when originally intended, and so remain dangerous to this day; in 1956, one of these mines detonated after it was struck by lightning, and the resulting explosion produced a crater that was 40 meters wide and 20 meters deep (thankfully, the only victims were some cows that belonged to a french farmer).

===Petards===
Before people worked out how to make [[cannon]]s that were better at killing the enemy than whoever was using them, they would sometimes use Petards. Their job was to run up to enemy walls with barrels of gun powder or other primitive bombs, light the fuse and run like hell, letting the explosion take down the wall. Most of the time this ended up killing the sapper as well, hence the phrase "hoisted by his own petard".

===Hwacha===
A Korean gunpowder weapon used defensively against large armies. Take a bunch of long arrows, attach small rockets to each arrow, load each of them in a tube, stack the tubes tightly in an open frame, and fire all of them at once out of a portable box container on a fixed cart. A single launcher could fire as many as 200 arrows. Such overwhelming firepower made attackers think twice about charging defensive positions. While reloading them was a time consuming nightmare, they served as a good psychological deterrent and volley weapon from defensive positions.

===Named Historic siege engines===

'''Warwolf''': Thought to be the largest Trebuchet ever built, it took 30 wagons to transport it, putting at between 300–400 feet tall and it took over 50 people over three months to build it. Used in the Siege of Stirling castle by king Edward the scotts were so scared of the thing they tried to surrender, but the king was like "nope" and he wanted to see his weapon at work. Records show it threw over 300 pound stone balls and leveled a section of the castle's wall.

'''Helepolis''': not to be confused with "''Heliopolis''", or Suncity, the Helepolis was a greek seige engine who's name means "Taker of Cities". Actually it was a type of siege engine, but it was more then just a siege tower. It was tank! It was built like a siege tower only with multiple catapults at each level of the tower, it could roll up to a castle wall, firing all the while, while solider manning dart throws on top could clear the walls for soldiers in side to jump out of the moveable tower.

==Modern==
Seige Weapons are still useful into modern times. However they are used a bit differently than their middle age counterparts.

===Howitzer===
Originating in the 17th century after descending from early [[Cannon|cannons]]. The Howitzer is still the go to indirect fire weapon for infantry in the 21st, and will continue to be so until [[Gauss#Railgun|Railguns]] become smaller and more portable.

===Portable Explosives===
Comes in all shapes and sizes. A few of the more noteworthy types:
*'''TNT''': TriNitroToluene. Also known as dynamite. More powerful than gunpowder, more stable than nitroglycerin. Dynamite comes in sticks and and is ignited using an electrical charge from a plunger device. Just a few well-placed sticks can blast rocks with ease.
*'''Plastic Explosives''': Explosives made from a flexible material, such as C4. Can be molded into any shape and stuck on any surface with a bit of duck tape. Stick the primer in, then remotely detonate when you’re a safe distance away.
*'''Thermite''': this compound produces a jet of molten iron when ignited, rather than exploding outright. Great for cutting through thick surfaces, or destroying gun barrels/sensitive equipment.
*'''Detcord''': A type of plastic explosive that’s optimized for dynamic entry. Comes in a rope shape for easy bundling and placement; stick it on a wall in an outline of the hole you want to make, or sandwich a rolled up bundle between two bags of water to create a powerful door-knocking explosive.
*'''Shape Charge''': explosives placed around an inverted metal cone. When ignited, the cone collapses into a jet of molten metal, concentrating the explosive power into a fine point to punch through armor. Commonly used in anti-tank rounds, though portable versions exist.
*'''IED''': Short for '''I'''mprovised '''E'''xplosive '''D'''evice. Term coined by the US military during the invastion of Iraq in the 2000s, that covers basically anything that goes ''boom'' and isn't covered by traditional military lingo or adheres to any standardized model of bomb or land mine. As the name tells, these are mostly improvised explosives made from a bewildering range of materials, from pipe bombs that are made by filling a solid steel pipe with some C4 or dynamite to more volatile and/or unreliable things like artillery shells equipped with a fuse or just a solid tube filled with ammonuiumnitrate (found in many fertilizers).
*'''Land Mines''': Landmines are essentially small explosive containers that are buried and set off by someone or something stepping on them. Mines are primarily used to prevent an enemy setting foot in areas you don't want them to or force your enemy to march into a direction of your choosing. The major hassle of Land Mines is that they are buried en masse and remain actively dangerous until they are either set off or defused - often long after a conflict has ended. This has lead to a movement toward banning anti-personnel mines. While many countries have signed on to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (or the Ottawa Treaty), many countries, including Russia, China, and the United States have not. While not a signatory, the US has said that they will abide by the terms of the treaty, except for on the Korean Peninsula (since the Korean DMZ is chock full of the things).

In addition, landmines come in all shapes and sizes. Some will bounce into the air after being tripped, some are made from surprising materials like wood and glass, and the explosive yield can vary widely. Britain was considering nuclear mines during the 1950s, in order to deal with any Soviet invasion of Germany. Interesting fact: In order to prevent the mine's electronics from freezing during the winter, the mines were to be equipped with live chickens which would theoretically provide enough heat to keep the electronics working.

===Bangalore torpedo===
These were explosives in a tube used mainly to clear obstacles such as mines, barbed wire, and barricades. They came in handy if you couldn't otherwise dismantle said obstacles properly, such as if you were storming an enemy position under fire and needed to create a clear path very quickly.

===Sling===
Thanks to the creation of explosive payloads, one of humanity's oldest weapons still sees occasional use as an indirect fire weapon. [[Sling]]s first returned to use during the Great War when hand grenades did, and saw use during the interwar and into the Spanish Civil War and into the World War II concurrent Winter War where the Finns used sling fired projectiles to kill ''tanks''. Grenade launchers have largely replaced them in industrialized forces, but they continue to see use among those not as well armed.

===Chemical Weapons===
The UN specifies a Chemical Weapon as a chemical compound, purposefully created to directly harm or incapacitate humans or indirectly, via poisoning crops, livestock and drinking water. While mentions of Chemical Weapons conjure up pictures from the Great War, not all of them take the form of gas to choke your enemy to death. All of them produce results that are horrible to look at and even worse to be at the recieving end of. The most noteable distinction from Biological Weapons is that of intent, Chemical Weapons are solely created for the single purpose of being weaponized in some way or form. Bioweapons, in contrast, are living organisms that have no inherent intent to harm humans, even though there are some edge cases where there is some overlap between the two. Ricin as a prominent example is an incredibly deadly chemical poison produced by the castor oil plant like many other plants do produce different chemical compunds to protect themselves against herbivores or fungus, making it both a Chemical and Biological Weapon at the same time. The plant itself is not a weapon, the poison being synthesized by its seeds however is. The point being: You cannot obscure the intent of use for a chemical weapon while Biological Weapons in many cases offer plausible deniability, many states in the world house pathogens that could kill millions for the sole purpose of researching vaccines and medication against them. As of the time of writing this section, chemical weapons have been outlawed and nations that still have stocks of them had them mostly destroyed. Presumably. Here are just a few examples for what form Chemical Weapons can take:
*'''Poison Gas''': All of the big powers in World War 1 experimented with poison gas during the course of the war. Its first iteration were simple canisters of Chlorine that were opened when the wind blew towards the enemy, creating a noxious yellow cloud that would suffocate unprotected soldiers when the Gas reacted with their Lung Tissue, later transitioning to even deadlier comnbinations of gas to increase their effectiveness (like the infamous German "Buntschießen", where tear gas, not lethal on its own, would force enemy Soldiers to take their gas masks off would be combined with Phosgen and Chlorine). Needless to say, the injuries suffered from such an attack were mounstrous and a Gas Attack was one of the most feared events amoung the Soldiers on the Ground. So feared in fact, that not even Hitler (who experienced a gas attack as a Runner in Belgium) seriously considered their use, even when it became obvious that the Nazi War Effort was really going to shit (At least against Soldiers, Zyklon B also falls into the category of Chemical Weapons). Poison Gas as a weapon of war also has considerable downsides that made them obsolete even during World War 1; Gas masks improved to the point that a gas attack without sophisticated sequences of different chemicals became difficult to pull off, as well as the fact that you have to carefully time your assault if you want to avoid your troops stepping into a giant death cloud, turning the area you just bombarded into a huge dead zone. In theory, it might be useful to force a surrender of troops that might be hiding in a Bunker, but the use of Poison Gas is universally detested to such a degree that the political cost would outweigh the benefit in any case.
*'''Defoliants''': Herbicides sprayed via plane that destroy an enemies crops and cause trees to wither and drop their leaves, making undetected movement through dense foliage such a jungle difficult. Agent Orange was the most infamous compound of these kinds of weapons, with the US using them during their campaigns in Vietnam. While not deadly in itself, the Barrels that contained the stuff were contaminated with other chemicals because the US Military wanted to cut corners and didn't take potential sideeffects of exposure to Agent Orange into account, which in turn turned out to be extremely carcinogenic, but also corrupted the DNA of people exposed to it to such a degree that any children born from them would be deformed and debilitated for the rest of their lifes.
*'''Poison Agents''': From the dawn of ages, humans experimented with poisons to make weapons deadlier, from the entrails of tropical frogs to simply rubbing swords and arrowheads in excrement. What we think of when we hear the words Poison Agent today are highly sophisicated substances that are ludicrously deadly. The Soviets in particular dedicated an entire branch of their military research solely to the creation of some of the deadliest poisons ever known to man, mainly for use in political assasinations of Dissidents or hostile politicians abroad. The Russians continue this proud tradition with compunds like Novichok, used for example in the attempted assassination of Sergej Skripal in the UK in 2018.
*'''Psychotropic Agents''': Hallucinogenics or other compounds that in some way or form interact or change human behaviour in a way that is uncharacteristic for the person exposed to it. The US military experimented with such weapons during the 50s and 60s, which is where LSD first got into widespread distribution. Their existence as a weapon of war is heavily disputed; while there is definitive evidence that aformentioned experiments exist and there was some interest in it from the military side of things, there is only mostly anecdotal evidence that there was ever a compound mass-manufactured for combat purposed or used in combat. The US Army supposedly used some LSD to test its effectiveness on Vietcong camps in the 70s, but there is very little evidence to support this ever taking place.

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{{Vehicle Warfare}}
[[Category:History]]

Siege Weapon

2022-08-28T00:10:50Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Chemical Weapons */

Dungeon

2022-08-28T00:00:51Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Literary Roots */

The word '''Dungeon''' actually originates from an Old French term for [[castle]], but over the centuries has evolved to mean something quite different. A Dungeon in the modern sense is a medieval prison, generally kept underground in the basement and a typical part of many castles. Generally a dungeon is a room with a heavy wooden (often oak) door, small barred windows (if any), some latches for shackles and a bucket for dealing with human waste, or a small number of said rooms. Optional additions included a bench, reeds and maybe a cheap straw mattress if the owner of the castle was particularly indulgent.

As a rule people did not stay in a dungeon for long in the middle ages. The penalties of medieval justice were either to the effect of fines, community service and public humiliation for mild offenses or public floggings, mutilation and death in various levels of gruesome painfulness for more severe ones (and a generally broader sense of what constituted a "severe crime"). Either way these penalties were immediate and quick in their implementation, or at least generated or saved some revenue. Housing people under lock and key was expensive as you needed to feed them and keep them under guard back in the day when people were literally willing to work for food and a roof over their heads. Dungeons were used mainly to store people temporarily until the real punishment happened, to house captured enemy soldiers being ransomed or individuals who were to be interrogated. At most you might toss a servant into the dungeon for a night for some minor offense if they were otherwise vacant. Mass Incarceration only really caught on in the early modern period.

Dungeons (well, structures loosely inspired by dungeons) are also a major part of [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. In the context of D&D (and many other role-playing games, including online ones), a dungeon is a structure (typically underground, featuring cavernous rooms connected by twisty passages and corridors) inhabited by [[monster]]s and [[trap]]s and containing [[loot]]. The basic hack-and-slash game features [[player characters]] delving into dungeons, fighting monsters, and disarming traps, all to get to the treasure chest at the end of the hallway. Who built the dungeon? Why did they think the treasure was important enough to hide in it? How do those monsters stay alive in between making meals of adventurers? These questions are often left unanswered. The profusion of the dungeon as the archetypal adventuring locale has somewhat blurred the definition of what a 'true' dungeon really is. The idea of "dungeon-crawling", that is a long mission through a dungeon for the purpose of defeating enemies and gaining loot, is today applied to basically any combat mission in an RPG where the party operates with minimal support in an enclosed area filled with hazards, all for the promise of loot.

==How to Dungeon==
If you play in a group of fairly stab-happy people who care only for the three moments of "bust in door", "kill shit" and "loot the bodies", how a dungeon looks may not be so important, but to the rest, a dungeon has to make sense. Since we don't really have large caverns and ruined castles filled with monsters in the real world, it can seem strange and unrealistic to delve into one in a tabletop game. There's a few things one can do to make them feel more fit for the setting:

First, make sure the dungeon's general layout serves or served a purpose. Any old maze will feel weird if we're told the dungeon is an old, decrepit fortress - a fortress is laid out in certain ways that makes them easy to defend, so reflect that. If you wanna mix things up feel free to add obstacles, cave-ins and broken walls but for Pelor's sake, don't just map a bunch of random rooms and paths. Dungeon delving is also story-telling through showing. At best, the players can even make logical assumptions based on your design - If it's a fortress dungeon, there's got to be a armory filled with weapons somewhere, right? Players love to be rewarded for making good leaps of logics, so make sure they can do so comfortably through your dungeon design.

Second, there are monsters in dungeons, but not random ones. Whatever critters you wanna fill your death-maze with, make sure to have some background for them. Is that [[Owlbear]] the players just encountered looking for food in the cavern, or does it live there? What about the [[goblin]] tribe back some rooms; where they hiding from the Owlbear - and so on and so forth. Again, dungeons tell stories. What makes that particular dungeon a great place to hide out in for the monsters? You can even indicate this to the players by seeding plot hooks about it - the local town ousted a cult, who fled eastward to the old, abandoned manor on the hill, or maybe tracks of boots are spotted going back to the glacier where the next dungeon hides? There's a bunch of options.

Same with traps and puzzles - don't add a poison spike trap in a dank swamp cavern if there's no one in the cavern that could or would make one. If your players delve into a lost bandit hideout, traps are unlikely, but a kobold nest will be rife with traps of the nastiest kind. Traps doesn't have to be created either - old, unstable floors that break underfoot or bubbling pools of acid can serve as just as much a challenge than any trap you found in your Dungeon Master's Guide. Remember Moria of LoTR fame; it was treacherous mostly because it was falling apart and because any noise would attract goblins in droves of thousands.

So, basically always remember the ''How'' and the ''Why'' of your dungeon - How was it created and Why is created that way? How did your monsters find their way into the dungeon, and why?

==Literary Roots==

"Dungeons" have a long history in fantasy literature predating [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. Examples include:

*'''Stardock''', both a mountain and a treasure-and-creature filled crag featured in Fritz Leiber's "Fafhrd & Grey Mouser" stories
*'''Quarmall''', a whole underground kingdom complete with civil-war-waging mage-priest-kings, ibid.
*'''Dol Guldur''', the dreaded "Hill of Sorcery", home of "The Necromancer" (another name given to [[Sauron]] in [[The Hobbit]]); it was here that Gandalf met the half-mad grandfather of Thorin Oakenshield and retrieved the map and key to The Lonely Mountain. Courtesy [[J.R.R. Tolkien]].
*'''Moria''', underworld kingdom-fortress of the dwarves and one of its wealthiest mines until overthrown by a primordial demon, ibid.
*'''Angband''', stronghold of Morgoth far in the frozen North and home to thousands of slaves and vile creatures, ditto.
*Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain featured a proper dungeon beneath "'''Spiral Castle'''", which contained a sword capable of defeating Lord Arawn, one of the chief bad guys in that series.
*'''Fafnir's lair''', the archetypical lair (or at least one of the earliest examples of one in written text) of an evil dragon that is filled with gold and other valuables from the Nibelungen Saga of German and Nordic origins.

All of these are, to a greater or lesser extent, halls and galleries and caverns, rooms and mazes, located exclusively underground, loaded with monsters, maps and treasures.

==See also==

* [[Dungeon crawling]], for the game type centered around dungeons.
* [[Megadungeon]], Giant Sized Dungeons.

[[Category:History]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Roleplaying]]

The World Wars

2022-08-20T01:24:44Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* The War in the West */

[[File:MAC52_SIDEBAR_TANKS01-810x445.jpg|thumb|right|War has changed...]]
{{topquote|War will become rare, but more terrible. [...] That's my horoscope|Arthur Conan Doyle, 1883}}
{{topquote|This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years|General Ferdinand Foch}}
During the [[Industrial Revolution]], Europe was comparatively peaceful for the most part. The 19th century started with the Napoleonic Wars when industrialization was building up steam in England and afterwards there were a series of colonial conflicts and small to middling wars between the various industrial powers<sup>1</sup>. The Civil War was on the upper end of conflicts in this era but was limited to the comparatively sparsely populated US, was still fought with muskets and saw about 600-750,000 people dead. The Franco Prussian war was won in six months (GOTT MIT UNS!), but in a chilling prelude to things to come killed some 180,000 combatants. Now you may say, "What the hell! The factory accidents and all other horrible abuses and war deaths were horrific!", but you ain't seen nothing yet. Things changed in 1914 when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, starting the Great War, also known as the ''First World War''. This would be followed up by the ''Second World War'' in 1939-45, which largely stemmed from the consequences of the Great War, to the point that some call the period a Second Thirty Years War (accounting for post World War 1 conflicts and World War 2 prelude wars in the Spanish Civil War and Japan invading China, this is technically correct). '''The World Wars''' would spread across the world and saw conflict and destruction beyond anything that was ever seen before or since.

There are two important factors in the World Wars: ''Technology'' and ''Nationalism''. Technology is the easier of the two to understand. In the Napoleonic War the average soldier had a flintlock musket that could shoot 2-4 bullets a minute with an effective range of 100 meters, was supported by muzzle loading cannons that could shoot accurately to about 1km and was supplied by ox carts while steam engines were just beginning to propel boats and move loads of coal around mines in England. In 1914 the average soldier had a rifle that could shoot 15-30 bullets a minute (which could go through three men and still be deadly) at ranges of over a kilometer and was backed up by cannons that could fire shells six kilometers or more on ballistic courses which exploded in the air raining a spray of balls over a wide area and machine guns which could shoot 450 bullets a minute and airplanes. By the end of the Great War tanks, Submachine Guns and Poison Gas had been added to the arsenal. Tactics devised based on 19th century ideas of fighting were useless on this new battlefield and the book needed to be re-written from page one. Other technologies such as mass production, mechanized farming, railways and automobiles, mass education, telecommunications and modern bureaucracies meant that an Industrial Nation could turn more of its population into soldiers than any medieval nation could ever hope to do (Rome was hard pressed to keep up a standing army of about 1% of it's population, Germany mobilized nearly 20% during the Great War). Through bloody experience generals gradually put together some idea of how to operate in this new battlefield near the end of the Great War and between the wars they'd continue to build on it with experience in small scale wars. Even so people were still making it up as they went in WWII.

Nationalism is more abstract but just as important. In the Middle Ages, people generally identified themselves as being "a Christian Journeyman Blacksmith from London whose dad is English" or "a Jewish Master Cobbler from Munich whose mom is Sephardic" and so forth (their job, class, religion and hometown, things which they dealt with face to face day to day). If a civil war happened and ended up with a new noble house in charge while they and their family and friends got through unharmed, they would not care too much as long as the new lord upheld his feudal duties and was not a huge dick. There was a king and he ruled a bunch of land and tried to keep the peace, which was all good but the specifics of this was not a fact which defined them. This began to change with the Protestant Reformation and had a bit of build up through the Age of Enlightenment as propaganda for the masses took form, leading to the birth of nationalism with the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. People began to see their country as more than just where they lived and the guy in a funny hat who ruled them, but rather as a community of people united by common ideas, languages, beliefs, customs, ideals, and (often) ancestry, people who need to band together and set aside their differences to defend what's theirs against those stinking foreigners with their differences. Public education caught on during the Industrial Revolution, which made it possible to give these ideals to everyone from the richest businessman to the lowliest beggar. When you have two nations which have nationalistic populations and governments and other groups fond of egging nationalism on together it does not take much to get them at each others throats and keep them there.

Intertwined with Nationalism is the issue of "Balance of Power"; since the end of the Thirty Years War, the various European powers had been very conscious about preventing any one nation from becoming too powerful and exerting their authority over everyone else. This is one of the motivating factors behind such actions as the race to colonize Africa, the "Great Game" between Russia & Britain over India, the War of Spanish Succession where Britain and the Holy Roman Empre fought to prevent the union of France & Spain, or the clusterfuck that was the Crimean War where a dispute over Churches in the Ottoman Empire lead to Britain and France declaring war with Russia, only for neither side to gain anything and lose a lot of men and respect. And since Napoleon had gotten really close to completely dominating Europe, the alliance system played a major role in ensuring no one would get too sabre-rattly... up until Germany unified and changed the whole playing field, leaving politicians desperate and uncertain as to how far Kaiser Wilhem was willing to go to prove Germany's prestige as a rising power. The result was an arms race that helped build the powder keg, which would inevitably explode with the right spark.

<small><sup>1</sup>The Taiping Rebellion (Not to be confused with the Boxer Rebellion.) in China killed some 20-30 million people, but neither side in it was industrialized beyond buying some foreign weapons to equip some of their troops.</small>

== The First World War ==
[[File:Trench warfare great war.jpg|thumb|left|Over the Top Lads (sorry, no joke on this one)]]
Also known as the Great War and the [[derp|War to End All Wars]] (SPOILER ALERT, It wasn't)
.

To understand the beginning of the major, globe-shaking clusterfuck known as the First World War, we must first look at several key issues that preceded it.

The first and probably one of the biggest contributing factors was the race for Empire. During the preceding centuries, imperialism and expansionism became extremely popular among the industrializing and booming nations of western Europe. Entire swathes of Africa and Asia were carved out by global powerhouses such as Great Britain and France, in order to fuel their industry and economy back home, often at the expense of the natives (the treatment of which varied on which European power dominated that particular region, with those under Belgium's sway being the worst off; one could argue that at least that stopped chattel slavery that was endemic to the region until the colonization, but suffice to say the natives would likely think that the chattel slavery was preferable). For a while, the competition was 'merely' a case of rivalry, as each generally avoided the other's territories in order not to repeat disasters like the Seven Years' War or the Napoleonic Wars. Everything was going more or less splendidly (barring some wars of independence in the Balkans against the increasingly corrupt and stagnating Ottoman Empire), until one key event forever shattered the balance of power so carefully put into place by the Congress of Vienna: the unification of Germany by Otto von Bismark (a political genius so astute that he coined the modern term 'realpolitik').

With Germany now unified, it presented a major threat to the established powers of Europe. Not helping matters was the new Kaiser, Wilhelm II, looking at Britain with barely restrained jealousy (and a huge trove of mommy and daddy issues further complicated by a deformed arm being shorter than the other due to a difficult birth causing nerve damage) and thus deciding that Germany deserved its own overseas empire and place as top dog. Complicating matters further is the fact that the royalty and nobility of Europe were all largely related to one another. In some ways, this made the coming shitstorm seem more like the biggest family feud in centuries. The race for who controlled the biggest slice of the planet was kicked into overdrive, with factories pumping out new, relatively untested weapons such as the machine gun, the repeating rifle, and the howitzer, while shipyards around Europe churned out awe-inspiring steel battleships and cruisers, complete with the largest cannons mankind had ever seen up to that point.

To counterbalance each other, the great powers formed increasingly complex and entangling military alliances, which coalesced into two pacts- the Triple Entente (France, Britain (Kind Of), and Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy, and Austria), with the United States holding dominion over the Americas sans Canada and the Eastern Pacific and the Ottoman Empire desperately trying to stave off collapsing, while China was getting real tired of being plucked like a chicken and slowly descending into warlordism. Africa was fully colonized minus the land the Ottomans lost in a war against Italy and Ethiopia and Asia was either tenuously under China or colonized. The worst atrocities occurred in the Belgian Congo. Europe was at the height of its power.

Meanwhile, various nationalist and liberal revolutionary movements were sweeping the continent like a new disease from the Plaguefather. Some of their demands were met, particularly in Britain where the House of Commons gained more power. Other revolutions were violently crushed or flat-out ignored, while still others were successful in their goals through sheer force of arms (Like true comrades). The hardest hit, however, were not the more liberalized and industrious Western nations. Instead, the hardest hit by these successive waves of revolution was none other than the two oldest empires in Europe at that time- Austria and the Ottomans, both of whom were weary, tired states in dire need of reform. While some in both powers saw granting people increasing amounts of autonomy as the way to keep their state from collapsing (such as the formation of the dual monarchy and the recognition of Hungary as an equal partner, transforming the Austrian Empire into Austria-Hungary and the failed Tanzimat reforms of the Ottoman Empire and the Young Turks coup following the Tanzimat's abolition establishing what was intended to be a constitutional monarch but really was a military dictatorship under the delusionally idealistic and, as would be proven in a few years, seriously incompetent Enver and his fellows in high command), others insisted on a more hardline approach, trying to keep the state afloat by using terror. All of this bred resentment, particularly in the Balkans, which increasingly became a powder keg that was waiting for the right spark.

That spark came in the form of the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, at the hands of Gavrilo Princip, who was a member of the Young Bosnia movement which was itself under the influence of the infamous serbian nationalist organization, the Black Hand. Austria-Hungary gave an ultimatum to Serbia (biggest independent slavic country), which included some frankly ridiculous and cruel terms. When [[Just as Planned|the Serbs rejected a few of these terms, the Austrians took it as a casus belli]] and declared war on Serbia. In response, [[Not as planned|Russia declared war on Austria, to which Germany declared war on Russia, to which France declared war on Germany]]. Germany would then invade the neutral Belgium in an attempt to avoid French fortifications on the border, bringing the British into the conflict. The internationalization of the conflict and the various ethnics that the colonial empires of Europe press ganged into service had some downright comical results, like an Indian battalion fighting in East Africa against German-led Askari tribesmen, all because because a Serbian shot an Austrian in Bosnia.

Thus began a conflict that would last for four bloody long years, see eleven million deaths as the result of horrific industrial warfare in the trenches and bombed-out fields, diseases such as the Spanish flu, and the breakup of several empires to form new nations. Truly, an entire generation of Europe's men was destroyed as a result (and is commonly known as the [[Grimdark|Lost Generation]] today) and gave rise to later extremist philosophies, the proponents of whom were all too eager to amass power for themselves by blaming their nation's misfortunes on the subversive "other." And while the civilian losses were nowhere near that of the Second World War, they were significant on both fronts, especially in Belgium where the Imperial German Army exercised collective punishment against villages suspected of harboring partisans.

While the average citizen didn't give much of a damn about the alliance system and the bickering of a bunch of politicians over some dispute halfway across the continent, the government of each country knew they had to sell the "necessity" of the war to their citizens. Propaganda from both sides painted the enemy nations as barbaric, inhuman war criminals who had to be stopped to prevent the devastation that would follow if they were allowed to go unopposed. They also reassured the public that, with their obvious technological superiority/superior fighting spirit, the war would be quick and soldiers would return home by Christmas. While this illusion could be maintained with the civilians population, the soldiers sent to the front lines were quickly disillusioned by the horrors that they saw. Morale was so bad that the Russians overthrew Tsar Nicholas II and eventually came to be led by the [[Communism|Bolsheviks]] under Vladimir Lenin, and the French nearly did the same as mass mutinies broke out in the French army. Had the Americans not joined on the Allies' side to swing the war in their favor, it's likely that even more revolutions could have taken place.

Terrifying new weapons of war earned their fearsome reputation in this conflict. Machine guns and air-burst artillery shells rendered the old tactics of Napoleonic warfare suicidal, while mustard gas and the like created a new age of massive destruction. Tanks made their first debut in this war, slowly rumbling forth like invincible metal monsters, shrugging off most resistance and dealing punishing firepower themselves, only to breakdown in the middle of the battle due to being rudimentary designs. The airplane, as well, saw use in a combat role, and it would swiftly become an invaluable strategic and tactical tool, for he who dominated the skies dominated the flow of battle.

The bloodiest war in human history up to that point ended with Germany's surrender at 11:00 A.M, on November 11th, 1918, after being exhausted, starving, and dangerously close to collapse in the face of a communist uprising. The irony is that despite the announced end of the conflict, soldiers continued to fight tooth and nail to the last minute, desperately hoping that whatever few yards they could seize would somehow bring the negotiations in their countries' favor, as in the fighting continued until literally seconds before 11 AM where an American soldier who was demoted made a suicide charge on a machine gun and a Canadian guy got sniped.

The consequences of WW1 cannot be understated; this four-year-long international bloodletting completely destroyed the Eurocentric world order that has persisted since the 1500s, pushed all European powers except Russia from being superpowers in their own right to second-rank states and ended the age of (overt) Imperialism for good. The scale of the money spent for this war was enormous; Britain went from the biggest lender of the world to the biggest debtor, having spent the entire wealth accumulated over the course of 300 years of colonial British and English history in just four years. France saw its industrial and agricultural heartlands in the northeast reduced into nothing but poisonous wasteland that is ''to this day'' unusable and dangerous from all the unexploded ordinance. Germany had replaced its state form from the Prussian semi-feudal social order to a constitutional republic with nothing to fill the social void that was left when the old Imperial elites just fucked off elsewhere and left it to the Social Democrats and Liberals to clean up the mess they had created. (They failed.) Russia was transformed into the Soviet Union and could only compensate the extreme loss of people and infrastructure by installing a tyrannical regime and wasting away millions of its own people in forced labour camps and famines. And that's just in Europe. In the middle east, the haphazardly drawn borders (Sykes-Picot Agreement) created by Britain and France with no regard ([[Marines Malevolent|or intentional disregard]]) to the cultural mixup of the lands they took from the Ottomans ended up creating some of the most vicious and long-lasting ethnic conflicts, most of which last to this very day, with the Iraq-Iran, Israeli-Palestinian and in general Sunni-Shi'a conflict and the Turkish-Kurdish war (of which the latter's first uprising explicitly aided by the British) being particularly noteworthy examples. The latter one in particular is only in the way out more than one hundred and ten years later when military crackdown and drones made terrorism unviable (and Turkish Kurds realizing that living in Turkey as opposed to an unviable independent state surrounded by hostile powers or worse Syria or Iraq wasn't so bad after all). And of course all of these people ended up nursing a profound grudge against the West that would only get worse when they found themselves relegated to being a mere prize for the Soviets and the Western bloc to compete over. This too would end up coming back to haunt everyone involved nearly a century later.

=== The Punitive Expedition ===
While the United States of America sat the early part of the war out, it was not without armed conflict of its own. In 1916 failed Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa launched an unprovoked attack on US settlement of Columbus, New Mexico that killed 26 Americans. The actual reasons are unclear, but seizing supplies, and/or a ploy to get the US Government to involve themselves in the revolution and wreck everything are common guesses. In response, the US sent troops into Mexico to retaliate against Villa. While the conflict was small scale, it ensured the US didn't enter the Great War totally blind to modern warfare as everyone else had. In fact, it was in this conflict that future superstar General Patton got a taste of the new vehicle-based warfare that he would become famous for.

=== The Warlord Era===
Around the same time, after the Boxer Rebellion failed to remove the Europeans from China, it became clear that Imperial China's days were over. After the forced abdication of the Qing Emperor, attempts to create a modern Chinese Republic quickly collapsed as regional Warlords split the country among themselves, intent on unifying China with themselves as its leader. Much like the Three Kingdoms period way back in Early China, much of the military and political conflict was characterized by long, drawn-out border skirmishes with the occasional big battle, massive conscript armies, backstabbing, and leaders who were able to hold onto power so long as they had their army's loyalty. Due to an arms embargo and limited domestic manufacturing, industrialized warfare played a very limited role in the early part of the Warlord era; cavalry and bayonet charges were still viable, as very few warlords could afford the artillery and machine guns needed to make them obsolete. However, the eventual intervention of the Japanese eventually shifted the conflict away from a domestic dispute over who ruled into a fight for China's survival against a technologically superior force, as covered in more detail below.

=== The Empire of the Rising Sun ===
Japan alongside the US began emerging as something of the world power a few years before the war. The Russo-Japanese war of 1905 shocked the dominant European powers as the Japanese managed to defeat the supposedly superior Russians (though the fact of the matter was that both sides were blundering hard and the weebs won because the other side was MUCH more incompetent - Russian navy sent from the Black Sea to Japan fired on a British fishing fleet thinking it was the Japanese thus almost starting a war with the UK). Japan was a member of the Triple Entente and as such seized some German islands in Asia, sent a small fleet into the Mediterranean to escort naval convoys and participated in an expedition alongside the US and European countries in Siberia after the revolution in Russia, but the main political activity was focused on exerting an ever increasing influence on China. After the war, Japan was awarded a permanent seat in the League of Nations and recognized as a 'great power', but their proposal to be recognized as equals race-wise was rejected. This caused alienation from the western powers, which in turn would partially contribute to [[RAGE|increased nationalism and militarism]] down the line.

=== Side Note: The Shackleton Expedition and the End of the Age of Heroes ===
Ernest Shackleton's famous Antarctic voyage and the perils they faced ending with the miraculous survival of all but three members and the ships cat after incredible heroism occurred during the First World War in it's entirety, Shackleton thinking the war wouldn't last more than a few months after last hearing that Russia had mobilized and that there were some minor German victories. So what happened to the great hero and his crew of champions? They returned from the late 1914 expedition in the middle of 1916. When Shackleton asked the governor of South Georgia Island when the war was over, the reply was that millions were dying, that Europe was mad, and that the World was mad. Expecting a well deserved hero's welcome, Shackleton and his men found abject, mute horror instead. Most of them volunteered to serve in minesweepers or on the front, and several were killed action. Shackleton even demanded a frontline condition despite his severe heart condition exacerbated by the nightmare he went through, though they resisted until the Allied Intervention in the Arctic front of the Russian Civil War, where he worked until the Bolsheviks took that part and the war shifted to the Caucasus and when that was done through a deal with Turkish revolutionaries (more on that below) the chase to the Pacific across Asia. Shackleton himself passed away due to heart complications in 1922, perhaps the last larger than life hero before the world woke up to gritty reality.

== The Interwar Period ==
{{topquote|This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.|Ferdinand Foch, 1919}}
Knowing that the world could not endure another such war, US president Woodrow Wilson made it his mission to set the groundwork for long-term peace (between whites at least); he set forth what he called the Fourteen Points, a set of foreign policy doctrines that would address many of the underlying issues behind WWI and promote better diplomacy and cooperation between nations, with its biggest selling point being the League of Nations. The Germans thought that this was actually a pretty neat idea, and were hoping to agree to these terms during the upcoming peace conference. Unfortunately, none of Wilson's allies bought into his vague ideas, and slowly he was forced to compromise on all his policies just so he could get the League of Nations established (even shittier proto-United Nations, in that at least the UN specialist agencies do important global coordination work). Ironically, Wilson failed to convince the US to join the League of Nations, partly due to alienating his Republican opponents in Congress, as they weren't convinced that this League wasn't completely useless, or worse, just another military alliance that would suck them into another European War. Without the US to back it, and with little power to enforce peace resolutions, the League pretty quickly collapsed in the lead-up to WWII, as the pissed off Germans had been assigned full blame for the war and wanted revenge. Wilson was also a gigantic racist asshole, and got crippled by a stroke which precluded him from really doing anything mid-1919 onwards, killed his plans for reelection to a third term, then straight up killed him after term.

Near the end of the first World War, the world was thrown into yet another cataclysm. The Spanish Flu, named such because neutral Spain was the only place that paid much attention to it over the ongoing war/didn't actively suppress the news of the epidemic, spread rapidly and killed many thanks to the conditions caused by the war (overcrowding, especially in transport ships for returning soldiers, malnourishment, etc.). The death toll was horrendous, with the minimum estimate of 50 million being over double the entire war's death toll. After this, Europe needed decades to recover from the horrible destruction the war and flu had caused. Various post war conflicts continued in the regional level, most famously the Anatolian conflict between Greece, Armenia, French Colonial Forces, Islamists loyal to the Ottoman Government and the nationalist wings of the Ottoman military that revolted under Mustafa Kemal's regime. The latter won after deals with Armenia (which was not ratified as the Soviets nommed them, the new regime made another treaty which was officially ratified and guaranteed by the Soviets) and France, while Greece was rather soundly defeated. After another peace treaty with the Allies at Lausanne and the nationalist regime reforming into a Republic and abolishing the monarchy and the caliphate a year after the end of the monarchy and the Treaty of Lausanne, the local wars pretty much ended barring minor border disputes and posturing, with the only real big scare being the Bosphorus Straits affair with the Soviet's, that was resolved through the Montreaux Convention in the 30's. The rest of the world wasn't so lucky.

America, however, was having its best years ever. The Washington Naval Treaty had Britain officially cede the position of Earth’s mightiest navy, which the Royal Navy held for centuries, by recognizing the US Navy’s power as at least equal to it. The so called "Roaring Twenties" saw a rapid increase in the standard of living. President Harding managed to do the impossible and eliminate the deficit, though some of his appointees trying to sell [[Wikipedia:Teapot Rock|some government owned rock in the middle of nowhere]] marred his legacy (looking back historians realize there's a lack of evidence suggesting he had any knowledge or involvement though that isn't really a compliment, you do need to pay attention when you are damn head of state). The American economy of the time was doing well; unlike the other powers of Europe, it had not been strained extensively by being in a war economy for four years that strained productivity, had prime farmland turned into no man's land like France, its economy pushed to the breaking point like Germany, broken up into squabbling states like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or had all of that happen and was taken over by communists after a civil war like Russia (with some like Turkey as aforementioned getting lucky and successfully reforming), while having basically everyone in Europe owe American bankers to pay for the war.

After Harding's death during the scandal, his Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge, took over. This was rather sudden and Coolidge was sworn in during the middle of the night by his father on the family Bible, with his first act was to pray to God to bless the American people and give him the strength to lead them. Unlike Harding, Coolidge proved wildly popular despite (or because of) his quiet nature. His economic policies really kicked off the Roaring Twenties and he was popular enough he was elected by a landslide in an election ''he didn't campaign for'' (this was common in American politics at the time, it was considered undignified to campaign for yourself). Coolidge continued Harding's deficit free budgets to the point the US was able to repay most of the national debt. Despite his wild popularity, Coolidge shocked the world with his announcement that [[Wikipedia:I do not choose to run|"I do not choose to run"]] for reelection and, true to his nature, did not really explain why (he would later elaborate in his autobiography that he did not wish to break the (then unofficial) rule set by Washington of a max of two terms among other issues). He would be followed by Herbert Hoover, who largely rode on his success (justifiably though; Hoover had been Commerce Secretary for 8 years). This would change in October of 1929 when the stock market crashed and ushered in the Great Depression.

There had been a series of stock market crashes through the the 19th century in the US every decade or so, each with increasing severity and effects in the US as more people moved into cities and were more dependent on wages. The 1920s saw a rise in consumer culture, payment plans, investment becoming commonplace, loans for buying stock with, a lot of scams and the limits of the real economy which culminated in the biggest crash yet. Moreover, since the US was now linked to a bunch of other countries thanks to improved communications, trade, transportation, and so forth, the crash not only tanked the US economy, but that of basically every other developed country save for the USSR under Stalin (which had its own Stalin-related problems, and boy were they big problems), which further hindered recovery. It also didn't help that large swaths of Europe were still battle scarred wastelands useless for agriculture, an entire generation of young working men had been killed or crippled, and that the formerly super-productive Germany was now teetering with an ineffectual government and crippling reparations to pay (Take the claim of the Reparations being crippling with a huge grain of salt: Modern historians have come to the conclusion that the effect of the reparations was much lesser than the German governments and later Hitler liked to claim. They liked to overstate the burden to create a welcome excuse for their own failure to stabilize the deteriorating value of the Reichsmark for the vengeful German masses, which culminated in one of the worst hyperinflations of the 20th century and also the temporary occupation of the Ruhr Valley by French troops) Throw in a crushing multi-year drought in the United States that ruined harvests across wholes states and the stage is set for chaos.

The old ways of dealing with things did not work and people turned to new ideas. In the US, this was various public works projects and assistance programs, collectively called the New Deal, to get people back working and build confidence in the economy and financial regulations. Similar ideas were tried in England, Australia and the UK. It should be noted that afterwards there was no major economic setbacks until 2008 after New Deal era financial regulations were pulled. In Germany, the response was more severe and was seen as a failure of democracy, which contributed to the rise of authoritarian parties on the left like the Communist KPD, which in turn led to the Nazi (National Socialists German Workers Party) party to counter them (possibly with help from western powers seeking a wall against communism) <s>with a newfound hate of the Allies thanks to the colossal reparations to the rest of Europe that Germany had been forced to pay in the Treaty of Versailles</s>, except that the rise of the Nazis to power was far more complicated than just that. Much more important in that question was the fact that Germany was blamed for the war to create to legal and moral justification for said reparations (as elaborated above, the actual economic effects of the reparations were questionable) and the Stab-And-The-Back-Myth that was set into the world by Imperial German Marshals (and defacto military oligarchs from 1916 on) Ludendorff and Hindenburg in order to shift the blame for the Germany's defeat to the Social Democrats and the Jews. The concurrent deeply authoritarian political culture of many German institutions as well as reactionary and monarchist Industrialists like Krupp, who all backed Hitler and Nationalist and Antisemitic Parties similar to the NSDAP (like the DNVP) and the lack of people actually willing to give a damn about the Republic itself lead to the erosion of the few democratic principles left at this point. From 1930 onward, Hindenburg, who was elected as the candidate of a coalition of Nationalist and conservative parties to the office of President reigned Germany in a dictatorial manner and named Hitler as Chancellor and head of government in January 1933, after two governments under the centrist-conservative Party Zentrum and the Nationalist DNVP failed to stabilize the economy. Responding to the collapse gave the Nazis the political currency to get into power, stimulate the economy by gearing it up to war and made the UK less willing to intervene to stop them while they were rising due to nobody wanting to be the one to start another war. And ideals of peace and disarmament certainly somewhat popular in the UK and France.

To their credit, in the mid 30's the Nazis did appear to be doing good things, even if there was a clear air of racial supremacy about the whole affair. Europe was collectively terrified of Marxism, and a nation that was forcefully rebuilding and modernizing itself without resorting to collectivization was tolerated by the French and British out of fear of the alternative. Between completing the Autobahn, hosting the Olympics, and achieving a number of engineering feats such as the first practical helicopter, Germany appeared to be getting shit done. When the communists tried to launch a revolution in Spain, Germany sent weapons and eventually troops to keep keep the nationalists in control, while Britain looked the other way and pretended not to notice that Germany suddenly had hundreds of tanks (and that France and the Soviets were providing aid to communist revolutionaries). So nobody was too concerned when Germany started making noises about reunifying some Germanic peoples in border regions they'd ceded in the Treaty...

== The Second World War ==

=== The War in the West ===
See also [[Nazi]]s

With Poland unwilling to roll over before the Nazis, the Nazis securing a ceasefire with Soviet Russia and with Britain and France finally stirred to the defense of Poland, it was clear that war was inevitable and so, on September 1st 1939, after creating a false-flag incident to offer the thinnest fig leaf of legality (and also dispose of a few dissenting Germans on the Nazis' hitlist) Germany struck at Poland. Two days later on September 3rd Britain and France declared war on Germany. Contrary to the popular imagination, Poland did not simply crumble before the German onslaught, and the myth of Polish cavalry trying to charge German tanks was yet another piece of propaganda. But after a month of hard fighting, with the Soviets entering the war on the German side and striking Poland in the rear, Poland finally gave in to the inevitable.

After that, the Germans sat around for a bit, causing the British and the French to fortify the hell out of the Northeast part of France in anticipation of an assault. However, the French ignored a large wooded area called the Ardennes. This region was thought to be not overly strategically important, as the mobility of German tanks was supposedly hampered by the thick forests. Needless to say, this was wrong, and the France fell at just an alarmingly fast rate as Poland did. The Italians jumped in at the last minute to steal some land and pretend they could help their ally Germany in warfare. It should be mentioned that in spite of the surrender memes everyone makes about France, they fought and inflicted casualties on the German Invaders at a rate far higher than should have been expected of them. In fact, the German High Command felt very uneasy about the whole operation throughout its entirety. The key to success for the German forces was a combination of tactics the Allies were ill prepared to counter, a system of organised chaos where Divisions were pushing far quicker ahead than they were supposed to and more often than not sheer dumb luck. The Battle of France ended with the conquest and surrender of Paris, and Germany annexed the North of the country, leaving the rest to the Vichy puppet government that would administer Southern France and her colonies. However, French general Charles de Gaulle rallied several of the colonies to continue their resistance against the Germans and many colonists would pledge their support to "Free France". They would eventually form a provisional government in Algiers and ultimately return to Paris in 1944.

The British spent the majority of 1940-1942 on the defensive from all sides and every angle, with Winston Churchill being made Prime Minister, a man with an iron will and indomitable resolve. He lead his country through the loss of the HMS Hood, the U-boat crisis (something that he made clear was his greatest fear throughout the war), the Battle of Britain. Canadians, South Africans, Indians, ANZACs, and all manner of soldier that could be acquired were pressed into service to defend the Empire all across the globe. Among the successes, such as the sinking of the Bismarck and the Taranto raid, were horrible failures like the Greek and Norwegian expeditionary forces, and the war for Africa was largely a stalemate until the Torch Landings.

During this period, the Soviets had been in a very similar position, being forced to hold back against a well trained army with a poorly equipped and poorly trained army. The infamous Russian winter forced the German Army to stay the winter just outside of Moscow, and the oil they wished to seize was either just out of reach or destroyed in scorched earth retreats.

=== American Rearmament ===
This whole time the American public had been watching the developing war, chief among these watchers was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR was not a fan of Adolf, mostly because FDR hated imperialism (he actively worked to release the Philippines from the US, and was pivotal in creating a post-war environment that would destroy the colonial regimes of Britain and France.) He convinced Congress to send increasingly generous aid to Britain, funded the military, and generally put the US into a state of readiness for war.

In spite of these changes, the American public was generally lukewarm on the idea of war in Europe; they'd rather let the Europeans kill each other and live away unbothered. FDR realized like Wilson that he could not go to war without changing the public's perception, so this explains the "slow" manner in which the US built up its military infrastructure. Instead, the Americans took notes and watched carefully from the sidelines, gradually taking a more pro-ally stance byescorting transports, allowing American Destroyers to "defend business interests" in convoys, and building up a tank force and air force. Everything was going fine until some weeaboo with a katanna stepped off the field and kicked them in the balls; Pearl Harbor.

Rather than being shocked into peace talks or ineffectiveness, the entire country became extraordinarily pissed and had war declared the next day. Recruitment offices swelled with men willing to fight, and promising officers such as Patton, Eisenhower, and Doolittle were given immediate assignments. "Remember Pearl Harbor" became a rallying cry among the US Navy, and General Douglas MacArthur was determined to regain his prestige after the Philippines were lost under his command.

=== Mid-War ===
The mid-war refers largely to the conclusion of the African Campaign and the Fall of Italy, and the conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad. The Freeaboos first forayed into the world of dying hard on beaches during the Torch landings, where a combination of poor logistics planning, bad intel, and a bunch of pointless and stupid red tape from the somewhat uncooperative Vichy Colonial administration resulted in needless casualties. The results would be studied and come to fruition in future campaigns.

After Operation Torch, the Allies pushed with great difficulty into Tunisia, forcing the Axis to stay there. With the Americans on the West and Montgomery's army in the East, Tunisia was surrounded and captured with great difficulty, due to the mountainous and hilly terrain. The complete lack of useful military infrastructure that had not been left to rot by Petain made the logistics a nightmare.

While the allies were establishing a base for Free France and picking away at Italy, the Germans and Soviets clashed over Stalingrad. Intelligently, the Soviets realized the importance of the city to Germany (all about oil) and lured the Germans into the city. This deprived them of their tank advantage, and 5 months of siege functionally destroyed any value the city would have had along with the entirety of their supplies. The encirclement of Fredrich Paulus and the 8th army resulted in the surrender of the German army, only 5,000 of which would live to see home a decade later.

The landings on Sicily and Italy were enough to force Mussolini out of power, and Italy promptly changed sides to fight for the Allies. However, the theorized soft underbelly of Italy was anything but, as the mountainous land proved difficult for the Allies to traverse. This resulted into Mussolini being established as a puppet governor in Northern Italy until he was killed by partisans. It also prevented the Allies from making any meaningful progress towards Germany through Italy.

=== Normandy ===
Yes, Normandy gets its own section. See, the Americans had long wanted to just land in France and bash the Nazis to death much like what Sherman had done to the CSA in the American Civil War. The British managed to convince the Americans that Africa would allow them to isolate a large number of Axis troops that could not be replaced from Europe, and if Stalin continued to bleed them dry, they could take Italy. The disastrous Dieppe landings also convinced Eisenhower to shelve the idea as untenable at the moment.

Flash forward to 1943 and Italy is a stalemate, though Russia is in a much better spot due to lend-lease. Stalin wants the Americans to open up another front to take pressure off of him, and the allies oblige by preparing one of the most complicated and carefully planned landings in human history: Normandy. Normandy had intelligence gathered from old time-life magazines, commandos, partisans, postcards, scientific reports, and anything they could get their hands on. Weather patterns were traced back decades to predict for an ideal time to land, swimming tanks were developed, and two mobile ports were developed to help unload equipment due to the lack of ports near the beaches. On top of all that, the Allies launched a massive counter-intelligence operation, mainly convincing the Germans that a massive army group (made up of balloons to fool observation craft) stationed in Kent and lead by General Patton would attack Calais.

In spite of these preparations, Eisenhower was not totally convinced they would succeed, and prior to the landings wrote a letter taking full responsibility for the failure of the landings. This never happened thankfully, but the rest of the Battle of Normandy was not just on the beaches. Paratroopers desperately held back reinforcements and seized or demolished important enemy infrastructure, attack aircraft strafed Germans for miles around, and the strategic bombers of the USAAF were diverted from pounding German industry to provide aid.

=== Victory in Europe ===

Liberating France, and Belgium, the western allies marched upon Germany while the Soviets bumrushed Berlin. Several desperate counter-attacks were launched, including the decisive Battle of the Bulge. It prevented the allies from pushing further than West Germany and insured the longevity of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.

By this time, FDR was finally starting to realized the all the nasty things Churchill had been saying about Stalin were true; he was a liar, sociopath, and hell-bent on carving out territory to expand Communism and Soviet Influence. While FDR's ambitions to allow countries to have their own say in their governance would be realized in the 30 years after August 1945, many of the Eastern Bloc would remain under the hammer and sickle as "satellite states". Even a brief attempted rebellion by the Poles to reestablish their country was brutally put down by the Soviets.

In the Battle of Berlin, the Germans fought ferociously against the Soviets, but Hitler took his life in the hours preceding the Soviets occupying the Reichstag and declaring victory. The official cessation of hostilities occurred on May 8 1945. The day is known as VE day, though in Russia it is called Victory Day, in honor of the tremendous sacrifices the men of the Red Army made during the many battles in which they fought against the German Army.

=== The War in the East ===
Since at least 1853, when Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Harbor, the Japanese feared the day when the powers of Europe would stomp all over them like they did China. In response they began building up their industrial base, importing guns, ships, factory machinery, engineers, textbooks, and professors. Some Japanese people came to the idea that the best way to fend off imperialism was to become imperialists themselves, and they began gobbling up their neighbors from the late 19th century onward (at first, in the name of liberating them and creating a "Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", but with more brutality and for more obviously selfish reasons as time went on). They kept this going into the 20th century (when this sort of behavior was finally falling out of fashion among the Western powers, especially after WWI), by which time the military had become central to Japanese politics. In 1931, they invaded Manchuria, and invaded China in 1937, killing millions as they went(four times the death toll of the Holocaust to be precise, something that is largely ignored in light of Holocaust itself and Japan's contemporary PR effort). The rest of the world was outraged and cut Japan off from trade, which caused them to dig their heels in and keep it up, lest they be perceived as paper tigers. Tensions built until eventually the US threatened to cut off the oil Japan needed to keep their massive fleet running, and the overconfident Army managed to push the Imperial Japanese Navy into launching an attack on the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor (timed to hit approximately 30 minutes after delivering the declaration of war, thus [[Rules lawyer|effectively being a surprise attack without technically being a surprise attack]]).

The idea was that if everything went right, the fickle American public would be dismayed by the prospect of a hard fight over distant lands (especially while contemplating joining the war in Europe), the IJN could seize control of the Pacific while the crippled US fleet was out of action, and the US would be left with no choice but negotiation. However, while the Pearl Harbor attack did work pretty well and they did overrun a lot of Allied holdings around Asia, they missed all but one of the US carriers which only suffered minor damaged, enraged an American public that was previously tepid on war (especially since mistakes delayed even the planned token warning), and the fact was that the US had more than 10 times the Industry that Japan did as well as plenty of fuel. Another big failure of the Attack on Pearl Harbor was the lack of focus on the dockyards, drydocks, fuel depots, and the infrastructure that you need to target to prevent a navy from functioning or recovering after your ships take a ton of damage.

To top it all off they also aligned themselves with the Nazis, based on shared enemies and ultra-Imperialist/Nationalist ideologies, but thus reinforcing the narrative of them being a part of the barbaric Forces of Evil who needed to be completely defeated for the sake of the civilized world.

Despite the US' obvious industrial advantage, the US Navy was seriously lacking in experience and numbers compared to the IJN at the start of the war; with the Japanese carriers outnumbering Americans (who had to split their fleets to protect against German U-Boat attacks), there was a very real threat that the IJN would return to finish the job and start raiding the US Mainland before replacement ships could be built. The early stages of the War in the Pacific were very much touch-and-go, but that all changed after the Battle of Midway, when [[Tactical genius|Admiral Nimitz]] intercepted the IJN's plans to attack Midway Island and lured them into a trap, destroying half of the IJN's total carrier capacity. This permanently halted Japanese aggression and put them on the defensive, buying the American war machine valuable time to rearm and retrain.

As time went on, and with some shaky starts, the Allies quickly learned how to rely on carriers instead of traditional battleship tactics, a lucky and devastating win at the Battle of Midway put the IJN on the back foot, now finding themselves as the proverbial one legged man in an ass kicking contest with the cream of Japanese carrier aviation at the bottom of the Pacific. Ferocious naval engagements gave way as the star of the show to even more brutal amphibious warfare as the Marines began their island hopping campaign across the Pacific, painfully prying each strategically important Japanese occupied island from their well dug in defenders — and crucially, skipping the islands that weren't important, leaving lots of Japanese units deployed in spots they could do fuck-all. The jungle, cave and amphibious warfare of this stage of the campaign was especially horrific even by World War 2 standards, not helped by racism against the Japanese on the part of Americans and the racism against everyone crossed with the suicidal fanaticism of the Japanese further exacerbating this. The IJN also set up various military units for holding prisoners and scientific experiments - best exemplified by Unit 731 - which gave Auschwitz a run for their money on crimes against humanity, the only difference being the lack of a genocidal goal.

One often overlooked (at least in popular history from the western perspective) event in the war in China was the last big Japanese Offensive of 1944, named Operation Ichi-Go, where the Japanese threw their last reserves together to break through Republican Chinese lines under Chiang Kai-shek with astounding success. Although the Japanese were beaten back very quickly as were they in no position to hold their gains against the following allied counter-offensive, the Republican Chinese failure to stop it lead to the US taking control over the Nationalist forces after an ultimatum that greatly damaged the previously good relations between Kai-shek and the US government. It also lead to the disillusion of a lot of Nationalist Chinese officers and soldiers with their cause, prompting them to switch sides to the Communists under Mao Zedong. Mao on the other hand quickly utilized this momentum and influx of experienced soldiers (along with Soviet aid) to seize control of China from the Nationalists in the Second Phase of the Chinese Civil War (the Warlord Era got put on a semi-pause fighting against Japan, it was tenuous with constant skirmishing and the moment the Japanese forces got pulled out at the end of the World War it reignited), push them out of the main land off to Taiwan and found the Chinese Peoples Republic in 1949.

One major note from a wargaming perspective in this theater is Operation Ten-Go, the last sortie of the IJN against the US military forces invading Okinawa. The largest battleship made by human hands, the Yamato, and her support fleet, sortied... and were promptly destroyed by massed American air power. Thus proving the change in the IRL meta of naval warfare to carrier dominance, which has endured to this day.

=== The Manhattan Project ===
At the tail end of the 19th century, scientists began to work out some odd properties of matter, which eventually got them to realize that splitting atomic nuclei after processing Uranium in a cyclotron releases millions of times more energy than an equivalent mass of a chemical reaction. Naturally, instead of using it as cheap energy first, people thought "How can we weaponize this?" Such a weapon would be a game changer for warfare (less for the raw destruction it would cause, since firebombing cities was already horrifyingly effective, but because it would only take one bomber getting through air defenses to do the job instead of dozens or hundreds), and the Nazis getting it first would be an intolerable state of affairs. As such the Brits and the Americans pooled their scientific and industrial resources at Los Alamos to work out how to build a bomb. 20000 '''tons''' of silver wiring were built to enrich the Uranium into something that will recreate a small sun for a brief moment.

They were not ready in time to use it against the Nazis, but the first two were dropped on Japan to convince them that they wouldn't be able to fight to the stalemate they were now aiming for, thus ending the war quickly at the cost of a few hundred thousand Japanese civilians, rather than a long and costly slog that would potentially result in millions dead if the fanatical Japanese military forced it through to completion (including both the Japanese civilians who would be mobilized into militias and untold American service members). This view is [[Skub|controversial]] [[SJW|depending]] [[/pol/|on]] [[Communism|who]] [[Japan|you ask]], and some think it had more to do with revenge for the boats that got blown up, combined with racism and the desire to show off their new weapon to anyone else who might have threatened American dominance. Needless to say this is one of the war's most hotly debated decisions, and we will not be taking a stance. Regardless of the morality of using a small sun on a civilian target, it seemed to contribute to the surrender of the Japanese on 2 September 1945, though VJ day is observed on August 15th, when the Japanese announced their intention to surrender.

Whether or not intimidation was indeed a motive, the Russians ended up nicking the research data and so this just paved the way for the nuclear stalemate known as [[the Cold War]]. It is claimed by some that Stalin knew about the test before Truman did (Long story short: Truman was chosen as VP to get the Southern Democrats to support FDR's reelection bid. FDR didn't care for him much.) Some sources claim that Stalin merely suspected the Americans were working on nukes, and a cryptic statement by Truman allowed Stalin to confirm his suspicions.

After the war, the United Nations was organized in a significantly more effective manner than the League of Nations through the veto power and the binding requirements at the Security Council at least nominally giving the world a way to forcibly stop wars. The embarrassment that was the League of Nations formally dissolved itself and handed over all its assets to the UN in it's last meeting in 18 April 1946 (the Resolution went in to effect the next day on the 19th) with the sole exception of a 9-man committee transferring assets, records and administrations of specialist agencies to the UN. With the self-dissolution of the committee on 31 July 1947, legally ending the League of Nations as an entity. The Cold War technically started the day the Japanese surrendered, though the Berlin Blockade and the ending of the Chinese Civil War, reignited after Japan's defeat, were the public display.

== Notes ==
*Radio! While Radio was used for communications and there were a few experimental broadcasts here and there, it really took off in the 1920s. Radios meant that for the first time you could beam music, news and other such information directly into people's homes. Radio systems (both transmitters and especially receivers) were cheap to make and comparatively easy to use and maintain. Naturally everyone wanted in on this pie from radio companies to the Americans to the Brits to the Japanese to the Soviets to the Nazis. In particular the Nazis mass produced millions of cheap ''Volksempfanger'' radio sets to feed a steady stream of nazi propaganda to the masses.
*During this time Science Fiction began to catch on to a wider audience. As new technologies increasingly transformed peoples lives there was interest in what the future might be like. At the same time, Radio and Pulp Magazines gave sci-fi writers a new means to get their message out. The downside of this was that there was also a ''lot'' of crap, since lowering the barrier of entry meant that a bunch of low end crud could be shoveled out onto the market and the editors of the magazines were more interested in filling pages for next week's edition than putting out quality material.
*Art Deco happened and is iconic of this period. Breaking with traditional European styles it's stylized forms, smooth lines and embellishments are iconic. In particular, Art Deco often tried to capture a sense of motion which in an era when Cars, Planes and Trains were seen as the main signs of technological triumph was important.
*The Superhero Genre was born very rapidly just before WWII with the publication of Superman and exploded during the war. If a lucky American kid in the 1940s found a shiny nickel, the latest edition of Superman or Captain America would be high up the list on what they'd spend it on.
*In dribs and drabs the elements of fantasy literature were beginning to come together. Conan the Barbarian was first written in 1932 and the [[The Hobbit]] was released in 1937. [[The Lord of the Rings]] was written from 1940-49, though it would be released in the 50s. Not really a cohesive whole yet, but the bits were coming there and coming together.

== The appeal of the World Wars ==
These are the biggest armed conflicts of world history, rolling across continents using modern weapons, from tanks to planes to automatic weapons. Modern War was born in the trenches of the Somme, in the skies above London and over the fields of Poland during the Blitzkrieg, the flanking in France, the naval bombardment and air bombing in the Pacific, the hell in the Eastern front cities, in the bombing of Europe from the air, in the atomic fire of Hiroshima and Japan. We entered the century and went 14 years thinking everything was right and as great as it could be. Thirty years, a war, a pandemic, an economic crash, another war and several genocides later the man who was born into the first large scale factories witnessed the power of the atom burn the hopes and dreams of two cities. Ernest Shackleton is perhaps the perfect example. He journeyed believing the war was over, then returned to find that it had become a nightmare with no end in sight, a unique perspective.

Of the two wars, World War One gets relatively little media attention and what little it does get is somber. Part of that is because it's hard to craft a heroic action-packed adventure out of the hopeless horror of trench warfare, the other part is that the morality of the war is very, very grey. There was no clear right side, with both the Central and Allied powers equally chomping at the bit for a fight (at least to start with), and ready to start shooting for ''any'' convenient reason. When some angry Illyrians in the Balkans finally set everything off, the ''only'' motivation the common people had (besides being drafted and having no choice anyway) to go fight was the extensive propaganda campaigns telling them how totally awful for realsies the enemy was, and anyone asking questions or doubting was shut down ''hard''. As a result, it's hard to make easily dehumanized rank-and file villains for a narrative when the soldiers of neither side actually want to be fighting at all.

When it was all over the country blamed and punished for the whole mess wasn't even the one that started it (in fact, the country that actually started it made bank off the entire thing. Germany was still the one to go to war with Belgium and get the British involved, so they could certainly take some blame.) All told, the First World War is largely seen as a great tragedy, and is widely considered a wasteful war as winnings were slim on the Allied side. If Russia didn't get involved or if the Axis didn't go for Belgium or if Italy either started under the allies or stayed in the axis or if Italy was the cause of WW1 as it likely would have been depending on how things would have continued in AH if the either the Duke dying didn't result in a war or if the Duke was never assassinated a war with one side getting a much greater victory could have transpired.

Probably one of the only noble (and almost certainly the cleanest) aspects of WW1 was the war in the air, where fighter pilots were effectively chivalric knights of the sky. One famous example was Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), easily the most famous Ace fighter of the war, with 80 victories to his name in his distinctive red tri-plane (which only accounted for his last 17). He was so well respected among his adversaries that when he was finally shot down, the Allied officers who recovered his body buried him with full honors, including an honor guard and gun salute. This didn't stop the ruthless pragmatism, a few pilots even publicly boasted of shooting down parachuting airmen to prevent them from returning to the fight.

Another event stands out known as the Christmas Truce; early on in the war, troops on the Western Front pretty quickly realized that the guys they were shooting at didn’t want to be there any more than they did, and agreed to a ceasefire to celebrate Christmas. When the truce looked like it was going to last, commanders put a kibosh on the whole thing and told them to start fighting again and even cracked down on small mutinies arising. Another such truce would never happen as the fighting became more destructive, as poison gas attacks and tank assaults made each side far more wary of the other. Sometimes temporary truces were declared for around kilometer wide sectors to clear corpses, but that was about it.

The Second World War is a much more palatable conflict of more or less Good vs. Evil, with both the Nazis and Imperial Japan going out to conquer their respective hemispheres of the world and exterminating millions as key objectives and Italy playing the incompetent sidekick/comic relief which isn't too far off the truth in a series of spectacular displays of military incompetence on the part of Mussolini and his generals. The Axis Powers provided a clear and easy villain for the rest of the world to rally against (as well as providing easy media villains for the rest of the century and into the next millennium). The far more mobile and urban warfare of WW2 also allowed for more personal initiative and heroism, and stories of the extraordinary accomplishments of individual squads, or even individual soldiers, are far more commonplace here than they were back in WW1, when individual men or units had no real hope of making a difference, no matter what they did (mind, it was still industrial weight and technology that won the war, but it is far easier to remember Simo Häyhä than say, Alvin York (They both have Sabaton songs though!)).

As a result, a solid majority of [[Alternate History]] fiction is set in WWII one way or another. Even if WWI (or any of the many, many 19th Century to 1913 events and trends that lead to it) is the point of divergence, the story is likely to be in the late interwar to WWII periods.

== World War inspired Games, Factions and Settings ==
* A lot of stuff from the [[Imperium of Man]], especially the Death Korps of Krieg.
* [[Dieselpunk]] is the WWII equivalent of Steampunk. If you like the general aesthetics and mood of the time period but don’t want to be limited by the period’s technology, or perhaps want to see what would happen if the Nazi “Wunderwaffen” had been fully realized, this is the setting for you.
* [[Bolt Action]], [[Flames of War]], and other similar military tabletop games are set in WWII.
* [[Star Wars]] takes a great deal of inspiration from this time period, and in regards to the prequels, it especially takes a lot of inspiration from the transformation of the democratic-but-ineffectual Weimar Republic into the nightmarishly totalitarian Third Reich (though it was also influenced by the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire).
* Indiana Jones. Do we need to explain this?
* The 1920+ universe, inspired by the art of Jakub Rozalski, envisions an alternate Europe where Nikola Tesla’s super science lead to the development of Mechs as the dominant war machine. Best known for the RTS game “Iron Harvest” that pits Imperial Germany, Imperial Russia, and Poland in a version of WWI with WWII elements mixed in. Even Rasputin makes an appearance as the leader of a shadowy cabal looking to seize power by fomenting revolution in all three factions and take over Tesla’s super-advanced city-state.
{{Time Periods}}
[[Category: History]]

Industrial Revolution

2022-08-20T00:54:07Z

2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Napoleonic Wars */

[[File:Steam engine in action.gif|300px|thumb|left|Knights clash, Nobles Plot, Kings Proclaim and Priests Preach. But for all their ambition, passion, glory, drive and zeal it's a few modestly well off men trying to figure out how to better drain flooded mines that change the world]]
{{topquote|The more we progress the more we tend to progress. We advance not in arithmetical but in geometrical progression. We draw compound interest on the whole capital of knowledge and virtue which has been accumulated since the dawning of time. Some eighty thousand years are supposed to have existed between paleolithic and neolithic man. Yet in all that time he only learned to grind his flint stones instead of chipping them. But within our father's lives what changes have there not been? The railway and the telegraph, chloroform and applied electricity. Ten years now go further than a thousand then, not so much on account of our finer intellects as because the light we have shows us the way to more. Primeval man stumbled along with peering eyes, and slow, uncertain footsteps. Now we walk briskly towards our unknown goal.|Arthur Conan Doyle}}
The '''Industrial Revolution''' was a period from about 1776 to 1914 which was a major game changer for humanity. Many periods of history are laid out arbitrarily by historians for book-keeping purposes. A peasant born at the transition at the tail end of the [[High Middle Ages]] in 1340 and lived to see the [[Renaissance]] over some 90 years would not think the world he was born in to be too different to the one he died, even if he was glad that the whole "everybody's dropping dead of plague" spell did not come back. But the same could not be said if said fellow was born in England in 1780. In that time the majority of people had moved from the countryside to cities, factories were making everything, you could cross the country in a train in a day and send a message to newfangled Dominion of Canada at the speed of light.

== Technology ==
The big thing of note here is energy. For most of the history of civilization if humans wanted to get something done like move some thing from point A to Point B, dig a hole, grind grain, work iron or whatever they had to do it with muscle power, either their own, other peoples' or by those of some cows or horses. Later they worked out how to put wind and flowing water to use with sails, watermills and windmills. Both of which were useful in their own right and by the 1700s they were used in a wide variety of operations but both had serious limitations. There are only so many rivers where you can build watermills and even in windy places there are calm days, so they primarily supplemented wind and water power. A human can produce about 100 watts (joules per second) of motive power continuously, a horse can provide about 750 watts. In contrast a kilogram of wood has about 16-21 megajoules of energy if burned and coal has about 30 megajoules, though this comes in heat. Steam engines use boiling water to turn that heat into motive force which can operate factory machines, propel ships and locomotives to carry cargo, dig ditches and more. Once they had been refined to a level of comparative efficiency they changed the nature of how work got done. First this was done by belts, gears and rods and latter by electrical power generated by steam (or other sources) turning generators to power electric motors and lights.

One of the key advances of the Industrial Revolution was the assembly line which allowed rapid construction of goods by giving each worker a single task to be repeated instead of requiring they have specialized knowledge of the whole process. While this idea goes back to at least the Venetian Arsenal in 1320, it became the standard during this era thanks to breakthroughs in milling, grinding and lathing metal powered by steam (these machines were also a pre-requisite for the creation of precision instruments, without which you can't even make the machines that make the machines that make the final product). One side effect of making things on an assembly line is that items were broken into interchangeable parts that were replaceable if they broke, where before repairs were specialized work, if they could be accomplished at all. It would not be until World War Two however, that quality control was tight enough that parts were interchangeable between factories. The assembly line led to widespread and cheap automobiles. The most prominent example was the Ford Model T. These early cars all had unique controls and the modern, standardized control layout would not be invented until 1916 and would not achieve popularity until after 1922.

Education also improved and became more universal during this era. By 1800 literacy was near universal in the United States, though this figure may not be counting slaves. Indeed, high literacy was critical to the American Revolution, which made extensive use of mass printed propaganda like ''[[Wikipedia:Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]''. Public Education further improved this. Democracy would gradually rise in prominence during this period thanks to increased literacy. The abolition of slavery and women's emancipation would also make serious progress during this era AS an extension of this.

Communications would advance rapidly, with radio quickly becoming a standard possession. The telegraph and later telephone would also be invented during this era. The earliest traces of film recording started here. Photography has matured enough by this time that photographs of most important figures from ~1840 onward exist.

Weapons technology advanced by leaps and bounds. At the start of the Industrial Revolution the average soldier had a flintlock musket that could be shot maybe four times a minute and was accurate up to maybe 100 meters. Breech-loading rifles came around very shortly into the period, though the complexity of the mechanism made large scale manufacture impossible. Guns became mass produced (and were among the first complex machines with metal mechanisms to be so), but over the early 19th century they gradually became rifled as standard and switched over to percussion locks and were complemented with the first mass produced revolvers. Starting in 1848, muskets began being phased out for breech-loading rifles. Metallic cartridge and smokeless powder would arrive towards the end of this era. Since black powder would rapidly foul any repeating action, smokeless powder was critical to the function of any self-loading firearm. Machine guns became common during this era with Sir Hiram Maxim's invention of his famous gun in 1886. Self loading pistols emerged as well. Artillery advanced from simple iron tubes firing iron balls straight ahead to breech-loading steel guns which fired explosive shells on predictable ballistic trajectories.

Of course, there was a downside. Industrialization did generate a lot of wealth, but not everyone profited from it. Rural landlords found that their fields were full of surplus farmhands who weren't needed and they [the landlords] promptly kicked them [the surplus farmhands] off their land to go into dirty overcrowded cities full of cheaply made apartments in which people were crammed in like sardines. To get enough to survive, everyone in a poor family older than six would have to work in unsafe conditions for 12 hours or more, often operating dangerous machines that could take the hand off the unwary in the heat, dark, stink and noise of it all while [[Wikipedia:Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire|forcibly locked their workers into the building]].

There were various responses to these conditions, some of which were more extreme than others. The best-known of these is the concept of the labor union, which allowed for workers in the same industry to group together and demand better working conditions from their employers, as did regulations against child labor, safety standards and so forth. And of course, there was the enormous amount of pollution and general environmental destruction, whose effects are coming back to bite us in the ass a little over a century later.

== Napoleonic Wars ==

Imagine a world where Tom Cruise succeeded in killing Hitler and then Rommel proceeded to do all the conquering that Hitler promised to do except without all the genocide, only to lose it all by invading Russia in winter. Replace Hitler with Maximilien Robespierre and Rommel with Napoleon Bonaparte and that's basically the Napoleonic Wars.

France is a shit place to live. It always has been. But the 1790s were particularly shitty. Like "why is my bread made of sawdust" shitty (no, really, that happened). Seeing that America had a good end throwing out the monarchy, a bunch of French people decided they had nothing to lose and tried the same. Things got a little [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror out of hand] as they [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massacre tend to in France] and before long a young military officer decided that the best course of action was to shoot some protesters with cannons, and the country loved him for it.

Now that he was in control [[Emprah|Emperor Napoleon]] had a relatively short to-do list, he wanted to: Lead and shape <s>Man</s>Frenchkind <s>into a psychic race</s> and surpass the <s>Eldar</s> '''Romans''' by learning from their mistakes, unite Humanity under one aegis and allow for <s>instant</s> communication and travel <s>across all human inhabited worlds</s>, kill literally every <s>Xenos</s> Brit and most importantly, prevent another calamity like the Age of Strife or Fall of the <s>Eldar</s> '''Romans'''.

Five coalitions were raised against the Emperor's Great Crusade, and each was smashed to pieces by his <s>Astartes</s> '''Horse Artillery''' and the <s>Solar Auxilia</s> '''Garde Impériale'''. This went on until the Emperor was betrayed by <s>Horus</s> '''the weather'''. In the disastrous invasion of <s>Isstvan V</s> '''Russia''', the Grand Army would suffer 80% losses, many due to freezing to death.

While Napoleon would fight against two more coalitions against him, the defeat in Russia would prove to be the beginning of the end.

To fund these wars Napoleon sold the United States a '''huge''' chunk of land that's now known as the Louisiana Purchase. This was actually controversial in the United States at the time since it wasn't ''explicitly'' allowed by the Constitution of the United States. The sheer size of the acquisition surprised nearly everyone except Napoleon; the negotiators sent by President Jefferson were only looking to acquire New Orleans and access to the Mississippi. Napoleon was eager to divest himself of his New World holdings because they were more trouble than they were worth (a lesson Spain never took to heart and the British only after a very long time); this was shortly after France embarrassingly lost Haiti to the world's first (and so far only) successful large-scale slave revolt. Ultimately, the argument that the power to make treaties was sufficient to make a treaty exchanging money for land won out and American settlers soon flooded the largely undeveloped land. Another lasting consequence was that Napoleon's government offered a large reward for anyone who could develop a cost effective method of preserving food. Nicolas Appert claimed this prize when he discovered that food cooked in sealed jars would last for a long time (even though he admittedly had no clue why it worked). This would eventually be refined into canning.

=== War of 1812 ===
The young USA would engage in its own, concurrent, fight against the British. In 1812, the U.S. would declare war on the British over press-ganging of American sailors... two days after the British put a stop to it (transatlantic communication could go no faster than transatlantic ships, which took roughly two months). The official ''casus belli'' aside, the real reason the United States declared war on Britain was in retaliation for British support of Tecumseh's Shawnee Confederation and a desire to conquer Canada. Despite terrible results for the US on land, which saw the White House burned down by Canadians, the U.S. did better than expected on the naval front. Even with Napoleon tying up most of the Royal Navy, the hastily raised and underfunded U.S. Navy matching them was a serious accomplishment.

One especially notable U.S. vessel was the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_floating_battery_Demologos United States floating battery ''Demologos''] (retroactively renamed the ''Fulton'' after its creator), the first documented steam warship. However, the principle muscle of the USN was the nation's first six frigates, originally constructed to fight the Barbary pirates. Although aged at the start of the war, they were still well armed, sturdy, exceptionally fast for their weight and virtually cannon proof due to their composite armor hull built with American live oak instead of comparatively flimsy European wood. After a string of high profile defeats the Royal Navy forbade their captains to engage them with less than a two-to-one advantage.

In December 1814 both sides declared peace since they weren’t getting anywhere and the original cause for the war was no longer applicable. On 8 January 1815 [sic] the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans Battle of New Orleans] was fought, to overwhelming U.S. victory, despite the war being over (see the above point of communication being slow).

== Transportation ==
In 1800, if you wanted to get from point A to point B your options were limited. You could always walk and you might be able to cover maybe 50 kilometers a day at 4kph if you're in good health and traveling light. Catching a lift on a farm wagon was about as fast, but it's not you doing the walking. If you had the cash, you might use a stagecoach, drawn by a team of horses which were regularly swapped out and could go along at 13-16kph if the roads were good. A sailing ship might be able to match that speed if there was favorable conditions (and that was a big if) and would be on the move 24 hours. Most people lived their whole lives without going more than 30km from their birthplace and travel was the domain of elites, the wealthy, merchants and their associates and armies on the march. While there had been refinements (some of which fairly substantial, especially with ships) this basic set up had been the case since the Bronze Age. But this ancient order would soon be overturned by Steam Power.

First there were steamboats with experiments starting in the 1700s in Britain, France and America. It was a fairly straightforward idea: take a boat, slap a steam engine in it, hook it up to a paddle wheel and hope the whole thing does not catch fire or it's boiler blows up. By the early 1800s there were some steam tugboats. By the 1810s there were paddleboats handling cargo on canals and rivers. By the 1820s there were experimental steamships which could cross the Atlantic mostly using engine power and by the 1830s there were regular transatlantic crossings. The big advantage of a steamship over a sailboat was that it could sail straight into the wind without giving a shit. Voyages that could take months at full sail could be done in a week. Even so sailing ships still persisted for some time in some roles as they did not need their coal bunkers topped off all the time.

Self powered ships were a big deal for maritime trade, but on land something new rolled down the lines. Steam-Locomotives started in English and Scottish Coal moving mine carts and came out in 1826 to move freight and passengers. In 1829, Stephenson's Rocket managed to achieve the ''amazing'' overland speed of 48 kph and speeds would only go up from there. By the 1830s there was a full blown railway boom in the UK as lines snaked their way over the British Isles and their colonies. The US followed soon after, then the French and gradually the Germans, Spanish Russians, Italians and so forth got in on the game. For the United States in particular Railways shaped the landscape of the country, Chicago rapidly grew as a rail hub and expansion of the rail network west was a key tool in settling the frontier. The same applied to Canada with the Canadian Pacific. The Big American Rail Companies also became massively powerful megacorporations in the modern sense. In the latter of half of the century, trams and trolleys began to emerge.

From moving Iowa Grain and Bananas from Havanah to the European Market to sparking the beginnings of tourism to the creation of the first suburbs, both Steamships and Railways transformed economies and the ways people live. They also changed Warfare. Steamships could easily out maneuver and outrun pure sailing vessels. On land, Trains could easily move soldiers and supplies.

This was also the time when humanity first took the air. The first Hot Air Balloons appeared in the late 18th century and were gradually refined. In 1852 a French built a Hydrogen Balloon with a small steam engine, allowing the operator to move it about as he wished. Further experiments were made through the latter half of the 19th century with lighter than air flight. At the same time, inventors began to work with gliders to achieve heavier than air flight. Despite the claims of a few derpy dorks forever consigned to be laughing stocks that heavier than air flight was impossible for humans, the Wright Brothers managed to achieve powered flight in 1903.

==Meiji Revolution ==
{{topquote|智識ヲ世界ニ求メ大ニ皇基ヲ振起スべシ (Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundation of imperial rule.)|Meiji Charter Oath}}
[[Image:Meiji era Train.jpg|Railways come to the land of the Rising Sun, memorialized in Woodcut|thumb|left|300px]]
During the Age of Exploration, Japan had closed its borders to most of the outside world to prevent foreign influence (even going so far as to kill castaways, missionaries and their converts - even Japanese sailors who were rescued by foreign ships were prevented from returning home), and for a time, the Shogunate was successful in preventing Europeans from encroaching on Japan like they had in so many other parts of the world. This came to a crashing halt over 200 years later on the 8th of July 1853, the USS Mississippi and some other American ships arrived in Edo to deliver a message from US President (at the time of the Mississippi's departure) Millard Fillmore requesting the reopening of trade. The Mississippi and its companions returned on 12th of February 1854 and led to the Convention of Kanagawa in March (funny enough, Fillmore's term in office was over before this). There were other developments like the British bombing a port in revenge for a murdered businessman, said ports rulers in the Satsuma domain agreeing to pay reparations by buying warships, having been thoroughly impressed, the assassination of the Shogun's number two Ii Naosuke and an attempt to burn the Imperial Palace. This led to a weakening of the ruling Shogunate that allowed Emperor Meiji to seize back power in the violent but swift Boshin War in 1868, permanently ending the Shogunate and the feudal system that ruled Japan for centuries. The die-hard Shogunate loyalists briefly declared a Republic but they were defeated at Hakodate in the final weeks of the war. One of the foremost Imperial samurai and part of the ruling triumvirate under the Emperor, Saigo Takamori, led his home domain of Satsuma to a brief rebellion after disagreeing with some of the reforms and the triumvirate falling apart with one of them dying of illness and Saigo being rivals with the other guy. During the Battle of Shiroyama Saigo's last charge, mortal wounding and assisted Seppuku, followed by the final charge of his 50 remaining followers marked the end of the samurai in the face of conscripted peasants with rifles and cannons. With the last remaining of the big three being assassinated by ex-samurai after the Rebellion, ironically not far from where Naosuke had been shot and decapitated, it was over.

The new Meiji government, not wanting to be consumed by the western powers as many other countries already had, led to a rapid adoption of western technology and, eventually, some empire building of its own. On the one hand, the fact that a formerly isolated nation could go from a feudal backwater to a competitive modern nation in just a scant few decades was remarkable. On the other hand, the need to maintain Japan's power to prevent Western Imperialism directly lead to Japan's own growing military autocracy. Military success against China in 1894, and against Russia in 1905 (the architect of that, Admiral Togo Heihachiro, was a young samurai brat who was fanatically on the Imperial side in the Boshin War while he missed out on the Satsuma Rebellion due to studying abroad at the time, as a side note a young officer on Togo's flagship lost two fingers and would have been discharged after that battle if he had lost a third, said young officer was Isorokou Yamamoto) would put it on the world stage. And while the Samurai as a class lost their traditional power of free money and being able to execute disrespectful peasants, enough saw the writing on the wall that they found positions in the new order, using the wealth and education that their families had accumulated to enter politics, the military officer academy, or found many modern institutions one would recognize today, such as Mitsubishi.

== The United States Civil War ==

Shortly after achieving independence a split in the new U.S. States formed as a distinction became more and more pressing. The Southern Colonies were settled by men who wanted to make a lot of money in the New World and who set up plantations manned by slaves growing tobacco and latter cotton. The Northern Colonies were settled by groups who wanted to recreate England (or their ideal version there-of) where the cash crops grown on plantations where not profitable and to whom slavery increasingly became morally unpalatable. Stunts like counting slaves in population censuses towards legislative representation while they did not vote inflamed issues. There was some hope that it was on its way out at first (many of the Founding Fathers believed that the growth of industrialization and the declining price of tobacco would make slavery obsolete and thus left the problem for future generations to solve), then Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which made the slave owners very wealthy. Even those who did not profit directly from slavery still supported the institution, if only because they were terrified of the possibility of a slave revolt, or an outright race war, as had been the case in Haiti just a few decades prior.

There was also a growing sense of Abolitionism with the British shutting down the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1807 and abolishing slavery in 1833 with France following in 1848. While the number of hard-line abolitionists in the North was comparatively small, they were making some headway and there were various groups opposed to slavery to various degrees. Tensions rose gradually in the first few decades of the nineteenth century, from outright brawls in the United States Senate to the "Bleeding Kansas" incident, to John Brown's attempted slave revolt at Harper's Ferry. This led to plays to create slave states as fast as possible and other ploys which spiraled things out until the election of President Abraham Lincoln on a generalized anti-slavery plan. Fearing that "The Peculiar Institution" would be contained, constrained and eventually brought to inevitable extinction the powers that be in the South pushed for a violent breakaway.

This war is notable for being the most destructive conflict to take place within the United States (700,000 people dead (more than any other American war) as well as a lot of buildings and infrastructure destroyed) and one of the biggest wars that was fought between industrial powers. One reason for this is the North simultaneously held that South never left the US but total war with intentional targeting of the civilian population and infrastructure was OK. Another was a fear among the North that if the war was not won quickly (regardless of cost in lives) public opinion on it would sour, Lincoln would lose reelection and the war might end without the South's defeat.

The war consisted broadly of two halves, cleanly divided by the Battle of Gettysburg. The first half was characterized by a series of grand maneuver battles in the east in which the Confederate States of America tended to win on account of all the really competent generals picking their side, most notably the legendary [[tactical genius]] Robert E. Lee. A vicious cycle ensued where every moron Lincoln gave command to would boldly set out to conquer Richmond and end the war in one stroke, only to run into Lee playing tower defense on the most unfair terrain available. Union Commander of the Month would furiously throw men at Lee's lines until the grumbling from the ranks started to sound mutinous (Fredericksburg, Manassas, Peninsula) or just stare at his lines until getting blindsided outta fucking nowhere (Chambersburg, Second Manassas). Either way, it'd end with the Union sulking back to Washington with about 2/3rds the army they started with. This would repeat several times until eventually Lee got cocky and tried the same thing (Gettysburg, and technically Antietam although that was more of a really bloody draw). By the time of Gettysburg, there were Union soldiers (the remnants of the 2nd Maine for example) who could accurately claim to [[Fail|have gone 0 for 11 against the CSA]].
[[Image:ShermansMarch.jpg|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufSGd58gjAM M-i-c, k-e-y, m-o-u-s-e. Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?]|thumb|right|250px]]
However, the Western Theater was a different story; a pair of grimdark badasses named Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman were leading the Union on a steady slog of wins up and down the Mississippi river system. After Gettysburg, Lincoln decided he just wanted to win and didn't care how messy it got, so he gave Grant command. Grant knew that the Union had more men, and was perfectly content to [[Imperial Guard|win by attrition]]. Grant sent Sherman rampaging through Georgia like an [[Eversor]] with flamers, and then settled in for a year of meatgrinder trench warfare with Lee that was basically just World War One without biplanes.

While the war was fought over slavery, complete emancipation was not an original war aim of the North. However as territory fell to the Union advance, slaves came into the custody of the Union army. This became troublesome in the latter years of the war as it presented a serious logistical challenge to feed not only a fighting army on the move but their ever growing camp follower train of liberated slaves. This problem was particularly acute for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_March_to_the_Sea Sherman's March to the Sea]. Some U.S. generals addressed this problem by offering enlistment to liberated slaves, although this practice was not universal. However, many slaves fled Confederate territory to join up with Union forces and a good number of them ended up serving in the Union Army. Ending slavery not only became political policy, but also a weapon of war since it destroyed the Confederacy's economy. This led to the Emancipation Proclamation and eventually the 13th Amendment and with it abolition.

== The American Frontier ==
{{topquote|You have died of dysentery.|''The Oregon Trail''}}
Throughout the mid 1800s Americans spread rapidly westward. This was aided by several large land purchases such as the aforementioned Lousiana Purchase; this was a huge step for the young nation as they now had a major highway (The Mississippi River) linking the entire back country from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico. But said expansion would only accelerate after a little incident south of the border where American settlers living in the Texas territory got fed up with the Mexican government and seceded the entire territory north of the Rio Grande. Texas joined the Union and Mexico gave up a bunch of land after getting its ass kicked. This led the United States to stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Fueling this was several gold rushes and a series of Homestead Acts, which gave ownership of land for free if you lived on it and maintained it. Canada also had a western frontier at the same time, but that part isn't nearly as well remembered (Did you play Yukon Trail? Did you even know it existed?). Huge waves of settlers were eager to reach the newly claimed California and Oregon territories, but before any railroads were laid down, they had to travel by wagon through the barren and hostile wilderness in between, with many would-be settlers dying to disease, hypothermia, hyperthermia, attacks from upset Native American tribes, and in at least one infamous case, [[Wikipedia:Donner_Party|cannibalism]].

This era has long been dramatized to the point it has become its own genre, the Western. This goes so far back ''[[Wikipedia:The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'', one of the first films with a narrative '''ever''', was a western. Westerns dramatized the "Wild" West as a chaotic wasteland full of bandits and savages where a man would be killed for any or no reason, but historically this was not the case. Statistically the west was actually very peaceful outside of the wars, especially compared to cities out east. The big outlaws, shootouts and murders were simply very publicized '''because''' they were unusual. Still, many of these more famous incidents showed how loose the power of the law was out in the frontier, as in several cases, you had several figures who had been on both sides of the law (Billy the Kid’s Regulators, Wyatt Earp’s revenge ride, etc) usually due to conflicting interests between locally powerful factions.

== The Unification of Germany ==
{{topquote|The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.|Otto von Bismarck about the unification of Germany}}

One of the aftereffects of Napoleons brief stint into making France the all-encompassing superpower of Europe was that he motivated quite a lot of people to identify themselves with their nation instead of families or rulers. The place where this nascent idea of Nationalism reverberated the most were the German states, which had been notorious for their disunity since the age of Charlemagne. Liberal and nationalist ideas that sought to unify Germany into one nation ultimately culminated in a series of revolutions that all failed until Prussia, under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck (a man with a political genius as massive as his mustache), kicked the Austrians out of the German territories and won the successive war against France in 1871.

The Franco-Prussian war, incidentally, had not a lot to do with Germany in itself. The southern German states (Hesse, Württemberg, Baden and Bavaria) that were still independent from Prussia at this point, leaned towards Austria. Instead it was about... Spain. Spain? What does fucking Spain have to do with Germany? Well Spain had a lot of issues at the time, the most pressing of which that it was a colonial power with no monarchy; their previous queen had been removed from power by a coup. After [[Blam|Order had been restored]], the question remained whose dynasty should ascend to the Spanish Throne. One of the proposed candidates was Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a scion of a branch of the Prussian royal family that remained Catholic. France, being very paranoid about being outmaneuvered by the Germans, sought to prevent that, but in a series of events that were carefully manipulated by Bismarck, including the careful redacting and publication of a diplomatic telegram to make it seem as if the French pressured the Prussian King Wilhelm to withdraw Leopold's candidacy for the Spanish throne (when in reality Leopold had already declined to Wilhelm) to lure France into a war with Prussia and the German states. [[Just as planned|And it worked.]] The South Germans were outraged, and the French faced with the only options of either war or severe diplomatic embarrassment at home and abroad. The following war saw the French being thoroughly curb stomped with 8 months, outmaneuvered and outgunned. Massive conscription after the majority of professional soldiers fell into Prussian captivity at Metz and Sedan did little to alleviate the problems. To add insult to injury, the Germans proclaimed their new Empire in Versailles, the old seat of the French Kings, driving a wedge between France and Germany that would not be overcome until the 1960s.

The unification of Germany marked a massive power shift in the balance of the European powers. The weakest power in the European concert (Prussia) suddenly became the strongest on the continent, with a massive population, a disciplined and modern army that ground every enemy it faced into the dirt like they were nothing, and a huge industrial base that was kicked into overdrive once the multitude of national barriers between the small German dukedoms were abolished (also helped by the reparations France had to pay to the Germans as well as the capture of Alsace-Lothringia and its rich deposits of ore). It grew so fast and rapidly that only in the span of 30 years, it managed to surpass the production of steel and coal of every other imperial power in the world, including Britain and the United States and singlehandedly pioneered large-scale industrial chemical production with inventions like, for example, the Haber process for synthesizing ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen (invaluable and irreplaceable in anything that has to do with anorganic chemistry, like most of the fertilizers used in contemporary farming).

The Germans, being late to the party as far as Imperialism was concerned, wanted a piece of that big fat colonial cake that they felt were owed and used their industrial and military leverage to exhibit massive pressure on the other powers of Europe. This, combined with the inherent semi-feudal social order that persisted in Prussia since the 1600s and a rampant militarism of the entire German society, lead to a very aggressive nationalist machismo which ultimately contributed a lot to the crisis that lead to World War One with all of its cataclysmic consequences. Nearly all negative stereotypes people associate with Germany to this day, like militarism, brutishness, obedience, lack of humour, strict workplace discipline, punctuality and being unemotional come from this particular era. The culture that this attitude bred eventually lead to the mindset that gave to the Nazis after Germany's defeat in World War I and only started to fizzle out after the old elites of the German Empire were permanently removed from power after World War II forced the Germans to reinvent themselves and their nation.

== The British Empire ==
{{British}}
{{topquote|On her dominions the sun never sets; before his evening rays leave the spires of Quebec, his morning beams have shone three hours on Port Jackson, and while sinking from the waters of Lake Superior, his eye opens upon the Mouth of the Ganges.|The Caledonian Mercury}}

Remember the British East India Company from the [[Age of Enlightenment]]? Well, eventually Britain decided to drop the pretense that it was merely an English corporation that was building colonies everywhere and just owned it that, yes, they were trying to take over the world. They hadn't been the only ones; the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, Germans, Russians, and several American presidents were as well, and near the end Japan would try to get in on the action.

The Napoleonic wars left the British in the enviable position of having the world's biggest, baddest navy. A title they would hold until the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 recognized the American navy as at least roughly equal in might. They would lose it entirely after the Second World War, due to the tremendous debts of fighting that war and the previous one.

Having a massive navy at its disposal meant that the British could be extremely persuasive in dealing with anyone within sight of the sea. This persuasion was not solely political strong-arming, but also strong anti-slavery actions, with the West Africa Squadron alone freeing over a 10th of a million slaves and largely shutting down the Atlantic Triangle. At its height the British Empire had founded colonies or established protectorates on almost every major landmass on Earth, and had presences at the choke points of Gibraltar, the Suez, the Cape of Good Hope, Singapore, and the Falklands near Cape Horn. It was said that "The sun never sets on the British Empire," which is still true due to the existence of the Pitcairn Islands.


=== The Indian Mutiny ===
In 1853 the cost of rifling had come down enough that the British would start to transition from smooth-bore firearms supplemented by specialist riflemen, both using the slow and relatively unreliable flint lock system, to standardizing on a rifled, percussion fired gun, resulting in the 1853 Enfield. Like many firearms of this era, it was loaded by paper cartridges consisting of the powder and ball in a sealed paper sleeve that allowed loading the rifle by tearing open the cartridge (often by biting it), pouring in the powder, and ramming in the ball. This significant arms upgrade eventually reached India. In 1857 rumors (which were never proven) developed that the cartridges were sealed with animal fats including beef tallow and pork lard, pissing off the Hindu and Muslim natives, leading to the final sparks for a long brewing rebellion. Shortly into this, mutineers at Cawnpore slaughtering women and children who had surrendered would be a PR disaster for the rebels, kill any claims of legitimacy, and enrage the British public enough to warrant a very strong response. One important note is that the mutiny was not total (in-fact, the conflict was mostly contained to Bengal), and many colonial troops fought against the mutineers, particularly Sikhs who had no prohibitions on pork or beef and were keen on the idea of getting to kill Hindus and Muslims. The conflict would lead to an effective end of the British East India Company in favor of direct rule ("Raj"), which was generally a serious improvement in conditions for Indians if you continued to ignore the lack of influence they had over how they would be ruled.

While relatively short (a year and a half), there was little lull in the action and there's a lot of first hand accounts one can look through to get an understanding of combat in the era. Of particular note is the several accounts of rebels being shot multiple times with a revolver but living long enough to kill or seriously injure men with their swords, which remain important in any consideration of knife vs. gun. One officer, Hodson of the British even managed to kill ~10 rebels with a ''spear'' by abusing a narrow doorway.

As a side note, the rifle at the center of this would eventually be exported to the Confederate States of America (see above) in large numbers, which after its defeat would then be sold surplus to the post-Sakoku Japanese government (see above again).

=== The Boer Wars ===
During the Napoleonic Wars the British gained control of every Dutch colony, and while they handed most of them back afterwards, they decided the Cape colony in what is now South Africa was too good to let go, so they bought it. [[Rape|The Dutch weren't in a position to refuse the offer]]. A long series of disputes arising from this rose to war between the existing inhabitants (the European ones, anyway) and the British Empire. Both wars were disasters for the British (even though they eventually won the second through overwhelming force) thanks to trying Napoleonic tactics in an era of rifled repeating firearms. This was even worse in the first war since the British had not yet ditched their bright red uniforms and things did not improve in the early stages of the Second Boer War and Redvers Buller, in charge on behalf of Garnet Wolseley, proved an unmitigated failure losing battle after battle. After Buller got fired and was replaced by Wolseley's rival (to such an extent that the British army was basically split in two through tensions of Wolseley's African colonial veteran followers against the Indian service) Frederick Roberts (who led the Indian veteran contingents in the rivalry), the Brits won on the field and things devolved to an insurgency which was brutally suppressed. Adding insult to injury, Roberts replaced Wolseley as Commander-in-Chief after the war.

These wars are largely forgotten except by military historians due to its [[The World Wars|premonitions of things to come]]. One thing that survives the wars however is the term "Commando", which originally referred to the organization of the Boer forces during the wars and acquired its modern usage due to their unorthodox (for the time) tactics it enabled.

== Notes ==
*This was the Era where Europeans, and the nations descended from them, truly and unquestionably ruled the world. Their headstart in industrialization, advanced military and civilian technology, the vast accumulated wealth from previous centuries, advanced medicine and agriculture created a cap that any other culture at the time was incapable to overcome. With that came a lot of nastiness. You see, the notion that people not born with a silver spoon up their arses being more than mostly expendable meatshields carried over from middle ages hasn't catched on yet, and this went double for foreigners. The ruthlessness and blatant disregard for human life with which the Imperial powers of that time exploited the people they ruled over caused, later down the line, most of the efforts of decolonization and the brutal struggle of the underclasses for equal rights and humane treatment.
*The agricultural revolution, where machines and other modern technology were applied to farming, accompanied the industrial revolution. Indeed, this fed it by allowing enough food to be produced that the majority of workers could take factory jobs instead of agricultural work. Additionally, the invention of the Haber-Bosch-process made the large-scale production of anorganic fertilizer from atmopheric nitrogen possible, turning landscapes that were previously thought of as unsuitable for any kind of farming into lush gardens, which earned Fritz Haber, its inventor, the Nobel Price for Chemistry in 1919 (at the time a very controversial decision, as Haber also provided his immense expertise to the German War Effort, inventing, among other things, ammonium nitrate as a substitute for TNT and the first Chemical Weapons to be used in WW1)
* Several technologies supported the process of industrialization. Steam Power helped kick things off by revolutionizing manufacturing and transportation, but two others were also important. Large machinery and tall buildings required steel to become cheap enough that it could be made on a massive scale. Historically, making good-quality steel was a time-consuming process that needed the careful attention of expert craftsmen. But with the Bessemer process, bellows would be used to blast hot air directly into the molten iron to get it hot enough to melt impurities. Electricity also helped tremendously, allowing for much longer working cycles through lightbulbs and improved communications through telegraph and radio.
*The invention of vapor-compression cycle cooling was also a major innovation of this era, although until electricity became widely available its use was mostly constrained to steam powered dairies in cities. This allowed for much denser and heavily mechanized industrial centers, as well greater population in warmer areas. The flush toilet and toilet paper also originated at this time.
*Vulcanized rubber arose during this era. While important for sealing and tires, one major change this facilitated was in clothing. The elastic waistband brought about modern undergarments among other things. The first plastics also arose during this era, but these early plastics were brittle and had few practical uses, so the true rise of plastics would not be till the era of [[The World Wars]] and [[The Cold War|and beyond]].
*Food preservation made large advances. In most of history methods were limited to drying (though methods including salt, smoke and/or sugar), pickling and (in climates that allowed it) freezing food, all of which originated in the [[Bronze Age]] at the latest. Now methods like jarring and canning (though early sealing methods turned out to be toxic themselves) food emerged and serious improvements to old methods like like quick freezing, the electric icemaker/freezer/refrigerator (domestic versions won't appear till the interwar though), freeze drying, and spray drying led to food that took less and less space while having lifespans measured in ''years''. These methods continue to be refined in [[Post-Cold War|the current era]], largely through new materials and understanding of microscopic organisms.
**To add to that, the invention of Beef Extract by the German chemist Justus von Liebig revolutionized the way food could be produced at larger scales at less of a cost. It served as the catalyst for the invention of most modern processed foods and the birth of large scale food factories, where cheap food could be produced to feed an ever increasing amount of mouths, further accelerating the population boom that conincided with the improvement of healthcare that is outlined below.
*The invention of modern medicine, which arguably started with the Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis' research into the childbed fever (a dangerous infection of the uterus thorugh bacteria that enter the body after giving birth), delivered the modern template of how medical research is conducted. Combined with the with the first proof of how bacteria cause sickness through the German doctor Robert Koch and the subsequent triumph of medical hygienia, this newfound understanding of illnesses and plagues that have decimated entire civilzations in the millenia before lead to a massive increase of birth rates and life expectancy for every human on the planet. As a result, the world population increased rapidly, starting in the 1850s, a trend that peaked in the 1960s and is continuously decreasing ever since (not that bad of a thing as one might think, with climate change, limited resources and all)
*The Scramble for Africa begins in 1881 and ends in 1914. Almost all modern "explorer" cliches and imagery began here, Theodore Roosevelt's midadventures, or the Indiana Jones movies. The two main exceptions, the coonskin cap American and breastplate clad Spanish Conquistador, are both strongly linked to a specific type and time of explorer instead of explorers in general. The Pith Helmet, binoculars, khaki overalls and cutting through foliage with big knives stereotype started here.
*Human flight was first achieved in this era. In 1783 the first air balloon flight took place, and was used for military use in 1794. The Wright Flyer took flight in late 1903, marking the first heavier than air flying machine. Zeppelins became practical just before World War I.
* Naval technology went through multiple revolutions. The wooden sailing ships of the Napoleonic Wars gave way to ironclad tallships with steam and sail propulsion, only to be replaced in turn by steel armored warships. The famous duel of the Merrimack and the Monitor marked the end of the sail, the Turbinia led to a transition to turbine engines, and the British dreadnought heralded the modern battleship. The first submarines appeared, although the concept wouldn't be perfected until the Great War.
* The beginnings of Feminism started in the 19th century as women began to lobby for more access to the social and economic spheres and political representation and had several successes. In 1861, property owning women in Victoria Australia could vote in local elections, in 1890 women gained the full franchise (but could not run for office) in New Zealand, in 1893 full female suffrage happened in Colorado and 1902 saw federal suffrage in the new Commonwealth of Australia. By the late 19th century academics was opened up to women. It was still pretty damn sexist, but things were in motion.

== The appeal of the Industrial Revolution ==
This era produced many things modern people take for granted and have difficulty considering life without. The rise of film and audio recording during this era and mass printing of advertisement and newspapers during this era mean there is no shortage of records of daily life, so this era is fairly well understood. Of particular note is that the late 1800s printed mail order catalogs started being printed, and these now provide quality information on everyday items, complete with cost and illustrations, that simply don't exist in earlier eras. Those researching earlier eras for this kind of thing have to go through the rare surviving records of estate sales, government orders and business transactions to get a ''fraction'' the understanding a layman can obtain from viewing a simple public domain catalog. These have proven such good resources some historically set RPGs outright say to find catalogs from companies like Bannerman (A surplus arms dealer so successful he built a castle on a private island next to West Point as an advertisement, since everyone traveling the Hudson had to see the sign on it), Montgomery Ward, and Sears Roebuck to fill in the blanks of the equipment list. Before this period, historians were mostly concerned with Big Things: wars, generals, kings, nobles, priests and the occasional artist, merchant, architect, engineer or inventor thrown in, often because there was so few records of the common man. In the Industrial Revolution historians became able and willing to adequately research the way people lived their lives day to day, from well-to-do merchants and skilled tradesmen to factory workers to scavengers picking through garbage for bones, rages, scraps of metal and dog turds to sell.

The Industrial Revolution allowed for inventors to not only create meaningful new creations, but see them become common overnight. [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Before the Industrial Revolution changes generally happened slowly with various small tweaks on things and methods, the compilation of said tweaks rolling over and the occasional breakthrough like the water wheel or gunpowder every once and a while which would take centuries to come into it's own]]. A peasant would assume that his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren would till the soil just as he did with what changes that did happen in his lifetime being largely minor stuff that tweaked the board but did not change the game. Industrialization changed all that, lives were changed for better or worse by mechanization suddenly and totally. Progress became an idea that would drive the world, even if problems were also mounting. People came to understand that the past was not just the present which happened beforehand and the future could be more than just more of the same. It's not surprising that science fiction started up in the 19th century, as did horror: Jules Verne, HG Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Shelley, and Edgar Allan Poe were all active writers of the era.

This time was also one of upheaval socially and politically. Before the Industrial Revolution people generally operated on the idea that one should "Know One's Station", that society was divided into classes that were (with various degrees of legal formality enforcing this) hereditary, static and instead of trying to get out of them they should stay in them, stay out of the affairs of people of other classes and obey their betters. If you were a peasant you'd work for your lord, obey his orders, treat him with reverence as a higher form of human, be jolly grateful to have such a man as your master and avoid thinking about all that politics stuff which is none of your business. While this had not died out in the Industrial Revolution (see all of England's class stuff), it was on the decline both from gradual erosion and active resistance.

The source of wealth shifted from farms and fields to factories and companies which the merchant classes/bourgeois now owned. To be a noble you needed a peerage at least (in England that is, the rest of Europe, especially Spain and Germany remained static feudal societies at heart, while the French and eventually the Russians abolished it in a literally cutthroat fashion) and preferably a dozen generations of pedigree which your fellow nobs would respect even if you were broke, to be a captain of industry you just needed a lot of money invested in the right companies. It was possible for a poor man to rise to the highest echelons of society in the Industrial Revolution, see Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. The downside of it was that these rich buggers tended to view the poor which could not rise from rags (ignoring of course how most of these ''nouveau riche'' then made it as difficult as possible for anyone to actually join their ranks) as being lazy incompetents that were only fit for ruthless exploitation and that attempting to help them out (beyond providing them with just enough education for them to do whatever work the rich needed them to do and healthy enough to keep working) was not only useless, but an active evil in the long term since it meant only more of them in the long run. To quote Charles Dickens' ''A Christmas Carol'':

''"Many cannot go there [Workhouses and Prisons] and many would rather die."''

''“If they'd rather die, they'd better do it and decrease the surplus population."''

Such treatment of the working class, combined with the belief that as the actual producers of wealth it should rightfully belong to the workers, would lead to Karl Marx writing the ''Communist Manifesto'':, creating [[communism]], one of the most notable ideologies of the 20th century and also one of the most [[skub|controversial]].

The Industrial Revolution people had oppressive rigid order and stability swapped out for opportunities to excel and thrive or crash and burn. You could be born dirt poor and rise to riches, or you might start out as a skilled tradesmen who ends up as just another disposable factory worker.

That attitude about the poor went doubly so for the colonial subjects and non-white people in general. In 1876 there was a drought which led to crop failure in much of India, instead of importing food to feed the affected masses (which they'd done not long before successfully) the Raj Government allowed merchants to stockpile grain and sell it abroad to drive the price up. The result was famine and starvation which killed 6-10 million people. [[Grimdark|The Belgians in the Congo made this look saintly by comparison.]]

The Industrial Revolution is the start of the Modern World and many of its issues still persist to this day. People can relate to an Industrial Revolution era person more easily than that of a peasant in the Middle Ages, a serf in the Dark Ages, a citizen soldier of the Classical Era, a scribe at a pharaoh's court, a priest king in the Fertile Crescent or Grug and his rocks. The downside of this is that these issues are still politically charged to this day.
=== Fantasy Relevance ===
As a tangent from the historical to the literary, the Industrial Revolution is something which often looms in the background of Fantasy. The notion that as the elves in splendid cities and ancient forests weave their spells and loose their arrows, the dwarves delve and hold the line to defend their mountain homes, the orcs sound the drums of war and sharpen their blades for battle, dragons soar, necromancers scheme, adventurers set out on epic quests and more somewhere someone notices a pot on the boil rattling its lid and imagines how that force could be used, setting in motion the end of that era. Yes, that's a gross oversimplification of centuries long processes that culminated with Locomotives and the Crystal Palace. The point still stands that in a world where people like us exist, eventually those inclined to tinker and those looking to make work easier and increase productivity will move a society beyond the 15th century.

In Tolkien's work this fact is dealt with mostly in subtext of disdain (the industrialists of Middle Earth were villains and the results of their labors were waste and destruction) and a sense of melancholy as past ages end. In other fantasy settings such as [[Forgotten Realms]] there are forces working to stop this, ranging from organizations like the harpers to the Gods enforcing [[Medieval Stasis]]. Some settings accept like [[Discworld]] that this will happen and have the transition woven into their worldbuilding.

== Industrial Revolution inspired Games, Factions and Settings ==
* [[Steampunk]]
* Much of Discworld
* Thief series which are set in a weird blend of medieval fantasy and early industrial revolution.
* [[Eberron]] before the Last War. After it Eberron is a cross between Industrial Revolution and interwar.
* [[Arcanum]] is a magical world that is currently undergoing a revolution.
* [[Iron Kingdoms]]'s whole schtick is that it's a typical fantasy setting that developed into this.
* The [[Skaven]], particularly their Weapons Teams and anything related to [[Clan Skryre]]. Thankfully one of the reasons why they never achieved world domination in one fell swoop is the overall lack of quality control on their gadgets.

{{Time Periods}}
[[Category: History]]

Star Wars Setting

2022-08-16T01:21:59Z

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Describing even the cursory information on the sheer number of characters, amount of history, and various factions in [[Star Wars]] is a massive undertaking, and one that cannot be folded into another page. As such, here is a summary of things who either are influential, [[Awesome]], [[Fail]], hilariously meme worthy, or all of the above.

==Main Characters==
* Luke Skywalker: All-round good guy and idealist, despite being a complete idiot, Luke wishes to learn the ways of the Force to defeat the Emperor and save the galaxy. A Jedi prodigy, he can lift heavy ton space fighters with just his force powers, though he struggles with doubts. Although he starts all brash and teenage and shit, by the conclusion of the trilogy, Luke is well on the way to becoming a wise and powerful Jedi ready to rebuild the Order. Mark Hamill observed that Luke's role in Star Wars is that of the comedic "straight man"; a bland Abbott in a galaxy of Costellos.
** In Legends continuity, after ''Return of the Jedi'' Luke worked to restore the order and trained many generations of Jedi including his niece Jaina and nephews Jacen and Anakin as well as his future wife and son. About Luke's family? Long story short, Luke met a woman named Mara Jade, a former Force-using agent of the Emperor who sought to avenge him by killing Luke. But he and Mara were forced to work together to survive a death world before Luke freed her from Palpatine's lies and Mara joined the Jedi Order, where the two eventually fell in love, married and had a son - Ben Skywalker. Before and after this, Luke destroyed massive remnants of the Empire over and over again and also fought off an even bigger threat in the form of an [[Tyranids|extragalactic invasion]] by Force-resistant [[Dark Eldar|space Cenobites]] called Yuuzhan Vong, where he defeated many including their best fighter. Years later, Luke nearly turned to the Dark Side after Mara was murdered, but overcame the temptation though he violated the Jedi Code by attempting to murder her enemies in revenge. Following this he killed a resurrected Palpatine repeatedly and took on his most dangerous single foe in the form of a Force-Cthulhu called Abeloth (who was so dangerous Luke had to make a temporary alliance between the Jedi, the Republic '''and the Sith''' to defeat her). After this he continued to be a great hero until he died in an unspecified manner some time before the Cade Skywalker era, but still existed as a Force Ghost who guided future Jedi.

* Han Solo: Dashing [[rogue]] and space cowboy who somehow shoots his way out of debt to the mob, ends up a general, and bags himself a princess. Not a bad series' work. His ship, the Millennium Falcon, deserves a mention too for being as iconic as he is. In pre-Disney continuity he was once a Swoop (flying motorcycle) racer turned Imperial Officer who shot his superior that was beating a Wookiee to death and gained a lifelong friend in said Wookiee - Chewbacca. He also had three kids with Leia pre-Disney with two sons called Anakin and Jacen and a daughter called Jaina.

* Princess Leia: The regulation piece of lady crumpet in the movies, Princess Leia was a leader in the rebel alliance and (spoiler!) Luke's long lost twin sister. Also both a capable soldier and politician. Her being forced to wear a metal thong by an overweight space slug named Jabba the Hutt has since cemented her role as sex idol to legions of adoring fan boys, while her general [[Awesome|door-kicking deadshot sarcastic asskickery]] made her a feminist icon as well (this was back in the 80's when the two could be the same). With her home planet and entire adoptive family destroyed by the Death Star, she became a General although somehow retained her princesshood (yes, she's now a Disney Princess). In the pre-Disney EU Leia became a full-on Jedi warrior in the and had three kids with Han, one of whom had a daughter of his own.

* Obi-Wan Kenobi: If, at any point, in any work of fiction, the hero has an old master/father figure who teaches him part of what he knows, makes sure that he will grow up to be a virtuous and decent hero, but ultimately dies fighting a great evil to buy the hero time to escape, then returns as a spirit guide for the hero later, the Internet has probably accused that character of ripping off Obi-wan Kenobi. The prequels show him as a young Jedi and a deuterotagonist to Anakin Skywalker, acting as ''his'' master, teacher, partner, and dear friend before their eventual falling out [[FATAL|ends with Anakin losing most of his major extremities and organs]] and Obi-wan hiding out in a cave waiting to turn into Alec Guinness. In hindsight he was a fucking moron to expect Anakin stay sane with his mother separated forever from him and doomed to slavery in a shithole planet. Certainly this won't torment the kid's thoughts about her, what's that? Tuskens tortured her to death? We are the Jedi, we do not take reve- oh well he went Sith. So much for Jedi and their wisdom. He is a great source of memes within the SW fandom, as well as jokingly referred to as Jesus due to his hairstyle in Episode II.

* Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker/"The Chosen One": The black-helmeted face of evil and the most well known villain from Star Wars (and arguably the most recognizable character in cinema, full stop). Has become an iconic and memorable figure due to his menacing, robotic appearance and ultra-deep, wheezy respirator voice. He is [[Meme|(spoiler!)]] secretly Anakin, Luke's fallen Jedi father, thus allowing him to be able to say the most memorable line in the film series, "''I'' am your Father!" Abaddon wishes he could be this sinister. His children eventually manage to rekindle the spark of human decency in his heart, and he redeems himself by giving up his own life to save them and destroy the Emperor. Hates sand. Fun Fact: his portrayal required four actors in the original trilogy: body, voice, face and a stunt double. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okAyvguQucs His scene at the end of ''Rogue One''], where he goes absolutely berserk and tears some puny rebels to shreds, is probably the best in the movie, and one of the best in Star Wars as a whole. [[awesome|It ends with him standing in open space]], something originally intended for the original film and the original reason he was designed with the armor in the first place. The scene was well received, so Disney decided to have him go berserk again in the Star Wars: Rebels TV show (several times) and the video game Jedi: Fallen Order, before giving Maul a scene like it in Clone Wars. To this end, Vader’s recent portrayals (which have taught both neckbeards and the new generation of fans alike to be fucking terrified of him) have led many to claim that the changes to his character is the only thing Disney got right in their ownership of Star Wars (well, that and The Mandalorian. And the Clone Wars(*cough* Grievous)). Hreeeeee-kchooooooosh...

* Padmé Amidala: The future Darth Vader's waifu who spends most of the prequel trilogy being a hopeless idealist (though still has enough presence of mind to keep a blaster handy when diplomacy fails). Swaps out outfits and hairstyles at a near constant rate. Get's choked by Vader and dies giving birth to Luke and Leia, which ironically Vader was trying to prevent in the first place after seeing a vision. [[FAIL|Way to go, dumbass]]. Haven't you ''read'' a work of fiction with that kinda prophecy in it before? Much more skubby than her daughter, largely on account of the writing for her love story with Anakin being poorly received, as well as Natalie Portman's performance being divisive.

* Qui-Gon Jin: Liam Neeson as a Jedi. [[Meme|As such, he had a particular set of skills, skills to recognize a Sith plot]], and would've uncovered and exposed Palpatine if it weren't for Darth Maul's sword going through his gut. In life, Qui-Gon was known to be a gadfly who frequently disagreed with the dogma of the Jedi Council, instead putting his trust in The Force and eventually discovering The Chosen One in a little slave boy on Tatooine. Was the master of Obi-Wan, and tried to teach Anakin the basics from beyond the grave. Qui-Gon had learned the secret of immortality before his death, and passed on his knowledge to Yoda in a spiritual journey, and later to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Thanks to him, he was able to preserve the legacy of the Jedi long after the purge.

* Ahsoka Tano: An orange, female togruta jedi padawan that helps tell the story of growing up. When she was first introduced in the skubtastic Clone Wars movie, she was basically annoying beyond belief and attached to the notoriously reckless Anakin Skywalker. However, she began to grow on fans, eventually becoming a fan favorite. Initially, she dressed only a little better than a Dark Eldar wych, raising serious moral questions about a girl her age dressing that way, but this issue was resolved in season 3 of the clone wars. Her character grows from beyond the simplicity of an <s>(un)</s>amusing wisecracker, much like her master, into a wiser, kinder woman, whose actions speak louder than her words. In the penultimate season of the Clone Wars, she leaves her master and the Jedi order, and some believe that she unintentionally caused Anakin Skywalker to fall to the Dark side (It certainly denied him the title of master since the standard way of gaining that is to raise a Padawan to knight). She reappears in Rebels, where she acts as an agent coordinating rebel cells, and takes on the wise guide and teacher for Ezra and Kanan, two other jedi who are fighting the Empire. Thought to have died in the second season, she is revealed to have been saved, and was alive even up to season 2 of The Mandalorian.

== Disney Main Characters ==

* Rey: Protagonist of the new trilogy. Most people either think she's a sloppily written Mary Sue and wish-fulfillment character for the writers' female-empowerment fetish or that she's a fine protagonist and the former group is just being salty about new things and/or a bunch of [[Neckbeard]]s and [[/pol/]]s. The sequel trilogy's Jedi and maybe the most immediately competent of the three (the others being Luke and Anakin). What invited critique in the first place is the fact she is readily bestowed new, often unexplained abilities as ''the'' means of moving the plot forward, and the few failures she has either turn to successes, or have next to no consequences. While it was foreshadowed she would have piloting skills with the pilot memorabilia in her home from which the audience was supposed to infer she knew how, Disney had to later specifically point out "she literally plays flight sims anytime she isn't working, that's the shit on her table". But since the memorabilia didn't look like a flight sim, some viewers concluded this was an asspull by Disney. To the credit of the writers however, the foreshadowing implies X-Wing obsession so it makes sense that she royally trashes the Falcon trying to escape TIE Fighters with it (like everyone else who played the old X-Wing video games). She also has fucking god tier Force talent, able to pull off Force techniques that took the previous protagonists years to learn such as the Jedi Mind Trick. The sequel semi-explained this with an actual asspull by suggesting the Force balances itself and with only one remaining trained Force user below a master left alive she pretty much got cheat-coded to be at his level as Light Side opposite...although that ignores Luke not gaining the same cheats and the Force users left alive in the Disney EU who have no Dark Side opposites while also relying on information from that same EU (the trippy metaphysical Force entity kind) so it only works if you turn off your brain and give up. Apart from all that, Rey is a scavenger who grew up parent-less in a wreck on a desert planet, earning from the scraps of old Rebel and Imperial machinery. While she's been seen using the Light Side of the Force for the most part, the Dark Side allegedly tugs a great deal in her. She also has a vision of herself as a Sith with a double-bladed red lightsaber similar to Luke's tree vision on Dagobah. Due to a spate of leaks, numerous details were revealed before the release of the film such as her being Sheev's grandaughter and the fate of her parents; Rey's parents hid her on Jakku because they were being hunted and were killed shortly after leaving. After Rey joins forces with Kylo to defeat Palpatine, she actually dies... only to be brought back to life by <s>Pokémon tears</s> <s>true love's first kiss</s> Kylo Ren using the Force to give his life to save hers, and the two share a kiss before Kylo dies. She ends up on Tatooine and with the last of the Skywalker line dead (by technicality, the Force powers always came from Palpatine so it just means Shmi's bloodline is dead) Rey, while gaining no new personality to speak of, [[Blood Ravens|takes the Skywalker last name as her own]] since she will never know her actual last name now. As one might expect from a character touted as a strong female protagonist, Rey is propped up by failures of men, sometimes turned failures after the fact for the purpose of redistributing their successes to her. Because of this Rey remains the only character alive with any Jedi training.

* Finn: A First Order Stormtrooper (serial code FN-2187) who has doubts about the First Order after a battle where he has to shoot innocent civilians and ends up defecting to the Resistance, allowing him to actually aim worth a damn. Finn ends up carrying ''The Force Awakens'' thanks to the acting talents of John Boyega. He probably would have made a much better main character than Rey because at least ''he'' has a fucking ''reason'' to go on a space adventure and undergoes actual character development. He’s basically Kyle Katarn, only he didn’t get to steal the Death Star plans or become a Jedi. The second movie unfortunately rendered Finn a character without an arc, as discussed below. Had a really cool scene where he fights a former squadmate with a lightsaber, before said [[FAIL|squadmate beat him with a big electric stick.]] He also had a second cool scene where he attempts to fight on a trained dark Jedi (not a Sith) with that same lightsaber before getting badly injured, showing tremendous fucking balls (and implying that Kylo Ren, after being shot by a laser crossbow that flings stormtroopers in the air, is about on par with a pissed off Stormtrooper with a lightning sick). Revealed to be Force-sensitive in Rise Of Skywalker, and finds an entire division of Stormtroopers on Endor who quit the First Order as a group the same way he did as an individual; the leader of them replaces Rose as his love interest, despite the same movie implying heavily he has an unrequited love for Rey (later in an interview JJ said he was trying to say he was Force-sensitive, while some fans think his knowledge that she is Palpatine's grandaughter was what he was supposed to say which meant a "why didn't you tell me" plot would follow). Ends the franchise as the general of the ground forces of the Resistance, a famous galactic hero, and probably going to be trained as a Jedi. So yeah, Finn is canon Kyle Katarn from start to finish.

* Poe Dameron: An X-Wing pilot and one of the best pilots in the Resistance who gave Finn his nickname. Poe is the son of an ace pilot and an elite Rebel soldier, who was seemingly conceived in an Ewok hut during the Yubyub song and grew up with a holy Force tree in his yard that was a gift from Luke. Gets captured by the First Order but gets rescued by a defecting Finn and they both escape using a TIE Fighter. Assumed dead by Finn after crashing the TIE Fighter, though ends up coming back shooting down an entire squadron of TIE Fighters. Its never really stated why did he leave Finn behind in the crash site, how did he leave the planet or why did he pretty much abandon his mission of trying to find BB-8. As such he's barely in The Force Awakens. This is because the original script George Lucas proposed for Force Awakens used Poe as a means of Finn escaping, whereupon Finn takes it on himself to complete Poe’s last mission and eventually replace Poe in the Resistance. After Poe’s actor lamented that he dies in every movie, Poe was made to survive the crash and Finn gained a fearful coward who becomes a hero subplot, which unfortunately left both characters with nowhere to go for character arcs. Poe is far more important in The Last Jedi, <nowiki>but not in good ways. He disobeys orders and leads an attack on a First Order capital ship which not only results in the destruction of most of the surviving Resistance small fighters, but delays their escape long enough for the First Order flagship (so large it is essentially a giant capital city for the First Order) to catch up with them and massacre the Resistance. Poe then mutinies when the now-comatose Leia’s subordinate Holdo is put in charge of the Resistance (Ackbar was killed before that because his Voice Actor died, leaving Holdo as highest ranking officer) to enact his own plan using Finn...which fails, resulting in the deaths of most of the rest of the Resistance and the loss of their last capital ship. Poe’s counterattack also fails, and by the end its only thanks to Rey and Luke that anyone survives. By the end, there’s barely enough Resistance left to fill up the Millennium Falcon, although the First Order got it just as bad thanks to Holdo’s last act. In short: Poe is Magnus the Red tier of fuckups (for the same reason too, not being trusted with the truth but with even less justification).</nowiki> OR ALTERNATELY : Poe actually scores a massive victory for the Resistance as he destroys a massive dreadnought that would have wiped out a base on the ground and then some with a squadron of a dozen bombers '''and one fighter to protect them''' at the price of said bombers that were so stupidly designed they would basically kamikaze as their payloads are dropped gradually meaning the first explosion would start a chain going all the way up to the bomber itself. So basically, Poe destroyed a massive enemy asset at the price of some worthless ships but he still gets demoted because he had the common sense to not follow the order to retreat '''as the bombers were already hovering over their target and were completely defenseless in the first place and would have been even worse off during a retreat'''. This order makes so little sense, it's safe to assume it was only put in here so Poe could disobey it and the audience would understand he's a hotshot who doesn't respect the hierarchy while he was in the right in terms of tactics and strategy and it's already a miracle he got the raid to succeed. Essentially, claiming Poe fucked up is like saying blowing up a pillbox full of enemy soldiers and loads of ammo stockpiled in it with a single grenade is "fucking up" because you maybe probably possibly could have saved the grenade for later and made even more damage. If Poe hadn't had the dreadnought destroyed, it would have with ease one-shotted their ships and their base if they would have even got there (especially as the First Order could track the resistance and therefore the Dreadnought would've simply followed them and blown them up immediately). Not to mention that the bombers where the worst designed starships to date. No big loss there. In other words, he is the only reason they survived. Revealed to be a former Spice smuggler who had a criminal crew in Rise Of Skywalker, which is the bulk of his character development for most of the movie since he otherwise just banters with Finn and Rey. He gets friendzoned by his ex twice (his abandonment of their crew '''really''' screwed them over and she decides to forgive him for it, so its not like its out of nowhere to not want to shag) and leads initially the small Resistance fleet before the combined forces of the militias and pirate crews and Rebel veterans suddenly show up, meaning he lead the biggest navy in the entire setting and does it well which mostly makes up for the stupidity of the Last Jedi "character arc".

* Luke Skywalker has become a [[Neckbeard|grumpy old man who just wants the Jedi Order to die with him since he's been disillusioned in people not being shitty now that his shitty-feeling self is considered the least shitty person in the universe.]] [[Rage|He also tried to kill his nephew because he had a bad dream.]] (something many fans, and even '''Mark Hamill himself''' considered out of character for Luke). It takes a direct Force-powered intervention from Leia as well as Yoda's Force ghost telling him "don't worry, we both fucked up and the kids still love our <strike>toys</strike> legends" to get him to nut the fuck up and help stop the First Order by embarrassing Kylo Ren in front of everyone. It got to the point where [[The Last Church|he tried to burn a sacred tree with contained the last books about the Jedi code]]. Yoda appeared as a Force ghost and told Luke the Force weren't limited to buildings or writings, destroying the tree which supposedly contained the last books about the Jedi code and history which turns out to be because Rey had already stolen said books and the destruction of the tree prevented Luke from discovering that fact, ensuring the Jedi will continue regardless of Luke's faith crisis. Of course the old codger gets to become a Force Ghost that resides mostly on Ach-To, so lets see if we won't see our boi Mark again in some future movie or series.

* Han Solo has, unfortunately, suffer from how Harrison Ford always went back and forth on wanting to continue the franchise, mostly because he thoroughly hated Solo and wanted him to die pretty much from day one, only to be thwarted in Empire and again in Jedi by the character's popularity. Ford agreed to return for Episode 7 when Disney finally gave him his wish, having Solo fail to redeem his son Ben and getting a metaphorical and literal lightsaber through the heart for it. Post-Disney Han's origin is covered in a solo movie named Solo. It's generally considered skub.

* Leia manages to somehow [[Roboute Guilliman|survive getting shot into space]] using her force abilities in TLJ, probably the most ridiculous part of the film (which is no mean feat considering the rest of the film). Due to the death of her actress Carrie Fisher (given the amount of cocaine and partying she'd done over the years it was amazing Carrie lived as long as she did) Leia only appears in Episode 9 using altered unused footage from Episodes 7 and 8 along with some dubbed lines, where she's shown training Rey then just dies by fading away.

* Dinn Djarin: the titular Mandalorian from the series of the same name. Dinn belongs to a radical sect of the Mandos called the Children of the Watch, who follow an uber-conservative version of the Mandalorian Creed in which they must not allow anyone to see their faces. Dinn is still an honorable, if reserved and standoffish warrior who works for the Bounty Hunter's Guild in the post-Endor galaxy. He ends up breaking one of his contracts when he's hired to kidnap a young Jedi child named Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) and turn him over to the Imperial Remnant; Dinn instead chooses to be the child's protector and deliver him to whatever Jedi remain in the galaxy. During their adventures he bonds with the child, and eventually learns that not all Mandos follow his extreme version of the Creed, eventually removing his helmet for Grogu's sake as they tearfully part ways. But then, Disney remembered that this duo were breakout stars that gave the franchise a massive shot in the arm, so they ended up reuniting shortly after during Din's latest team-up with Boba.

* The Bad Batch: Officially known as "Clone Force 99", they're a Special Ops squad made up of clones with genetic defects that give them a tactical advantage. Initially introduced in the Clone Wars series, before getting a series of their own. Because of their unique traits they were partially immune to their Inhibitor chips and thus didn't initially obey Order 66, later getting on Tarkin's bad side for being too disobedient and getting branded as traitors. Crosshair betrays them as his inhibitor chip still works; they're joined instead by Omega, the only known female clone of Jango Fett, and apparently part of a contingency plan where she and Boba Fett were to become the new gene template for the clone army. The clones witness the rapid transformation of the Republic into the Empire as they live on the run, likely to include the "decommissioning" of the clone army as a whole. Members are:
** Hunter: Team leader, his "trait" being enhanced senses. Hair and red headband, knife skills, and being a badass commando make his Rambo inspiration obvious. Becomes a father figure to Omega and the moral compass of the team, protecting them from their former brothers and an empire that wants them dead.
** Wrecker: Team bruiser and man-child. [[Space Marine|Is super strong, loves a good fight, and wears bulky black and red armor with skull imagery]]. Though sometimes a victim of the Worf effect, he's generally allowed to be fairly cool. In keeping with his gentle giant image, he takes a shine to Omega sooner than many of the others.
** Tech: The brainy one, which is conveyed by Dee Bradley Baker giving him an English accent. Also more mellow and less abrasive than most of the other squad, getting along fine with the "regs" who the Bad Batch as a whole often disdain and dislike working with.
** Crosshair: Vindicaire Assassin in Star Wars, being a cold-blooded sniper with incredible aim who wears black armor and is fanatically loyal to his fascist employers. With special reflectors he can make his blaster bolts ricochet off of solid surfaces. The team's asshole, he unsurprisingly betrays them in the aftermath of Order 66, though he still cares about his former teammates in his own way, even saving Omega in the Season 1 finale. Wants the rest of the Bad Batch to join him in working for the Empire.
** Echo: Originally a regular Clone Trooper, he was one of the titular rookies in the fan-favorite Season 1 episode, and by the end of the series was the only one still breathing. Now is a member of the Bad Batch, the cybernetic modifications he got while a prisoner of the Separatists making him more than ordinary Clone.
** Omega: A barely useful waste of...(sees giant mouse giving evil eye)...uh, I mean, sweet, endearing kid who befriends the Bad Batch and joins them on their adventures. Revealed to be a female clone of Jango and currently the only known one, making her effectively the Bad Batch's cute little sister despite technically being OLDER than them. Main source of Bad Batch's Skub. Also blonde despite being a Jango clone, likely a subtle reference to how Jango's sister in Legends was blonde. That or she's got some of Maketh Tua's DNA thrown in.

* Cal Kestis: [[Zero Punctuation|Young "Luke Skywalker"-type hero and giner]]; the main character of the Jedi: Fallen Order and upcoming Jedi: Survivor vidya games. Was in hiding after Order 66 on a scrapperyard before being found by the Inquisitorius and taken on a planet-hopping treasure-hunting adventure with former Jedi master Cere Junda and the small-time smuggler Greez. Cal has the ability to use Psychometry, a Force-power that allows him to absorb memories and thoughts connected to items (a Force power made famous by Quinlan Vos), which has made it difficult to live with the lightsaber of his dead mentor. Personality is fairly stock for a Jedi, but does manage to fuck up two Inquisitors, battalions of Stormtroopers, Purge Troopers, vicious fauna and flora and the occasional bounty-hunter with nothing but a scratch on him. Has a thing for ponchos.

== Side Characters ==
* C-3P0 and R2-D2: Two robots trapped in a sexless gay marriage who are the only minor characters to have been in all the movies so far, and even in stories like The Old Republic outside of their millennia of existence will usually have an equivalent. C-3P0 is the shiny golden humanoid robot who constantly fusses about keeping the furniture clean and worries that his pies are getting overdone in the oven while R2-D2 is the brash, brave husband figure who swings into action regardless. He looks like a salt shaker next to the Dalek's pepper shakers, although is he more a plucky rabbit to their rabid wild cats. He's also an angry motherfucker; in Revenge he iced two battledroids by setting them on fire, and his killcount throughout Clone Wars raises the question why the Republic isn't using R2's instead (explained nx the fact that Anakin never resets his memory and thus goes from [[Servitor]] to AI). The robots mostly have comedy roles in the movies, since they might threaten to upstage the human actors if they became too useful, though R2 has an electric cattle prod and serves as the party's computer skillmonkey, while C-3P0 saves the day with his mad linguistic skillz at least once per film in the original trilogy. They starred in their own cartoon series that was surprisingly good. In the pre-Disney EU the two are rarely joined as they are in the films. R2 frequently joins Luke on adventures, giving him someone to talk to during otherwise solo adventures, providing a Doctor Watson like figure even if the droid doesn't add much to the conversation. C-3P0 on the other hand stuck with Leia and assisted her in her duties as mother and head of state. In post Disney continuity the writers don't seem to know what to do with them and they're mostly just there; at least until Rise of Skywalker, where C-3PO's l337 tranzlation skillz are again important to the plot. Both are occasionally funny.

* Chewbacca: The original furry in space, the dog you can have a beer with in the space Winnebago. Nothing sexy about him; he is just hairy, huge, knows how to pilot a space ship, fix stuff, fire a <s>fucking space crossbow</s> gun, and generally get shit done which strangely makes him the coolest furry ever. Best friends with Han, has a family that we can all agree did not appear in the terrible Christmas special that does not exist (he got a much more badass family in the Galactic Battlegrounds games, so go with that). Hates Trandoshans like all Wookiees, since Trandoshans are almost always assholes and are particularly assholish to Wookiees. The prequel trilogy revealed he's REALLY FUCKING OLD thanks to Wookiee lifespan. In post-Disney lore, he is one of the few characters who has lived through the ''entire saga'', including the Clone Wars, the rebellion against the Empire and the resistance against the First Order. In the post-Disney continuity he ultimately generally ignored in endings and the plot overall (ironic that he was the first major character who died in the pre-Disney lore and he's one of the few still alive in post-Disney lore).
**In the pre-Disney continuity he was a slave that the then-Imperial Han saved, then he helped Han save the galaxy. He was also tough as nails having survived numerous injuries and abuse that would've killed most Wookiees, and Wookiees are already tougher than humans. His actual death was getting mooned to death by extragalactic space cenobites - as in they used a gravity manipulation device to smash a moon into the planet Vector Prime while he was accidentally trapped on it. He was hailed as a hero across the galaxy (with the boast among Wookiees that [[Awesome|Chewbacca was so tough, it took something that can wreck a planet to kill him]]) and the fanbase cried or raged at his death; even the authors who killed him off went on record to say they were sad about his death and only did so for the sake of plot.

* Lando Calrissian: Suave, charismatic, and an expert con artist, this guy is the original pirate king in space. He betrays Han and co. when Vader invades his city, later regrets it, and then atones by saving the cast from the Empire as well as the populace of his city at the same time, then helps save Han from the mafia, and finally leading the fleet that blows up the Death Star 2.0. Consistently one of the only two film characters to maintain his original actor in the EU, with Billy Dee Williams showing up for video games, audio dramas, promotional shorts, and the occasional malt liquor ad.

* Yoda: Ancient wise grand master of the Jedi Order who a tiny green alien is. Never named, his species was. Because of his size and age, most assumed just a harmless old teacher he was, your nice old granddad like. His pulling out a lightsaber and engaging a Sith Lord in combat at the end of ''Attack of the Clones'', one of the most surprising and popular fights of the series is. Incredibly powerful in the Force, he is, rivaled by the likes of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Sideous. Became a big franchise mascot he did, despite a surprise for the audience he was meant to be in his first appearance, ruining it for future generations. A unique way of speaking, he has. A very popular target for parody, it has become (though the original trilogy indicated it was just one of many things he was doing to annoy Luke as a test, since he doesn't talk that way to Obi-Wan). A symbol of the Jedi Order's blindness and rigidity in the prequel era, he was. But had a spiritual reawakening, after his journey following the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn. Even after death, a wise mentor he became.

* Wedge Antilles: The anti-redshirt. Has almost no lines in the original movies but somehow survives all of them, even blowing up the second Death Star with Lando. In the EU he is one of, if not ''the'' best starfighter pilot in the galaxy, and co-founder of the über elite Rogue Squadron along with Luke. It also establishes he was the son of humble (mobile) gas station owners who got killed by pirates. After tracking down and killing the pirates, he tried to live to a normal life, but failed when Imperials killed his alliance sympathizing girlfriend. Eventually rises to General after realizing his refusing promotions was screwing the career of everyone under him. Has a weakness of being more of a tactician than a strategist, which extends to his personal character which often fails to see the big picture. The other character to maintain his original actor in most EU works.

* Admiral Ackbar: Giant tactical fish who has the need to point out obvious traps in memetic fashion. Leads the rebel fleet in the sixth film. Dies in the eighth. He has a huge fanbase despite only appearing in a few scenes across the entire film saga and is one of the meme-faces of the fandom alongside Obi-Wan, Anakin and Palpatine. His survival and high rank made him quite prominent in the EU's New Republic works. Pre-Disney was much of the same except he died during the Yuuzhan Vong War (the same war that led to Chewie's death in the Legends).

* Jar-Jar Binks: Solely exists to fuck up everything (and we do mean EVERYTHING) at the worst possible moment. This guy is so hated by everyone in and out of universe that his actor received severe backlash - including '''death threats''', and he even considered suicide because of it - even though he had nothing to do with the writing while also sympathizing with fans' complaints and Lucas shitcanned his role down into a very brief cameo at the end of Episode 3. He's actually something of a tragic figure representing someone good who tries to act to save the galaxy but ended up ruining it instead. All of this only gets more palm-to-head-worthy since Jar Jar was created as a fun kids characters, rather than anything truly important... But of course, [[neckbeards]] gotta rage. Got a depressing meta style sendoff in the Aftermath book after Disney got the rights, which is a shame since it was hinted at in the Clone Wars series that he would marry a powerful alien queen who thinks he's a sex magnet. No really.

* Mace Windu: The original only black dude in space (because everyone forgot about Lando), he was the hardest-as-nails Jedi master of the council during the prequel trilogy and the best swordfighter in the Order, hence his unique purple lightsaber. That, and Sam Jackson wanted his own color to stand out. If Anakin hadn't interfered, he would have killed Darth Sidious and none of the original trilogy would have taken place. His subsequent anti-climatic death in the movie is regarded with annoyance by his fans. His mastery of the Force allows him to channel his anger and enjoyment of battle into his combat style [[Bullshit|without being corrupted by the Dark Side]], basically getting as close to the Dark Side a Jedi can get and still be a Jedi. He can also detect what he calls "shatterpoints", which lets him detect weaknesses to either mess people up in combat or exploit the "for want of a nail" proverb to turn situations to his side. Has a novel, Shatterpoint, which is pretty much Heart of Darkness IN STAR WARS.

* CT-7567/Captain Rex: If the Clone Troopers are the equivalent of Guardsmen, then this guy is the equivalent of the likes of [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|Gaunt]] and [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken|Straken]]. The defacto second-in-command of the 501st Legion under Anakin Skywalker, he fought in nearly every major engagement during the Clone Wars, leading his men through hellish battles like on Geonosis at the beginning of the war and on Mandalore at the end. He has a strong sense of morality and cares for the lives of both the men under him and the officers above him, which meant that he often came into conflict with asshat commanders like the Jedi knight Krell (who treated their troops as little more than disposable cannon fodder). He even managed to face off against dark-side Force users and live- something very few non-Force users are able to accomplish (To get a better picture of what this is like, imagine a sergeant in the guard facing off against a Chaos Space Marine, and living). After the war and his beloved Republic's transformation into the eventually-despised Empire, he and two other clone commanders went into retirement on a backwater world, fishing for worms the size of skyscrapers on an old walker they converted into a mobile home. He was brought out of retirement by a combination of the rebels of Phoenix Squadron, his old friend and commander Ahsoka, and the Empire being their usual backstabbing, overreactive selves, and so resolved to bring down the corrupt regime and restore the nation he had served out of pride (although most clones were programmed to follow the Republic, and specifically the Chancellor, many ended up choosing instead to follow the ideals of the Republic rather than the people in charge, and some even managed to overcome Palpatine's programming via removing the chip he had planted in their heads during the cloning process). To that end, he participated in many Rebel missions. Making him the old man you see with Han Solo's commando group in RoTJ was toyed with, but ultimately rejected due to the character already having an identity in the EU and him having the wrong ethnicity.

* Corran Horn: A Correllian detective who becomes a member of Rogue Squadron during the New Republic. Later becomes a Jedi. His unique bloodline makes him inept at telekinesis, but gives him the unique power of energy absorption. Often accused of being a Mary Sue by people who miss his huge ego and over confidence problem even though right from the start Wedge has to berate him on his putting himself before the squadron. Constantly makes bullheaded mistakes like ignoring his low fuel, causing him to run out of fuel, trying to use his girlfriend's dad infamy to his advantage on someone, before learning ''that's her dad'', thinking having a lightsaber and some ''very'' basic training made him invincible, which would have killed him if bacta didn't exist, and smugly mocked Exar Kun in his temple under the mistaken impression he's physically powerless, only to get mauled in return and needing rescue from Mara Jade. He had legitimate criticism about Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy and told Luke off when Luke tried to warn Corran about the lure of the Dark Side of the Force. Corran was once a police officer and God only knows how corrupt the Correllian police can be, so he's seen his own dark side from "down in the trenches" as it were. Also the only Rogue to ever get downed by SAMs.

* Booster Terrik: A jolly but hot-tempered smuggler boss with a prosthetic eye. Helped Wedge find and kill the pirates who killed his family. Currently working/had to work to reestablish himself after a stint in Kessel, courtesy of Corran Horn's father Hal Horn. Father of Mirax Terrik. That his daughter is dating the son of the guy who put him away drives him crazy, but he eventually gets over it by coming to think of Corran as a Rogue instead of CorSec. Has a serious rivalry with Talon Karrde's organization. A crazy bluff eventually (and inadvertently) leads to him being the sole private owner of an Imperial Star Destroyer, which he operates as a mobile black market known as the Errant Venture.

* Aayla Secura: The space waifu of many a generation of star wars fanboys. A hot Twi'lek jedi chick who dressed skimpy and kicked butt. She was such a popular side character that Lucas took notice of her and added into the second and third prequel movies. Her reason for ditching the traditional jedi robes and showing her midriff was to show pride in Twi'lek culture, as her race tends to be viewed primarily as slaves rather than as an important part of the galaxy. Much like Ahsoka, she wasn't entirely defined by being a hot chick, but had other redeeming characteristics that made her likable, like being mechanically inclined, kind, wise, and somewhat mischievous. Much like Captain Rex, she had a great relationship with clones under her command, and it was rumored she and her Clone Commander had a romantic attachment to each other. Suffers from two tragedies: her death in Revenge of the Sith was brutal, and Disney hasn't done anything with her character since they acquired the franchise. In pre-Disney continuity, Aayla and Jedi master Kit Fisto were rumored to have a romantic attachment to each other.

== Disney Side Characters ==

* BB-8: The R2-D2 replacement and mascot of the new trilogy. Poe's buddy robot, started out as the plot device that the First Order was after in The Force Awakens, saves Finn and Rose's asses twice by taking down prison guards and piloting an AT-ST to attack Stormtroopers in The Last Jedi as well as Poe's in the comic. Saves Rey in Rise and reactivates a small antique droid companion that can speak Common AKA English, giving him his own C-3PO.

* Maz Kanata: An orange alien who knows a lot about the Force. In her backstory she was a Force-sensitive that’s somewhere in Yoda-tier age, but was never trained as a Jedi and instead used her talents to survive among the “third faction” (Hutts, smugglers, mafias, Mandos) while remaining as friendly to the “light side” factions as Hutts are to the “Dark Side” factions. Apparently also a supreme badass, judging from her brief appearance in TLJ. Definitely fucked Chewbacca and somehow survived. She procured Anakin’s/Luke’s blue lightsaber from the depths of the Bespin gas giant simply because she wanted it, and gave it to Rey in Force Awakens as well as some grandmotherly advice to her and Rey. She appears briefly to give the heroes contact information for a codebreaker in The Last Jedi. Joins the Resistance proper for the final movie, but not actually doing much onscreen other than spending some time with Leia.

* Saw Gerrara: Originally a member of the Space Viet Cong, this guy doesn't fuck around. Torture civilians? Check. Massacre entire patrols of Imperials? Check. In fact, his methods were considered so extreme that even the Rebel Alliance wanted nothing to do with him. Strictly speaking, he's a pre-Disney character as his first appearance on-screen was as part of the Clone Wars TV series; his first episode airing the same month that Disney acquired the franchise, making him one of the few characters to make the transition from the small screen to the big screen. Though he gets deaded within the first 30 minutes of Rogue One and does absolutely nothing of any value other than hinder the protagonists long enough to pad the run time, he has a lot more of his back-story filled out in the Rebels TV series. He was played by actor Forest Whitaker, so at least there's that.

* Sabine Wren: One of the main protagonists from the Star Wars Rebels show. A Mandalorian woman with a flair for art, explosions, and kicking Imperial ass, she is probably one of the most recognizable characters from the animated side of Disney canon. At first, she was a patriotic Imperial, designing weapons for the Emperor and his vassal ruler for Mandalore, Gar Saxon, until Gar decided to test one of her weapons on a group of Mandalorians, leading her to be labeled an oath-breaker by her people and cast out from her home-planet of Krownest by her mom. She then spends the events of the TV-series with her new surrogate family, the crew of the rebel freighter *Ghost*, and eventually recovers an ancient sword revered by her people, leading her to reconcile with her past, her birth family, and her people. Now, after the Battle of Endor, she is on a quest with Ahsoka Tano to find her 'totally-not-boyfriend', the Jedi Ezra Bridger, and Grand Admiral Thrawn, as they disappeared into the Unknown Regions following the events of the series finale. Was considered "another Disney female Mary Sue" until she acquired some nice depth in the last season of Rebels, however event before that their are several good moments with her such as her getting captured by Sith Inquisitors and used against Ezra and her fights with Kanan. Overall she is a very likable character and one of the better characters in Rebels.

* Amilyn Holdo: An [[Tumblr|overbearing, purple-haired “Rebel hero”]] and one of the key admirals of the Resistance. If you don't like the direction the Disney canon is going in, this character is your Jar Jar Binks and probably is to you even if you do approve/tolerate it. Her only role was to basically die in style but unfortunately she was pretty forgettable and nobody actually cared when she was atomized, even if it was a really fucking cool death. Tie-in material tried to fix this; the only real requirement for joining the Resistance was "didn’t think Leia was crazy for thinking the First Order was going to perform Star Wars 9/11”, and Holdo was only the captain of a small frigate before her battlefield promotion due to the entire chain of command other than the other frigate commander dying or being incapacitated by a single torpedo blast to the bridge of the Resistance flagship. As a matter of fact, [[skub|her "super-duper secret plan" ends up getting most of the Resistance killed after Finn and Poe fuck it up]], due to the fact that she decided to [[skub|not tell the freshly demoted highest ranking pilot who had just lost the resistance the last of their bombers her plan, causing him to mutiny]], and she only partially redeems herself via [[What|FTL ramming their command ship into the First Order command ship, destroying most of the FO fleet]], which is briefly visually spectacular but [[fluff]]-wise highly.... [[skub|take a guess]]. In the original script there was a subplot about there actually being a First Order spy aboard with the audience knowing in advance that there was a plan that spy could have ruined, but in an absolutely stunning display of terrible choices none of it was even filmed and the story was not changed to cut the references to that dropped plot.

* Rose Tico: A maintenance worker who acts as a tagalong for some of the most boring and annoying parts of The Last Jedi. After losing her sister in the beginning of the movie, she catches her idol Finn (who has apparently become something of a celebrity within the Resistance over the course of the week or so since he defected) trying to desert ship in order to warn Rey not to rendezvous as they were being chased by the First Order's fleet since Leia had given her a beacon indicating a rendezvous point (something that is entirely forgotten about for the rest of the movie, since Rey doesn't even use it to meet up with the Resistance at the end). She later went along with Finn to the Gilded Age planet to find the expert capable of helping them deactivate the First Order's tracking system, and despite literally growing up on a planet like that she still thinks its a great idea to just park their fighter on a luxury beach and run straight into a casino full of arms dealers wearing their military uniforms which results in the two being arrested and meeting a random criminal who sells the two out to the First Order because he overhears them literally explain their entire situation, despite the aforementioned "growing up as either a slave or a poor servant, its kind of unclear" backstory which means she should probably know more than the guy who literally only knows life as a Stormtrooper about shit like that. Her lust for Finn's BBC drives her to cockblock his heroic sacrifice on Salt Hoth before confessing his love for him at the worst possible moment in a plot point that will likely go nowhere. Also delivers the worst line in the entirety of the franchise: "[[What|That's how we are going to win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.]]" Which is even worse because Finn was not fighting a hated foe since he has no hatred towards his enemies and was instead just sacrificing himself for the people he loves. This quantum singularity of [[bullshit]] led to a substantial fraction of TLJ's backlash being directed at her actress despite the fact that she had nothing to do with writing any of it. Said backlash also basically single-handedly torpedoing whatever reputation the Star Wars fandom had with the greater public prior to this. Was an interesting character- how some heroes could come from unlikely places- that got handed shit writing in a movie that was way too crowded with a huge ensemble to begin with, and almost zero development. In The Rise Of Skywalker, instead of giving pithy speeches about love and being oppressed she spends her time doing actual ground crew technician work between battles, when characters are meeting to plan their next move she speaks like a high-ranking member of the Resistance (by process of elimination, but still), and the most important thing; '''she actually gets to participate in a battle and shoots some motherfuckers''' in an attempt address the "her figures don't sell" problem. The plot point of her being in love with Finn is not addressed, like in any way at all, and she has very little screentime so she's pretty much been simultaneously upgraded/downgraded into being the Wedge to Finn's Luke. That last part didn't go over well with a lot of people given her bigger role in VIII, leading to accusations that IX was pandering to the /pol/ crowd by giving Rose so little to say or do. Despite (or maybe because of), getting shafted in the movies proper, the actress has proven fairly game about reprising her role in voice-acting for various projects.

* Torra Doza: D.Va in Star Wars. No seriously. Young female, wears a blue and white bodysuit with gloves, is a pilot, likes video games, cheerful personality, she's got it all...except for being in something that's actually popular. Unfortunately, Torra had the bad luck to be a character in the widely reviled Star Wars: Resistance, which basically guaranteed a status as Skub at best and hated at worst.

== Notable Pre-Disney EU Characters ==
* Thrawn: (See *below under villains since despite being created as part of the Legends - in fact, the 1991 book he debuted in is what began the Star Wars Expanded Universe - he was brought back into canon by Disney)

* Mara Jade: A Force-sensitive former agent of Emperor Palpatine, Star Wars second strong female character after Leia (Nomi Sunrider wasn't high profile or developed enough) and a fiery, snarky, sexy redhead. Taken from her parents at a young age and raised as a servant to Palpatine, Mara trained with him and with his royal guards to become one of several high-level Force-using operatives with the title of "Emperor's Hand", though she used the cover story of being a dancer that Palps liked called Lianna. A life of hard work gave Mara a liking for challenges, and she completed numerous missions for him, living the high life under his patronage. Upon Palpatine's death, he gave Mara one last command and a Force geas - kill Luke Skywalker. Bereft of the Emperor's patronage, without job skills besides spy and assassin and unable to find Luke, Mara was forced to live paycheck to paycheck in numerous jobs until becoming a smuggler under Talon Karrde. When Mara finally met Luke, she tried to kill him but ened up in survival situations that forced them to work together. When she finally learned the the truth of her master and killed and escaped Palpatine's compulsion when she killed Luke's clone. Mara then joined the Jedi Order, and over the years Mara's grudging respect for Luke grew into love - which Luke ironically developed before Mara did despite Luke saying he didn't like fiery women like Mara, and the two eventually married. Then a Yuuzhan Vong agent infected Mara with a deadly bioweapon, and she only survived through using the Force to keep it at bay. When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded at large, she fought while struggling with the virus, being cured of it around the time her and Luke's son Ben was born. After the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, Mara led the Jedi alongside Luke and fought in wars against various aliens and the re-emergent Sith. Years later her nephew Jacen turned to the Dark Side and became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. When he tried to corrupt her son Ben, Mara tracked him down to kill him to protect Ben. During the fight, Jacen killed Mara via cheap shot with a poisoned dart. But before she died, Mara told Jacen off while using the Force to alert Luke and Ben and say goodbye to them (Mara's death was one of the main reasons the book series was hated by fans). She later appeared numerous times as a Force ghost, visiting Luke - at one point to give him tips on how to fight Abeloth, and warning her great-great-grandson Cade Skywalker against the Dark Side. Due to being a sexy redheaded woman with a backstory as a spy-cum-assassin (emphasis on cum for neckbeards) for an evil government before joining the good guys, plus her fiery disposition and penchant for black catsuits, Mara's probably a deliberate ripoff of Black Widow from Marvel Comics (ironically, this didn't stop Disney retconning her from the lore despite Disney now owning both the Marvel brand and Star Wars franchise).

* Ben Skywalker: Son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Named for Obi-Wan Kenobi's pseudonym, Ben grew up learning the ways of the Jedi from his parents. He was close to his uncle, aunt and cousins too. Ben was nearly lured to the Dark Side when his cousin Jacen became a Sith but resisted, and any bond between them was destroyed when Jacen killed Ben's mother Mara. Years later when the Jedi got word of a lost tribe of Sith emerging and an emerging Force psychosis started spreading among the Jedi, Luke, Ben and the Jedi Order went to resolve the problem, Ben joining his father in re-tracing Jacen's steps to try and gain insight. Things went from bad to worse when the Jedi and Sith encountered the Lovecraftian Force Entity Abeloth, a shapeshifting being described as a dozen times stronger in the Force than Luke and able to use both sides of it. Things were so desperate, Ben accepted when Luke got the Jedi and the Sith to form an alliance against her. During this time, Ben encountered Vestara Khoi, a Sith apprentice and daughter of one of their leaders. While firmly on the side of the Jedi, Ben found himself often working alongside Vestara in their mission to stop Abeloth, and was attracted to her; for her part, Vestara reciprocated Ben's feelings but was hindered by Ben's disapproval of Sith. Eventually they confessed their feelings, and the two became a couple (with Vestara also leaving the Sith and trying to become a Jedi). Said co-operation proved invaluable when Abeloth kidnapped Ben and Vestara for the final part of her master plan. After Abeloth's ultimate defeat Vestara, after a ruthless act while fighting Abeloth, became convinced she had much of a Sith mindset to be a Jedi, reverted back to the Sith, ended the relationship by zapping Ben with Sith Lightning before fleeing. Heartbroken but resolute, Ben resolved to track her down and redeem her if possible (unbeknownst to Ben, Vestara was also heartbroken about leaving him).

* Jacen Solo: While George Lucas always had a story idea for a son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side, Jacen Solo was the first incarnation, and a major influence on Disney's Kylo Ren. Born to Leia alongside his twin sister Jaina, he was a skilled Jedi, and often tried to be a calming influence on his younger brother Anakin Solo. Played a pivotal role in the Yuuzhan Vong War, killing their military commander Tsavong Lah and their true leader. However, his experiences during the war took a toll, and Jacen started struggling with the Dark Side. Falling into corruption of a Sith Lady, Jacen fell pretty hard. He became a Colonel in the Galactic Alliance and took control of their secret police and converted it into his own Personal SS division. He [[What|legally coup]] the Chief of State and turn the successor to the NR into a evil democratic republic.

* Jaina Solo: Jaina Solo was a Human female Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order and member of the Jedi High Council. Daughter of Han and Leia, twin sister of Jacen Solo and older sister to Anakin Solo, she inherited her father's mechanical aptitude and her mother's Force sensitivity, resulting in her eventual training at the Jedi Praxeum. During her time there as a youth, she had many adventures, including helping to thwart the Second Imperium, where she helped Zekk abandon the dark side of the Force and join the ranks of the Jedi. She became a distinguished pilot during the Yuuzhan Vong War, which also saw the death of her brother Anakin Solo and the birth of her cousin Ben Skywalker. Becomes the Jedi Saber, the Order's sword against the dark.

* Kyle Katarn: A stormtrooper commander who turns mercenary after learning the Imperials were responsible for the death of his father. After being one of the many people who stole the Death Star plans, he destroys an Imperial super soldier project essentially solo. After this he gets wrapped up in the head inquisitor's plot to revive the Empire and gets trained as a Jedi by a force ghost. Straightforward and prone to snark, but also very easy to trick. Partner (if not more) with hot space Asian Jan Ors. Considered one of the more powerful force users in the New Republic, even outside the games where his power level is rather over the top. Where Luke (and most Jedi) keep the dark side away with spiritualism and positivity, Kyle does it through sheer force of will.

* Talon Karrde: A suave rogue smuggler captain who became the new smuggling and black market kingpin after Jabba died. Compared to his predecessor, he's pretty benign given his preference for tariff evasion and illegal goods over straight up extortion and slaving and being a father to his men instead of someone who executes minions on whims. His favored product is selling obscure and/or stolen information. Explicitly what Han might have become if he didn't join the rebellion. Likes punny ship names, with his flagship the Wild Karrde (Wild Card, plus a pun on his last name) and secondary ships like Lastri's Ort (Last Resort), Uwana Buyer (You want to buy her?) and Amanda Fallow (A man to follow). He makes a business arrangement with Mara Jade when she's trying to track Luke down to kill him, where he provided her information if she worked for him temporarily. Years later he acts as a friend in the black market to the Solos and Skywalkers.

* Bevel Lemelisk: An old EU Character that hasn't been quite retconned out yet (even if Director Krennic and Galen Erso more or less took his place in the overall plot), Lemelisk is the Albert Speer/Wernher von Braun of the Imperial war machine. A genius architect and engineer with a serious boner for mass destruction, he designed the Death Star and several others of the Imperial Superweapons, like the discount Death Star battlestation ''Tarkin'' (kinda like a Proof-of-concept prototype for the Death Star concept) or the ''Eclipse''-class of Super Star Destroyers. He bore the brunt of Palpatines anger for the Death Star's destruction, who had him tortured, executed and ressurrected via cloning several times for his failures. After the Empires defeat, he ended up working for the Hutts and worked on a Death Star knockoff called the Darksaber (which he purposefully sabotaged by not pointing out obvious design flaws and the overall shoddy construction work), where he was captured by the New Republic and executed for war crimes.

* Tsavong Lah: An alien [[Horus|Warmaster]], Tsavong was a member of the Yuuzhan Vong species and in charge of their military during most of the Yuuzhan Vong War. His most notable accomplishments were conquering Coruscant and indirectly causing Anakin Solo's death. Tsavong was a skilled tactician but a poor strategist, [[Commander Kubrik Chenkov|a ruthless fanatic who's willing to throw countless lives away to achieve his goals]]. Also took on the Vong Nom Anor as his advisor, despite hating Anor's self-centeredness and lack of piety. At one point Jacen cut off his foot, so Tsavong [[Awesome|cloned an extinct super-predator so he could prove he was still badass by killing it and using one of its feet as a prosthetic foot]]. Also got caught up in a plot by the [[Haemonculi|Shaper Caste, seeking to control him through his body modifications]]. He also dearly loved his dad - a retired military officer he'd often turn to for advice, to the point that his death made Tsavong mentally unstable. Came to view Jacen Solo as his archnemesis, and was eventually killed by him.

* Nom Anor: A Yuuzhvan Vong member of the Intendant caste. After the events of ROTJ, Nom arrived with a Vong advance force as a saboteur to undermine the galaxy in preparation for the Vong invasion/Yuuzhan Vong War. During this time, Nom worked in disguise to manipulate various groups and even clashed with the Chiss Ascendancy... [[Not As Planned|the capture of some of his agents also clued the Empire in to the coming Vong threat]]. He was also such a selfish schemer even Thanquol would turn his nose up in disgust and a major [[Troll]]; before revealing his true identity, when negotiating with Leia he often dress up and act like Darth Vader just to mess with her. Also notable for being an atheist while the Vong as a whole are characterized by being deeply religious. Before the war, Nom infected Luke's wife Mara with a Vong bioweapon that caused a terminal illness, forcing her to use the Force to stop its progression. When Mara confronted Nom, he tried and failed to kill her and was sent packing. After being heavily demoted, Nom tried to rally the outcast class under the guise of a prophet, only to throw them away when they weren't useful to him. Nom later found his way onto the Supreme Overlord's flagship ([[Asdrubael Vect|not that supreme overlord]]) during the battle to retake Coruscant. When the Supreme Overlord was killed and the ship started falling apart, Nom tried to kill the heroes three times but was always thwarted. When offered the chance to escape with the heroes, Nom realized he'd burned all his bridges; he didn't fit in anywhere and was too proud to reconsider his life choices or face punishment for his role in the war. So Nom chose to stay behind and die on the exploding flagship. Essentially [[Fabius Bile]] as a self-centered alien bureaucrat.

* A'Sharad Hett/Darth Krayt: A human Jedi-turned-Sith. Born A'Sharad Hett, he was born to a Jedi and his wife who somehow managed to live among the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine, he eventually joined the Jedi Order, becoming a Padawan of Jedi Masters Ki-Adi-Mundi, and later, An'ya Kuro. When he was only a teen, Hett's father was murdered by the Jedi assassin Aurra Sing, who was later defeated in a duel by a young A'Sharad Hett. During the Clone Wars, he served the Republic as a General. He met and eventually befriended Anakin Skywalker after Skywalker struggled to come to terms with Hett's Tusken heritage. He managed to survive the Clone Wars and Order 66. He was eventually captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, who [[Haemonculus|tortured and experimented on Hett]], which drove him to the Dark Side.

* Darth Talon: A female Twi'lek from the EU comic series "Star Wars: Legacy" who became a Sith Lord in Darth Krayt's One Sith in 137 ABY. Best known for being one of Star Wars most fanservice-y characters on account of her attractive, tattoo-covered body and always wearing skimpy skin-tight clothing (though the character's creators have gone on record to say her appearance is meant to be primal not sexualized, and the skimpy outfit is to show off her tattoos). Apart from the fanservice, she's also visually distinctive for being a rare red Twi'lek and the aforementioned black Sith tattoos. Appointed personal assassin of Darth Kryat, Talon was sent to kill Luke's descendant Cade Skywalker, then later chosen to be Cade's Sith teacher when Darth Kryat tried to induct him into the Dark Side. During this time, Cade and Talon drew close and w slept together, which may have been Kryat's plan (Cade and Talon are shown kissing, and in one scene Cade is shown getting out of bed while a naked Darth Talon is sleeping next to him). Interestingly, George Lucas' original plan for a sequel trilogy involved Talon corrupting Han and Leia's son to the Dark Side of the Force and Talon was nearly in the Disney trilogy and there is early concept art of her.

* Abeloth: A Lovecraftian female entity strong in both the Light and Dark side of the Force, and one of the most powerful beings in any Star Wars canon. She first lived as the Servant, a mortal woman who served the powerful Ones on an unknown jungle planet over a hundred thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. Over the course of her life, she became the Mother: she kept the peace between the Father's warring Son and Daughter and became a loving part of the family. But she was still mortal—she grew old while her ageless family lived on—and she feared she would lose her precious family. In a desperate attempt to hold onto the life she so loved, she drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge. Her actions corrupted her, transforming the Mother into the twisted, immortal entity known as Abeloth. Has numerous titles such as the Bringer of Chaos and Beloved Queen of the Stars (the latter self-proclaimed). Spent millennia trapped on a planet by the Ones, though she'd escape only to be re-imprisoned once more.

* Natasi Daala: Tarkins lover (which, in a surprising twist for the kinds of stories of stories Star Wars tells, was actually reciprocated), the first woman in the Imperial Navy to hold the rank of Admiral and certified badass. Sets herself apart from other Imperial leaders by being much less of a self-interested power-hungry warmonger and instead being fiercely and unquestionably loyal to the Empire and its ideals, which in turn also made her reasonable enough to not want to rule the Imperial Remnants like Thrawn or others, despite being more than capable of it. Her relationship with Tarkin and her sizeable aptitude as a tactician earned her the position to guard the Ultra-Top-Secret R&D base at the center of the clusters of black holes known as the Maw, where she commanded a small flotilla of four Star Destroyers. After having been isolated from the Empire for over a decade after the Battle of Yavin, never wavering from her posting in spite of the suspisous lack of new directions coming in, she was alerted to the fall of the Emperor when Han Solo accidentally crashed right into her turf. Being mightily pissed off, she proceeded to wreck shit for the New Republic just because she could. Later, she allied with Pellaeon, killed a bunch of imperial remnant warlords and helped him fight the New Republic in a series of battles, but vanished without a trace after she ordered her ship to make an unguided hyperspace jump and was declared dead, but not without giving Pellaeon a code with which he could call her she the need arise.

== Villains ==
* Darth Sidious/Sheev "Can't Peeve the Sheev" Palpatine/The Emperor: A creepy old wrinkly dude who sits in his badass evil throne constantly screaming "[[Just as planned]]!" And occasionally frying fools with force lightning. About on par with [[Nagash]] in terms of plain assholery. Built a giant planet-destroying weapon, then built another, bigger one as a trap when the first one blew up. He is very clever, managing to scheme and outwit everyone in the prequel trilogy (not particularly hard, given that every good guy in the prequels was written to be a complete dunce), moving them all into place so he could take over the galaxy (although he still needed a big superweapon anyway to hold onto said power) in the original trilogy and even manages to make [[Just as Planned|everything move to his design]] in the sequel trilogy. Chews so much scenery they had to resort to computer-generated imagery. [[Meme|He is the Senate]]. His survival in the third Disney film was so baffling and unexplained that even the characters had to admit that it made no sense; then again, he was only brought back because Disney had no other choice, having killed off Snoke too soon and Kylo Ren not being a credible enough villain on his own.

* Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin: [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Tywin Lannister]] [[Indrick Boreale|IN SPHESS]] (although, given that Star Wars came first it might be more accurate to say Tywin is Tarkin in Grimdark Fantasy). Ruthless, ambitious, and cold, Grand Moff (Governor) Tarkin is the epitome of all that is Imperial in the SW Universe, and represents all the non-Sith elements that makes the Empire so evil. Started out as a career officier in the republican navy, became promoted by Palpatine after he put down early resistance movements against the Empire with ruthless effiency (including literally crushing protestors with a Star Destroyer). The Clone Wars also showed that he briefly served under Anakins command, where their philosophies showed be to quite compatible (Tarkins cold pragmatism combined with Anakins fierce determination to get the job done at any cost) and became the basis of a deep mutual respect for one another. Also happens to be one of the few characters outside of the force users to figure out that Vader was Anakin on his own. His idea of ruling pretty much comes down to [[Konrad Curze|"They can hate me as long as they fear me"]], which is symbolized ultimately by the Death Star. [[Derp|However, he uses the stick far too often and hardly uses the carrot]], and this policy backfires on him horribly when he destroys Alderaan, a Core World and one of the founders of the Old Republic- for instead of cowing the galaxy into submission, it, along with the Battle of Yavin which saw himself and his battle-station destroyed, [[Fail|galvanized half the galaxy into openly declaring for the Alliance]]. Before the Prequels rewrote the origins of the Imperial superweapon programs entirely, he pioneered the idea of weapons like the Death Star and worked hard to lobby political support from Palpatine and the military for their construction, and was the man in charge for a great number of military R&D developments until his death.

* Jango and Boba Fett: Father and son, though the son is actually an unaltered clone of his father. Badass, mostly-silent mercs who get shit done and come from a line of Spartan/Viking/Māori warriors in space called Mandalorians. Mandos are real hardasses who can go toe-to-toe with Jedi, and the Fetts were no exception. Sadly, both had very anticlimactic deaths, though Boba survived his in the EU, through the power of being too popular with the audience to kill permanently, later having his survival added to Disney Canon. With both of his former employers dead (Jabba and the Empire), and having just survived a fate worse than death and separation from his father's armor, Boba seems to have had time to reconsider his past decisions. He becomes an honorary Tusken after helping out a Tusken tribe that kept him alive, and after getting his armor back from Din Djaren, decides to take Jabba's old position as crimelord of Tatooine. Despite being Jabba's number one enforcer for years, he finds the job a lot harder than it looks, fending off Hutts and local gangs while trying to live up to his Mandalorian heritage and sense of honor. Both of them, ''especially'' Boba, are long-time fan-favorites, but there is also a very vocal and obstinate faction of haters who ''never'' shut up about Boba Fett's falling into the Sarlaac and his limited role in the movies proper. [[Rage|No matter how many times Boba's survival and numerous showings of badassery outside of the movies are pointed out, you can count on the Fett haters to stick to their guns as stubbornly as an Imperial Guardsman down to his last lasgun rounds.]] Sadly, the underperformance of Book of Boba Fett has ensured that the Fett-bashing is likely to continue, with Boba's softer characterization being one of the main points of contention.

* Jabba the Hutt: Obese slug who is a cross between a Mexican drug cartel kingpin and Mafia crime-boss. He runs his criminal enterprise from an old palace-monastery on Tatooine. A [[/d/]]eviant at heart, likes to fap to hot alien chicks dancing for him until they try to escape, then faps even harder when he feeds said chicks to Rancor. His power is such that the Republic, and later the Empire, had to negotiate with him to be able to have some influence in the Outer Rim, because even Sheev Palpatine knows that you don't do shit in the Outer Rim without dealing with the Hutts first. Gets strangled to death by a bikini-wearing Leia with her own chains, because symbolism.

* Thrawn: *Star Wars [[Creed]], if Creed was also a philosophical blue-skinned, red-eyed alien who loved art. Originally introduced in the pre-Disney EU/Legends, Thrawn was so popular Disney soon brought him back into the Disney canon (with a few tweaks to his story). Thrawn was renowned for being one of the few high-ranking aliens in the Galactic Empire and one of the Emperor's best subjects. He originally served as a member of the Chiss Ascendancy, but after being backstabbed (Disney canon retconned this into a ploy; he's still loyal to the Chiss, but pretended to be an exile so he can use the Empire as a buffer state) he signed up with the Galactic Empire and worked with Darth Vader - having met him back when the latter was still a Jedi - and even the Emperor himself. In his tactics, Thrawn notably employed his analysis based around understanding the philosophy and art of his enemies, and was a very capable commander. Always one step ahead of his opponents, Thrawn would frequently outplay both rebels and political rivals by anticipating their actions well in advance, sometimes even using their own plans against them. Literally the only things that can stop Thrawn are insubordination, and things he can't anticipate or control like The Force (and he even found an effective countermeasure for the Force in the form of some Force-resistant Sloths). Thrawn quickly became very well-liked with fans, to the point many considered him the best thing to come from Star Wars since the original trilogy.
** He also set up a vassal Empire called "the Empire of the Hand" to combat an alien menace encroaching on Chiss territory that was considered a threat to the Empire; pre-Disney this was the Yuuzhan Vong (AKA the Far Outsiders, AKA the space cenobites who killed Chewbacca by dropping a moon on him), post-Disney it's Vong-knockoffs called the Grysk. Pre-Disney he was killed by the betrayal of one of his closest aides but is alive and well post-Disney, and was last seen when Ezra used the Force and space whales to yeet Thrawn's ship into the unknown regions with all of them on board. His actual name is the near-unpronounceable Mitth'raw'nuruodo. With his philosophical nature and fetish for art collecting, he's probably a deliberate ripoff of M'Quve from ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', but good luck getting Zahn to admit it.
** Out of all the Empire's elite command, Thrawn stands out not just for being a tactical genius, but also for being a stone-cold pragmatist without falling into Tarkin's genocidial dickery or Vader's open disdain for his own men. He prefers to handle situations with subtlety and long-term success rather than with violence or cruelty for short-term gains. Had he not been saddled with working for such an openly tyrannical dictatorship, he could easily have been a more heroic (if ruthless) military leader when faced with an actual threat to the galaxy at large.

* Gilad Pellaeon: The Watson to Thrawn's Sherlock, Pellaeon was a veteran Imperial Navy Officer in the Legends canon with a career stretching from the Clone Wars to the Vong War. Well liked in-universe and out for being a reasonable, fair-minded person with a sense of honor. Basically the complete opposite of guys like Tarkin. As such, he often gets the role of "Token Good Imperial".

* Count Dooku: An elegant, charismatic, gentlemanly Sith lord and master fencer who had dreams of liberating the galaxy from Republic control, but didn't expect his partner in crime to be a backstabbing douchebag (seeing how he was a full-blown Sith Lord by the time of Attack of the Clones, he really should have seen that coming). Was born as a planetary noble, but gave it all up when he became a Jedi, only to get it all back when he gave up being a Jedi to lead the secessionist movement against the Senate's corruption. In spite of all his unethical activities, including assassination plots against virtuous Separatists while actively promoting war criminals in the CIS military, Dooku genuinely believed that the New Order was going to wipe away corruption in the galaxy, and that even the Jedi would have a place once enough of them saw things his way. Turns out, Palpatine had been playing him just like everyone else during the Clone Wars. Hates Anakin/Vader for not being a gentleman.
** In the novels he's also an alien-hating human supremacist who believes the Empire's purpose is to establish humanity as dominant in GFFA; He'd do well as a citizen of the Imperium if he just changed which Emperor he revered. While actually a very cool villain in the EU, because he was so underdeveloped and underused in the movies proper, most younger or more casual fans (IE: anyone who hates or doesn't care about the EU), tend to dismiss him as boring, making Dooku the "unfavorite" of Palpatine's three apprentices.

* Darth Maul: Horned Sith only concerned with bloodshed and fighting. He'd do well as a Khornate Champion. Had his legs cut off then was brought back more badass than ever, making him obsessed with getting revenge on Obi-Wan, as well as Sideous for casting him aside. He creates a massive criminal syndicate and even conquering the Mandalorians to create a small army that posed a serious threat to Sideous' plans; that is, until he was utterly stomped by Sideous, then gets killed in a duel with an elderly Obi-wan almost 18 years later. Wields a sick-looking double-bladed lightsaber, doesn't actually gets a single line in the first film dubbed in by a different actor, and played by famous martial arts master Ray Park. He was a silent badass in the movie but for some reason he was made very talkative in the animated series. The EU gave him a backstory as the scion of a species of Sith-aligned Force witches that ''The Clone Wars'' later made canon. The director of ''Solo'' picked him out of a hat to be the leader of the nefarious criminal gang Han gets stuck working with, which is not unreasonable given his previously established connections. Despite being a rage-filled maniac, the TV shows gave him a lot of depth, as he recognizes that there are bigger forces at play in the universe, and by the time of his death, puts his hope in the Skywalkers finally defeating Sidious.
** In the Legends canon, he was resurrected by some Dark Side cultists very shortly before A New Hope and sicced on Darth Vader so the writer could have an excuse to give the fans the fight they'd been clamoring for since 1999. Vader sent Maul back to the grave, but not easily. Then his brain was salvaged by some mad scientist and kept alive (somehow), with Maul interacting with the world in a limited way through holographic projections. Luke Skywalker pulled the plug on it though, letting Maul finally die for good.

* General Grievous: An alien cyborg even more fucked up than what Darth Vader would become (being a robot body that was a canister for his eyes, brain, and vital organs), Grievous was the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army during the Prequels and the Clone Wars TV series (both versions), and a sadistic Jedi hunter. His competence is usually portrayed two totally different ways; in the 2D animated TV series (created by the same guy who made [[Samurai Jack|Samurai Jack]]), and other EU material created prior to the second Clone Wars cartoon, he is portrayed as an awesome, unstoppable killing machine who roflstomps experienced Jedi Masters, and is only bested by Mace "The Ace" Windu. In the CGI series and the third film, he is an [[Stupid Evil|incompetent, froth-mouthed imbecile]] with a record of failure that even [[Abaddon]] would laugh at hysterically. (Sadly, the latter was what Lucas originally intended him to be - even if the former is way more awesome). By the end of the clone wars, Grievous and his atrocities against civilians became the public face of the Seperatist cause (while Dooku kept Grievous actions a secret from his allies); The death mask of Grievous became a potent symbol in Imperial propaganda in order to associate resistance to the Empire with the horrors of the Clone Wars - just as Palpatine intended. Ironically, in Legends the Empire gave copies of GG's mask to some of their secret weapons (Terror Troopers and Terror Biodroids namely).
** Actually has a somewhat-tragic past in Legends: he was a great and virtuous hero on his primitive planet, but Dooku arranged for the Separatists to shoot Grievous' shuttle down and harvested his shredded body to repurpose him into their general/assassin. Dooku also lobotomized Grievous in way that reduced him to a raging killer. When Grievous recovered, Dooku then pinned blame for the shuttle crash on the Jedi and Republic, turning him into the OG raging murder-machine we all know and love. In all, a considerably more grimdark past than his other versions.
** In the second Clone Wars cartoon, his backstory is kept vague, but Grievous claims he deliberately chose to become a cyborg in order to become better at killing Jedi (and actually becoming extremely good at it, at least in the first CW, where he cuts down four Jedi with ease). Hated being mistaken for a droid, being compared to a droid and all Jedi - especially Obi-Wan Kenobi. His competence ping-pongs around even more violently than before: Grievous [[What|loses to a barely-trained Padawan]] and [[EPIC FAIL|the fucking Gungan army under Jar Jar and Captain Tarpals]] in a couple episodes while [[grimdark|committing on-screen genocide against the Nightsisters]] and going toe-to-toe with Jedi Masters in others. He was voiced by one of the folks at Lucasarts, who submitted his audition under an alias to make sure he'd get a fair shake. Along with Anthony Daniels, he reprises his role more often than most other Star Wars movie actors.

* Clone Troopers: The predecessors of the Storm Troopers. These soldiers were vat clones of Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett cloned in large numbers, trained from birth in combat and clad in environmentally sealed suits of their famous gleaming white full body armor. Despite being genetically engineered to be perfectly obedient automatons, the Jedi they served under encouraged their individuality, and they began giving themselves names and unique tattoos and haircuts. But when Palpatine activated their inhibitor chips via Order 66, the clones' autonomy was completely overridden (the effect appears to only last a couple weeks, but it is extremely intense) and they executed the Jedi without hesitation. The original clonetroopers served the Republic against the Separatists, and were turned into the stormtroopers after Palpatine's total take-over. A very small minority of clones had their chips successfully removed and fought against the Empire, especially those who formed close bonds with their Jedi generals or local freedom fighters, but the vast majority of the Clones were more loyal to Palpatine than to the Republic itself, and didn't need much convincing to stick with the Empire, with or without inhibitor chips.
** Various sources (even within legends) disagree on the exact reasons why Palpatine replaced the clone troopers: the rebels blew up the gene-banks, the Kaminoans rebelled and created their own clone army, the clones were too susceptible to targeted genome-based biological weapons, or that the clones served their purpose and were too expensive to maintain, especially with their accelerated aging. Remaining Clones either were retired, served as instructors and in the case of the Commandos and the 501st Legion (having proven their loyalty and competence over and over, including at the Kamino uprising), kept serving in pure Fett-template units as Vader's personal enforces. Even they were retired after Hoth due to being too old.
** In Disney Canon, the clones were expendable once they served their purpose of killing the Jedi; removing them from the equation freed up resources for the Death Star and reduced the Empire's dependency on Kamino's cloning facilities. However, enough clones started to mutiny or desert that the Imperial military accelerated their replacement with recruited Stormtroopers.
** The old EU canon had a different take on why the Troopers had little trouble with executing Order 66; where the order was merely one of many (151 in total) contingency plans that would be enacted by either the chancellor or the senate if the existence of the Republic or the functioning of its governing institutions were vitally threatened (the irony was certainly not lost on Palpatine) and were just part of the normal training program of the soldiers. Order 66 was buried under plans for events like the Senate being blown up, the Chancellor becoming incapacitated, Coruscant being destroyed etc. What made Order 66 so insidious was that the Jedi thought it was a protection against renegade force users (not unheard of with Dooku and Ventress running around) and that Palpatine masterminded his scheme in such a way that the legal prerequisites of Order 66 - Jedi staging a coup against the Chancellor or the Senate, which technically was what happened when Windu attacked Palpatine (even more explicitly so in the Novelization, where Windu planned to install the Jedi council as an interim government until the Senate would elect a new chancellor) - was fulfilled with no one there to question it. Combined with the Troopers inherent psychological conditioning and more than one Commander holding serious grudges against many Jedi ensured that the Order would not be questioned even by those Clones who were fond of their generals.
* Stormtroopers: The soldiers of the Galactic Empire. Unlike the Clone Troopers, the vast majority of the stormtroopers are enlisted, typically from the underclasses of war-torn and impoverished worlds. Contrary to popular belief, Stormtroopers are ''not'' the rank and file in the Imperial army, and are more skilled and fanatical, akin to Marines. Still, Stormtroopers are a step down in quality from Clone Troopers (including their armor, with a surviving clone trooper making a point of how awful it is compared to his old wargear), but by this point the Empire didn't really need that many high-quality soldiers when it was more concerned with keeping civilian populations under its thumb. Since the First Order doesn't have a good dental plan to bring in recruits, they instead resort to [[Schola Progenium|kidnapping or buying children and raising them as soldiers]] to fill their mook quota. They are unwaveringly loyal and obedient to the Empire, ruthless and brutally efficient foes in combat, and incredibly precise shots with their state-of-the-art weapons. Naturally, these qualities all go out the window when they encounter the protagonists, but that's life when you're wearing a [[helmet]].
**There are some explanations as to the inconsistency in Stormtrooper quality; one is that the Imperial army is so vast that quality differences are inevitable. Stormtroopers that are an actual threat will defend the core worlds or accompany the more "serious" units, such as the 501st legion. Lesser recruits get sent to rim world backwaters or meat grinder conflicts, making them easier prey for the odd band of rebels or pirates. The rebels learned the hard way, though, that trying to fight a conventional way against the former was just asking for trouble. That being said, by the Original Trilogy, the Empire hadn't fought a war even close to the scale of the Clone Wars before the Rebellion, so there were a lot of inexperienced troopers as well.
** Amusingly enough, Legends indicates that many of the Clone Troopers that actually stayed with the Galactic Empire ''hated'' the Stormtroopers, considering them a pack of incompetent idiots with no sense of their surroundings and terrible aim (which can be taken as a canonization of their memetically awful competence). One source even had Commander Cody (yes, that guy from Revenge of the Sith and the Clone Wars CGI cartoon) stating that he'd sacrifice an entire platoon of Stormtroopers for one real Clone Trooper and noting that Fett would probably kill the lot of them himself.
** Lastly, these boys comes in literally ''all'' the flavors. Variants based on environments (Snow, Desert, Shore and many more) and roles (Heavy, Incinerator, Commando and the elite Death Troopers), ensuring that the Star Wars brand always has a new bunch of cool soldier dudes to make toys off of. When things has to get really dangerous for the heroes, the elite variants are brought in, like the Storm Commandoes, Death Troopers and (in Episode IX), Sith Troopers (no relation to the troops of the same name used by the Sith Empires pre-dating Palpatine).

* Inquisitorius: Darksiders trained by the Empire. While the Rule of Two prevents additional Sith Lords, it says nothing about other force users under their command, especially if they're not given full access to Sith lore and thus can't properly challenge Sith Lords on equal footing. It is not known if Darth Bane expected the Imperial Inquisition or if he would have approved of the Emperor bending the Rule of Two such. Their job is primarily to ferret out the remaining Jedi and other force users, but they are also used for all manner of wet work and internal affairs. Since their first mention ''way'' back in ''The Star Wars Sourcebook'', they have served as enemy force users that while still dire threats could still ''conceivably'' be defeated by the player characters. The source of many prominent antagonists in the expanded universe, including Jerec.

== Disney Villains ==

* The Inquisitors: The Disney version of the above, here reimagined as fallen Jedi who have taken up hunting their fellows for the Empire and wielding spinning double-bladed lightsabers while doing so. Actually rock a pretty boss set of designs overall, but sadly most of them are underdeveloped in both personality and backstory, with the exception of the Grand Inquisitor and Fallen Order's Second Sister. They have a "brother/sister" naming system.
** Grand Inquisitor: Head honcho. An Pau'an who used to be a Jedi Temple Guard before going bad. Voiced by Lucius Malfoy / Admiral Zhao and similarly evil. By far the coolest (and most competent), villain in Season 1 of Rebels, so of course they killed him off. Also shows up in live action in Kenobi where Third Sister stabs him, but his showing up in Rebels later suggests he walked it off, which was confirmed outright in Episode 5 of the Kenobi mini-series.
** Second Sister: Main villain of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and as mentioned above, easily one of the more well-developed of the bunch besides GI himself. Once the Padawan of Cal's mentor in the game Cere, and hates her something fierce for feeling abandoned by her, leading to the Empire capturing her and giving her the [[Inquisition]] / [[Dark Eldar]] treatment. Just when it seems like she ''might'' make amends with Cere, Vader, unhappy that Second Sister failed him, cuts her down on the spot.
** Third Sister: Another one of the better fleshed-out Inquisitors. One of the main villains of Kenobi series on Disney+, hunting him in the hope that Vader will give her a promotion in exchange...or so it seems. Turns out she actually just wants a chance to get close to Vader so she can kill him for murdering her fellow Younglings during Knightfall. But of course, Vader's way out of her weight-class. Can pose and parkour like a superhero, and has a [[Angron|bad temper even by Dark Side standards.]] Character and actress got crap from the [[/pol/|usual offenders]].
** Fourth Sister: Another Inquisitor introduced in Kenobi. Looks a bit like a Twi'lek but isn't listed as one. Not much else to say.
** Fifth Brother: One of the more prominent male Inquisitors besides the GI (enough so that he shows up in Rebels and the Obi-Wan mini-series). Like Third Sister he covets the Grand Inquisitor's position, and the two dislike each-other. Confirmed by the creators as being blind in Rebels, but able to see through the Force. Killed off in Rebels Season 2 when Maul wipes the floor with him.
** Sixth Brother: Minor Inquisitor who's main moment in the sun is fighting Ahsoka and getting killed by her.
** Seventh Sister: One of the two main Inquisitors in Rebels besides Fifth Brother. Voiced by Sarah "Buffy" Michelle Gellar, who is also the wife of Kanan's voice actor, which the writers reference by giving Seventh Sister some flirting. Is a Mirialan like Barriss, but it has yet to be confirmed that the two are one and the same even though it would make sense. Killed off in Rebels Season 2, when Darth Maul takes a page out of Kenobi's book (oh the irony) and cuts her in half.
** Eighth Brother: Throwaway Inquisitor who also dies the most embarrassing death of any Inquisitor to date (his helicopter lightsaber malfunctions and he falls to his death). Cool helmet though.
** Ninth Sister: The "muscle" of the bunch, being big, brutish, and filled with rage. Though beaten by Cal Kestis on Kashyyyk, her death hasn't been confirmed, so we might see more of her.
** Tenth Brother: So far exclusive to the comics, he was once a Jedi in the Clone Wars who tried to off Mace Windu, which went as well as you'd expect. Since Jedi tend to frown on executing people, they sent him into exile...which allowed the Empire to pick him up and turn him into an Inquisitor. Whoops. He eventually bit it when a Jedi manipulated several [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Purge_Trooper Purge Troopers] into Order 66-ing his ass, in a moment of positively delicious irony.

* Agent Kallus: Continuing Star Wars' proud tradition of unsubtly named characters, Kallus is Rebel's equivalent to Asajj Ventress, being the semi-competent, semi-bumbling secondary villain who gets a redemption arc. Was involved in a massacre of Zeb's people, but had not actually ordered said massacre and feels kind of bad about how it all went down. Later joins the Rebel Alliance after Thrawn outs him as a spy. Rocks some Wolverine-esque sideburns, but not the weird haircut to go with it. Art crew considered making him a Chiss based on the concept art, but it seems they decided there's only room for one in the Empire's hierarchy.

* Kylo Ren: A Dark Jedi (not Sith, they technically went extinct with Vader, Sheev, Dooku, and Maul) who is actually the son of Han and Leia, Ben Solo, which the Internet absolutely refused to shut up about after it was leaked. He's mostly based on Jacen Solo from the EU (a son of Han and Leia who became a Jedi then fell to the Dark Side and became a Sith) with his new name likely taken from EU character Kybo Ren and having the same real name as Luke's son from the EU with Mara, Ben Skywalker. He idolizes his grandfather, Darth Vader and wears a black suit and a mask to show this. He wields a unique crossguard lightsaber. People thought he would be a badass after seeing the trailers but after seeing the movie, he turned out to be a half-naked pussy looking like a gay Turkish oil wrestler who very often gets temper tantrums and gets his ass kicked by a teenage girl (though to be fair, if he had been a complete badass, everyone would’ve just complained that he was a rehash of Vader. So, you know, rock and a hard place. Also he only had his ass beat since he was already shot by a bowcaster and stabbed with a lightsaber, so fighting even in spite of that is pretty badass). Kylo's character became significantly more fleshed out in TLJ, ironically making him one of the only characters to have actual development in the whole movie. Between that and Kylo's actor Adam Driver being really bro-tier about the whole situation (he even appeared in a skit as Kylo which also included poking fun at Kylo's emo traits), Kylo has managed to win over many fans, with some citing him as probably the most interesting character in the Sequels. Serves Palpatine before turning on him with Rey and gives his life to heal her, scoring a kiss with her before he dies redeemed as Ben, ala Vader dying as Anakin. This relationship between Rey and Kylo ''sharply'' divided the fanbase and created some extreme reactions. The worst cases were some extremely rabid Kylo/Rey shippers who insisted Adam and Daisy Ridley - Rey's actor - become a real-life couple (despite both being in separate relationships), to the point that they '''harassed Daisy Ridley's boyfriend on social media, harassed Adam Driver along with his family (including stalking them and sending messages hoping for the deaths of Adam's wife and/or newborn son) and made death threats against JJ Abrams''' (far surpassing practically any other Star Wars backlash, even the death threats thrown at Ahmed Best - Jar Jar's VA - and the purported backlash against Kelly Marie Tran - Rose Tico's actress); it cannot even be “justified” (and justified is used ''very'' loosely here) as the ravings of butthurt ultra-fanboys, this crossed the line into full-on bullshit. To repeat, this one was Skub incarnate. Most fans either adore the Reylo ship or absolutely hate it with a passion.

* Snoke: Supreme Leader of the First Order who speaks to his underlings through a massive hologram. <s> Very little is known about him at the moment. Though many fan theories say that he is Darth Plagueis, the old master of Palpatine who was assumed dead (everyone assumes every new Darksider is him, though, so grain of salt) the powers that be have repeatedly denied the theory (though it's admittedly a better guess than suggesting that Snoke is [[What|Mace Windu, Boba Fett, or a clone of Darth Vader]], which we would like to stress are [[Derp|actual fan theories]])...unfortunately, we will have to wait for an inevitable comic book or novel to explain it, since he [[RAGE|gets killed like a chump by his own servant, Kylo "Emofag" Ren.]] It is possible he may return given that the ring on his finger has inscriptions that translate to various rephrasing of “survive death” that is carved from the stone of Darth Vader's lava castle (yes, you read that right), but that may actually be a nod to Palpatine’s EU resurrections.</s> Turns out to be a genetically engineered pawn of Palpatine's, like he was literally born looking as shriveled and injured as he did and had some kind of fabricated backstory like an organic Blade Runner Replicant. So in sum, a dime-store Palpatine knock-off.

* General Hux: The First Order's Tarkin equivalent and a moustache-less ginger Hitler in space. Delivers a pretty cool speech, but can't fight to save his life. The backstory for Hux is his father was an Imperial hero, and Hux wants to be the First Order version of his old man and lead the FO to a final victory. Hux openly dislikes Kylo Ren and has frustration with the Force-users borders on meta at times. Spends most of TLJ as a foil to the edgier and more toyetic bad guys, but he seems to be the only one to have noticed how impractical the Empire/FO's fuckhuge weaponry can be when you're fighting something smaller than a planet and have lost the element of surprise. Becomes Kylo Ren's comic relief ginger prison bitch at the end of TLJ, although he has an interesting scene where he was about to finish off the unconscious Kylo until he woke up. Sent some very simple info to the Resistance in Rise Of Skywalker that set off the movie plot (mostly by making them take the info they already had seriously) and later helped the main characters escape, and was immediately shot for his efforts. He is never mentioned again.

* Captain Phasma: A First Order operative in charge of instructing the new Stormtrooper legions, Phasma serves as the Boba Fett of TFA - which is to say that she does nothing of note other than stand around and look cool until she figuratively and literally gets thrown into the trash in Force Awakens. Lucasfilm have apologized for overadvertising the character in the lead-up to the film since she was just supposed to look cool and do nothing like Boba Fett originally did but the huge presence of her in the marketing implied she was going to be a major character (remember, Jar Jar and generic Battle Droids had far more merch than Maul during the release of Episode 1) and have promised to give Phasma an actual role and backstory for TLJ that will play into Finn's story. (This turned out to be bullshit due to the fucked-up nature of TLJ's production, but the reshoots managed to give her a good showing anyway.) Her backstory was released in a novel where she was a tribal on a planet the Empire stripped into the stone age, who backstabbed her tribe for a stronger tribe, backstabbed her second tribe and brother to rescue a stranded Imperial officer and join the Empire, backstabbed her mentor to become the supreme commander of the Stormtrooper Corps in the First Order, then in the comic series she was shown to have survived the trash compactor when a Resistance bomb blew it up and she entirely disregarded everything (including saving Starkiller Base or Kylo Ren) to backstab and frame one of her subordinates for lowering the shields then promptly hunted him down to “bring him to justice”. So [[Skaven|she’s a spear-wielding backstabber extraordinaire.]] At the present she's got a nasty scar on one eye where her hyper durable helmet was busted in, and fell into a fire on a shattered starship to her confirmed demise. Worth mentioning that even many folks who liked TLJ considered this an unsatisfying send-off.

* Commander Pyre: The gold and male version of Phasma, and often the closest thing [[Fail|Star Wars: Resistance]] had to a big bad due to being in charge of most of the First Order's operations in the show. More active than Phasma usually is, but still not likely to become anybody's favorite new villain. And then he died, and no-one fucking cared.

* The Knights of Ren: The Dark Side warriors who Kylo is the leader of, each one having their own unique look and signature weapon. Also probably one of the biggest bits of [[Fail]] in the Sequel Trilogy on account of being teased in the first movie but completely absent in the second, and saying and doing absolutely nothing in the third before being unceremoniously killed off. Seriously, if you're one of those people who grouses about Boba Fett not having enough to do in the Original Trilogy, the way these guys are handled will drive you crazy. To put it into perspective, a ''non-canon LEGO short-film on Disney+'' gave these guys more characterization than the actual Sequel Trilogy did.

== Old Republic Characters ==

* Revan: Simply put, you'd be hard-pressed to find an EU character with a bigger following than Revan, and with good reason: the protagonist of one of the most beloved Star Wars games of all time, ultra-powerful, awesome design, red and purple lightsabers...he's got it all. This is reflected in how he's one of the only EU characters to get an official LEGO minifigure, action figures, a Gentle Giant bust, etc. For backstory, Revan was a bit similar to Anakin in that he was a talented but headstrong young Jedi who during the course of a war (in this case the Mandalorian Wars), got corrupted and fell to the Dark Side. From there became a Sith Lord who waged war on the very Republic he had led/saved before being betrayed by his cowardly dipshit apprentice Malak. One quick round of mind-wiping later, and the Jedi and Republic had themselves <s>a new tool and patsy</s> an important new ally for stopping Darth Malak, who had quickly proven to be a much worse Sith Lord than Revan had been (go figure). That's where the player comes in. After defeating Darth Malak, and remembering his true identity along the way, Revan goes off to fight an "I can't believe it's not Palpatine" Sith Emperor dwelling in the Unknown Regions and disappears. Later returns in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but how the game and its expansions portray him and end his story were divisive to put it mildly. Which is why we're going to skip right over that minefield in favor of giving a neutral summary of it in the timeline section.
**Interestingly, the kind of Sith Lord he was differs somewhat depending on the source. The first game actually depicts his Sith Lord phase as being fairly par for the course: wanting power for power's sake, social darwinist, etc. But the sequel and other sources have instead cast him as more of a [[The God-Emperor of Mankind|visionary who was trying to save/prepare the Galaxy for approaching horrors but also felt that only he had what it took to lead the effort, hence his war of conquest.]]

* Jedi Exile / Meetra Surik: The main character of the second game, and nowhere near as popular as Revan despite the fact that the fondness for her game is at least as strong among older EU fans. Started out as a general under Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. During the big battle of Malachor V, she activated a doomsday weapon that won the battle, but killed so many people and fucked up the planet so hard, that Meetra was shell-shocked and became cut off from the Force. Oh, and kicked out of the Jedi Order. The second game begins with her slowly rediscovering her connection to the Force under the guidance of a mysterious woman who totally won't later turn out to be a villain with an agenda. Her adventures take her to places recovering from the recent Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, and she gets to team up with some of the few surviving Jedi Masters until her mentor kills them near the end of the game. After putting the old woman out of her misery and also stopping the other Sith Lords who have been treating the Galaxy like their personal murder-playground, she follows Revan's lead and disappears into the Unknown Regions. Her anti-climactic death in a subsequent novel drew all sorts of white-hot [[Rage]].

* Carth Onasi: Quite possibly the skubbiest character to ever come out of a Star Wars video game. A Mandalorian Wars veteran and your first permanent party member in the first game, his betrayal by his old mentor and then said mentor's bombing his homeworld and killing his wife has left him with major trust issues. But he's also the romance option if you're playing female, and so many a fan ships him with the female Revan even as others find him whiny and annoying. In a case of history repeating itself, his voice actor would go on to voice ''another'' party member in a Bioware game set in space who is a polarizing romance option for female players. Also shows up in the second game as an NPC, so long as you don't decide that Revan was evil in the first game. "If you find Revan, tell him... tell him that Admiral Onasi is carrying on his duty".

* Bastila Shan: A Jedi with a talent for Battle Meditation (a Force power that basically makes the user's side significantly better in a given fight), Bastila is the one who faced down Revan when Malak betrayed him. Outwardly haughty, holier-than-thou, and a complete stickler for doing things the by-the-book Jedi way. Actually very insecure, and one of many examples of Bioware's fondness for the defrosting ice queen archetype. The romance option for male Revans (and by extension his canonical love interest), she gets captured by Malak later in the game and tortured into becoming his new apprentice, at which point the player has to decide to join her or not. Canonically, Revan doesn't join her but instead gets her to rejoin the Jedi. The two of them get hitched in the period after the game, but then duty calls so Revan has to abandon his wife, much to the unhappiness of many a KotoR fan. Her love story with Revan is roasted by HK-47 in the second game, while Bastila herself makes a return appearance in a minor role.
** Satele Shan: Bastila and Revan's descendant, and having the same voice actress and preference for double-bladed lightsabers as the former, and a similar talent for Battle Meditation too. Appears in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Also had a kid with a Republic soldier as it turns out and later formed an unlikely friendship with the Sith Lord Darth Marr. Said kid was a Republic Spy and was one of the best bros in SWTOR.

* HK-47: In running for the most popular character to come out of KotoR other than Revan himself, HK is basically a blend of Bender and Deadpool, being a sociopathic-but-funny anti-hero who enjoys violence, advocates for violence as a solution to all problems, and calls everyone meatbags (except his beloved master of course). Has a strange verbal quirk where he says the kind of speech he's going to say before saying it (IE: if asking a question, he'll first say "query"). So popular that he later showed up in an expansion for Star Wars: Galaxies despite that game taking place ''thousands of years after his debut appearance''. Got some would-be-replacements in the second KotoR game in the HK-50s, and hates their guts. SWTOR would also give him a successor in HK-55, as well as yet another appearance from the original...before he gets scrapped. As already stated, he shows up on Mustafar later, so he must have gotten rebuilt at some point.

* Canderous Ordo: A Mandalorian veteran of the war who has become a cynical and ruthless mercenary before deciding to join Revan. Actually very pro-Revan, respecting him for being a good warrior and tactician and actually being able to kick his people's teeth in. Becomes the new Mandalore in the second game. So in short, basically the Boba Fett of his day, and accordingly is one of the more popular characters. Unfortunately got his legacy tarnished when the Mandalorians joined the Reformed Sith Empire in the Great Galactic War, though they dodged the karma backlash until thousands of years later in the Great Peace of the Republic.

* Mission and Zaalbar: A young twi'lek and her Wookie buddy, they're ostensibly the game's Han and Chewbacca, but are actually very different. Mission is the spunky-but-somewhat naive female with a can-do attitude who manages to be interesting and not insufferable despite what that description might suggest, and Zaalbar is a depressed exile who's brother is a sociopath that's willing to sell his own people into slavery for profit. Sadly nowhere to be found in the game's sequel.

* Juhani: A Cathar (no, not the Medieval Christian sect condemned as heretical), Jedi who is introduced as a failed Padawan who's in a sufficiently bad mood that she's caused all of the planet's local Kath Hounds (basically lion-dogs) to get extra-aggressive. Dealing with her is part of the player's Jedi Trials needed to pass to become a Padawan, and assuming the player doesn't off her, she later joins as a party member. Probably most famous/remembered for being one of the first LGBT Star Wars characters, and her girlfriend will fall to the Dark Side if you did kill her. Alternatively, female players can hook up with her also.

* Jolee Bindo: A cranky old man living in Kashyyyk's shadowlands who is actually a Jedi living in self-imposed exile. Something of an "unorthodox" Jedi, he adheres firmly to the good parts of the Jedi belief system while relentlessly roasting the bad and dumb parts, such as the Jedi's general aversion to love and families. This, coupled with his often hilarious "back in my day" cranky old man lines, have made him another one of the more popular characters to come out of the first game.

* Atton Rand: He is as Atton as Atton will ever be! Initially appears to be a Han Solo clone, but it turns out this is a front to hide something much darker: he's a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars who, pissed that the Jedi sat the war out but had no problem fighting him and his fellows when Revan became a Sith Lord, reinvented himself as basically a serial killer of Jedi. Eventually, his conscience caught up with him and he struck out on his own. As the ship's pilot and a romance option for female players, he takes over some of the roles of Carth Onasi, but is a lot less skubby, his overall reputation with the fans being a lot stronger (everyone likes a bad boy). Meetra redeemed him into being a Jedi.

* Bao-Dur: Zabrak Carth, being like him a staunchly pro-Republic goody-two-shoes who hates Mandalorians and gets into arguments with Canderous. Is missing an arm but replaces it with an energy field that connects the metal hand to the shoulder, which is different from most Star Wars characters who lose limbs. Also has a pet remote and helps the player character get their first lightsaber. Notably, he is one of the only characters who's futures Kreia isn't able to glimpse into at the end of the game, suggesting the writers either had specific plans in mind for Bao-Dur in an unmade sequel...or that they just got lazy. Meetra also made him a Jedi.

* Brianna the Handmaiden: Only joins if the player is male (and yes, is a potential love interest option). Due to being a handmaiden to the most insufferably puritanical Jedi Master ever, she's been fairly indoctrinated to have an extremely black and white view of what is and is not acceptable behavior for a Jedi. Dislikes Atton (and vice-versa), and may be Kreia's daughter. Member of the Echani, a species that look a lot like humans but white haired and apparently all martial artists. Don't let her slender figure fool you; she's one of the best melee fighters in the second game, especially if made into a Jedi or Dark Jedi. Giving her a double saber is just mean, and is definitely the best leader on the Dxun team for the party splitting on Onderon and Dxun mission (though Atton's skill-set and Visas' power make them good alternatives to the point that the game guide recommends picking one of them, Mira and Bao-Dur are also good picks as team members to stealth through the mines and slice respectively). Canonically traveled with Meetra even though she was female and became a Jedi.

* Mira: One of the many, many tough, sarcastic redheads in Star Wars' old EU, she's a bounty hunter who, unusually for a character in Star Wars, is actually reluctant to kill people and prefers to avoid doing so. She also has a wrist-launcher that shoots out various projectiles. Has history with the Mandalorians but doesn't really identify as one. One of the more popular characters to come out of the sequel, but you won't get her if you're Dark Side unless you start off Neutral or Light Side on Nar Shadda and ''then'' turn into a dick after getting her on your team. As many people prefer Mira, this is exactly what some Dark Side players do. Meetra made her a Jedi.

* Hanharr: The Anti-Chewbacca, being a bloodthirsty, vicious psychopath who was doing the whole "evil Wookie bounty hunter" thing long before Black Krrsantan was ever a thing. Joins the player if the latter is Dark Side and fittingly for a Wookie who would have done well in Khorne's service, is a melee powerhouse. Actually very depressed to the point of secretly wanting to die, which is part of why he hates Mira for not killing him/constantly hounds her and attacks her; he's always hoping she'll put him out of his misery. Also [[Grimdark|killed his own tribe to keep them from being enslaved due to deciding they were better off dead.]] Mira put him down on Malachor V after she realized that his suicidal state made it impossible to help him.

* Mical the Disciple: The Handmaiden's counterpart, joining only if you're playing female (canonically he accompanied the female Meetra). A very nice and pleasant guy and one of the least morally compromised of the sequel's party members. And this in turn is exactly why some people find him boring relative to the more flawed Atton, though he's also often compared unfavorably to the Handmaiden as well due to the feeling that she's more useful in fights. Secretly a spy for the Republic, though most would say its not much of a secret. And guess what, Meetra made him a Jedi.

* Visas Marr: A Miraluka who has been Darth Nihilus' "apprentice" (by which we mean slave) for an untold period. Unsurprisingly leaps at the chance to ditch him for the player character the first chance she gets. A romance option for male players, to the absolute fury of the Handmaiden (to the point that she might stop speaking to you depending on how things go). Can be talked into killing herself to hurt her ex-boss in the final battle with him, but because Visas is cool hardly anyone takes this option even if playing Dark Side. Gets bonus points for being voiced by Kelly Hu. Canonically Meetra redeemed her to the light side (though it's not a redemption so much as a "literally anything is better than her current situation").

* GO-TO: No, no. Not [[C.S. Goto|he-who-must-be-named and who is universally despised and shunned]]. This is a different GO-TO, who is a droid that runs the Galaxy's largest crime syndicate. Looks exactly like the torture droids used by the Empire despite existing well before the Empire's time. An interesting character, but as he's considered pretty useless in a fight, most players hardly ever use him. Canonically blown up on Malachor after he got stuck with Bao-Dur's remote during the final mission of KOTOR 2.

* Vrook Lamar: Where Jolee Bindo is a funny cranky old man Jedi Master, Vrook is the opposite. Generally fitting the negative perception of "humorless jerk Jedi Master who preaches and lectures a lot", Vrook is one of the few characters to appear in both games. Dark Side players will kill him, and for all his grumbling, this old geezer has the skills and power to back it up. Doesn't save him from Darth Traya in the canonical Light Side path even with Master Zez-Kai Ell and Master Kavar being with him though.

* SWTOR PCs: A Jedi Knight, a Jedi Consular, a Republic Special Forces Soldier, a Smuggler, a Sith Warrior, a slave-turned Sith Inquisitor, a Bounty Hunter who can join the Mandolorians, and a Sith-Imperial Spy. The Eternal Empire/Eternal Throne expansions are basically a continuation of the Jedi Knight's story, though the Outlander's actual background is purposefully kept vague and the story can be tackled with any class. With that said, the story makes a heck of a lot more sense if its one of the Force-Sensitive classes (as otherwise you have silly things like Arcann losing to a Smuggler or a Bounty Hunter). Since their names are player-generated, each one has a title that the fanbase knows them by. Specifically:
** Jedi Knight: The Hero of Tython
** Jedi Consular: The Barsen'thor
** Republic Trooper: Havoc Squad Commander (or by the callsign, Meteor)
** Smuggler: Voidhound
** Sith Warrior: Emperor's Wrath
** Sith Inquisitor: Lord Kallig (actually a surname, the Inquisitor was a slave unaware of the lineage from Sith Lord Aloysius Kallig, later changes to a Darth title that differs depending on your alignment, Imperious for Light Side, Occlus for Neutral and Nox for Dark Side)
** Imperial Agent: Cipher-9
** Bounty Hunter: The Great Hunt Champion
** The one who went on to become the expansion PC is referred to as the Outlander, later the Alliance Commander and after the anti-Zakuul coalition dissolves simply as Commander. For the purposes of default timeline, we will assume that the Hero of Tython is the PC as that makes the most sense story-wise.

== Old Republic Villains==

* Darth Malak: Revan's former apprentice who turned on him because that's what Sith Lords do, and because Malak is a jerk. Unfortunately for the Republic and Jedi, it soon became clear that if Revan was like the Emperor of Man or Vlad von Carstein, Malak was closer to Abbadon or Konrad von Carstein, being that ever-disastrous mix of vicious and stupid. Where people often talk about Revan as a [[Tzeentch|tactical and strategic genius with a real talent for scheming and planning out victories]], Malak always goes for the bluntest, most brutally violent solution. Can't find a single person on a planet? [[Exterminatus|Bomb it]]. Wants to get Jedi on his side? [[Inquisition|Torture them until they join]]. And so on. As a consequence of pissing his master off at least once before betraying him, he's missing his lower jaw, hence the machinery where it used to be. We get a look at him without it on towards the end of the game, and its appropriately grisly.

* Darth Bandon: Malak's utterly generic and forgettable apprentice, who is basically the writers thinking "what if we did Darth Maul, but without the [[Awesome]]?Just about the only memorable thing he does is kill the Republic Soldier Trask Ulgo who helped amnesiac Revan escape the ship crash in the beginning of the game. Fittingly, he's disposed of by Revan and then basically never brought up again. Like Calo Nord, he leaves behind an outfit that doesn't look anything like his actual outfit.

* Darth Traya / Kreia: The main villain of the sequel, though she initially appears as an enigmatic mentor to the Jedi Exile. Generally remembered for her unique philosophy that is often highly critical of both the Jedi and the Sith, and is later revealed to hate the Force itself due to viewing it as a malicious deity (the lead writer has actually admitted that he basically used Kreia as a mouthpiece for things about the Force as a concept that bothered him). This unique perspective on the Force and her regular challenges of the player's actions, motives, and beliefs, has led to Kreia becoming a favorite among fans and critics alike. That her view of the Force is factually incorrect does little to change this (though to be fair, she doesn't have the benefit of knowing everything the audience knows). Was also Revan's Jedi Master as part of her backstory, and clearly still has fond memories of him, as he's one of the only characters she speaks about in an even remotely flattering way. There's also evidence to suggest that she might be the mother of one of the other party members, the Handmaiden, but this has never been conclusively confirmed.

* Darth Nihilus: Another fan-favorite to come out of the KotoR games, Nihilus is the poster-boy for the sequel despite not being the main villain and in fact having the least characterization of the three main Sith Lords. But, he's got the coolest look and has the highest intimidation factor, so he became a huge hit with fans anyway. Voice sounds vaguely like a toilet getting backed up and/or audio from Minecraft, but its much creepier/cooler than that sounds. Specializes in Drain Life, a Force power where the user sucks the life of a person or persons and gives it to themselves. Has become so addicted to using this power that he's become basically a wraith and needs to sate his hunger constantly, even on the planetary level, making him vaguely a Star Wars version of Galactus. Sadly, you can't ever wear his mask in the game, but you can get it as an item after killing him. To SWTOR's credit, you can wear it there.

* Darth Sion: A walking corpse of a Sith Lord whose main shtick is regenerating over and over again, hence his current physical appearance. Gets a crush on the Exile if she's female, and the Exile eventually convinces him to let go of his pain, causing him to die for good. Weirdly, he was also an alternate skin for Galen Marek in the later Force Unleashed game when no other characters from KotoR were.

* Atris: If ever there was a single character who perfectly embodied every negative stereotype about the Jedi, and was everything fans criticize about the Jedi distilled into a single character, it would be Atris. Self-righteous, rude, and more dogmatic and sanctimonious then a bus full of puritans, Atris quickly established herself as a hated character, especially with her constant insulting and lecturing of the Jedi Exile. She also kept the Exile's original lightsaber that she was forced to surrender because she's that petty. Turns out, of course, that she's fallen to the Dark Side from her study of Sith Holocrons, making all of her posturing and bluster completely hypocritical. Her Handmaidens are assholes too, with the exception of the one who joins you. The good news is, because she's gone Dark Side, you don't need to play a villain to have an excuse to cut her down. Though making her eat her words by sparing her and lecturing her right back as she realizes how badly she has been fucking up since the Mandalorian Wars started is on an entirely different level of satisfactory. Meetra most probably spared her and let her spend the rest of her miserable life in depression.

* The HK-50s: The "next-gen" HK-47s that appear in the sequel. Unlike HK-47, they are very much ''not'' on the player's side and are a recurring enemy throughout the game. A subtle difference between them and the original, is that while HK-47 enjoys knowing how to kill efficiently and/or with style, the HK-50s just enjoy killing period. This is why HK-47 hates them.

* Calo Nord: The first KotoR game's equivalent to Jango/Cad Bane, being the top bounty hunter of his day who dual wields blaster pistols. Doesn't save him from getting killed by Revan and company when they go to the first of four planets in their Star Map hunt. Short in temper and stature both, but weirdly leaves behind a shiny set of silver armor after he dies that fits everyone in the party perfectly despite being taller than him (with said armor also looking nothing like his outfit in the game).

* Darth Malgus: Though he was initially dismissed as a lazy blend of Vader and Malak when first introduced in SWTOR's announcement cinematic, this big, bald Sith has actually developed a solid following after both SWTOR and a tie-in novel told from his perspective came out. Where many other Sith in the Empire Malgus is a part of are alien-hating assholes with no real redeeming features, Malgus is depicted as more egalitarian. And while a believer in Sith ideals, argues that wars and other conflicts are necessary for people to grow and realize their full potential. Pulled a Kaiser Soze on his wife when his enemies tried to use her against him, and after a failed bid to become the new Sith Emperor later turned on the Sith in the pursuit of his own agenda, making him something of a spiritual successor to previous Old Republic Sith villains Revan and Traya. In short, he's generally seen as one of the better characters/things to come out of the fairly skubby SWTOR game and tie-ins.

* The Sith Emperor: Very blatantly a Palpatine rip-off who serves as the main villain of SWTOR. Revealed to have been the one who finished corrupting Revan and Malak to the Dark Side before sending them out to pave the way for his arrival. Revan and Malak of course, had other ideas, but the Sith Emperor's longevity meant he was still around to launch an invasion of the Galaxy anyway 300 years later. His backstory is that he's a parasitic body-hopper who transfers his consciousness every time a new, more powerful vessel comes along, and also has the ability to suck ''everything'' from a planet in what is an even more extreme version of what Nihilus does. Not just people's lives, but color, sound, the Force itself, etc. This is seen as so messed up that the few Sith who know the truth about him want him dead as badly as any of the Jedi. Unfortunately, the Emperor's body-swapping shtick continues after the player beats him, and he gets a new form and voice in Immortal Emperor Valkorion. In this body he's even more ridiculously powerful and <s>basically becomes Fire Lord Ozai in space</s> forms his own faction to try and wipe out both the Jedi and the Sith. Gets killed, but his ghost sticks around to cause more trouble, until that's taken out...and then a fragment of him persists even then and has to be taken out too. Since the fragment of the Sith Emperor's essence was wiped out, the jerk's (hopefully) gone for good, but if the game and its expansions have taught us anything at this point, always assume that the Sith Emperor will come back in some way or form down the line. For the purposes of timeline, the Hero of Tython is held to have killed him for real with the destruction of the last fragment.

* Arcann and Vaylin: Valkorion's children. As siblings who are the kids of a heartless, despotic ruler with great power, with the son having facial scarring as a result of his dad's actions and initially being a villain before redeeming himself, they are basically Zuko and Azula in Star Wars. Like their old man they're nothing to scoff at in power, especially Vaylin who has inherited her dad's psychopathic traits (much like Azula relative to Ozai). Furthering the Avatar parallels, Arcann's voice actor also voiced Koh the Face-Stealer. Despite being Dark Siders, neither one is technically a Sith, and both use yellow lightsabers instead of red. Vaylin is later implied to have soul hopped to one of the Jedi apprentices the Emperor's last fragment tried to take over, though further details are TBA as SWTOR is still on going.

== One-Appearance Characters / Other Characters of Note==
* Owen and Beru Lars: Moisture farm couple and Luke's aunt and uncle (sort of, its complicated), who raise him on Tatooine. Effectively Luke's Ma and Pa Kent/Uncle Ben and Aunt May. And like Uncle Ben, their murders prove a major catalyst for Luke's transformation into a hero. Owen's main claim to fame is roasting Obi-Wan figuratively before later getting himself roasted literally. Isn't actually one-appearance, turning up in the prequel as their young selves and again in the Obiwan series where they defend their home from the Third Sister of the Inquisitors, ''successfully''. We can imagine they died fighting those Stormtroopers now.

* FN-2199/"TR-8R": a First Order Stormtrooper who wields a badass riot baton in combat. Appears only in The Force Awakens and notable only for two reasons; he shouts "Traitor!" at Finn, and then he kicks his punk ass despite the latter wielding a fucking lightsaber. Such is the stuff that memes are made of. Gets a bit of backstory that he and Finn trained and grew up together, hence his outrage at seeing Finn fighting for the opposite side. Even if he goes out like a punk to Han Solo, by all accounts, <s>FN-2199</s> TR-8R is what Phasma '''should''' have been. [https://image.prntscr.com/image/VFRN0EFuQkCz3pkBYGCN2Q.jpg He would make a great commissar].

* Jyn Erso: Appears in Rogue One. A former member of the Space Taliban (Rebels who refused to group up with the rest of the Rebels due to their extreme willingness to do evil shit to kill evil assholes) who is captured by the Rebels so they can talk to Space Bin Laden (Saw Gerrara, a character who guest-starred in a few episodes of the cartoon Rebels and pretty much shows up to die in Jyn's movie) about rumors of a planet killer being fueled by Space Iraqi oil crystals (that makes lightsabers work), one that was partially designed by her father. Jyn is angry all of the time because her life sucks, she watches every parental figure in her life die in front of her, most of them over the period of a single day, and the movie hopes this will hide the fact that she really doesn't do much other then flip authority figures the bird. Her name mirrors that of Jan Ors, partner-in-crime of legendary badass Kyle Katarn which is REALLY not as well-received by the fans of the series her movie retconned as Disney thought it would be (to be fair, the old EU had around ten different versions of the Death Star plans being stolen which many fans just figured were combined into the one Leia had, so that doesn't mean Kyle and Jan can't ever be made canon again). Gets killed when Tarkin used the Death Star to destroy the facility in an attempt to stop the Rebels transmitting classified information, but Jyn and Cassian got the Death Star plans beamed into space before that.

* Cassian Andor: Appears in Rogue One. A Rebel spy and assassin, Cassian angsts about the fact that he lives in a political thriller about the space mafia VS the space Nazis set mere days before the simple good and evil morality of the original trilogy kicks in. His only friend is a droid, but that's not exactly as unusual in the setting as the movie implies it is. Shares an award with Luke for not getting the girl in the end...kind of; they do share a final hug and possible kiss in the elevator before he died with her getting atomized by a partial-strength shot from the Death Star. The Disney Canon variant of Kyle Katarn, who was an Imperial officer turned Rebel turned Jedi Master, who is so badass he shaves with a lightsaber. A massive waste of character. UPDATE: We're now getting a TV series based on him, so there's at least that?

* K-2S0: Appears in Rogue One. What C-3P0 would be if he grew a pair and got a stronger droid body. A reprogrammed Imperial tactical droid and Cassian's only friend. Does that thing where he spits out survival odds in stressful moments. Caught a grenade in mid-air then tossed it back at it's original thrower without even looking, shot Stormtroopers (even took out two by [[Angry Marines|picking up a third stromtrooper and whacking them with him]]), and delivered some great deadpan lines which endeared him the audience - even those growing more jaded to these new movies liked him. So of course he dies first in order to establish that shit gets real during the last twenty minutes of the movie, although he died holding the line so Stormtroopers wouldn't reach Cassian and Jyn and his last act was smashing the control panel with his bare hands so at least he went out as cool as he came in.

* Chirrut Îmwe: <s>Discount Jedi</s> The real star of Rogue One. A blind martial artist who may or may not have force powers, can beat a squad of Stormtroopers with a staff, shoot TIE Fighters out of the air, and could take your girl if he wanted to. Haha, jk, he's totally homo for his bara partner-in-crime with the badass autocannon. Dies in a bombing run, but he doesn't fear death. Even his actor (from the badass "Ip Man" series) admitted that he was shoehorned into the movie in a desperate attempt to make China give a shit about Star Wars (which failed, because China really just doesn't give a shit about the franchise). Chirrut is memorable mostly because he belongs to the "Order Of The Whills", notable because "Whills" were a thing George Lucas kept wanting to use in the original trilogy (immortal beings who were supposed to be telling the story, hence "a long time ago", later the spirits that make up the Force itself, and finally an order of warriors that Leia was supposed to found after Luke's death in a sixth movie before he decided to take a break then do prequels instead. Basically Space Moirae).

* Baze Malbus: Chirrut's best mate and self-appointed bodyguard. Has three lines, but comes off as memorable because of his hellgun-looking backpack mounted autocannon with a scanvisor that lets him hold down the trigger and headshot stormtroopers until they are all dead. In early scripts Chirrut was his father figure, in the finished product they're ambiguously gay even though the director intended there to be a "finding peace with the pastor who heard his confession after a very grim life" vibe. Dies shortly after Chirrut, and actually makes a connection with the Force in his final moments. Quite a bit of work went into designing his visual style and his backstory, not a single bit of which ended up in the movie.

* Orson Krennic: Director of the Imperial Military Research Division and Rogue One's villain. Forces Jyn's father into building the Death Star for him, causes the death of Jyn's mother, then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie getting roasted by the more competent Imperial characters because he's a fucking moron with a grudge. He's typical of the average Imperial who doesn't wear Stormtrooper armor in the Expanded Universe as well as Disney canon, notable mainly for giving off "Resident Evil villain" vibes.

* TZ-1719 / Jannah: Appears in Rise of Skywalker. The leader of a unit of First Order Stormtroopers who, upon being ordered to shoot civilians, all laid down their guns at once despite there being no communication between them to do so. Implied to be Force sensitive, with the accidental subtext being that she simply subconsciously Force-tricked her troops into not being evil anymore. They stole their dropships and escaped to Endor, living a non-tech lifestyle by taming some kind of goat aliens as mounts. She personally took on the name "Jannah". Her primary purpose of the movie is to replace Rose as Finn's love interest since they couldn't decide on hooking Finn up with Rey or not (for problems such as "would it offend racists into not buying merch, would it be seen as sexist to end her journey with a Disney Princess ending of getting a relationship, etc"). Further unfortunate subtext is how TZ is quite literally just Rule 63 Finn, although it fixes the "Finn Problem" that has been pointed out where suddenly Stormtroopers dying can be seen as a tragic loss of a potential hero by adding the idea that "<strike>Kanye was right, slavery is a choice</strike> good characters who end up as Stormtroopers can just choose not to shoot the non-combatants so anyone that doesn't deserves to die like the nameless <strike>loot pinatas</strike> mooks they are. The end of the movie adds <strike>spinoff bait</strike> the implication she is Lando's grandaughter, or at the least he has an idea of who she was taken from as a baby.

* Qi'ra: Han Solo's old girlfriend and partner introduced in ''Solo: A Star Wars Story,'' filling in for a number of older EU characters (don't worry, the Disney Star Wars comics had already given Han an ex other than her anyway). Grew up with Han on Corellia before getting forced into the Crimson Dawn, which is like the Mafia in space except run by Darth Maul instead of the Hutts. Helps Han survive an unobtainium deal gone bad, then backstabs her boss to become her gang's alpha dog and Maul's personal agent. Too bad this will probably never be followed up on outside of tie-in novels thanks to how bad the movie did. Also kinda awkward they made her Maul's Personal Assistant right after Rebels killed him off, meaning that Star Wars fans felt absolutely no curiosity about how the entire thing was going to go. She was still kicking around the Galaxy and is now involved in the Bounty Hunter Wars. Qi'ra is played by the famous Emilia Clarke which is one of the many reasons she is popular

* L3-37: While K-2S0 brought droid characters to an awesome new high, L3-37 brought them to a new low. While not being as bad as Holdo and Rose, and being far more memorable than the chick, the spy dude, the TIE Fighter pilot dude, and the two Asian dudes from Rogue One (admit it, you don't fucking remember more than two of their names at best), she suffered the most from the reshoots the movie underwent. The /v/-tier name is only the warning label on this crock of shit. A droid that constructed a body for herself from spare parts and wound up as Lando's version of Chewbacca, L3-37 is a [[SJW|woke robot feminist in space by direct admission of the writers, with everything that implies]] while also being a revolutionary leader who gives no fucks about any disgusting meatbags and at the same time is physically romantically involved with Lando while giving romantic advice to other characters and at the same time is all about profit and shooting up the place while using other droids as just pawns in her rampages (did we mention this character REALLY suffered from the reshoots?) Her body is destroyed in an escape attempt but ends up as one of the droid brains running the Millennium Falcon (yes, the same computer C-3P0 complained about in the original trilogy; draw your own conclusions.) Long story short, the feminist/sexbot/droid-supremacist/human loving/spree killer provides constant tonal whiplash. Did we mention that since she began without having a body there was no reason to stick her in the Falcon which is a fate worse than death based on about 1/4 of her characterization, it adds a LOT of disturbing subtext to Lando's fondness for the Falcon and the fact that Han basically just kept it after winning the game despite knowing Lando's lover was trapped forever inside, the implications for the conversations she had with Threepio during Empire Strikes Back, and the fact it was kept abandoned by a criminal on a desert planet for at least a decade means she's probably gone even more insane? Fan reaction is mixed, but only between "worst character ever, would prefer to watch Jar Jar and Holdo star in a sitcom combining the bad parts of both original EU and Reboot than watch the movie again" and "had potential, was disappointed, still don't like the name".

* Iden Versio: Created for DICE's Battlefront II as the protagonist of the story mode (though she's also playable in multiplayer). The leader of a small squad of Imperial Special Forces (because apparently the Empire can't get enough of black armored elites despite already having Shadow Stormtroopers, Storm Commandos, Purge Troopers, and Death Troopers). Modeled to look like her actress. Initially rabidly pro-Empire, but changed her mind during Operation: Cinder due to Palpatine's posthumous orders to take the rest of the Empire with him if he ever died. Becomes a New Republic soldier along with the one member of her squad who decided to go with her, and then later married him. Dies around the time of the Sequel Trilogy, but takes the member of her squad who ''didn't'' side with her with her. General consensus is that her shift to the Light Side either shouldn't have happened at all (so players could have an Imperial protagonist from start to finish like in TIE Fighter), or needed to come way later / be less sloppily done.

== Nations and Organizations ==
* '''''The Galactic Empire''''': Ever seen an evil, fascist space empire imposing itself on the galaxy with huge, evil spaceships and cool mooks? Then it was probably inspired by the Empire. Itself inspired by the brutalist designs of Nazi Germany, the First Galactic Empire is overall ''the'' classic authoritarian dictatorship, propped up by legions of obedient but easily disposable troops, cool propaganda that paints them as the saviors of the galaxy and ambitious officers ready to be choked for their failures. The Empire was created from the infrastructure of the Republic when Emperor Sheev Palpatine took singular power of the Republic Senate, ostensibly to keep the galaxy safe after the Clone Wars, but totally because he was a powerful Sith Lord who wanted to get his evil fascist dick hard. Once the galaxy got wise to this, the Empire used fear to keep them in line, which is one of the reasons why they took a liking to huge Star Destroyers and Death Stars, since they look fucking terrifying. While evil overall (as our [[Emperor|Lord and Savior]] George of the Lucas proclaims it), individual people go from normal people who knows no better since they've lived with propaganda up their exhaust ports all their lives to genuine psychopaths like Palpatine and Grand Moff Tarkin. Even so, The Empire still possessed deep flaws; apart from the authoritarian top-down rule, the Empire also wasted significant resources on its inefficient military, and their constant poaching of the Galaxy's brightest minds and permanent wartime economy meant the rest of the galaxy stagnated. Severe competition in the officer corps meant that infighting and backstabbing was not uncommon, either, and that the politically connected could still advance ahead of truly competent officers (that is, until their incompetency finally pissed off someone above them, as seen with Vader choking Admiral Ozzel). The Empire eventually broke apart after the Battle of Endor where the Emperor was killed (allegedly; it's more complicated than that...), his apprentice turned (back?) to the Light Side of the Force and the second Death Star blown up. The remains of the Empire's military became the Imperial Remnants who fought the New Republic and each other for control of resources.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Legends)'': in the original continuity, the Empire splintered into different warlord factions after the death of the Emperor and took several decades for the New Republic to defeat. At various points these remnants continued to threaten the New Republic for a long time, including the splinter lead by [[Creed|tactical genius Admiral Thrawn]]. They did team up temporarily to fight off the extra-galactic invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong. Eventually the largest remnant, which had greatly mellowed out its policies since Palpatine's death, made peace with the New Republic. It would continue to exist into Cade Skywalker's era 130+ years after the Battle of the Yavin, where it would split into two major factions; one that was more overtly associated with the Sith and reminiscent of the pre-Rule-of-Two Sith Empire, and the other lead by a royal family of Force sensitives more akin to Grey Jedi. After a war, the One Sith (faction name of the last Sith group) aligned faction is defeated, tries to go back into the shadows but is destroyed by a renegade One Sith, Darth Wredd, who wants to return to the Rule of Two but dies before taking an apprentice leaving the Sith extinct. The Fel Empire joins the New Republic successor government and the Jedi for to form the new galactic government.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Disney)'': In the Disney canon, the Emperor had a two-part plan in the event of his death; firstly, he'd destroy most of his remaining forces in Operation Cinder (this plan appears stupid on its head, but does serve a few purposes; it prevented Warlords from using Imperial resources to carve out their own empires, it tested the loyalty of the remaining officer corps, and denied assets to the New Republic. But mostly he was just a bitter asshole who wanted to take his ball and go home). In the second phase, those considered worthy enough were to retreat to secret fortress worlds in the Unknown Regions. Most of the remaining Imperial forces surrendered not long after the Battle of Endor, but various warlords still existed in the Outer Rim for at least five years since the fall of the Empire. The New Republic decides to just ignore them because fuck it Jar Jar Abrams wanted Rebels vs. Empire again, couldn't be asked to explain it and had no plans for the rest of the trilogy anyways. Considering how a large part of the Galaxy's history can be characterized as "Core Vs Outer Rim," and how the region had always been hard to control, its likely that the New Republic didn't want to fuck around with such a large clusterfuck of a region when they were still trying to consolidate the core, which unfortunately allowed for opportunists like Moff Gideon to grow in the shadows. There's also good evidence that Grand Admiral Thrawn, who's already been integrated into Disney Canon, will once again be a major power player in the Imperial Remnant. Whether he's still working for the Imperials in the Unknown Regions or in it for himself, we'll have to wait and see.
The problem is 90% has been retconned multiple times now and Operation Cinder has suffered from having four different interpretations. Currently evidence points to a Imperial Civil War broke out been again retcons and retcons have frequently become a problem. As such their are several schools of interpretation and the amount of factions.
1. The Yomo Council: A faction which rejected the authority of Gailus Rax and Coruscant. This group was Imperial Army elements and their families which ended getting brutally attacked by the Loyalist Shadow Wing and the New Republic.
2. The Jakku Remnant: The term for the Imperial Forces at Jakku during the battle under Fleet Admiral Rax. This was the force you see at Jakku and was the one who was defeated at the battle. After the battle the Imperial Forces are either killed, Captured a tried as War Criminals, or fled the battle to other Imperial Forces.
3. Moff Gideon's Imperial Remnant: Also known as Gus' boys, these are the main Imperials scene in The Mandalorian. They are pretty good shots and made up of Imperial Veterans. The only reason they Do not kill Mando is because of the literal plot armor. They also had Dark Troopers and some specialized Imperial Assets. Their is a implication from Behind the scenes interviews that Moff Gideon is backed by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
4. The Iron Blockade: A faction led by a Imperial Governor name Adhard who lockdown the Sector and pretended palps was dead, despite the balantant evidence to show otherwise. He held tough control of the Sector and had is own Purge Trooper Squads and custom Imperial Logo.
5. The Outer Rims Remnants: A group of Imperial forces who rejected the FO as a bunch of larping Fags. They decided to fight against them and the Emperor because they saw them as traitors to the Empire they had fought for. These guys are kind of a cool idea of something not explored.
6. The Core World Remnants: These are planets like Fondor, Kuat, the Deep Core, and Coruscant. They kept some Imperial Forces as defense forces and they desire the return of the Empire. Despite be banned by the New Republic from building armies and navies they built tons of weapons and warships from the FO without the NR [[FAIL|realizing]]..... When the FO took out Hosnian Prime, these forces joined up with the FO as sympathizer and auxiliary forces.

* The Republic: Before the Empire, the galaxy was governed by a ''huge'' representative democracy, seen in the prequel movies. It's corrupt as fuck, and not really capable of much other than ignore the fact most of the galaxy is already at war with itself, entire species are being wiped out in ethnic purges faster than they can be counted in a census, and slavery is pretty much everywhere. Acts like one nation, functions as an economic forum for oligarchs while planets police themselves to varying degrees. And since, by law, the Republic had no army before the Clone Wars, planets that were too poor to fight off pirates and slavers had little recourse. Besides failing to act on the many atrocities happening in the galaxy (and those they do intervene in ended up sowing resentment into the future Separatists), a major issue was that Republic policies gave special treatment to the prosperous Core worlds and large corporations over the remote and impoverished Rim worlds. Don’t fuck with Hutts, leaving them to do whatever they want in most of the galaxy, and until Sheev took over and made it the prelude to his Empire the only thing they ever did to get shit done is ask the Jedi to deal with it, whatever it is. The scary thing is that in the final years of the Republic, the Senate voluntarily laid the groundwork for the Empire long before the Declaration of the New Order and nobody even noticed it happened until decades later, when Palpatine received his emergency powers at the start of the Separatist Crisis and the opening of the Clone Wars. As Maul would point out before the end of the War, the Republic was already gone.

* The Old Republic: The early Republic. Far less corrupt, and had a standing army made up of what can charitably be called a mix of rent-a-cop security and elite paramilitary volunteers, the Special Operations department was top notch (although it had a bit of a war crimes problem and had a humiliating defection in the Cold War phase of the Great Galactic War that only didn't destroy them because the rookie and the cynical intel officer in the defecting Havoc Squad and the hacker, the Sith Imperial defector, the demolitions unit and the prototype battle droid assigned to them to rebuild were even better than the traitors and managed to convince three to surrender and killed the psychos) and the Navy as well as the armored land units were great, infantry and random conscript from wherever not so much. It was also far smaller, as the Republic only gradually expanded in stages across the galaxy, with humans leading most colonization efforts. Still rely heavily on Jedi, but mostly just for dealing with Sith. Hutt territory is more formal rather than them operating everywhere.
** Ruusan Reformation: 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, after the apparent destruction of the Sith, the Republic underwent a massive reorganization that made it into the Republic, but started with a dark age due to the damage caused by the war. Used to reconcile a problem in the films where the Republic is said to have existed for both 1000 years and "a thousand generations". This also solves how many details about pre-Prequel works had substantially different depictions of the Republic and Jedi from what the prequels wound up doing, and how there were wars when a character says there hasn't been a full scale war since the formation of the Republic.

* The New Republic: The post-Empire government that the Rebellion forms.
** Legends: Leia rules for a time, trying to manage the various monsters of the week and Imperial remnant groups, gradually stepping down to more minor titles to avoid being another Emperor. Then they have to deal with things like the extra-galactic cenobite invaders that cause a galaxy-wide holocaust while her Jedi kids died or flirted with being evil. Eventually it forms the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a confederation that includes a less-evil Imperial remnants (which it had been at peace with for a while) and some other powers, remaining a stable force combating Sith and their empires ever. During this time, Leia's granddaughter was prophesied to bring the Light Side of the Force into ascendance while a female Force-Cthulhu tried to co-opt the prophecy for herself. After Luke defeats her, a few decades are skipped and the Federation is defeated by a Sith backed Imperial Remnant faction, the Fel Empire. The Sith then backstab the Imperials and kick off the Sith-Imperial war. The Federation and the Jedi help the loyalists defeat the One Sith, and the Sith themselves are rendered extinct after Darth Wredd (who wanted to bring back the Rule of Two) kills them all and dies before taking an apprentice, leaving the Federation, the Fel Empire and the Jedi (who had suffered another purge before the Sith back-stabbed Emperor Roan Fel, who died at the hands of his Gray Jedi/Imperial Knight Bodyguard in the final battle after falling to the Dark Side and succeeded by his daughter Marasiah) to form the last known government, the Galactic Federation Triumvirate.
** Disney: Focused on defeating the Empire, then dismantled the Rebellion militarily. Focused mostly on being an intermediary with independent planets, paying for each one in the alliance to have their own militia with treaties to support each other if attacked, while the Republic itself had a small fleet to bolster anyone in need. Despite sounding like the setup for World War 1, it actually is like the US/Soviet Cold War with the Imperial remnant then its successor the First Order, until the FO performed a Star Wars 9/11 and used a planet killer weapon to destroy all the planets in the sector of the New Republic capital then invaded the independent planets. [[what|Being essentially destroyed with their capital system despite being the galactic government which should have contingencies for such events since existence of planet killers is common knowledge]], the planets focused on their own survival until Lando performed a short planet-hopping tour to rile up the militias and all the scum, villainy, and pirates who wanted to see the true death of the Empire/First Order. During its reign it had far less control over the galaxy than the Republic or Empire, but clever administration and assigned leadership of the militias made traditionally dangerous and lawless planets like Tatooine finally civilized. Its ultimate fate is now unknown.

* Confederacy of Independent Systems: aka the Separatists. Due to the rampant corruption in the Republic, a lot of systems were very unhappy with the state of the galaxy and wanted out. However, many of these separatists included extremely powerful corporate goons, such as the Trade Federation, who simply wanted more power for themselves, and were willing to lease out their droid armies to that end. While outwardly they were simply disgruntled and neglected planets who wanted independence, in reality the CIS existence was deliberately engineered by the Sith in order to further their goals in the creation and maintenance of the Empire. Under the leadership of Count Dooku, they formed a formidable alliance that would threaten the core worlds of the Republic with the biggest army ever created, eventually leading to the Clone Wars that would throw the galaxy into one of the bloodiest conflicts in centuries. And despite Dooku's purported political idealism at the start of the war, the more idealistic and politically motivated worlds who wanted to escape the Republic's corruption found themselves sidelined by the big Corporate worlds who controlled the war effort and stationed their droid armies everywhere. As the war progressed, bloodthirsty war criminals like General Greivous made the Republic fear and loathe any hint of disloyalty, which was a major PR problem for the early Rebellion. One of the big ironies is that, because the CIS turned out to be just as corrupt as the Republic, many Separatist worlds begrudgingly sided with the Empire as the "lesser of two evils" in their minds. The fact that the CIS was made up of powerful, alien corporations from the Outer Rim also served to justify the Empire's xenophobia, nationalization of virtually all heavy industry, and subjugation of worlds far away from the Core. Because the Separatists were simply an expendable puppet of the Sith, Palpatine had no qualms about sending Vader to destroy the remaining leaders once he secured his Empire and they'd outlived their usefulness. The Empire then proceeded to dismantle the remaining Confederate groups along with pirates and other anti-central government forces in the Reconquest of the Rim. Several remnants continued resistance and some helped Order 66 survivors escape. After the Rebel Alliance was formed, surviving Confederate Remnant forces joined it, for those who joined the CIS to fight against Old Republic corruption happily, and for those who were full on separatists somewhat unhappily as a lesser of two evils. Until at least 1 BBY one Imperial Moff, Conan Antonio Motti, referred to them as a threat alongside rebels and criminal enterprises. Presumably, the last few organics holdouts joined the rebels or took the opportunity to disband after the Death Star was destroyed. Handfuls of Droid units that didn't receive the deactivation signal remained active on Tatooine, Lok and Kashyyyhk and were destroyed by the Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG characters. A large leftover unit was present on Geonosis and were destroyed in a Galactic Civil War battle there in 3 ABY. A single Droideka, which had been infiltrated into the Outbound Flight voyage, was out of range of the shut down order and was destroyed by Luke and Mara in 22 ABY during their expedition to the Outbound Flight crash site, ending the last relic of the Confederate cause that was still nominally obeying CIS Parliament orders.

* The Rebel Alliance: After Emperor Palpatine's political takeover succeeded and the Jedi murdered in a [[Horus|galaxy-wide act of backstabbery]], Senators Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, Mon Mothma and a small group of sympathizers come together to form a resistance group, knowing fully well that the new Galactic Empire won't be going quietly with their new "doctrines", especially since the Empire's militarization only increased following the end of the Clone Wars. Prior to the Battle of Yavin, the "Rebel Alliance" was more like the "Rebel Coalition of guys who loosely agree on some things," being made up of individual cells under the coordination of a High Command unit. The rebellion's supporters were an odd mixture of former Separatists, Republic loyalists who found themselves betrayed such as Kashyyk and Mon Calamari, and the occasional Imperial defector who found Imperial service either too immoral or too dangerous. For the next twenty years, the Rebellion will infiltrate, sabotage and generally frustrate the Empire as best they can, but unfortunately doesn't manage to really make a big difference; that is, before a certain Luke Skywalker gets swept up by them and leads them to their first, grand victory against the Empire's first Death Star. From here on out, the Rebellion does their best keeping themselves hidden from the Empire while maintaining strong relations with their allies, who, while few, did let them create a small fleet of outdated vehicles. Eventually, the Rebellion's hard work bears fruit after the second Death Star blows up and the Emperor goes missing. From here, the Rebellion and their members become the New Republic.
** The Resistance: From a first look, the Resistance looks extremely similar to the Rebellion visually (they are called "The Resistance" for Pete's sake!), but there's a little more going on under the hood. Feeling her hairbuns tingle with fear, Leia Organa realizes the First Order will become a galaxy-wide headache soon and moves to get the New Republic to give a shit - except they don't, because her father was Vader, and thinks she's a military maverick that just wants to feel important. Leia then begins to fund a secret militia of her own, looking for supporters among fellow senators and calling in old friends. The result is... Less than ideal. Functionally just a strikeforce of some twenty fighters and one or two capital ships (who by now are über-mega outdated), the Resistance can do jack ''shit'' against the First Order, who literally commands entire space empires by force. By the Force Awakens, they're pretty much fucked - but luckily gets themselves two new heroes to add to the fold (one who is among the most naturally talented forces users ever seen), re-connect with Han and Chewie AND find a fucking map to Luke Skywalker's personal pillowfort he left for some 5-10 years ago. Eventually fucked up after destroying the Starkiller Base and grinded to metal spacedust by a prolonged space chase, they eventually manage to ignite resistance in the entire galaxy, which gets a ''fuckhueg'' navy of ragtag ships to reinforce them at Exegol.

* Sith Empire: The Old Republic's mortal enemy. In the many millenia leading up to the Ruusan Reformation, the Sith Empire held a significant chunk of the northeastern galaxy, holding thousands of worlds under their iron grip. The Sith engaged in several major wars against the Republic, oftentimes defeating the Republic and nearly exterminating the Jedi, only for their own empire to descend into chaos as Sith Lords backstabbed each other once they no longer had a common enemy. This pattern would continue until Bane killed all the remaining Sith Lords and instituted the Rule of Two, plotting to take over the galaxy and exterminate the Jedi through slow and careful planning rather than overwhelming force.

* The Hutt Cartels: Essentially the space mafia, if the mafia had the clout to influence the national government (like in Russia during the 90s with the Russian Mob). The Hutts managed to drive of the Rakatan Infinite Empire despite having no FTL at the time due to the Rakata losing their connection to the force. The original Hutt empire, after fighting some wars of expansion against neighbors and fellow tyrants in Xim the Despot's regime suffered a massive civil war known as the Hutt Cataclysms which ruined their original homeworld and made them move to Nal Hutta (Nar Shadda is it's moon). To prevent things getting this bad, cartels were established between influential factions, all answering to the Council of Elders made up from the heads of houses. Hutt Space is nominally ruled by the Council but it essentially practices anarcho-capitalism and takes its cuts to rule the core planets and lets the cartels compete out of the core however they wish. If there's an affair that's illegal by legal standards, the Hutts probably have a hand in it. Keeps to themselves and doesn't care much for what the Sith and Republic is up to, though Jabba the Hutt, owner of Tatooine, takes part in the original trilogy because of Han Solo's longstanding debt to him, and Jabba had one of the biggest criminal empires at the time, competing with giants like the ancient Black Sun. Gets helped and funded by the Empire to do their dirty work and gets killed for his efforts, so there's a good reason why they keep out of all that. Hutt space has significant overlap with the cartels, but the two are technically separate as mentioned above, with the Council of Elders acting as a government for Hutt Space and as a mafia council for other holdings by the cartels. They get invaded during the Yuuzhan Vong war, but effectively form a guerilla force tying up major assets and reassert their rule after the Vong were defeated. After dealing with some slave revolts around the time of the Second Galactic Civil War and selling arms to Darth Caedus's uprising, they continue as they were until the Fel Empire (reformed Imperial Remnant), backed by the Sith, defeats the Federation. When the Sith backstabbed the Imperials, the Hutts secretly provide support to the Fed Remnants and Imperial Loyalists battling the Sith in the Sith-Imperial War. After the Sith blow up a Hutt temple, they officially declare war and join the anti-Sith coalition. Presumably they joined the Galactic Federation Triumvirate with at least nominal autonomy after the Darth Wredd Insurgency and the destruction of the Sith in 138 ABY.

* The First Order: If the Empire was the textbook fascist dictatorship, Disney's First Order is the Nazi Party itself as a military organization/cult. After the Imperial Remnants began fighting amongst themselves, an Imperial admiral fled to the Unknown Regions to rebuild her version of the Empire. Here the First Order grew slowly as former Imperials joined them and they subjugated small local fiefdoms and kingdoms. Eventually the previously unknown Sith Lord Snoke took control as their Supreme Leader and Ben Solo joined him as his apprentice, becoming Kylo Ren. The New Republic eventually learned of the First Order, but thought they were just a paper tiger with no real power. In actuality, their military tech and capabilities were quite high for how relatively small they were... Oh yeah, and they had created a superweapon built into a trench in the planet Ilum that could ''destroy a whole star-system''. Eventually they fired the thing and waged a war of subjugation on the anarchic remains of the New Republic.
**RETCONS: The First Order apparently never existed until about 8 years before TFA meaning a lot of this does not make sense. Its assume a minor civil war happened in the Unknown Regions but again the FO is not given much lore. They also apparently had a fleet bigger the Empire's fleet at its Height..... just do not bother.
** SPOILERS: Behind the scenes, the Emperor had manipulated the creation of the First Order to retake the galaxy, using an artificial body double (Snoke) to take direct control while hiding on the Sith homeworld. The plan was to eventually add his own fleet of Star Destroyers with planet-destroying capabilities to the First Order and form the Final Order, the one and final armada to take the entire galaxy through force and fear.

* Galactic Federation Triumvirate: The last known galactic government at the ends of the Legends continuity, formed from the Fel Empire, the Federation and the Jedi after the One Sith are defeated by a joint coalition of Fel Empire loyalists, Federation Troops and Jedi in 137 ABY. In 138 ABY, renegade One Sith Darth Wredd, wishing to restore the Rule of Two, manipulates the One Sith to destroy themselves and kills the survivors in the Darth Wredd Insurgency, before being killed himself without managing to take an apprentice in the last known battle, leaving the Sith extinct and the galaxy at least nominally unified by a well armed government.

== Significant Worlds ==
Theres a fuckton of planets in the Star Wars Galaxy, so we'll limit this list to the more noteworthy ones (mostly the ones that show up in films).

* '''Tatooine''': A run down desert world orbiting a binary star system on the outer rim of the galaxy. Its close proximity to major hyperspace routes and its location in Hutt space makes this otherwise unremarkable planet relatively strategic for illicit trade (ie: Space Juárez). It has a few dingy little cities, towns and farms home to a collection of criminals, smugglers, people scraping by and slaves with some basic order imposed by Hutt Crime families. The oral history of the native sand people suggests that it was considerably more lush before its inhabitants pissed off the Rakata, but the source for that notes oral histories are generally inaccurate. Surprisingly it is the most visited world in the franchise, showing up in every one of the six original films but ''Empire Strikes Back'' ''and'' appearing in countless other works due to the Skywalker family's connection to this craphole.

* '''Naboo''': Lush planet between the Mid rim and outer rim, shared by both humans and gungans. Naboo's settlers are descended from Alderaaneans (Leia's home planet), so their culture and politics are extremely similar with a strong emphasis on pacifism, philanthropy, and high art (and ironically, early supporters of the Rebellion). Interestingly, the planet core is connected to the planet's oceans, though travel through the core is quite dangerous due to the leviathans living there. The planet hadn't been terribly important right up until the Trade Federation came knocking to demand tax payments over its trade routes (though in reality Naboo had ''massive'' untapped plasma reserves, and the Tradies wanted free reign to drill), which began a series of conflicts culminating in the Clone Wars. Relatively close to Tatooine, which is how the Jedi end up discovering Anakin Skywalker during the conflict when they're forced to evacuate the Queen of Naboo.

* '''Coruscant''': The Capital of the Republic and the Empire, a Ecumenopolis in which basically every square meter of it's surface is covered in a multi-kilometer thick cityscape. <s>So, Trantor. It's fucking Trantor.</s> Several sources claim it to be humanity's homeworld, or else where humanity initially expanded from since their enslavement by the Rakata. Originally found in George Lucas's notes as "Imperial Center", [[Timothy Zahn]] named it Coruscant (pronounced chorus-saunt and is similar to Coruscate, which is a fancy way of saying to sparkle) in the Thrawn Trilogy (as Imperial Center was clearly not the original name) and Lucas was convinced to keep the name when it came time to make the prequels. Before the prequels, pronunciation in audio books was all over the place. Descriptions of the city are not unlike your typical [[Hive city|Hive City]] (if not as extreme), where the elites live in the upper levels where the sky is still visible, while the lower class live in the dark, crumbling foundations, but with a more Art Deco vibe rather than Gothic. The actual planet surface is mostly landfill now, and the lower levels got increasingly uninhabitable after the Yuuzhan Vong terraformed the planet and later the Force-Cthulhu Abeloth made some new volcanoes. Not much is shown of Coruscant in the Disney canon after the prequel era, and its not even the capital of the New Republic. Supposedly J.J. Abrams wanted to blow the planet up but was told "no" by literally everyone.

* '''Yavin IV''': Jungle moon of the gas giant Yavin. The temples on this moon used to house a warrior race that had been enslaved by the Sith before being driven to extinction; it then became the secret base of the Rebel Alliance, which became the staging area for the Alliance's battle against the first Death Star. After the superweapon's destruction, the Empire launched a conventional attack and the Alliance was forced to relocate to Hoth. After the Thrawn Campaign, it became the site of Luke's new Jedi Academy which, after a brief incident with a Sith wraith haunting the place, flourished until yet another galactic war forced them to relocate.

* '''Hoth''': An obscure snow world devoid of any intelligent life, and seemingly named after a legendary Jedi master of old. It became the new headquarters for the Rebel Alliance after the fall of Yavin Base. It was established ''way'' back in the Newspaper comic that it was chosen by the rebels after Luke crash landed on it and encountered a pair of malfunctioning [[Android|Replica Droid]] prototypes fleeing from their creators. Further sources have expanded on its reasons for being chosen to include the fact that it's just off of a major trade route, which concealed supply runs (and is why Bespin is within backup drive distance).

* '''Bespin''': Gas giant with a breathable upper atmosphere. Home to Cloud City, an independent city that makes its income through mining Tibanna gas (used in blasters). Bespin's independence was used as political leverage when Vader arrived and extorted Lando Calrissian into betraying the rebels to him. After Vader double crossed Lando, the Rebels would later liberate Bespin from the Imperials.

* '''Kamino''': Ocean planet that technically exists outside the Galaxy proper, in between it and what is known as the "Rishi Maze," which was why it was a bitch to find. The inhabitants are expert geneticists, and the place is really hard to get to without knowing exactly what you're doing, making it the ideal location for growing the Republic's clone army. Kamino's cities were destroyed by the Empire shortly after the Clone Wars, as they had decided to switch to recruited soldiers; we don't know much about what became of the Kaminoans themselves other than some were forcibly recruited into more specialized cloning programs. Legends had a revolt break out by the Kaminoans making their own Fett clones which was put down and the planet was irrelevant afterwards.

* '''Geonosis''': Desert world inhabited by bug people. Was used by the separatists to build their armies and strategize, eventually becoming the site of the first battle of the Clone Wars. Geonosis is actually even more of a creepy hellhole than Episode II suggests, as the Geonosian Queen can use worms to turn corpses into zombies and mind control living hosts. During the Clone Wars, Geonosis was the first construction site for the Death Star, since it was technically the Geonosians who made the schematics in the first place. Most Geonosians were wiped out by the Empire when the Death Star was moved for completion.

* '''Utapau''': Temperate planet characterized by its massive sinkhole cities. General Grievous tried to rally the Seperatists here after Dooku's death, but was killed by Obi-Wan in the ensuing battle.

* '''Kashyyyk''': Forest/jungle planet and home to the wookies, who live in gigantic tree houses connected by enormous suspension bridges. The interior of the jungle, known as the Shadowlands, is full of a wide variety of dangerous lifeforms, so the wookies stay close to the canopy. During the Republic it was an important trade world due to its location at the junction of several trade routes, highly prized resources, and the expert craftsmanship of the wookies. Despite their loyalty, during the Empire the wookies were severely subjugated and enslaved (with the help of Trandoshans) and their trees were chopped down for the valuable wood and sap. The Empire never truly took it over but did manage to pollute it to all hell.

* '''Mustafar''': Lava planet and the last holdout of the Separatists. Darth Vader makes his base here after he is forced to don his iconic armor, proving that he did have [[Meme|the high ground]] by plonking a gigantic black tower on the surface. The planet has a strong affinity with the Dark Side, attracting various Sith cults in its history.

* '''Ilum''': Small alpine planet covered in ice and snow and by the time of the prequels the galaxy's only known significant source of Kyber crystals, the core ingredient in a little thing we like to call "the lightsaber". Traditionally a place for Jedi to do pilgrimage to find their own Kyber crystal at, as Jedi initiates find that the only crystal visible to them in the caves is the one they're destined to use.
** In Disney canon, the Empire turned one half of the surface into a gigantic strip-mine several hundred kilometers down into the crust. It was eventually rediscovered by the First Order and turned into an actually moon-sized laser cannon called Starkiller Base (This is poorly explained within the films; its not even identified as Ilum except in side stories. The idea is that like the original Death Star, the superlaser is powered by gigantic kyber crystals, and Ilum happens to be well inside the Unknown Regions yet its location and route were still known thanks to Jedi pilgramages).

* '''Dathomir''': [[Death World]]-style hellhole and home of Darth Maul. Filled with gigantic brambles, noxious swamps, poisonous critters and savagely insular tribals. The native inhabitants use the planet's natural Dark Side energy to do all sorts of creepy and arcane shit, including necromancy. Nearly all of its magick-using females were wiped out by the end of the Clone Wars, leaving the planet to decay.

* '''Malachor V''': The last battlefield of the Mandalorian Wars, which blasted the entire planet into a Mars-like wasteland thanks to a superweapon deployed, ironically, by the Jedi. The Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians all regard it as perhaps the most critical place and moment in their respective histories despite it being a lifeless desert littered with crumbling temples and the rusting armor of countless thousands of fallen warriors. The general takeaway is this: Nobody EVER wins on Malachor. It is a tomb-world, a monument to the devastation wrought by pursuing raw power to beat your enemies.

* '''Dagobah''': Uncharted swamp planet where Yoda went to live in exile. Noteworthy for the Dark Side cave, a naturally-occurring phenomenon where the dark side would tempt anyone who entered. Briefly the EU made the cave a remnant of a random dark force user Yoda fought there, but this was retconned away when it was implied Yoda had never visited the place before his exile, then the Clone Wars series made it so Yoda ''did'' visit Dagobah before his exile. This would just be a random detail if not for a significant character having his backstory linked to this event.

* '''Endor''': A gas giant also known as Tana at the end of the Outer Rim before Wild Space (and it probably was in Wild Space before one of the most significant events in Galactic History took place there). The Empire built the second Death Star in its system.
** '''Sanctuary Moon''': Better known than the planet itself is its forest covered moon that the Empire build the shields for the under-construction Death Star 2 on. It's home to the short, furry and deadly Ewoks. It was the nominal capital of the interim Alliance of Free Planets and New Republic for two years till the capture of Coruscant.
** '''Kef Bir''': Ocean moon of Endor. Despite the Death Star II being in orbit of the Forest Moon, Disney decided that the wreckage landed on Kef Bir because JJ wanted an ocean setpiece. No explanation is given other than "wibbley-wobbly hyperdrivey-wimey." The LEGO Skywalker Saga game even takes a bit of a shot at it.

* '''Death Star''' & '''Death Star II''': We're fudging the definition of world here, but its not an exaggeration to say this thing is the size of a small moon and has a very sizeable population. While the Death Star II was incomplete, it was substantially bigger and more deadly. Its main purpose was the protection and operation of a garguantuan superlaser capable of blowing up an entire planet in a singular shot. This thing was able to get around with a battery of hyperspace engines, but still took a fair amount to time to get around in order to get within firing range. Curiously enough, the idea for the superweapon came from Tarkin, but was designed by the Geonosians of all people, which then terrified the pants off the Republic that the Separatists had a superweapon prompting them to start reverse-engineering the design ([[Just as planned]] as far as Palpatine was concerned). Its design ties back to their Genosian origins, who where insectoids living in large anthills with little regard for the concept of "up" or down". As a result, the Death Star became notoriously awful as a posting among its crew, many of which had problems with orientation and becoming nauseaous.

* '''Alderaan''': A perfect pacifist planet until the Death Star blows it up. The planet Leia was raised on by the Organas, and actually shown to have been very nice prior to its destruction, with lush forests and snow-capped mountains.

* '''Felucia''': Another jungle-world, but this one looking like something conceived by either Dr. Seuss or someone from the 60s who got a hold of the good stuff. Rancors can be found here, and some have been tamed by the natives, truly bizarre-looking beings that look a bit like tye-dye, technicolor tree-people who are all Force-Sensitive.

* '''Taris''': Ostensibly an Outer Rim version of Coruscant, in that the planet is a big city that really leans into the whole "what most people think of when they think of a far future city" aesthetic, beneath the shiny exterior is actually a pretty shitty society. Basically, it's society is like Pre-Civil Rights America in space (with aliens as stand-ins for out-groups), and that's before the Sith show up and put the whole planet under quarantine. Beneath the Upper City is the Lower City, which is a slum that gangsters constantly fight over and with shitty apartments that are more likely to house crazed killers or the aforementioned gangsters than honest citizens, as well as looking like they've been abandoned for years. Beneath ''that'' is the Undercity, which is where the descendants of Taris' failed <s>proletariat</s> uprising are consigned. Them, and Rackghouls, who, as the name implies, are basically Ghouls in Star Wars, but as there are no Elves, no one's immune (unless you have some handy Rackghoul serum). So to recap, its a planet that hates aliens, has crime-filled lower levels, and is much more [[Grimdark]] in its overall set-up than the average Star Wars planet. The Imperium would be proud...or would be, if Malak hadn't then bombed the hell out of it. Even thousands of years later, much of the planet is said to still be in ruins.

* '''Telos''': A mix of futuristic cities and natural environments, so unlike Coruscant and Taris it isn't all one big city. A major Republic world, and then Malak bombed it, leaving it badly scarred. As such, the Republic launched a restoration project to try and get the planet back on its feet. Or, in the words of Atton Rand, "a dying world the Republic is trying to breath back to life". Also houses a secret (and defunct), Jedi academy in its polar region, where ultra-bitch Atris and her similarly obnoxious handmaidens reside.

* '''Dantooine''': Farm planet. Fairly idyllic by all appearances, enough so that the Jedi in Legends had an Enclave here for a time...until Malak bombed it (you may be noticing a pattern by now). Even after this bombing though, the planet remains a major agricultural center up to the Clone Wars and beyond. First mentioned in A New Hope as a location Leia gives for the Rebel base to try and save Alderaan (it doesn't work). One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Manaan''': Water-world, but a lot less rainy than Kamino. Source of Kolto, the top healing substance in the Galaxy prior to Bacta. Once that stuff got on the market, Kolto became obsolete, and Manaan and its fish-folk inhabitants fell into decline something fierce. One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Korriban / Moraband''': The homeworld of the Sith, and as to be expected, a place that tends to scream "this is an evil location". A ton of Ancient Sith Lords are entombed here, as is a Star Map (in Legends anyway). The Sith also naturally had an academy here too, which was basically a Hogwarts for sociopaths before it became abandoned. So saturated with the Dark Side that its affected the local wildlife, making most of them vicious, fearsome looking monsters (though who knows what they eat with no apparent herbivores or plant life around).

* '''Jakku''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Tatooine clone (such that when the first trailer dropped, a lot of people thought it ''was'' Tatooine). Where the war between the Rebels and Empire ended in the Disney Canon, being the site of the latter's last stand and with ruined Star Destroyers and other wreckage still littering the place. As such, its mostly populated by scavengers, but in a feeble effort to convince you that it isn't a ''complete'' Tatooine clone, they aren't all Jawas this time.

* '''Hosnian Prime''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Coruscant clone (and again, folks initially thought it ''was'' Coruscant). Gets the Alderaan treatment from Starkiller base, meaning it rips off of two previous planets for the price of one (still better than actually destroying Coruscant though, which according to rumor is what JJ ''really'' wanted to do).

* '''Ach-To''': The planet Luke Skywalker flees to in the Sequel Trilogy. Apparently the planet where the Jedi originated (which is Tython in Legends). Mostly a lot of water, with at least one big landmass that's where Luke's holed up. Rey goes there to get training from him, but that clashes with Luke's whole "I don't want to be a Jedi anymore" bit. Briefly reappears in Episode IX when Rey considers doing what Luke did before his ghost talks her out of it. Also home of the [[Skub|"love 'em or hate 'em"]] Porgs.

* '''Canto Bight''': A mostly barren planet that hosts a giant casino where rich bastards can go. Seems to be a general dress code of only black and white allowed, and filled with wholesome activities like gambling, arms dealing, child labor, and war profiteering. So a lot of glitz and glamor standing side by side exploitation and "rich people are jerks" stuff. So basically Pre-Revolution Cuba in space. Generally considered to be where a bunch of largely unnecessary stuff happened, even by folks who ''didn't'' hate Episode VIII.

* '''Crait''': Site of an abandoned Rebel base that the Resistance remnants flee to at the end of Episode VIII, leading to a vaguely "Battle of Hoth" esque fight involving the First Order's own version of AT-ATs. As one Youtube LEGO video aptly put it, the ground is white but the dirt is red for no real reason other than that it looks "cool". Also, apparently its salt and not snow. So like, a salt-Hoth. Or something.

* '''Exegol''': A world shrouded in darkness and perpetual lightning storms that is where Palpatine and his cronies have been hiding out since losing the Galactic Civil War. How such a large number of people existed or thrived on such a dead world is never explained, but it does manage to give the other Sith world Korriban a run for its money in the whole "obviously evil death world" department.

* '''Rakata Prime / Lehon''': Home of the Rakatans, and where the species has become trapped ever since their empire fell. Actually a pretty lush and scenic place, though as Rakatan tribes and small-but-still-deadly Rancors roam about here, one vacations here at their own risk. That, and the same thing keeping the Rakatans from leaving (the Star Forge), also causes ships that get too close to crash-land, making it a ship's graveyard. By the time of Darth Bane, the planet seems to have become deserted, the Rakatans having apparently gone extinct.

* '''The Maw''': Bears mentioning for being one of the more unique places of the EU. An unusually dense cluster of black holes near Kessel whose gravitational anomalies make it the ideal backdrop for risky hyperdrive spice smuggling operations. Strongly implied to be the work of an unknown precuror civilization, the Maw was considered to be largely impassible, if not for the work of top secret scouting operations that the Empire undertook to find a place to house a big R&D facility kept from the public eye. Within the Maw station, developments like the prototyping of the first Death Star and several other imperial superweapons took place, protected by a small flotilla consisting of four Imperial Star Destroyers.

==Species==
One important thing to note about alien species in Star Wars is that almost all of them were originally singular costumes added to the films for background color or to make a character stand out, then had a species name and culture retconned onto them by Expanded Universe writers. As a result, most species' "personalities" are just shallow clones of the character they're derived from. Many of the species seen in the original trilogy were given names and backstories by [[Star Wars RPG|the original RPG from West End Games]] that became canon as every other EU novel to come after used Star Wars D6 as a reference. All entries after humans are alphabetized.
* '''[[Human]]s''': They originated in the Galactic Core, but have spread to most inhabited planets, first as slaves to a now-extinct species of precursors and then through initial space exploration with pre-hyperdrive generation ships. As a result there are a lot of [[Abhuman|"near-human"]] species kicking around that are basically just weird-looking humans and pretty much the only species humans can crossbreed with.
** '''Mandalorians:''' Bobas/Jangos. A society of space [[Spartans]]/[[Vikings]] with cool armor. Actually not human majority initially (Unless you are a Disney fan), originally made up of a species called the Taung. The Taung had a habit of adopting orphans of other species to the point that when shit hit the fan and they died out following a war with the Jedi, their culture was preserved by other species who remember them as their Progenitors. As it stands, a Mandalorian can be of any race (the adopting the orphans-thing was something else the Taung passed down) but are usually human. Way, way back during the Old Republic, they were death-worshipping genocidal crusaders who were used by the Sith to crush the Republic and provoke the Jedi into war. In more modern times they mellowed out and mostly work as mercenaries or bounty hunters (and for a brief time, even flirted with pacifism), though some extremist sects like the Children of the Watch still exist, clashing with mainstream Mandalorian culture. Following the Empire's purge of Mandalore, the Mando's Beskar Armor became a priceless resource (As only Mandos knew how to make Beskar Iron, a near-impenetrable material and one of the few that can block blaster bolts and lightsabers), with the surviving Mandos sometimes being hunted just to be stripped of their armor.
** '''Corellians:''' Hans. Literally an entire culture of dashing rogues and space cowboys who like to go fast and smuggle shit (and penniless street urchins looking for their big break to become dashing rogues and space cowboys). The Corellian Engineering Corporation made the YT series (of which the Falcon is officially part of, though its modifications are extensive enough to make listing CEC as its manufacturer a [[Wikipedia:Ship of Theseus|Ship of Theseus]] problem) and many of the Rebel ships seen in the original trilogy. Nearly ruined their planet with starship factories, but now they've gone green and relocated all of their heavy industry to space stations. Their home system reeks of precursor meddling and is detailed enough to be a setting in itself, complete with a Big Dumb Object in the middle (Centerpoint Station) for PCs to fuck with.
* '''Aqualish:''' Ponda Babas. Vaguely spider-like (from the neck-up) aliens who are easily one of the ugliest looking species in Star Wars. Generally portrayed as violent thugs, though not always. Apparently they don't usually get along with Biths.
* '''Bith''': Another species that debuted in the original Star Wars movie, and because they did so as a band playing the famous Cantina theme, they were naturally given the species-wide hat of being musicians (though some Bith do pursue other careers). Their bulbous heads are probably owing to their being a fairly intelligent species, as they are big on mathematics and science as well as music. Generally a peaceful species.
* '''Bothans''': [[Meme|Died to bring you this information.]] A species of [[Beastmen (40k)|wolf-men/horse-men/goat-men]] (depending on which author/illustrator) who are almost universally spies thanks to that one-off line from Mon Mothma. When you remember these are hairy-ass, man sized, cloven beastmen, it seems like the bothans would be the shittest race for something as subtle as spywork. In truth the best and early EU works portray them as something far worse than spies: politicians. The most prominent Bothan is Borsk Fey'lya, a Bothan politician who used his role in the acquisition of the second Death Star plans to maintain a place in the New Republic's senior leadership and uses his position for personal gain like any proper politician should. Now possibly NOT wolfhorsegoatpeople, thanks to some Lucasfilm [[Troll|source]] being all like “uh actually, it’s never explicitly stated that they’re aliens, maybe they’re humans, *WINK*”. Let’s hope they’re humans - or at least less dumb than wolfhorsegoats. EU Bothans were as ridiculous a concept as [[Derp|force cancelling weasels]].
** '''Half-Bothans''': Satyrs/Fauns in Star Wars. Seriously, look up a picture of them and that's exactly how they're drawn. Don't seem to be too common, suggesting most humans in Star Wars ''aren't'' Furries.
* '''Chiss''': Thrawns. Near humans with blue skin, dark blue/black hair and red eyes. They dwell in the Unknown Regions, with they’re own fancy schmancy empire, crack navy and altogether superior technological advancements that make the rest of the galaxy look fucking backward (see blaster resistant clothes...whereas [[Derp|fucking stormtroopers in armor can be knocked down by arrows loosed by Care Bears]]). Known for being superb pilots, traders, negotiators, tacticians and all round scheming bastards with Danish accents.
* '''Dugs''': Sebulbas. Except, most of them aren't Podracers, instead being even more explicitly criminal in their professions (gangsters, drug dealers, members of Black Sun, etc.). Usually abrasive, arrogant, pushy, and violent. They share a homeworld with the Gran, which leads to some tension. Understandably hated in-universe by most.
* '''Duros''': Seen once in ''Hope'' during the cantina scene. Naturally they're one of the most important species in the EU despite not having a canon character until The Clone Wars introduced us to Cad Bane. Enslaved by precursors alongside humans, they were among the first to develop FTL travel based on salvaged hyperdrive technology and are the only non-human species to have an equivalent of "near-human" in a few "near-Duros" species. Look a bit like classic sci-fi Gray Aliens, as well as the Tau, but without the whole "Space Stalinism" thing.
* '''Echani''': Similar to humans in appearance, but most if not all of them have white or silver hair. They're also a culture of martial arts experts, specializing in armed and unarmed combat and even being able to "read" their opponents to an extent. [[Bretonnia|Generally seem to prefer melee combat and have comparatively less impressive ranged weapons]] (at least to hear Mandalorians like Canderous tell it).
* '''Ewoks''': If skub became a species, Ewoks would be a contender up there with Gungans and Yuuzhan Vong. Small koala-like creatures, similar to Jawas, that live on the forest moon of Endor, Ewoks are super primitive and live in tribes. They end up playing a big part in the Rebel victory in ''Return'' by attacking Imperial stormtroopers and destroying some walkers. Their reception didn't seem too bad at first, but in the following decades they've become reviled by many, not so much for their design but more for the idea that small bears with spears and rocks could defeat what were supposed to be the Emperor's finest troops. Some people don't mind them (and they were ''definitely'' profitable for merchandise) but others hate them and say they're a prime reason that attitudes toward ''Return'' have gotten increasingly negative over the years. That being said, people tend to overlook that Ewoks have a dark side to them; remember how they were going to eat Luke, Han and Chewie? Some EU material reshaped them into brutally savage death world survivors who practice some shady tribal customs, but are also well-accustomed to hunting much bigger and more dangerous creatures than themselves, which would make them fighting the Empire a little more credible.
* '''Gamorreans''': Space [[Orc]]s: Pig-like, brutish, stupid and violent. Constantly at war with each other, their clan identity is so strong they'll try to kill each other if from opposing clans if they meet off-world. Frequently brought into the galaxy as slaves or by clans trading labor/muscles for outside resources. Like Wookiees, can't physically speak Basic. Unlike Wookiees, only their clan matrons and some high ranking men are literate in their native language.
* '''Geonosians''': The franchise's token bug alien race, because every space setting needs bug aliens. Hugely vital to the CIS due to their homeworld being one of the main planets the Droid armies were built on. Various sources describe them as as rather arrogant. [[Skaven|They're hive-like, seem to treat their warriors and minions as expendable, and use a mix of polearm melee weapons and ranged weapons with green projectiles no one else has]]. Genocided by the Empire in Disney's Canon.
* '''Gran''': Three eyed goat (?) like aliens with rough, tan skin. They are quite nice and peaceful with excellent vision, especially in distinguishing color. Unfortunately for the galaxy at large, Gran exile most of their criminals: They consider being unable to see the rich and beautiful environments of their homeworld a fate worse than death. These exiles often fall into criminal groups.
* '''Grysk''': A near mythical species from the Unknown regions, where starships usually can't go because the hyperspace along its border is a level of fucked-up that only warp storms can match. Little is known about them except that they live on a spacefleet, have a fierce warrior culture, are humanoids with tapered skulls, their weapons and armor are ritualistically disfigured on the right side and they had a penchant for [[Tesla|electrical weapons]]. Likely Disney's replacement for the Yuuzhan Vong, since Space Cenobites with bio-tech is too weird and grimdark for Disney. tl;dr the Grysk are the Rak'gol to the Yuuzhan Vong's Tyranids.
* '''Gungans''': Jar-Jars. These guys suffer from an extremely poor choice of poster-boy (compared to Wookiees who have one of the best possible poster-boys of their species). You may think that just because Jar-Jar is one of the least intelligent (and most hated) characters in the entire Star Wars galaxy, the rest of his species are too, and this is certainly how a lot of people feel. But if you can look beyond Binks you'll see that the Gungans are pretty cool in their own way. Remember that, canonically, Jar-Jar is considered a disgrace in Gungan culture before the Battle of Naboo and after the rise of the Empire (as Senator Binks directly enabled it). Masters of organic technology, they live in bubble-buildings under the sea and have access to bioelectric spears and booma (essentially organic shock grenades fired by the [[Sling|various]] historical throwing devices) alongside [[Awesome|army-wide shield generators]] (in defiance of everyone else in the galaxy deriding them as primitives). Like the Wookiees these guys have a warrior-culture to be proud of, but unlike them they have at least made the effort to have a go at learning to speak basic (even though they still need to work on it). Due to their cartilaginous skeletons they are especially athletic and dynamic, making them pretty good fighters if they are trained properly, and in a rarity for a sci-fi species they have a racial weapon that's actually entirely practical (sling hurled explosives continue to see use today). Certainly if you want an accurate Gungan poster-boy, look no further than Captain Tarpals, who manages to hold General Grievous up in a duel for several minutes with nothing more than his spear. Oh, and their king is voiced by [[Awesome|BRIAN BLESSED]]. Still, for most folks, being the species of Jar-Jar is a hard thing to forgive, but like with many things from the Prequels, time has been a bit kind to their image. Worth mentioning that the writers are acutely aware of how much people find Gungans annoying, and so take shots at them now and then.
* '''Hutts''': Jabbas. (Fun fact: "the Hutt" was just a title in the original trilogy and Jabba was just some random slug dude. The original film didn't even intended for him to be an alien!) Naturally they're all mini-Jabbas who live in a clan/crime-family/zaibatsu type of arrangement known as the ''kadjic''. Kind of like the Mexican drug cartels in that they have their own corner of the galaxy that they rule independently, even after they join the Empire they pay the Moff to look the other way when they do shady shit. (They're always doing shady shit.) Because the Hutts own exactly one third of all organized crime (and a significant number of planets) in the galaxy and it is the third (after Basic and Binary) most widespread full language, Huttese is a good language to take, especially for criminal-types . Be warned! Hutts have four fingered hands and their numbering system uses base eight! Despite being looking and acting like fat [[neckbeards]] they're actually insanely strong and their less bulky youth are very agile for their size. They LOL at the Force, so the RPGs tend to give them a huge bonus to resist mental influence.
* '''Jawas''': Utinni! They roam Tatooine (and a few other planets) scavenging technology and selling it. A handful of sources mention they are [[Ratfolk|rodents]] under the hoods. Popular with the fans, but sadly we haven't yet gotten an (official), Jawa Jedi or Sith.
* '''Kaminoans''': A tall, gaunt species with super long necks hailing from a water-world who's species-wide hat is being expert cloners. Anyone who has a thing for clones always goes to Kaminoans to do the job, including the conspiracy behind the Clone Army that fought in the Clone Wars. Unfortunately for them, the Rise of the Empire led to their downfall in both Disney and Legends, though the circumstances between the two differ.
* '''Miraluka''': A species that look very similar to humans, but for two major differences: they're all blind, and they're all Force-Sensitive. That first part's not as debilitating as it sounds thanks to the second part, as they effectively "see" through the Force. If Visas Marr from Knights of the Old Republic II is anything to go by, they can see what alignments other people are, with good guys being blue, ultra good guys being glowing dark blue, bad guys being red, super-evil bad guys being glowing red, and neutrals being a yellowish-white.
* '''Mirialans''': Luminara Undulis. Look a lot like humans, but with skin along a green/olive spectrum and also often black diamond markings on their cheeks, forehead, and/or chins. As the setting's resident "green-skinned space babes" (other than Twi'leks), they naturally have a bit of a following with the fans.
* '''Mon Calamari''': Ackbars. An aquatic species whose long history of making airtight vehicles for travel in three dimensions has made them excellent ship-builders. During the early days of the Rebellion the Mon Calamari were one of the few species to successfully throw off the Empire during Operation Domino and not be subject to immediate reprisal thanks to their isolated location and strategy of mining hyperspace routes; basically they turned their system in to Space-Finland and the Empire gave up suiciding ships into them. Those weird-looking bubble ships from ''Return of the Jedi'' are built by Mon Calamari.
** '''Quarren''': Another background species from ''Jedi'' who share their homeworld of Dac with the Mon Calamari. Prideful isolationists who stick to the depths, with their main contact to the surface being trading deep sea mined materials to the Mon Calamari. Look more than a bit like [[Illithid]]. Quarren and Mon Calamari have a complicated (by which we mean bad), history and hate each other with a passion, with each species taking opposing sides in the Clone Wars.
* '''Neimoidians''': Nute Gunrays. [[Meme|They will not survive this.]] Their reproductive cycle is really weird: they produce lots of grubs which are raised in warrens fighting over a limited amount of food; this results in only the biggest, most paranoid, and most greedy surviving. Unlike how this usually goes, this process makes the Neimodians prone to hoarding resources and wary of danger. They're also fouler than [[Luke]] when it comes to hygiene; their homeworld's principal export is considered to be Type-B Brainrot, and even the Republic had the place functionally quarantined because of the sheer number of diseases they shit out.
* '''Noghri''': Primitive, short saurian people who happen to be some of the deadliest non-Jedi melee combatants and assassins in the galaxy. Darth Vader bought their loyalty by saving them from the environmental damage a crashed ship caused. They are a major part of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, which they were invented for. Thrawn still has one as a sidekick in ''Rebels''.
* '''Pykes:''' humanoids with bulbous heads and small beady eyes, and typically wear decorative masks. Don’t let the appearance fool you, the Pyke syndicate is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the galaxy as they have a stranglehold on the underworld’s number one resource: Spice. Yes it’s a blatant reference to [[Dune]]. No, it doesn’t give you freaky superpowers, it’s just a very powerful narcotic. The Pykes control the Spice supply chain for the entire galaxy, taking in mined pre-spice from various planets (most of it coming from Kessel, located deep inside a maelstrom that makes navigation extremely hazardous), having it refined on their homeworld in Oba Diah, and then distributed to every corner from Tatooine to Coruscant. The Pykes allow independent smugglers to do supply runs for them but expect their cut, regardless of the smuggler’s success or failure. If you’re really unlucky, they’ll just kill you on the spot, since their leaders are constantly high on their own product.
* '''Rakata''': The aforementioned precursors, developed by [[BioWare]] for the ''Knights of the Old Republic'' game (though there were a few mentions of precursors here and there before that). Formed an "Infinite Empire" long before the Republic using dark side powered hyperdrives only they could use. When they gradually lost their force sensitivity their empire fell apart. Responsible for why there are so many Humans and Human off-shoots everywhere: They were seeded throughout the Infinite Empire as a slave species and abandoned when it fell. Also ''enormous'' assholes as it turns out, doing everything from eating people to genocide and basically having a level of sociopathic awfulness that wouldn't be out of place in 40K. There is no evidence they existed past the Old Republic era, where a few fractured and primitive survivors were seen on their home planet and this planet was devoid of life by the time of the Ruusan Reformation.
* '''Rodians''': Greedos. Their home planet being a death world full of predators means they are often aggressive and put hunters in high regard, which is the EU excuse for most Rodian characters being criminals. Despite being somewhat popular with the fans, they tend to be given the role of blaster/lightsaber fodder, especially in the KotoR games where hordes of Rodian goons and thugs are a relatively common sight. Those Rodians who want to live longer seem to generally gravitate towards jobs like bartenders and merchants if the KotoR games are anything to go by. That, or politicians, but as Senator Farr reminds us, that can be hazardous too.
* '''Shards''': Sapient crystals. They are incapable of movement and don't speak the way humans do. They can however control droid bodies they are implanted into. Several are force sensitive which led to a Jedi teaching them the ways of the Force. The Jedi order shunned these "Iron Knights" and excommunicated the master responsible. This wound up benefiting them though, as the master and his students were able to survive the Jedi purge due to the obscurity this granted. When Luke's new order emerged they welcomed the Shards with open arms.
* '''Sith / Sith Purebloods''': Red skinned near-humans with bony tentacles growing out from near their nose and an affinity for the dark side, especially illusions. Natives of Korriban, the order most people know as Sith were a result of exiled dark Jedi interbreeding with them and adding their knowledge of technology. So diluted with human blood they were extremely rare by the Old Republic era and believed extinct by the time of the prequels. A few small mostly primitive pockets had been discovered however, but were covered up by Palpatine so he could grab more dark side goodies. More or less invented whole-cloth for the EU.
* '''Sullustans''': [[Dwarf|Short, tunnelfaring, crafters who can drink a lot without getting drunk]]. Vaguely simian near-humans with flappy jowls, large ears, and black eyes that originally evolved for tunnels. Their SoroSuub company is one of the largest tech makers in the galaxy, and likely the largest that isn't Human run.
* '''Tarasin''': Invented whole-cloth for the Living Force campaign for [[Star Wars D20]]. Lizardmen with scales that change color based on their emotions and frilled necks. With focus they can control their colors enough to camouflage themselves and even "speak" silently amongst each other. They had a high degree of force sensitivity, though if this a result of their species or their home system being a place where the Force is strong is unknown.
* '''Togruta''': Diet Twi'leks. Humanoids with lekku and hollow horns that allow echolocation. Shaak Ti and Ahsoka were Togruta.
* '''Toydarians''': Wattos. Blue tapir-looking dudes from Hutt Space who can hover on fly-like wings. As their source character is a hilariously offensive Jewish stereotype, the EU largely ignored Toydarians until ''The Clone Wars'' reinvented them as a vaguely Cambodian monarchy on a mud world. Mind tricks don't work on them (only money). Of the non-Watto Toydarians who showed up pre-Clone Wars, they're mostly surly and greedy like Watto, but with the Jewish stereotypes downplayed for obvious reasons.
* '''Trandoshans''': Bossks. Brutish, scaly [[Lizardfolk]] capable of regenerating severed limbs and absolutely obsessed with hunting shit. Have had a continuous species war with the Wookiees since before FTL was a thing, which is a ''long-ass time'' in Star Wars (well over 150,000 years), owing to the fact that the two species share a home system. Their religion is about scoring "points", with the only known method of gaining them is violent action and the only known method of losing them is being captured alive by enemies. The system was first mentioned a mere three years after ''[[Doom]]'' so the fact that they essentially see life as a giant, violent video game is likely pure coincidence. Despite this they aren't universally evil, though they often are. Have their own Predator <s>ripoff</s> homage movie.
* '''Tusken Raiders:''' More commonly known by civilized folks as "Sand People," they are the native race of Tatooine and are your typical desert-dwelling nomadic raiders, with the added twist of having a major cultural taboo against showing any flesh (including their faces) and having "blood spitters" as part of their biology. One of Tatooine's two primary non-human races (the other being Jawas). One of the first alien species encountered in the franchise, yet never as fleshed out as others. Even the actual name of their species is unknown; their current name originates from the first Human colonists, who named them 'Tusken Raiders' after their repeated assaults on Fort Tusken. Fiercely xenophobic and violent, the Tuskens typically have an antagonistic relationship with the other peoples living on Tatooine, usually raiding moisture farmers or sometimes outright kidnapping and killing civilian homesteaders, or even massacring small frontier towns, and in turn being seen by most as [[Always Chaotic Evil|pure monsters]]. In reality they have more nuance than they're often given credit for, and more recent appearances have made them a bit closer to portrayals of 19th Century Plains Native Americans; not taking crap from trespassers, but honorable and fair with those who respect them. Its been shown to be entirely possible to live peacefully with the local tribes if you can communicate and work out a deal with them (that you don't break). Their civilization is quite ancient, with them remembering when Tatooine still had seas and having adapted to both the harsh desert and salvaging the technology of foreigners into blaster-muskets. They also seem to be one of the few cultures in Star Wars that haven't heard of women's liberation, because with the exception of a female Tusken warrior in [[Skub|the Book of Boba Fett]], the female Tuskens seen thus far all seem to tend to the home and not be armed warriors.
* '''[[Twi'lek]]s''': Technicolored humanoids from Ryloth (which is about as far as you can get from the core worlds without leaving the major hyperspace lanes) with weird head-tails ("lekku") that they have instead of hair. Enough have been transported off world, generally as slaves, they can be found anywhere, and many have never seen their ancestral home. Given it's a borderline death world whose chief economic exports are drugs and slaves, they aren't missing anything. Their most interesting physical quality (aside from the girls being hot) is that they can communicate silently with their lekku. TORtanic tried to rationalize their fetish for enslaving their own as being the result of a precursor project to design the perfect slave species, but nobody cares about this because TORtanic is <s>shit</s> Skub.
* '''Wookiees:''' Chewbaccas, and one of the only species to be named in the original films. Huge, swole sloth people that do not live on Endor and can't speak (but absolutely understand) Basic. Most are actually pretty peaceful and intelligent and they have produced a lot of highly skilled engineers. They also have a reputation for being the best [[Navigator]]s in the galaxy, in part because their highly secretive Navigator's guild has plotted all sorts of shortcuts across the galaxy - plus you better be bloody good at orientation, pathfinding, and being able to make your way back to your treehouse at days end if your entire planet is a fucking forest. They highly value people who save their life, becoming their eternal friend in what is known as a Life-debt; this is how Han met Chewie. They have retractable climbing claws, but a cultural taboo on using them in combat leads to those who do so being exiled as "madclaws". Has the unfortunate distinction of being the first species in Star Wars lore to have their home planet and culture detailed... via the ''Star Wars Holiday Special''. Despite the infamy and single airing, the broad strokes survived the entirety of the Expanded Universe's lifespan and would reappear in ''Revenge of the Sith''.
* '''Yuuzhan Vong''': Humanoids with pallid skin and tapered skulls [[Tyranids|from another galaxy and who only use organic technology]]. Native to a living planet called Yuuzhan'tar which they worshipped as a god, their first contact experience was [[Necrons|an interstellar robot war]]. They weaponized their biotech and defeated the invaders - and in so doing gained [[Khorne|a taste for war and conquest (plus a hatred of machines) that led them to invent a war god and conquer their galaxy]]... [[Fail|which they later destroyed through infighting]]. The destruction of their homeworld [[Culexus|cut them off from the Force, unintentionally making them mostly immune to it]]. Their attempts to undo this gave them [[Dark Eldar|a species-wide fetish for pain and body modification]] instead. Centuries later they found and invaded the Star Wars galaxy, leading to a galactic war that decimated the New Republic, caused multiple genocides and had a death toll around '''365 trillion''' ([[Lamenters|including Chewbacca]]). Luke and his family ended the war by killing the various Vong leaders and finding Yuuzhan'tar's offspring, Zonama Sekot. The Vong colonized Sekot, were reconnected to the Force and became terraformers as penance for the war. Rendered part of the Legends by Disney. Some fans consider the Yuuzhan Vong a fresh blast of originality that provided a threatening and utterly badass new foe (even Dave Filoni has tried at least twice to pull the Yuuzhan Vong into his projects), while others consider them a nonsensical edgelord race that relied on major retcons to make sense.
* '''Zabrak''': Mauls. Near-humans with mostly bald, spikey heads and two hearts. Those black markings Maul had are actually ritualistic tatoos that Zabrak men often get. They were pretty divided internally till the Empire decided to oppress them all and force them to join together. Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar of the Jedi Council were also Zabraks.
** '''Dathomirians''' are a sub-species of Zabrak native to Dathomir who supposedly interbred with humans to create a new group, though their origins have been neglected in current canon. Even so, the females of this sub-species do not have the spiked heads typical of other Zabraks, looking more like ashen-skinned humans. Strictly divided along gender lines, with the bulk of the females forming the Nightsisters while the men are [[Drow|relegated to the role of slaves and breeding stock]]. Darth Maul is the most prominent Dathomirian in the films and TV series, with Asajj Ventress close behind.

==Ships, Superweapons and anything in between==
*Imperial-Class Star Destroyer: The iconic dagger-shaped grey icons of Imperial might from the original trilogy, most prominently featured in Empire strikes back. Star Destroyer in itself was a classification for the largest capital ships in the Republican Navy that simply stuck when the Empire took over. Equipped with devastating firepower that outclassed any other type of warship at the time and its own dedicated regiment of ground troops together with fighter and bomber support, a Star Destroyer was built to serve as its own independent strike group to police the Empire and defend it from outside threats completely independently. The Rebellion was scared shitless of the things, as nothing in their arsenal could hope to withstand a direct encounter with them for long and one showing up almost always meant very bad news for them.
*Executor: The FUKHUEG mega-ship that served as Vaders flagship in Episode 5 and 6. So huge that it is even in-universe classified as a "Super-Star Destroyer", with it being about 20 kilometers in length. Built in the years between A new Hope and Empire strikes back, the Executor and the class of dreadnoughts of the same name had the purpose of serving as flagships to the Imperial sector fleets and as a supplement to the Death Star to intimidate any world into submission with a metric ton of weapon systems that afforded it the firepower to glass a sizeable unshielded planetary settlement within minutes. The ability to posess one of these precious few ships (about nine were built in total) was often used in the old EU to indicate the power level of the villain of the day. Most of them ended up being destroyed, but at least found their way into the hands of the New Republic, where they became its foremost power projectors should the need for such arise.
*TIE-Series: The Empires standard pattern of small space vessel and very recognizable for it. Their base construction was built around the core concept of having a cheap, disposable and mass-produced ship that needed very little fuel and maintenance to be operational in order to cut down on the costs for equipping the enourmous numbers of ships in the Imperial Navy. The base model is the TIE-Fighter, equipped with two ion engines (hence the name, TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine) powered by the large solar panels that made up its "wings" and twin-linked laser cannons capable of destroying most fighters it would come into contact with. Despite being blisteringly fast and maneuveable, the design had a lot of serious downsides when compared with more sophisicated designs like the X-Wings the Rebels used; in order to cut down costs, the amount of protection afforded to its pilots was almost non-existent, having no armour to speak of, no shield generator and not even life support systems, requiring the pilots to wear pressurized suits when going on a mission. They also lacked Hyperdrives, although given their intended purpose as short-ranged carrier-based strike craft this is mostly irrelevant.
**TIE-Fighter: Aformentioned base model, the basic star fighter for the Imperial Navy.
**TIE-Bomber: The basic bomber/torpedo boat model of the TIE-Series. An enlarged version of the Fighter with differently shaped solar panels and a massive bomb bay that could either house bombs for conventional bombing campaigns or Proton Torpedoes for destroying enemy battleships up close.
**TIE-Interceptor: A new and improved version of the Fighter, with distinct arrow-shaped Solar Panels and improved propulsion systems, making it even faster than regular TIE-Fighters while also having improved firepower.
**TIE-Defender: Probably the most advanced ship of the TIE-Series, this baby took all the good things from the TIE-Fighter and Rebel-Ship models into an extremely deadly package, boasting shield generators, hyperdrives and weapon systems that transformed its role into a space-superiority-fighter/fast torpedo bomber hybrid. These advanced systems however meant also that it was quite expensive and rare.
* The Sun Crusher: If ever there was a non-living object that can be described as a [[Mary Sue]] this is it. Just go to the Wookiepedia page as anyone who thinks to elaborate on this is suddenly overcome by an urge to smash their heads against the nearest wall. TL;DR: its the original Starkiller Base (IE an even more powerful Death Star), and like Starkiller Base one of the less beloved things about the franchise's post-RotJ period.

==The Galaxy (and beyond)==
The Galaxy Far Far Away is a spiral galaxy about 120,000 light year in diameter. It is home to an unusually high number of populated planets and species. It has a few smaller satellite galaxies, though only one is ever visited in the entity of Star War media and only in an obscure short story (but visitors from the others have come).
*The Deep Core: The innermost part of the galaxy. Due to a high number of black holes, and dense star clusters, only the outer most areas are explored. The sole exception is a top secret Imperial bunker world of Byss, also Empress Teta (a world that once rivaled Coruscan in population, named after the badass who broke Naga Sadow's attempt to destroy the Republic with the Old Sith Empire) is just on the inside of the border between the Deep Core and the Core.
*The "Core" worlds: The most populated and best mapped part of the galaxy. Holds the actual capital of the Republic/Empire/New Republic, and some of the biggest sources of culture. The earliest known home world of Humans and Duros, but the Rakata taking these species as slaves leaves the world of their origin a mystery.
*Colonies: The first areas that was expanded to after hyperspace travel came about.
*Inner Rim: The next set of areas colonized. By the time of the films, they’re pretty developed.
**Hapes Cluster: An independent system of stars ruled by the matriarchal Hapes Consortium. Even for Star Wars, it's incredibly dense in populated worlds. They took in a large number of Separatist scientists at the end of the Clone Wars and by the New Republic it has unique technology that's more advanced in some areas despite lagging behind in some other areas.
*Mid rim: An even further area of expansion. Where the Mid Rim ends and the Outer Rim begins is a bit vague, with a lot of the outer Mid Rim being barely if at all better off than the Outer Rim.
*Outer Rim: The farthest reach of the galaxy. Civilization is sparsely populated, neglected by the galactic authorities and/or largely dominated by the independent and cruel Hutt Empire.
** Hutt Space: An autonomous section of the galaxy ruled by the Hutt clans ("Kajidic"). How, exactly, head of state (or any government function) is determined and what titles they hold is unclear, but there seems to be some Hutt that somehow becomes on top of it. A lack of extradition agreements with the Republic renders it a haven for criminals, who in turn kick money back to the Hutts. It joins the Empire during its existance, only to continue its shifty ways after early Imperial attempts to wipe out crime fail and regain independence after Palpatine's death.
*Corporate Sector/Tingel Arm: The "northern" most edge of the galaxy. Over 400 years before ''The Phantom Menace'', the Republic had the brilliant idea to develop an unpopulated section of the galaxy: Get a bunch of large companies to do it in exchange for some autonomy, resource rights and lower taxes. [[Not As Planned|Naturally this went poorly]], and the whole place is a [[Cyberpunk]] style megacorp controlled dystopia. Originated in the Han Solo books, one of the first expanded universe books ever, and the fluff from there has seen little change.
*Unknown Regions: The vast, largely unexplored due to similar issues to the core, western chunk of the galaxy. It actually has several native hyperspace capable civilizations forging their own empires by the New Republic era, one of which was already active over 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin.
*Wild Space: Wild Space is the area of the galaxy that ''is'' charted and open to Hyperspace travel, but unsettled and most of the detail on the maps is lacking. Holds the Rishi system, the only publicly known path to the Rishi maze (a state secret path in the Outer Rim's Rothana goes to Kamino).
*Rishi Maze: The only one of the satellite galaxies to be visited by those from the main galaxy, able to be accessed by traveling a chain of systems stuck between the two. The one short story that actually goes there describes it as a mess of radiation, but this could be the particular system within the maze. The only people known to live here are exploiting the natural resource deposits and hiding from The Empire. More well known is the cloner planet of Kamino, which is between the main galaxy and the maze.
*(unnamed) Yuuzhan Vong galaxy: This was the home galaxy of the EU race the Yuuzhan Vong, their original homeworld of Yuuzhan'tar, the planet Zonama Sekot, the reptoid Chazrach, and possibly the Silentium (who made first contact and war on the Vong) and the Abominor droid civilizations . The galaxy was a spiral galaxy like GFFA and had a vast number of sentient races in it; however, the Yuuzhan Vong [[Tyranids|wiped the others out]], save the Chazrach [[Dark Eldar|whom they instead enslaved]]. The Yuuzhan Vong referred to it as the "ancestral galaxy", and much of it was destroyed when [[Horus Heresy|the Yuuzhan Vong started fighting among themselves after dominating the galaxy]], with its current state of what's left of it unknown.
*Firefist Galaxy: Another one of the orbiting galaxies. The only contact the main galaxy has had with it has been sending probes. Home to the Faruun, Maccabree, Nagai and Tof, all of which arrived during the early New Republic fleeing the problems of their home or in pursuit. All of this comes from the Marvel comics (with some smoothing in the details in reference books), but despite the general oddness of fitting the Marvel comics into more modern canon and many silly concepts in those comics, the presence of these species and their conflict is largely accepted because, unlike the ''other'' extragalactic visitors, it's not very disruptive to overall canon to include them. Given that Disney now owns both Marvel and Star Wars, we may see more of them.

==Technology==
Star Wars appears to be a fairly standard sci-fi world (because it ''set'' that standard), but there's many subtle nuances that are easily missed
* Hyperdrives take ships to Hyperspace where they can travel and arrive at other destinations at FTL speed. Using a hyperdrive takes careful calculation to not only arrive on target, but avoid hitting anything on your way there.
** Each hyperdrive has a class, which multiplies travel time. At the time of the Rebellion, the standard was 2x, with newer/upgraded ships often packing class 1x and the Millennium Falcon (proclaimed to be the fastest ship in The Galaxy) had a class 0.5 as a result of modifications that made it unreliable. Anything larger than a fighter has a backup hyperdrive of much higher class (typically double digit) to ensure the crew can limp to the nearest populated system in the event of failure of the primary drive.
** Most travel occurs along the great hyperspace lanes, where the way is known to be clear and calculations are more established.
** Vehicles have to start up their shields ''after'' they complete their jump, which makes them vulnerable if you can predict where they are coming from. This makes launching an attack purely to target any reinforcements possible.
** Hyperspace itself [[Warp|is weird]], and standard procedure is to avoid looking outside long term during travel to prevent people from going nuts. Communications while in hyperspace (except to ships making the same jump) are near impossible. Leaving hyperspace without the ship you came in on is impossible, and ejecting someone during travel ensures their death.
** There's a handful of instances of of hyperdrive failures sending people to Otherspace, an alternate dimension populated by a ship graveyard and hostile bug aliens with organic technology.
** One thing that's often overlooked is that modern hyperdrive technology is adapted from the dark side powered hyperdrives of the ancient Rakata after they lost the ability to use The Force and could no longer travel to maintain their empire. The result is that even [[Adeptus Mechanicus|experts don't have a total understanding of ''how'' Hyperspace works]].
** Hyperdrive is quick, a good hyperdrive capable ship can get you across the galaxy in at most a day.
** Interdictor ships are capable of generating artificial gravity well to stop travel through their path and prevent ships from getting away. These first appeared in the Mandalorian Wars of the Old Republic, using spammed tractor beams to fake gravity wells, but these couldn't keep pace with hyperdrive improvements and disappeared till a superior successor technology was developed in the Imperial era. During the early days of the New Republic, Admiral Ackbar devised a tactic of using of such ships to prevent ''ally'' movement, ordering one to power up if it detected sabotage on a planned target had failed so the incoming attackers would be pulled from hyperspace far enough away to retreat. It would be Thrawn however that would prove the true master of such maneuvers, developing a system that allowed reliable same-system hyperspace jumps during tactical combat, hence it's name, Thrawn Pincer. Thrawn himself nicked that idea from Plo Koon and Saesee Tin when they wanted to bomb a planet but also bypass the superior blockade around the planet.
* FTL communication comes in four forms, all with their own issues.
** Holonet: The best known method for FTL communications. Vaguely comparable to the early internet, with news, primitive BBS, email, and some other stuff. Quite rare once you get past the developed core areas, and expensive to use both in setting it up and bandwith costs. Only military command vehicles and those for heads of state are likely to have personal holonet transceivers.
** Subspace relay: The cheaper alternative to the holonet is subspace relays. Relatively slow and has problems with dropped communications, but still FTL. Most capital ships have subspace transceivers, and some smaller vehicles are known to have them as upgrades. Comparable to snail mail, with shopping being a mail order order system like the Sears Catalog (view catalog, send order and payment, await shipping) rather than online shopping.
** Hyperspace Courier: Has all the problems of courier communication, and all the problems of hyperspace combined. Despite these faults, it's often the only choice for the most remote systems or if someone is disrupting the above two (like in a war) and always the only way to send physical goods.
** The Force: Occasionally powerful Force users are seen communicating via The Force across very long distances. This requires both parties be strong in The Force and have a very close connection. Even then being able to do anything more than sense the other is in danger is a crapshoot.
* Blasters use energy to excite special gas that is then expelled to deadly effect. Most blasters have an alternate stun setting which provides less-lethal takedowns. Stun setting is quite reliable and consistent even on physically tough species like Wookiees, though it's not safe to use on pregnant women and outside of specialized stun-only blasters the range is rather low. Despite being energy weapons, they have quite a kick. Routinely dismissed as "slow" despite multiple sources contradicting this idea. How fast they are is somewhat debatable (and differs depending on which canon), but they're considered more advanced than Slugthrowers (detailed below), implying that Blasters are better overall.
** [[Stubber|Normal firearms]], known as slugthrowers, are also present. Compared to blasters they're cheaper, cause bleeding, are far more dangerous to block with a lightsaber (it'll usually just melt the slug and make you get hit with molten metal instead), can be suppressed, and lower maintenance requirements, but have less initial stopping power, lower capacity, can't stun, make far more noise without a suppressor, and have heavier ammo. Considered more primitive than blasters, which is why you rarely see them (well, that and the powers that be preferring Star Wars to not be rated R).
** Ion weapons disrupt electric systems, but cause little structural damage and only minor burns on living creatures. This allows them to disable droids or ships without totally destroying them, making them important in capturing them.
** [[Sonic Weaponry]] exists, but it's considered an odd fork (as powerful as a slug thrower with none of its benefits) by everyone outside of water worlds and Jedi hunters.
* Replusorlift keeps vehicles, industrial equipment and some droids floating off the ground a good distance. Most spacecraft have repulsor systems as well, which is how they're able to operate in atmosphere despite their poor aerodynamics.
* '''[[Robot|Droids]]''' aren't a true species, but are playable in all RPGs. They're supposed to be really smart appliances, but Star Wars technology is so fucked up that a few develop sapience if left on too long without formatting. Despite this droids aren't considered people by the galaxy at large because sapient droids are as rare as non-evil [[drow]] and most of the time leaving droids running for a long time just makes them slower and buggier until they can't do their jobs anymore, like Windows, or, at best, overly attuned to a specific user. That a good number of sapient droids have learned to bypass that pesky "no killing" clause doesn't exactly encourage experimenting with it and trying to replicate it either.
** Class 1 droids are designed to preform scientific applications like medicine or lab work. Since they were designed to be used in fixed locations most, but not all, have limited mobility.
** Class 2 droids are designed to preform technical labor like repair work. Since they are expected to work within artificial locations they are generally on wheels or treads and have short, non-human shapes. One notable subcategory of Class 2 droids are Astromech Droids (like the famed R2 series), which are designed to plug into fighters and bombers where they function as a co-pilot, navicomputer and in-flight repair.
** Class 3 droids are designed for human interaction, with jobs like translator or chef. Some lower end Class 3 droids were made for positions like waiter. Almost all of them are roughly human shape, with the main exception being those built by and for non-humans that instead resemble their intended masters.
** Class 4 droids are the most varied but have one thing in common that clearly separates them: They are made for combat and (except for a few armed with only stun weapons) don't have programming against killing. Class 4 droids vary in intelligence from blaster turrets with some targeting AI to clever and ruthless assassins/commandos. Even [[Android|Human Replica Droids]], designed to be indistinguishable from humans, are technically Class 4. Many Class 4 droids have their nature obfuscated by building them into the shell of a Class 1 or Class 3 droid.
** Class 5 droids are made for manual labor like heavy lifting or a power generator with legs. They are barely intelligent, rarely have names and almost never become sapient. They are however cheap and quite common.
* Cloning: Fairly realistic on most accounts. You take a gene sample, use it to make an ova, grow it in an exowomb and decant it as an adult. The main difference is that SW cloners are much, much better at it, with a vastly higher success rate compared to real life plus the ability to do accelerated aging for army building. The Kaminoans are the best at this. Generally, Force-Sensitives can't be cloned, and when they are, they most often come out as physically and mentally unstable nutjobs who need to be put out of their misery. "Perfect" Force-Sensitive clones are exceedingly rare, to the point that (again), most in-universe consider it impossible.
* Cloaking devices come in two types.
** The first was dependent upon crystals that became rare due to overharvesting. Use of a superweapon for deep excavation allowed an imperial research project to toy with the idea of fitting an entire squadron of fighters equipped with one.
** The second, the hibridium model, used a different rare material and was developed near the end of the Empire, though didn't see use till after the fall. It was substantially (though still only relatively) cheaper but had two unique drawbacks. The first was that it also blinded the ship to the world outside and rendered it unable to communicate as well. These problems would briefly be overcome with the use of the Force instead. Afterwards the Remnant gave up on it as mostly useless, and agreed to ban it during the peace treaty with the New Republic.
** Personal "stealth field" generators also seem to exist, unrelated to these. They simply dampen sound and bend light to make the wearer harder to spot and difficult (but not impossible) to see. Presumably these aren't upscaled for vehicle use because of the real world problem with such a concept of being completely useless against any sensor beyond just human level vision (still being blatantly obvious to thermal, as well as radar if they're big enough ect.).
* In many ways, while technology is advanced it's still in the mindset of 1983, if not 1977. As mentioned above, the internet (at least the interplanetary one) is quite primitive and poorly connected. Even though everyone has a tiny radio set (Comlink), there's no such thing as cellphones (you have to broadcast to a channel and hope whoever you want to hear something is listening). Aside from portable computers, which are quite expensive, and datapads, which still have limited functionality, most non-droid technology only does one thing. Unlike the 1913 rail and M-Lok equipped guns of the 90s onward, weapon accessories either need to be made for a single model or hand-fitted by an expert. Video games are either professional simulators or extremely primitive.
* Energy shields come in several variants
** Ray shields protect from energy weapons but are useless against physical attacks. Most ships are equipped with ray shields.
** Particle shields protect from physical attacks but are useless against energy attacks. Generally only bigger ships are equipped with particle shields while smaller ships such as fighters only have ray shields.
** Planetary shields are the reason why ground battles happen and why orbital superiority isn't enough to secure a planet. They can withstand even the most severe bombardment for weeks, with only weapons like the Death Star being capable of penetrating them almost instantaneously. As a result, it is generally more feasible to land troops on the planet.
* [[Lightsaber]]s are the most iconic weapon of the setting, being plasma-based melee weapons only used by crazy space [[wizard]]-[[monk]]s.
* [[The Force]] isn't so much technology as something in between a religion, [[magic]] and [[psionics]]. This is ''the'' element that turns Star Wars from [[Space Opera]] into [[Science Fantasy]].

==Setting History==
{{stub}}
Bear in mind the highly contradictory nature of canon and many sources from EU to Disney means any attempt to truly form a concrete history would take an in-depth scholarly pursuit of all sources and debate amongst the global community while taking into account upcoming new results that can entirely rewrite the record. You know, like real history ([[Tolkien]] did an admirable job, but nothing quite says plausible history like something everyone has an opinion on but nobody that anyone wants to listen to has fully researched). At any rate, what is presented here is an abridged version of the lore history prior to the Original Trilogy, using the most complete accounts, and combining the EU AKA “Legends” with the Disney canon when not contradictory (because despite having supposedly wiped it out of canon, there are frequent callbacks to parts of it). Though in fairness, Legends lore is far more fleshed out and takes priority in practice. Since it is under construction, it will probably be split into different sections (or we'll put parentheses showing whether it's Disney or OG, going in year order). As a note, most dates are referred to Before or After the Battle of Yavin (with both 0 BBY and 0 ABY existing) for the sake of out of universe convenience. There are various in-universe calendars, but this is pretty much the standard at the time of the end of the story and is the easiest to follow IRL. Thus, when the contradictions majorly start after Episode 6, the format will be Legends-5 ABY, Disney-5ABY, Legends-6 ABY and so on.

* The universe begins, life begins to evolve. A lot of small things happen that tie into other stories, but aren’t worth mentioning outside that story.
* The unknown Celestial race holds dominion around a hundred thousand years Before the Battle of Yavin, they mysteriously vanish soon afterwards.
** Before disappearing, a set of force wielding physical gods known as the Father, the Daughter and the Son help them to seal Abeloth "The Mother", a mortal who lived with them and in desperation for sharing their immortality did some extremely bad dark side Force stuff and turned into an eldritch abomination, in the Maw Cluster of black holes using Centerpoint Station, a super weapon in the partially artificial Corellia System.
* The first galactic civilization (that we know of except whatever the Celestials were, if they even count as a formal polity) are the Rakata, cruel aliens who uplift various other species for slaves and food in the Rakatan Infinite Empire. This explains most aliens that are just paint and simple face prosthetics away from being human, as well as recurring traits like bipedalism.
** The Rakata encounter the Sith species, who also use the dark side. The Sith drive them off after a costly battle thanks to Sith King Adas sacrificing himself.
*** The Sith'ari prophecy is made to indicate a worth successor to Adas who would bring the Sith to the height of their power, Bane would be the Sith'ari more than twenty thousand years later.
** At some point the Rakata encounter the Hutts, and the result is the Rakata being nearly wiped out. Hutts did not possess space travel, nor would they until much later so how the fuck that happened isn’t clear, though it is mentioned that they lost their connection to the Force (universally the Dark Side due to species wide enforcement of being an asshole) after an unknown illness.
** Time progresses and the Rakata are forgotten from general knowledge outside of archeological and historical circles, even then only Force sensitives really know the major significance other than "big empire that collapsed before the Republic was even a dream".
* Civilizations develop and discover space travel, then hyperspace travel. Initial hyperspace colonization and mapping is risky, requiring oftentimes blind jumps and the hope there isn’t a star or something where you end up.
** Blind jumps result in colonists losing contact with the rest of the universe and evolving on their own, explaining some groups that are VERY similar but not the same species (for example, Miraluka are lost human colonists who ended up on a planet with poor light and over generations they evolved to not have eyes, but instead all have a Jedi-tier connection to the Force to “see” with).
* The Force-users find their jumps guided to a specific planet, with aliens from many diverse backgrounds guided to a planet (First Tython in Legends, changed to Ahch-To in the Disney canon. Later material for The Mandalorian brought Tython back alongside Ahch-To as both being early Jedi planets and nobody knowing for sure which was actually the first).
** Bringing their own religions, traditions, and cultures, the Force-users develop schools of thought on the philosophy. Eventually one group decides the meaning of life for the Force is to destroy evil (like [[Paladins]]), and wages war on the others saying “you’re with us or against us”. One group resists which saw honor and personal development as the meaning of life (like [[Cavalier]]s). The rest were split between the two.
** The Paladin-like aggressors were victorious, slaughtering and driving off the Cavalier-types. The Paladin-like Force-users would become the early Jedi. The Cavalier-types would find pain and misery in exile after multiple Great Schism's, sinking deep into worship of power and personal gain. After the Third Great Schism caused by Jedi Knights Ajunta Pall, Sorzus Syn, Xoxaan, Remulus Dreypa and Karness Muur wanting to study the Dark Side after the balance started falling towards Light Side use lead to the Hundred Year Darkness civil war, they are exiled. The exiles find and enslave a species of aliens and stole both their dark Force/alchemy teachings as well as their name when Ajunta Pall killed the last King Hakagram Graush, the Sith, and interbreeding with them to build the Old Sith Empire, Pall as the first Dark Lord of the Sith.
*** The Hundred Year Darkness leads to the invention of Lightsabers, inspired by Rakata Forcesabers, though initial examples like the one Karness Muur used require energy batteries on belts connected by cables.
*** Karness Muur discovers the method of immortality when he transfers his spiritual essence to his Muur Talisman amulet created by Sith Alchemy. Dreypa, his rival, makes a stasis coffin to hold Muur in, said coffin is later named the Jebble Box and is misidentified as a Jedi artifact.
** This becomes a recurring pattern in Star Wars history regarding good and evil Force-users. Good creates its own evil by standing up and declaring themselves good and morally correct, turning any challengers to their orthodoxy towards the Dark Side (look, it comes up whenever Lucas or some other writer wants to go back to the Taoist roots of The Force). Good then defeats the evil it created once evil has almost won, and they reestablish order with some oppression in an attempt to prevent another evil which restarts the cycle.
** The Chosen One to bring balance to the Force prophecy is made. Anakin Skywaker would fulfill this prophecy a thousand years after Bane fulfilled the Sith'ari prophecy.
* Humans and Duro, the first two species to discover hyperspace travel from Rakata technological remnants, eventually meet. The planet they meet on has been implied to be the human homeworld, the Duro homeworld, Earth, and various other things, but it doesn’t matter, final decision settled on as Human homeworld with any connection to real Earth slashed and Duro homeworld being described as another planet in another part of the galaxy. It becomes Coruscant (the homeworld of the Taung, a.k.a. OG Mandalorians, and also the homeworld of the human predecessor race, the latter won and drove off the Taung to Mandalore), and they create the first Galactic Republic in 25553 BBY.
** The exiled Taung found Mandalore, a martial society of warmongers and Social Darwinists, on the planet of Mandalore, which along with it's moon and nearby systems has a massive amount of the substance known as Beskar, capable of making Lightsaber resistant armor.
* Various expansion wars occur after the Republic is founded, including a religiously motivated 1000 year long pro-human genocidal regime, the Pius Dea cult, taking over, brought down by the Jedi and those sick of their shit after their reign, leading to a few decades of Jedi Grandmasters pulling double duty as Supreme Chancellor to restore democracy and arrest leftover cultists. Other wars also occur such as the the Hutt Wars with Xim the Despot, the Hutt Cataclysms (a major series of Civil Wars and natural disasters that ruined the Hutt Empire and instituted the Hutt Cartel system and founded the basis of the galactic criminal underworld), and a series of wars on and off for 20000 odd years over whether Coruscant or another planet (Alsakan) is to be the capital.
** Two important worlds that need to be noted are Corellia, which has disproportionate influence in the founding of the Republic and even has the right to declare neutrality in civil disputes due to economic power of its status on the most important hyperspace shortcut in the galaxy (as well as the Celestial influenced state of their system), and Kuat, founded by pre-Hyperspace human colonists launched from Coruscant and the premier shipyard in the galaxy.
* Eventually the Sith return to destroy the Jedi after two Republic scouts accidentally stumble upon Korriban, the Sith species home planet and now the burial site for the Dark Lords, and return while being followed, kicking off the Great Hyperspace War.
** The Republic is almost destroyed, but survives, and led by Empress Teta (the Empress of a member world that is) in turn smashes the Old Sith Empire led by Dark Lord Naga Sadow.
** The Sith slink back into the shadows. The Jedi start their other big tradition, over-correcting from their past mistakes and creating new ones, by beginning a time of non-interference in galactic affairs and a general desire only for peace.
** During this time, Darth Vitiate (born Tenebrae as the illegitimate son of Sith Lord Dramath [[Grimdark|who raped one of his slaves]]) exploits the defeat and manipulates 8000 fellow Sith Lords to a secret ritual to live forever. It goes [[Just as Planned]] for Vitiate as he consumes the souls of his fellows to become immortal (but not invincible) and names himself Sith Emperor of the Reformed Sith Empire. He secretly builds his forces from the remaining Sith armies and lords.
** Duringthe final battle of the Great Hyperspace War a Sith ship crashes into a planet and the survivors become the Lost Tribe of Sith.
* Freedon Nadd, Jedi apprentice, is denied knighthood and falls to the Dark Side after finding Sadow's tomb and his spirit. He causes the Beast Wars on Onderon and its moon Dxun and rules for a hundred years before dying, his cultists becoming weirdo beast rider types who plague Onderon.
* Two Jedi Knights, Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma fall to the Dark side after finding Dark Lord Marka Ragnos and Nadd's spirits respectively and become Master and Apprentice in that order. After Ulic kills his brother and former fellow Jedi, he returns to the light and kills Exar Kun during their war to destroy the Jedi. Ulic wanders around for a while and then dies in his former lover Grand Master Nomi Sunrider's arms, who had become Grand Master after Exar Kun and Ulic's war ended with the formers death.
* Mandalorians, the space Mongols/Aztecs, start attacking the universe because all they understand is war (and because the Taung species is dying out, leading to them allowing worthy foreigners to join, humans end up as the vast majority).
** This massive war almost wipes out several species but the Jedi do nothing. Eventually one of their number, nicknamed the Revanchist and his friends Alek and Meetra Surik are dispatched to investigate, and upon finding the atrocities committed decide to forsake the Jedi wuss way and break the back of the Mandalorians.
** The Revanchist takes the name of Revan after picking up and putting on the mask of a female Mandalorian who refused orders to massacre civilians and died defending them.
** During the fighting, Mandalore the Ultimate orders Serocco and Jebble nuked from orbit, killing everyone who failed to escape and leaving Jedi Assassin Celeste Morne stranded on Jebble in stasis, which she had gone in to to keep the Muur Talisman which contained to soul of Karness Muur, one of the Dark Jedi exiles who founded the Sith Order, from escaping. The stasis coffin is the same one built by Remulus Dreypa to keep Muur in.
** Revan kills Mandalore the Ultimate in single combat, leaving the Taung extinct. After learning that Mandalore the Ultimate was manipulated through his final words, Revan and Alek go to Dromund Kaas to investigate, then fall to the Dark Side and create a fascist government centered on Dromund Kaas (actually the hidden capital of the Reformed Sith Empire who brainwashed the leader of the Mandos). The Sith Emperor had brainwashed both of them.
** Revan becomes Darth Revan and Alek becomes Darth Malak, which almost destroys the Republic, again (a third recurring theme), with the only loyalists remaining being Surik and her chief engineer, who had returned to the Order after the final battle at Malachor V where they fired a super weapon, the Mass Shadow Generator on Revan's orders which the brainwashed Revan used to kill the other loyalist Jedi, before Revan and Alek went off to open revolt.
** A Jedi named Bastila Shan is sent to assassinate their leader Darth Revan, but believing in redemption instead she wiped his mind. The two went on an adventure while Revan was trained as a Jedi again, and he defeated his apprentice Darth Malak and dismantled his own army (also did a bunch of racing, theme #4).
** Afterwards, the remaining Fallen Jedi institute the First Jedi Purge under the Sith Triumvirate, Darth Nihilus (who vored planets after being reduced to a husk by the superweapon Revan used at Malachor V), Darth Sion (who was so edgy he had to be convinced to let go as he was too angry to die), and Darth Traya (a.k.a. Kreia, actually Jedi Master Arren Kae, who wanted to destroy the force itself) and their followers, survivors of Malak's remaining army.
** The only loyalist Jedi survivor of Revan's initial force, Meetra Surik, having been exiled from the Order after being the only veteran to return, comes back and destroys the Sith Triumvirate (redeeming the only apprentice they had, Visas Marr, in the process) along with her companions (including Visas and her old chief engineer) who she trained as Jedi, plus Revan's old war buddy/current Mand'alor (Mandalorian king) Canderous Ordo and an asshole droid.
** Revan's companions and Meetra's companions then presumably rebuild the Jedi Order and the badly damaged Republic over 300 years, while Revan and Surik go to Dromund Kaas to finish off the Emperor (Revan not telling anyone like a moron, while Surik just went to help her friend) but are betrayed by their ally Darth Scourge, who foresees the Emperor is not going to die for three more centuries.
** Surik ignonomously dies, while Revan is tortured for 300 years while managing to keep the Emperor from attacking the Republic when it is vulnerable.
* A clusterfuck of things happen.
** The Sith create a nearly galaxy-wide coalition to start a civil war with the Republic. The Sith have overwhelming advantage, but are so backstabby and hedonistically asinine they fail to accomplish anything major after the initial strikes, though Darth Malgus manages to sack Coruscant and the Jedi Temple.
** Things cool of for 12 years in a Cold War, then heat back up again and are disrupted when the Sith Emepror (who as stated was the guy who manipulated the Mandalorians and brainwashed Revan) is apparently killed by the Hero of Tython (who is then promoted to Jedi Battlemaster) aided by Darth Scourge (who the Emperor life-extended to serve as his personal assassin, while plotting to kill the Emperor).
** Revan splits in two from the 300 year torture, and after the torturers (the edgiest Sith ever, the Dread Masters, who were personally trained by the Emperor) get killed by the SWTOR player character of your choice (story-wise, the Hero of Tython makes the most sense as the Jedi Knight so will go with that for the purposes of timeline), who had also apparently killed Darth Malgus when he got pissed at the [[Stupid Evil]] of the other Sith and tried to make his own empire, and tries to bring the Emperor back to a physical body, with the protagonist and their allies barely stopping him.
** It turns out the Emperor manipulated Revan's last efforts and used the bloodshed there to transfer all of his spirit to where he was actually focusing on, the Eternal Empire at the planet of Zakuul he made over the past few centuries, after finding a super robot fleet in the planet of Iokath and possessing a local hero named Valkorion. His body is destroyed by the protagonist, and the Emperor's son Arcann (who killed his light-side twin in a rage) invades both the Republic and the Sith Empire.
** Meanwhile, the protagonist is placed in carbonite for five years, while Arcann used the Emperor's supposed death to drum up support for his regime in Zakuul. He is defeated and (due to Light Side Republic Loyalist Jedi Knight being the most reasonable choice for storyline purposes) is redeemed to the light side. His sister tries to take over, and is killed. A large part of the Emperor's soul is destroyed after trying to take over the SWTOR protagonist.
** Afterwards, the Republic and Sith Empire return to war over the remaining superweapons on Iokath and the SWTOR protagonist rejoins the Jedi and the Republic. Empress Acina (who took over the Reformed Sith Empire after Darth Marr, regent after the Emperor faked his death, was killed after being captured along with the protagonist prior to the 5-year timeskip) dies in the fighting and Darth Malgus returns, having survived and rebuilt as a cyborg.
** The Emperor finally loses control of the Force and all three of his personalities (Tenebrae, Darth Vitiate and Valkorion) are destroyed, finally killing him for good and thus letting Revan and Meetra become one with the Force. The protagonist continues heroics and defeats/captures some Dark Council Sith Lords (and Malgus, presumably in the next expansion as of the time of writing - which happened and he was captured by the Republic, further details TBA as SWTOR storyline continues) and the final phase of the Great Galactic War eventually ends in Republic victory, the Reformed Sith Empire shattering to pieces.
* Around 2000 years before the Battle of Yavin some dickwad Jedi falls to the Dark Side as Darth Ruin and reignites the brewing low intensity conflict as the New Sith Wars at full scale as the first undisputed Dark Lord in a millenium since the Sith Empire Remnants shattered to insurgencies and individual Dark Side cabals. Ruin instigates the Fourth and last Great Schism of the Jedi.
** The Sith eventually reform into the Brotherhood of Darkness to prevent the mass backstabbing that restarted with the New Sith Wars and bans the title of Darth, with all Sith Lords being equal (though of course, [[Communism|some are more equal than others]], like fallen Jedi Master Skere Kaan).
** After a thousand straight years of war, a Galactic Dark Age settles in and ruins major tech infrastructure and companies, fixing the dissonance between movie era tech being worse than literally thousands of years ago. The last three hundred years until 1000 BBY are particularly brutal, killing FTL communications past the Mid Rim sans courier and brings the Republic to its knees.
* 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, Sergeant Dessel, transferring from the Sith Army to the Sith Academy after his force sensitivity was discovered, thinks the Brotherhood of Darkness is a bunch of bullshit. He decides that the Dark Side can only have two Sith, one Master to embody power and an Apprentice to crave it, after finding Revan's edgy fanfiction he wrote after the Mandolarian Wars and before the Jedi Civil War in a Sith Holocron. He names himself Darth Bane and manipulates Lord Kaan into building the Thought Bomb, a Dark Side Force weapon.
** The Brotherhood of Darkness are defeated at the (Seventh) Battle of Ruusan. They detonate the Thought Bomb, which wipes them out along with the Army of Light, a Jedi army formed in desperation by Lord Hoth as a last resort to save the Republic, as the Army of Light sacrifice themselves to force Kaan to detonate it early and end the New Sith Wars, [[Just As Planned|exactly as Bane planned]].
** The Rule Of Two is instituted by Bane who takes Zhannah as his apprentice, preventing the Dark Side clusterfuck that happens when too many assholes exist as “equals” in one faction. The Jedi almost destroy the Sith as Zhannah is caught spying in the Jedi Temple and is forced to retreat, chased by three masters and two knights.
** Bane and Zhannah defeat them and Zhannah's cousin is made insane by her Sith Sorcery and attacks the Jedi task force sent after them, who are forced to kill him. Thinking that was the Sith they were looking for the Jedi pat themselves on the back and go back to Coruscant to report the Sith being destroyed.
** Zhannah defeats Bane and takes Cognus as her apprentice. Cognus takes Millenial (yes, Darth Millenial) as her apprentice, who disagrees with the Rule of Two and goes to Dromund Kaas to start the Prophets of the Dark Side, who worship the Dark Side. Cognus takes another apprentice and things continue as they hide, plan, research, and backstab in secret for 1000 years.
* After this apparent victory, the Republic undergoes the Ruusan Reformation, beginning the Great Peace of the Republic in which no major war occurred.
** The Jedi are greatly weakened in political authority and demilitarized. They also begin strictly enforcing the age maximum for training people as Jedi. Having lost its best and brightest save for Grand Master Faye (namely, Lord Hoth and Master Valenthyne Farfhalla) in the Army of Light's sacrifice, degenerate into Lawful Stupid morons with the Ruusan Reformation, which states that the Jedi can no longer create an army, and that the Jedi are under the command of the Senate, although they still have their own Council for internal stuff. They decide to vigorously enforce the age limit and become more and more detached from the people and the small good deeds that help reinforce the light side in an individual (demonstrated in SWTOR with the Hero of Tython, whose dead master as a Force Ghost instructs him to give labor and medical assistance in a small village to help reinforce his soul).
** The Republic disbands its military except for a small anti-piracy force in the Judicial Forces and leaves actual defense to Planetary Defense Forces.
** The Republic massively decentralizes and executive, as opposed to legislative or home planet/sector, power starts falling back into Senators hands for the first time since pretty much the Pius Dea period as Supreme Chancellors and Vice Heads essentially become first and second among equals to other Senators, thus making the executive and legislative significantly accountable to the larger and more bribe friendly Senate rather than the government.
* Due to the infrastructure damage, a period of [[Medieval Stasis]] sets in, turning for example battle droids from multi legged hyper mobile tanks and super deadly assassins to crappy shit tier fodder infantry outside of expensive special models.
* Megacorporations gain power in the sparser regions of the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim as the republic falls into a combination of absurd political corruption and Inner Rim/Core Worlds exceptionalism, to the point that some corps have Senators of their own (not even bribed, literal voting members presumably elected/bribed the electoral offices from corp owned worlds). Senators essentially become mouthpieces of planetary interests or big business and vote based on who bribes them.
* 65 years before the Battle of Yavin, a man from Naboo's House Palpatine (dubbed Sheev in Disney canon) became the apprentice to a Sith Master named Darth Plagueis.
** He learned secrets of Sith Alchemy and pretty much any other plot-related evil shit that writers want, takes on the name Darth Sidious, then killed his master and began a (very convoluted) plan to wipe out the Jedi, rule the galaxy and wage war on things outside the galaxy, and live forever. Just assume anything that happens from here until his death is [[Tzeentch|because of him]].
** Palpatine takes on an apprentice, an older Jedi who left the Order due to its hands-off approach to galactic governance. The now ex-Jedi Dooku Serenno reclaimed the fortune and title of Count he had relinquished to join the Jedi and was secretly contacted by Palpatine to slowly cajole him over years.
* A Jedi named Sifo-Dyas has a prophecy that the galaxy will soon be at war, and concocts an elaborate plan to get an army for the currently armyless Republic using money from criminal organizations and the genetic material of a Mandalorian descended from the old warriors. He’s killed by Palpatine ([[Just As Planned|the guy that planted the idea in his head]]), who takes over the project via Dooku and had each clone implanted with a secret control chip that would override their training and loyalties when Sheev gave “Order 66”.
* As the Republic weakened due to corruption and the rising power of corporations, and the Jedi weakened due to Sheev’s (and his predecessors) tampering with the Force via bullshit Alchemy handwaves and becoming detached from the common people weakening their compassion and the light side, planets and organizations within the Republic began to act aggressively. Sheev was behind many of their moves as his public identity rose as the Senator of his home planet of Naboo.
** As aforementioned, many organizations gained enough power to have Senatorial representatives, making corporations as powerful as entire planets and causing the clusterfuck of alliances and conflicting interests to render the Republic almost powerless.
* The Trade Federation, a simple shipping company that had its own Senator and via shared interests controlled many, MANY more, began using its private army to blockade planets. They did this to secure exclusive contracts with the goal of controlling all trade everywhere eventually, and even hold power over the Republic due to its lack of military.
** Sheev as Sidious reveals himself to be heavily invested in their projects, and they gladly accepted his patronage. He advised them to upscale their ambitions and blockade the planet Naboo, which was far more powerful politically and economically than their previous targets, 32 years before the Battle of Yavin.
* We leave the mists of backstory/dubious canon and enter into the Movie/TV Canon.
** Two Jedi, an apprentice and a master (Obi-wan and Dooku’s old apprentice Qui-Gon) were sent to negotiate an end to the blockade. Fearing that the Federation had gone into dangerous territory, the leaders contacted Sheev, who ordered them to kill the Jedi and continue the blockade as if nothing had happened.
*** The Jedi escaped to the surface of the planet and escaped with the planet’s leader Queen Amidala. They were delayed due to engine problems from the escape, and stopped at Tatooine where they picked up a slave boy named Anakin who was Force-sensitive (implied to be an experiment from Sheev’s Alchemy to create life as he learned under Plagueis, abandoned after accidentally rendering Anakin's mother pregnant with no father, bot Plagueis and Palpatine deeming it a failure). Meanwhile Sheev’s own apprentice Darth Maul had been sent to ensure his plans were carried out. A couple of weeks after this Palpatine kills Plagueis and becomes the Dark Lord.
** Sheev convinced the Queen to start a movement against the administration of the Republic, which was joined by the majority of the Senate; even the corrupt were sick of everyone else’s corruption.
*** This destabilized the Republic leadership, shuffling Sheev into power as Supreme Chancellor and putting his lackeys in charge. Meanwhile, the queen and Jedi returned to Naboo and lead a revolt, defeating the Trade Federation and leaving their leadership as prisoners of the Republic, but Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin dies at the hands of Sidious's apprentice Maul and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi is left grieving and Maul believed dead as he was cut in half by Kenobi.
*** Sheev worked behind the scenes to keep them from being prosecuted for their actions while making plans to turn Anakin Skywalker, who had been found and chosen for training by the Jedi as part of the Chosen One Prophecy (by Obi-Wan, who had literally just become a Knight after Qui-Gon's death, so that was a dumb fucking call giving the kid who needed a father figure to a rigidly dedicated young man in mourning who had almost failed out of the Jedi into the Jedi Service Corps due to relative weakness in the force), into a future asset.
** Sheev progressed his plan for a war to further destabilize the galaxy by pitting the various corporate powers he controlled as Darth Sidious against the united planets he controlled as Supreme Chancellor. This leads to a Separatist movement with both sides financially powerful, both sides possessing armies, and both sides feeling they were the ones who were wronged and both firmly in Sith pockets, the Separatists as a disposable tool under Dooku (who, after Maul's believed death, had become Sidious's apprentice Tyrannus) and the Republic primed to vote for Palpatine to gain more and more power.
*** The “Clone Wars” began after a series of events orchestrated by Dooku where the Jedi discover and deploy the clone armies against Separatists who had been planning to execute the Jedi and former queen of Naboo as revenge on behalf of the Trade Federation.
** Sheev manipulated both sides of the conflict to deplete the strength of all participants. The Separatists were led by the cyborg General Grievous, Count Dooku (Sidious planned to replace both Maul and Dooku from the beginning, with Anakin) and the corrupt Separatist Council essentially acting as Count Dooku's mouthpiece, while the Republic forces were led by the Jedi Master Mace Windu and Grand Master Yoda.
** Public opinion began to turn against the war, and groups of Senators who had previously been allies of Sheev began meeting in secret and planning for militarizing their planets so there would no longer be a need for an army of the Republic.
** When the time was right Sidious orchestrated a finale of battles which resulted in the deaths of Dooku and Grievous, then enacted Order 66 to slaughter almost all of the Jedi and turned Anakin to his side as Darth Vader. He declared himself Emperor and the Republic his Empire, eliminating much of the old government over time, and allowing cronies to make it into the ranks of a galactic military dictatorship which used powerless puppet governments on the local level.
** Separatist remnants continue resistance and a majority of them are defeated in the Reconquest of the Rim.
** Small rebel cells popped up everywhere, which would eventually unite under the surviving members of the old Senate following Palpatine using Vader's "secret" apprentice to lure them out and failing to kill them as said apprentice turns to light and sacrifices himself (the plot of The Force Unleashed).
** The Great Jedi Purge comes to an end one year before the Battle of Yavin with Master An'ya Kuro being killed by Vader, leaving several dozen Jedi alive as the Empire shifted focus to fight the Rebels, now united as the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The Alliance is led by Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, two Senators.
** The Emperor dissolves the Senate and orders his military second Wilhuff Tarkin to use the newly built Death Star, a planet killer super weapon, to enforce his rule, while his civilian second Sate Pestage handles the bureaucracy.
** Han Solo, would be Imperial Officer, quits the academy after saving Wookie Warrior Chewbacca's life due to personal aversion to Imperial policy and turns into one of the best smugglers in the galaxy (having a Wookie owing a life debt to you really helps in fights, by the way).
** Vader turns out to have fathered twins with Padme Amidala, the Naboo senator after Palpatine became Chancellor, who died due to her life force being drained after giving birth to Luke and Leia. Leia got sent to live with Bail Organa and his wife in the idylic paradise Alderaan as Princess, while Luke got given to his in aunt and uncle at the sandy shithole Tatooine, utterly worthless except as a shadowport since the Rakatans bombed it to dust in such a way as to render minerals mined from it useless due to ion fluctuation after the world defied them. When we said the Jedi degenerated into [[Lawful Stupid]] morons, we meant it, given it was Obi-Wan and Yoda, basically the two big name Jedi of several dozen who had their heads screwed on straight, who made this decision.
** In 0 BBY Leia, by this time a very active but powerless Senator, acquires the Death Star plans after various different missions gather bits and pieces of it and rushes to Tatooine to get Obi-Wan's help on her fathers orders. Obi-Wan was on Tatooine to help guard Luke. Leia's ship and its escorts are intercepted by Vader and his units and her corvette attempts to escape from the battle only to be boarded by Vader's personal elite unit since the Clone Wars, the 501st Legion. Leia is captured but two droids, C-3PO (a protocol droid built by Anakin as a child) and R2-D2 (an astromech that used to belong to Naboo and was used by Anakin in the Clone Wars) manage to escape with the plans which Leia gave to R2-D2. The droids crash onto the planet in an escape shuttle.
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2A02:8070:8787:4AE0:E8A2:5450:48E0:91C1: /* Notable Pre-Disney EU Characters */

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Describing even the cursory information on the sheer number of characters, amount of history, and various factions in [[Star Wars]] is a massive undertaking, and one that cannot be folded into another page. As such, here is a summary of things who either are influential, [[Awesome]], [[Fail]], hilariously meme worthy, or all of the above.

==Main Characters==
* Luke Skywalker: All-round good guy and idealist, despite being a complete idiot, Luke wishes to learn the ways of the Force to defeat the Emperor and save the galaxy. A Jedi prodigy, he can lift heavy ton space fighters with just his force powers, though he struggles with doubts. Although he starts all brash and teenage and shit, by the conclusion of the trilogy, Luke is well on the way to becoming a wise and powerful Jedi ready to rebuild the Order. Mark Hamill observed that Luke's role in Star Wars is that of the comedic "straight man"; a bland Abbott in a galaxy of Costellos.
** In Legends continuity, after ''Return of the Jedi'' Luke worked to restore the order and trained many generations of Jedi including his niece Jaina and nephews Jacen and Anakin as well as his future wife and son. About Luke's family? Long story short, Luke met a woman named Mara Jade, a former Force-using agent of the Emperor who sought to avenge him by killing Luke. But he and Mara were forced to work together to survive a death world before Luke freed her from Palpatine's lies and Mara joined the Jedi Order, where the two eventually fell in love, married and had a son - Ben Skywalker. Before and after this, Luke destroyed massive remnants of the Empire over and over again and also fought off an even bigger threat in the form of an [[Tyranids|extragalactic invasion]] by Force-resistant [[Dark Eldar|space Cenobites]] called Yuuzhan Vong, where he defeated many including their best fighter. Years later, Luke nearly turned to the Dark Side after Mara was murdered, but overcame the temptation though he violated the Jedi Code by attempting to murder her enemies in revenge. Following this he killed a resurrected Palpatine repeatedly and took on his most dangerous single foe in the form of a Force-Cthulhu called Abeloth (who was so dangerous Luke had to make a temporary alliance between the Jedi, the Republic '''and the Sith''' to defeat her). After this he continued to be a great hero until he died in an unspecified manner some time before the Cade Skywalker era, but still existed as a Force Ghost who guided future Jedi.

* Han Solo: Dashing [[rogue]] and space cowboy who somehow shoots his way out of debt to the mob, ends up a general, and bags himself a princess. Not a bad series' work. His ship, the Millennium Falcon, deserves a mention too for being as iconic as he is. In pre-Disney continuity he was once a Swoop (flying motorcycle) racer turned Imperial Officer who shot his superior that was beating a Wookiee to death and gained a lifelong friend in said Wookiee - Chewbacca. He also had three kids with Leia pre-Disney with two sons called Anakin and Jacen and a daughter called Jaina.

* Princess Leia: The regulation piece of lady crumpet in the movies, Princess Leia was a leader in the rebel alliance and (spoiler!) Luke's long lost twin sister. Also both a capable soldier and politician. Her being forced to wear a metal thong by an overweight space slug named Jabba the Hutt has since cemented her role as sex idol to legions of adoring fan boys, while her general [[Awesome|door-kicking deadshot sarcastic asskickery]] made her a feminist icon as well (this was back in the 80's when the two could be the same). With her home planet and entire adoptive family destroyed by the Death Star, she became a General although somehow retained her princesshood (yes, she's now a Disney Princess). In the pre-Disney EU Leia became a full-on Jedi warrior in the and had three kids with Han, one of whom had a daughter of his own.

* Obi-Wan Kenobi: If, at any point, in any work of fiction, the hero has an old master/father figure who teaches him part of what he knows, makes sure that he will grow up to be a virtuous and decent hero, but ultimately dies fighting a great evil to buy the hero time to escape, then returns as a spirit guide for the hero later, the Internet has probably accused that character of ripping off Obi-wan Kenobi. The prequels show him as a young Jedi and a deuterotagonist to Anakin Skywalker, acting as ''his'' master, teacher, partner, and dear friend before their eventual falling out [[FATAL|ends with Anakin losing most of his major extremities and organs]] and Obi-wan hiding out in a cave waiting to turn into Alec Guinness. In hindsight he was a fucking moron to expect Anakin stay sane with his mother separated forever from him and doomed to slavery in a shithole planet. Certainly this won't torment the kid's thoughts about her, what's that? Tuskens tortured her to death? We are the Jedi, we do not take reve- oh well he went Sith. So much for Jedi and their wisdom. He is a great source of memes within the SW fandom, as well as jokingly referred to as Jesus due to his hairstyle in Episode II.

* Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker/"The Chosen One": The black-helmeted face of evil and the most well known villain from Star Wars (and arguably the most recognizable character in cinema, full stop). Has become an iconic and memorable figure due to his menacing, robotic appearance and ultra-deep, wheezy respirator voice. He is [[Meme|(spoiler!)]] secretly Anakin, Luke's fallen Jedi father, thus allowing him to be able to say the most memorable line in the film series, "''I'' am your Father!" Abaddon wishes he could be this sinister. His children eventually manage to rekindle the spark of human decency in his heart, and he redeems himself by giving up his own life to save them and destroy the Emperor. Hates sand. Fun Fact: his portrayal required four actors in the original trilogy: body, voice, face and a stunt double. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okAyvguQucs His scene at the end of ''Rogue One''], where he goes absolutely berserk and tears some puny rebels to shreds, is probably the best in the movie, and one of the best in Star Wars as a whole. [[awesome|It ends with him standing in open space]], something originally intended for the original film and the original reason he was designed with the armor in the first place. The scene was well received, so Disney decided to have him go berserk again in the Star Wars: Rebels TV show (several times) and the video game Jedi: Fallen Order, before giving Maul a scene like it in Clone Wars. To this end, Vader’s recent portrayals (which have taught both neckbeards and the new generation of fans alike to be fucking terrified of him) have led many to claim that the changes to his character is the only thing Disney got right in their ownership of Star Wars (well, that and The Mandalorian. And the Clone Wars(*cough* Grievous)). Hreeeeee-kchooooooosh...

* Padmé Amidala: The future Darth Vader's waifu who spends most of the prequel trilogy being a hopeless idealist (though still has enough presence of mind to keep a blaster handy when diplomacy fails). Swaps out outfits and hairstyles at a near constant rate. Get's choked by Vader and dies giving birth to Luke and Leia, which ironically Vader was trying to prevent in the first place after seeing a vision. [[FAIL|Way to go, dumbass]]. Haven't you ''read'' a work of fiction with that kinda prophecy in it before? Much more skubby than her daughter, largely on account of the writing for her love story with Anakin being poorly received, as well as Natalie Portman's performance being divisive.

* Qui-Gon Jin: Liam Neeson as a Jedi. [[Meme|As such, he had a particular set of skills, skills to recognize a Sith plot]], and would've uncovered and exposed Palpatine if it weren't for Darth Maul's sword going through his gut. In life, Qui-Gon was known to be a gadfly who frequently disagreed with the dogma of the Jedi Council, instead putting his trust in The Force and eventually discovering The Chosen One in a little slave boy on Tatooine. Was the master of Obi-Wan, and tried to teach Anakin the basics from beyond the grave. Qui-Gon had learned the secret of immortality before his death, and passed on his knowledge to Yoda in a spiritual journey, and later to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Thanks to him, he was able to preserve the legacy of the Jedi long after the purge.

* Ahsoka Tano: An orange, female togruta jedi padawan that helps tell the story of growing up. When she was first introduced in the skubtastic Clone Wars movie, she was basically annoying beyond belief and attached to the notoriously reckless Anakin Skywalker. However, she began to grow on fans, eventually becoming a fan favorite. Initially, she dressed only a little better than a Dark Eldar wych, raising serious moral questions about a girl her age dressing that way, but this issue was resolved in season 3 of the clone wars. Her character grows from beyond the simplicity of an <s>(un)</s>amusing wisecracker, much like her master, into a wiser, kinder woman, whose actions speak louder than her words. In the penultimate season of the Clone Wars, she leaves her master and the Jedi order, and some believe that she unintentionally caused Anakin Skywalker to fall to the Dark side (It certainly denied him the title of master since the standard way of gaining that is to raise a Padawan to knight). She reappears in Rebels, where she acts as an agent coordinating rebel cells, and takes on the wise guide and teacher for Ezra and Kanan, two other jedi who are fighting the Empire. Thought to have died in the second season, she is revealed to have been saved, and was alive even up to season 2 of The Mandalorian.

== Disney Main Characters ==

* Rey: Protagonist of the new trilogy. Most people either think she's a sloppily written Mary Sue and wish-fulfillment character for the writers' female-empowerment fetish or that she's a fine protagonist and the former group is just being salty about new things and/or a bunch of [[Neckbeard]]s and [[/pol/]]s. The sequel trilogy's Jedi and maybe the most immediately competent of the three (the others being Luke and Anakin). What invited critique in the first place is the fact she is readily bestowed new, often unexplained abilities as ''the'' means of moving the plot forward, and the few failures she has either turn to successes, or have next to no consequences. While it was foreshadowed she would have piloting skills with the pilot memorabilia in her home from which the audience was supposed to infer she knew how, Disney had to later specifically point out "she literally plays flight sims anytime she isn't working, that's the shit on her table". But since the memorabilia didn't look like a flight sim, some viewers concluded this was an asspull by Disney. To the credit of the writers however, the foreshadowing implies X-Wing obsession so it makes sense that she royally trashes the Falcon trying to escape TIE Fighters with it (like everyone else who played the old X-Wing video games). She also has fucking god tier Force talent, able to pull off Force techniques that took the previous protagonists years to learn such as the Jedi Mind Trick. The sequel semi-explained this with an actual asspull by suggesting the Force balances itself and with only one remaining trained Force user below a master left alive she pretty much got cheat-coded to be at his level as Light Side opposite...although that ignores Luke not gaining the same cheats and the Force users left alive in the Disney EU who have no Dark Side opposites while also relying on information from that same EU (the trippy metaphysical Force entity kind) so it only works if you turn off your brain and give up. Apart from all that, Rey is a scavenger who grew up parent-less in a wreck on a desert planet, earning from the scraps of old Rebel and Imperial machinery. While she's been seen using the Light Side of the Force for the most part, the Dark Side allegedly tugs a great deal in her. She also has a vision of herself as a Sith with a double-bladed red lightsaber similar to Luke's tree vision on Dagobah. Due to a spate of leaks, numerous details were revealed before the release of the film such as her being Sheev's grandaughter and the fate of her parents; Rey's parents hid her on Jakku because they were being hunted and were killed shortly after leaving. After Rey joins forces with Kylo to defeat Palpatine, she actually dies... only to be brought back to life by <s>Pokémon tears</s> <s>true love's first kiss</s> Kylo Ren using the Force to give his life to save hers, and the two share a kiss before Kylo dies. She ends up on Tatooine and with the last of the Skywalker line dead (by technicality, the Force powers always came from Palpatine so it just means Shmi's bloodline is dead) Rey, while gaining no new personality to speak of, [[Blood Ravens|takes the Skywalker last name as her own]] since she will never know her actual last name now. As one might expect from a character touted as a strong female protagonist, Rey is propped up by failures of men, sometimes turned failures after the fact for the purpose of redistributing their successes to her. Because of this Rey remains the only character alive with any Jedi training.

* Finn: A First Order Stormtrooper (serial code FN-2187) who has doubts about the First Order after a battle where he has to shoot innocent civilians and ends up defecting to the Resistance, allowing him to actually aim worth a damn. Finn ends up carrying ''The Force Awakens'' thanks to the acting talents of John Boyega. He probably would have made a much better main character than Rey because at least ''he'' has a fucking ''reason'' to go on a space adventure and undergoes actual character development. He’s basically Kyle Katarn, only he didn’t get to steal the Death Star plans or become a Jedi. The second movie unfortunately rendered Finn a character without an arc, as discussed below. Had a really cool scene where he fights a former squadmate with a lightsaber, before said [[FAIL|squadmate beat him with a big electric stick.]] He also had a second cool scene where he attempts to fight on a trained dark Jedi (not a Sith) with that same lightsaber before getting badly injured, showing tremendous fucking balls (and implying that Kylo Ren, after being shot by a laser crossbow that flings stormtroopers in the air, is about on par with a pissed off Stormtrooper with a lightning sick). Revealed to be Force-sensitive in Rise Of Skywalker, and finds an entire division of Stormtroopers on Endor who quit the First Order as a group the same way he did as an individual; the leader of them replaces Rose as his love interest, despite the same movie implying heavily he has an unrequited love for Rey (later in an interview JJ said he was trying to say he was Force-sensitive, while some fans think his knowledge that she is Palpatine's grandaughter was what he was supposed to say which meant a "why didn't you tell me" plot would follow). Ends the franchise as the general of the ground forces of the Resistance, a famous galactic hero, and probably going to be trained as a Jedi. So yeah, Finn is canon Kyle Katarn from start to finish.

* Poe Dameron: An X-Wing pilot and one of the best pilots in the Resistance who gave Finn his nickname. Poe is the son of an ace pilot and an elite Rebel soldier, who was seemingly conceived in an Ewok hut during the Yubyub song and grew up with a holy Force tree in his yard that was a gift from Luke. Gets captured by the First Order but gets rescued by a defecting Finn and they both escape using a TIE Fighter. Assumed dead by Finn after crashing the TIE Fighter, though ends up coming back shooting down an entire squadron of TIE Fighters. Its never really stated why did he leave Finn behind in the crash site, how did he leave the planet or why did he pretty much abandon his mission of trying to find BB-8. As such he's barely in The Force Awakens. This is because the original script George Lucas proposed for Force Awakens used Poe as a means of Finn escaping, whereupon Finn takes it on himself to complete Poe’s last mission and eventually replace Poe in the Resistance. After Poe’s actor lamented that he dies in every movie, Poe was made to survive the crash and Finn gained a fearful coward who becomes a hero subplot, which unfortunately left both characters with nowhere to go for character arcs. Poe is far more important in The Last Jedi, <nowiki>but not in good ways. He disobeys orders and leads an attack on a First Order capital ship which not only results in the destruction of most of the surviving Resistance small fighters, but delays their escape long enough for the First Order flagship (so large it is essentially a giant capital city for the First Order) to catch up with them and massacre the Resistance. Poe then mutinies when the now-comatose Leia’s subordinate Holdo is put in charge of the Resistance (Ackbar was killed before that because his Voice Actor died, leaving Holdo as highest ranking officer) to enact his own plan using Finn...which fails, resulting in the deaths of most of the rest of the Resistance and the loss of their last capital ship. Poe’s counterattack also fails, and by the end its only thanks to Rey and Luke that anyone survives. By the end, there’s barely enough Resistance left to fill up the Millennium Falcon, although the First Order got it just as bad thanks to Holdo’s last act. In short: Poe is Magnus the Red tier of fuckups (for the same reason too, not being trusted with the truth but with even less justification).</nowiki> OR ALTERNATELY : Poe actually scores a massive victory for the Resistance as he destroys a massive dreadnought that would have wiped out a base on the ground and then some with a squadron of a dozen bombers '''and one fighter to protect them''' at the price of said bombers that were so stupidly designed they would basically kamikaze as their payloads are dropped gradually meaning the first explosion would start a chain going all the way up to the bomber itself. So basically, Poe destroyed a massive enemy asset at the price of some worthless ships but he still gets demoted because he had the common sense to not follow the order to retreat '''as the bombers were already hovering over their target and were completely defenseless in the first place and would have been even worse off during a retreat'''. This order makes so little sense, it's safe to assume it was only put in here so Poe could disobey it and the audience would understand he's a hotshot who doesn't respect the hierarchy while he was in the right in terms of tactics and strategy and it's already a miracle he got the raid to succeed. Essentially, claiming Poe fucked up is like saying blowing up a pillbox full of enemy soldiers and loads of ammo stockpiled in it with a single grenade is "fucking up" because you maybe probably possibly could have saved the grenade for later and made even more damage. If Poe hadn't had the dreadnought destroyed, it would have with ease one-shotted their ships and their base if they would have even got there (especially as the First Order could track the resistance and therefore the Dreadnought would've simply followed them and blown them up immediately). Not to mention that the bombers where the worst designed starships to date. No big loss there. In other words, he is the only reason they survived. Revealed to be a former Spice smuggler who had a criminal crew in Rise Of Skywalker, which is the bulk of his character development for most of the movie since he otherwise just banters with Finn and Rey. He gets friendzoned by his ex twice (his abandonment of their crew '''really''' screwed them over and she decides to forgive him for it, so its not like its out of nowhere to not want to shag) and leads initially the small Resistance fleet before the combined forces of the militias and pirate crews and Rebel veterans suddenly show up, meaning he lead the biggest navy in the entire setting and does it well which mostly makes up for the stupidity of the Last Jedi "character arc".

* Luke Skywalker has become a [[Neckbeard|grumpy old man who just wants the Jedi Order to die with him since he's been disillusioned in people not being shitty now that his shitty-feeling self is considered the least shitty person in the universe.]] [[Rage|He also tried to kill his nephew because he had a bad dream.]] (something many fans, and even '''Mark Hamill himself''' considered out of character for Luke). It takes a direct Force-powered intervention from Leia as well as Yoda's Force ghost telling him "don't worry, we both fucked up and the kids still love our <strike>toys</strike> legends" to get him to nut the fuck up and help stop the First Order by embarrassing Kylo Ren in front of everyone. It got to the point where [[The Last Church|he tried to burn a sacred tree with contained the last books about the Jedi code]]. Yoda appeared as a Force ghost and told Luke the Force weren't limited to buildings or writings, destroying the tree which supposedly contained the last books about the Jedi code and history which turns out to be because Rey had already stolen said books and the destruction of the tree prevented Luke from discovering that fact, ensuring the Jedi will continue regardless of Luke's faith crisis. Of course the old codger gets to become a Force Ghost that resides mostly on Ach-To, so lets see if we won't see our boi Mark again in some future movie or series.

* Han Solo has, unfortunately, suffer from how Harrison Ford always went back and forth on wanting to continue the franchise, mostly because he thoroughly hated Solo and wanted him to die pretty much from day one, only to be thwarted in Empire and again in Jedi by the character's popularity. Ford agreed to return for Episode 7 when Disney finally gave him his wish, having Solo fail to redeem his son Ben and getting a metaphorical and literal lightsaber through the heart for it. Post-Disney Han's origin is covered in a solo movie named Solo. It's generally considered skub.

* Leia manages to somehow [[Roboute Guilliman|survive getting shot into space]] using her force abilities in TLJ, probably the most ridiculous part of the film (which is no mean feat considering the rest of the film). Due to the death of her actress Carrie Fisher (given the amount of cocaine and partying she'd done over the years it was amazing Carrie lived as long as she did) Leia only appears in Episode 9 using altered unused footage from Episodes 7 and 8 along with some dubbed lines, where she's shown training Rey then just dies by fading away.

* Dinn Djarin: the titular Mandalorian from the series of the same name. Dinn belongs to a radical sect of the Mandos called the Children of the Watch, who follow an uber-conservative version of the Mandalorian Creed in which they must not allow anyone to see their faces. Dinn is still an honorable, if reserved and standoffish warrior who works for the Bounty Hunter's Guild in the post-Endor galaxy. He ends up breaking one of his contracts when he's hired to kidnap a young Jedi child named Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) and turn him over to the Imperial Remnant; Dinn instead chooses to be the child's protector and deliver him to whatever Jedi remain in the galaxy. During their adventures he bonds with the child, and eventually learns that not all Mandos follow his extreme version of the Creed, eventually removing his helmet for Grogu's sake as they tearfully part ways. But then, Disney remembered that this duo were breakout stars that gave the franchise a massive shot in the arm, so they ended up reuniting shortly after during Din's latest team-up with Boba.

* The Bad Batch: Officially known as "Clone Force 99", they're a Special Ops squad made up of clones with genetic defects that give them a tactical advantage. Initially introduced in the Clone Wars series, before getting a series of their own. Because of their unique traits they were partially immune to their Inhibitor chips and thus didn't initially obey Order 66, later getting on Tarkin's bad side for being too disobedient and getting branded as traitors. Crosshair betrays them as his inhibitor chip still works; they're joined instead by Omega, the only known female clone of Jango Fett, and apparently part of a contingency plan where she and Boba Fett were to become the new gene template for the clone army. The clones witness the rapid transformation of the Republic into the Empire as they live on the run, likely to include the "decommissioning" of the clone army as a whole. Members are:
** Hunter: Team leader, his "trait" being enhanced senses. Hair and red headband, knife skills, and being a badass commando make his Rambo inspiration obvious. Becomes a father figure to Omega and the moral compass of the team, protecting them from their former brothers and an empire that wants them dead.
** Wrecker: Team bruiser and man-child. [[Space Marine|Is super strong, loves a good fight, and wears bulky black and red armor with skull imagery]]. Though sometimes a victim of the Worf effect, he's generally allowed to be fairly cool. In keeping with his gentle giant image, he takes a shine to Omega sooner than many of the others.
** Tech: The brainy one, which is conveyed by Dee Bradley Baker giving him an English accent. Also more mellow and less abrasive than most of the other squad, getting along fine with the "regs" who the Bad Batch as a whole often disdain and dislike working with.
** Crosshair: Vindicaire Assassin in Star Wars, being a cold-blooded sniper with incredible aim who wears black armor and is fanatically loyal to his fascist employers. With special reflectors he can make his blaster bolts ricochet off of solid surfaces. The team's asshole, he unsurprisingly betrays them in the aftermath of Order 66, though he still cares about his former teammates in his own way, even saving Omega in the Season 1 finale. Wants the rest of the Bad Batch to join him in working for the Empire.
** Echo: Originally a regular Clone Trooper, he was one of the titular rookies in the fan-favorite Season 1 episode, and by the end of the series was the only one still breathing. Now is a member of the Bad Batch, the cybernetic modifications he got while a prisoner of the Separatists making him more than ordinary Clone.
** Omega: A barely useful waste of...(sees giant mouse giving evil eye)...uh, I mean, sweet, endearing kid who befriends the Bad Batch and joins them on their adventures. Revealed to be a female clone of Jango and currently the only known one, making her effectively the Bad Batch's cute little sister despite technically being OLDER than them. Main source of Bad Batch's Skub. Also blonde despite being a Jango clone, likely a subtle reference to how Jango's sister in Legends was blonde. That or she's got some of Maketh Tua's DNA thrown in.

* Cal Kestis: [[Zero Punctuation|Young "Luke Skywalker"-type hero and giner]]; the main character of the Jedi: Fallen Order and upcoming Jedi: Survivor vidya games. Was in hiding after Order 66 on a scrapperyard before being found by the Inquisitorius and taken on a planet-hopping treasure-hunting adventure with former Jedi master Cere Junda and the small-time smuggler Greez. Cal has the ability to use Psychometry, a Force-power that allows him to absorb memories and thoughts connected to items (a Force power made famous by Quinlan Vos), which has made it difficult to live with the lightsaber of his dead mentor. Personality is fairly stock for a Jedi, but does manage to fuck up two Inquisitors, battalions of Stormtroopers, Purge Troopers, vicious fauna and flora and the occasional bounty-hunter with nothing but a scratch on him. Has a thing for ponchos.

== Side Characters ==
* C-3P0 and R2-D2: Two robots trapped in a sexless gay marriage who are the only minor characters to have been in all the movies so far, and even in stories like The Old Republic outside of their millennia of existence will usually have an equivalent. C-3P0 is the shiny golden humanoid robot who constantly fusses about keeping the furniture clean and worries that his pies are getting overdone in the oven while R2-D2 is the brash, brave husband figure who swings into action regardless. He looks like a salt shaker next to the Dalek's pepper shakers, although is he more a plucky rabbit to their rabid wild cats. He's also an angry motherfucker; in Revenge he iced two battledroids by setting them on fire, and his killcount throughout Clone Wars raises the question why the Republic isn't using R2's instead (explained nx the fact that Anakin never resets his memory and thus goes from [[Servitor]] to AI). The robots mostly have comedy roles in the movies, since they might threaten to upstage the human actors if they became too useful, though R2 has an electric cattle prod and serves as the party's computer skillmonkey, while C-3P0 saves the day with his mad linguistic skillz at least once per film in the original trilogy. They starred in their own cartoon series that was surprisingly good. In the pre-Disney EU the two are rarely joined as they are in the films. R2 frequently joins Luke on adventures, giving him someone to talk to during otherwise solo adventures, providing a Doctor Watson like figure even if the droid doesn't add much to the conversation. C-3P0 on the other hand stuck with Leia and assisted her in her duties as mother and head of state. In post Disney continuity the writers don't seem to know what to do with them and they're mostly just there; at least until Rise of Skywalker, where C-3PO's l337 tranzlation skillz are again important to the plot. Both are occasionally funny.

* Chewbacca: The original furry in space, the dog you can have a beer with in the space Winnebago. Nothing sexy about him; he is just hairy, huge, knows how to pilot a space ship, fix stuff, fire a <s>fucking space crossbow</s> gun, and generally get shit done which strangely makes him the coolest furry ever. Best friends with Han, has a family that we can all agree did not appear in the terrible Christmas special that does not exist (he got a much more badass family in the Galactic Battlegrounds games, so go with that). Hates Trandoshans like all Wookiees, since Trandoshans are almost always assholes and are particularly assholish to Wookiees. The prequel trilogy revealed he's REALLY FUCKING OLD thanks to Wookiee lifespan. In post-Disney lore, he is one of the few characters who has lived through the ''entire saga'', including the Clone Wars, the rebellion against the Empire and the resistance against the First Order. In the post-Disney continuity he ultimately generally ignored in endings and the plot overall (ironic that he was the first major character who died in the pre-Disney lore and he's one of the few still alive in post-Disney lore).
**In the pre-Disney continuity he was a slave that the then-Imperial Han saved, then he helped Han save the galaxy. He was also tough as nails having survived numerous injuries and abuse that would've killed most Wookiees, and Wookiees are already tougher than humans. His actual death was getting mooned to death by extragalactic space cenobites - as in they used a gravity manipulation device to smash a moon into the planet Vector Prime while he was accidentally trapped on it. He was hailed as a hero across the galaxy (with the boast among Wookiees that [[Awesome|Chewbacca was so tough, it took something that can wreck a planet to kill him]]) and the fanbase cried or raged at his death; even the authors who killed him off went on record to say they were sad about his death and only did so for the sake of plot.

* Lando Calrissian: Suave, charismatic, and an expert con artist, this guy is the original pirate king in space. He betrays Han and co. when Vader invades his city, later regrets it, and then atones by saving the cast from the Empire as well as the populace of his city at the same time, then helps save Han from the mafia, and finally leading the fleet that blows up the Death Star 2.0. Consistently one of the only two film characters to maintain his original actor in the EU, with Billy Dee Williams showing up for video games, audio dramas, promotional shorts, and the occasional malt liquor ad.

* Yoda: Ancient wise grand master of the Jedi Order who a tiny green alien is. Never named, his species was. Because of his size and age, most assumed just a harmless old teacher he was, your nice old granddad like. His pulling out a lightsaber and engaging a Sith Lord in combat at the end of ''Attack of the Clones'', one of the most surprising and popular fights of the series is. Incredibly powerful in the Force, he is, rivaled by the likes of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Sideous. Became a big franchise mascot he did, despite a surprise for the audience he was meant to be in his first appearance, ruining it for future generations. A unique way of speaking, he has. A very popular target for parody, it has become (though the original trilogy indicated it was just one of many things he was doing to annoy Luke as a test, since he doesn't talk that way to Obi-Wan). A symbol of the Jedi Order's blindness and rigidity in the prequel era, he was. But had a spiritual reawakening, after his journey following the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn. Even after death, a wise mentor he became.

* Wedge Antilles: The anti-redshirt. Has almost no lines in the original movies but somehow survives all of them, even blowing up the second Death Star with Lando. In the EU he is one of, if not ''the'' best starfighter pilot in the galaxy, and co-founder of the über elite Rogue Squadron along with Luke. It also establishes he was the son of humble (mobile) gas station owners who got killed by pirates. After tracking down and killing the pirates, he tried to live to a normal life, but failed when Imperials killed his alliance sympathizing girlfriend. Eventually rises to General after realizing his refusing promotions was screwing the career of everyone under him. Has a weakness of being more of a tactician than a strategist, which extends to his personal character which often fails to see the big picture. The other character to maintain his original actor in most EU works.

* Admiral Ackbar: Giant tactical fish who has the need to point out obvious traps in memetic fashion. Leads the rebel fleet in the sixth film. Dies in the eighth. He has a huge fanbase despite only appearing in a few scenes across the entire film saga and is one of the meme-faces of the fandom alongside Obi-Wan, Anakin and Palpatine. His survival and high rank made him quite prominent in the EU's New Republic works. Pre-Disney was much of the same except he died during the Yuuzhan Vong War (the same war that led to Chewie's death in the Legends).

* Jar-Jar Binks: Solely exists to fuck up everything (and we do mean EVERYTHING) at the worst possible moment. This guy is so hated by everyone in and out of universe that his actor received severe backlash - including '''death threats''', and he even considered suicide because of it - even though he had nothing to do with the writing while also sympathizing with fans' complaints and Lucas shitcanned his role down into a very brief cameo at the end of Episode 3. He's actually something of a tragic figure representing someone good who tries to act to save the galaxy but ended up ruining it instead. All of this only gets more palm-to-head-worthy since Jar Jar was created as a fun kids characters, rather than anything truly important... But of course, [[neckbeards]] gotta rage. Got a depressing meta style sendoff in the Aftermath book after Disney got the rights, which is a shame since it was hinted at in the Clone Wars series that he would marry a powerful alien queen who thinks he's a sex magnet. No really.

* Mace Windu: The original only black dude in space (because everyone forgot about Lando), he was the hardest-as-nails Jedi master of the council during the prequel trilogy and the best swordfighter in the Order, hence his unique purple lightsaber. That, and Sam Jackson wanted his own color to stand out. If Anakin hadn't interfered, he would have killed Darth Sidious and none of the original trilogy would have taken place. His subsequent anti-climatic death in the movie is regarded with annoyance by his fans. His mastery of the Force allows him to channel his anger and enjoyment of battle into his combat style [[Bullshit|without being corrupted by the Dark Side]], basically getting as close to the Dark Side a Jedi can get and still be a Jedi. He can also detect what he calls "shatterpoints", which lets him detect weaknesses to either mess people up in combat or exploit the "for want of a nail" proverb to turn situations to his side. Has a novel, Shatterpoint, which is pretty much Heart of Darkness IN STAR WARS.

* CT-7567/Captain Rex: If the Clone Troopers are the equivalent of Guardsmen, then this guy is the equivalent of the likes of [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|Gaunt]] and [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken|Straken]]. The defacto second-in-command of the 501st Legion under Anakin Skywalker, he fought in nearly every major engagement during the Clone Wars, leading his men through hellish battles like on Geonosis at the beginning of the war and on Mandalore at the end. He has a strong sense of morality and cares for the lives of both the men under him and the officers above him, which meant that he often came into conflict with asshat commanders like the Jedi knight Krell (who treated their troops as little more than disposable cannon fodder). He even managed to face off against dark-side Force users and live- something very few non-Force users are able to accomplish (To get a better picture of what this is like, imagine a sergeant in the guard facing off against a Chaos Space Marine, and living). After the war and his beloved Republic's transformation into the eventually-despised Empire, he and two other clone commanders went into retirement on a backwater world, fishing for worms the size of skyscrapers on an old walker they converted into a mobile home. He was brought out of retirement by a combination of the rebels of Phoenix Squadron, his old friend and commander Ahsoka, and the Empire being their usual backstabbing, overreactive selves, and so resolved to bring down the corrupt regime and restore the nation he had served out of pride (although most clones were programmed to follow the Republic, and specifically the Chancellor, many ended up choosing instead to follow the ideals of the Republic rather than the people in charge, and some even managed to overcome Palpatine's programming via removing the chip he had planted in their heads during the cloning process). To that end, he participated in many Rebel missions. Making him the old man you see with Han Solo's commando group in RoTJ was toyed with, but ultimately rejected due to the character already having an identity in the EU and him having the wrong ethnicity.

* Corran Horn: A Correllian detective who becomes a member of Rogue Squadron during the New Republic. Later becomes a Jedi. His unique bloodline makes him inept at telekinesis, but gives him the unique power of energy absorption. Often accused of being a Mary Sue by people who miss his huge ego and over confidence problem even though right from the start Wedge has to berate him on his putting himself before the squadron. Constantly makes bullheaded mistakes like ignoring his low fuel, causing him to run out of fuel, trying to use his girlfriend's dad infamy to his advantage on someone, before learning ''that's her dad'', thinking having a lightsaber and some ''very'' basic training made him invincible, which would have killed him if bacta didn't exist, and smugly mocked Exar Kun in his temple under the mistaken impression he's physically powerless, only to get mauled in return and needing rescue from Mara Jade. He had legitimate criticism about Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy and told Luke off when Luke tried to warn Corran about the lure of the Dark Side of the Force. Corran was once a police officer and God only knows how corrupt the Correllian police can be, so he's seen his own dark side from "down in the trenches" as it were. Also the only Rogue to ever get downed by SAMs.

* Booster Terrik: A jolly but hot-tempered smuggler boss with a prosthetic eye. Helped Wedge find and kill the pirates who killed his family. Currently working/had to work to reestablish himself after a stint in Kessel, courtesy of Corran Horn's father Hal Horn. Father of Mirax Terrik. That his daughter is dating the son of the guy who put him away drives him crazy, but he eventually gets over it by coming to think of Corran as a Rogue instead of CorSec. Has a serious rivalry with Talon Karrde's organization. A crazy bluff eventually (and inadvertently) leads to him being the sole private owner of an Imperial Star Destroyer, which he operates as a mobile black market known as the Errant Venture.

* Aayla Secura: The space waifu of many a generation of star wars fanboys. A hot Twi'lek jedi chick who dressed skimpy and kicked butt. She was such a popular side character that Lucas took notice of her and added into the second and third prequel movies. Her reason for ditching the traditional jedi robes and showing her midriff was to show pride in Twi'lek culture, as her race tends to be viewed primarily as slaves rather than as an important part of the galaxy. Much like Ahsoka, she wasn't entirely defined by being a hot chick, but had other redeeming characteristics that made her likable, like being mechanically inclined, kind, wise, and somewhat mischievous. Much like Captain Rex, she had a great relationship with clones under her command, and it was rumored she and her Clone Commander had a romantic attachment to each other. Suffers from two tragedies: her death in Revenge of the Sith was brutal, and Disney hasn't done anything with her character since they acquired the franchise. In pre-Disney continuity, Aayla and Jedi master Kit Fisto were rumored to have a romantic attachment to each other.

== Disney Side Characters ==

* BB-8: The R2-D2 replacement and mascot of the new trilogy. Poe's buddy robot, started out as the plot device that the First Order was after in The Force Awakens, saves Finn and Rose's asses twice by taking down prison guards and piloting an AT-ST to attack Stormtroopers in The Last Jedi as well as Poe's in the comic. Saves Rey in Rise and reactivates a small antique droid companion that can speak Common AKA English, giving him his own C-3PO.

* Maz Kanata: An orange alien who knows a lot about the Force. In her backstory she was a Force-sensitive that’s somewhere in Yoda-tier age, but was never trained as a Jedi and instead used her talents to survive among the “third faction” (Hutts, smugglers, mafias, Mandos) while remaining as friendly to the “light side” factions as Hutts are to the “Dark Side” factions. Apparently also a supreme badass, judging from her brief appearance in TLJ. Definitely fucked Chewbacca and somehow survived. She procured Anakin’s/Luke’s blue lightsaber from the depths of the Bespin gas giant simply because she wanted it, and gave it to Rey in Force Awakens as well as some grandmotherly advice to her and Rey. She appears briefly to give the heroes contact information for a codebreaker in The Last Jedi. Joins the Resistance proper for the final movie, but not actually doing much onscreen other than spending some time with Leia.

* Saw Gerrara: Originally a member of the Space Viet Cong, this guy doesn't fuck around. Torture civilians? Check. Massacre entire patrols of Imperials? Check. In fact, his methods were considered so extreme that even the Rebel Alliance wanted nothing to do with him. Strictly speaking, he's a pre-Disney character as his first appearance on-screen was as part of the Clone Wars TV series; his first episode airing the same month that Disney acquired the franchise, making him one of the few characters to make the transition from the small screen to the big screen. Though he gets deaded within the first 30 minutes of Rogue One and does absolutely nothing of any value other than hinder the protagonists long enough to pad the run time, he has a lot more of his back-story filled out in the Rebels TV series. He was played by actor Forest Whitaker, so at least there's that.

* Sabine Wren: One of the main protagonists from the Star Wars Rebels show. A Mandalorian woman with a flair for art, explosions, and kicking Imperial ass, she is probably one of the most recognizable characters from the animated side of Disney canon. At first, she was a patriotic Imperial, designing weapons for the Emperor and his vassal ruler for Mandalore, Gar Saxon, until Gar decided to test one of her weapons on a group of Mandalorians, leading her to be labeled an oath-breaker by her people and cast out from her home-planet of Krownest by her mom. She then spends the events of the TV-series with her new surrogate family, the crew of the rebel freighter *Ghost*, and eventually recovers an ancient sword revered by her people, leading her to reconcile with her past, her birth family, and her people. Now, after the Battle of Endor, she is on a quest with Ahsoka Tano to find her 'totally-not-boyfriend', the Jedi Ezra Bridger, and Grand Admiral Thrawn, as they disappeared into the Unknown Regions following the events of the series finale. Was considered "another Disney female Mary Sue" until she acquired some nice depth in the last season of Rebels, however event before that their are several good moments with her such as her getting captured by Sith Inquisitors and used against Ezra and her fights with Kanan. Overall she is a very likable character and one of the better characters in Rebels.

* Amilyn Holdo: An [[Tumblr|overbearing, purple-haired “Rebel hero”]] and one of the key admirals of the Resistance. If you don't like the direction the Disney canon is going in, this character is your Jar Jar Binks and probably is to you even if you do approve/tolerate it. Her only role was to basically die in style but unfortunately she was pretty forgettable and nobody actually cared when she was atomized, even if it was a really fucking cool death. Tie-in material tried to fix this; the only real requirement for joining the Resistance was "didn’t think Leia was crazy for thinking the First Order was going to perform Star Wars 9/11”, and Holdo was only the captain of a small frigate before her battlefield promotion due to the entire chain of command other than the other frigate commander dying or being incapacitated by a single torpedo blast to the bridge of the Resistance flagship. As a matter of fact, [[skub|her "super-duper secret plan" ends up getting most of the Resistance killed after Finn and Poe fuck it up]], due to the fact that she decided to [[skub|not tell the freshly demoted highest ranking pilot who had just lost the resistance the last of their bombers her plan, causing him to mutiny]], and she only partially redeems herself via [[What|FTL ramming their command ship into the First Order command ship, destroying most of the FO fleet]], which is briefly visually spectacular but [[fluff]]-wise highly.... [[skub|take a guess]]. In the original script there was a subplot about there actually being a First Order spy aboard with the audience knowing in advance that there was a plan that spy could have ruined, but in an absolutely stunning display of terrible choices none of it was even filmed and the story was not changed to cut the references to that dropped plot.

* Rose Tico: A maintenance worker who acts as a tagalong for some of the most boring and annoying parts of The Last Jedi. After losing her sister in the beginning of the movie, she catches her idol Finn (who has apparently become something of a celebrity within the Resistance over the course of the week or so since he defected) trying to desert ship in order to warn Rey not to rendezvous as they were being chased by the First Order's fleet since Leia had given her a beacon indicating a rendezvous point (something that is entirely forgotten about for the rest of the movie, since Rey doesn't even use it to meet up with the Resistance at the end). She later went along with Finn to the Gilded Age planet to find the expert capable of helping them deactivate the First Order's tracking system, and despite literally growing up on a planet like that she still thinks its a great idea to just park their fighter on a luxury beach and run straight into a casino full of arms dealers wearing their military uniforms which results in the two being arrested and meeting a random criminal who sells the two out to the First Order because he overhears them literally explain their entire situation, despite the aforementioned "growing up as either a slave or a poor servant, its kind of unclear" backstory which means she should probably know more than the guy who literally only knows life as a Stormtrooper about shit like that. Her lust for Finn's BBC drives her to cockblock his heroic sacrifice on Salt Hoth before confessing his love for him at the worst possible moment in a plot point that will likely go nowhere. Also delivers the worst line in the entirety of the franchise: "[[What|That's how we are going to win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.]]" Which is even worse because Finn was not fighting a hated foe since he has no hatred towards his enemies and was instead just sacrificing himself for the people he loves. This quantum singularity of [[bullshit]] led to a substantial fraction of TLJ's backlash being directed at her actress despite the fact that she had nothing to do with writing any of it. Said backlash also basically single-handedly torpedoing whatever reputation the Star Wars fandom had with the greater public prior to this. Was an interesting character- how some heroes could come from unlikely places- that got handed shit writing in a movie that was way too crowded with a huge ensemble to begin with, and almost zero development. In The Rise Of Skywalker, instead of giving pithy speeches about love and being oppressed she spends her time doing actual ground crew technician work between battles, when characters are meeting to plan their next move she speaks like a high-ranking member of the Resistance (by process of elimination, but still), and the most important thing; '''she actually gets to participate in a battle and shoots some motherfuckers''' in an attempt address the "her figures don't sell" problem. The plot point of her being in love with Finn is not addressed, like in any way at all, and she has very little screentime so she's pretty much been simultaneously upgraded/downgraded into being the Wedge to Finn's Luke. That last part didn't go over well with a lot of people given her bigger role in VIII, leading to accusations that IX was pandering to the /pol/ crowd by giving Rose so little to say or do. Despite (or maybe because of), getting shafted in the movies proper, the actress has proven fairly game about reprising her role in voice-acting for various projects.

* Torra Doza: D.Va in Star Wars. No seriously. Young female, wears a blue and white bodysuit with gloves, is a pilot, likes video games, cheerful personality, she's got it all...except for being in something that's actually popular. Unfortunately, Torra had the bad luck to be a character in the widely reviled Star Wars: Resistance, which basically guaranteed a status as Skub at best and hated at worst.

== Notable Pre-Disney EU Characters ==
* Thrawn: (See *below under villains since despite being created as part of the Legends - in fact, the 1991 book he debuted in is what began the Star Wars Expanded Universe - he was brought back into canon by Disney)

* Mara Jade: A Force-sensitive former agent of Emperor Palpatine, Star Wars second strong female character after Leia (Nomi Sunrider wasn't high profile or developed enough) and a fiery, snarky, sexy redhead. Taken from her parents at a young age and raised as a servant to Palpatine, Mara trained with him and with his royal guards to become one of several high-level Force-using operatives with the title of "Emperor's Hand", though she used the cover story of being a dancer that Palps liked called Lianna. A life of hard work gave Mara a liking for challenges, and she completed numerous missions for him, living the high life under his patronage. Upon Palpatine's death, he gave Mara one last command and a Force geas - kill Luke Skywalker. Bereft of the Emperor's patronage, without job skills besides spy and assassin and unable to find Luke, Mara was forced to live paycheck to paycheck in numerous jobs until becoming a smuggler under Talon Karrde. When Mara finally met Luke, she tried to kill him but ened up in survival situations that forced them to work together. When she finally learned the the truth of her master and killed and escaped Palpatine's compulsion when she killed Luke's clone. Mara then joined the Jedi Order, and over the years Mara's grudging respect for Luke grew into love - which Luke ironically developed before Mara did despite Luke saying he didn't like fiery women like Mara, and the two eventually married. Then a Yuuzhan Vong agent infected Mara with a deadly bioweapon, and she only survived through using the Force to keep it at bay. When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded at large, she fought while struggling with the virus, being cured of it around the time her and Luke's son Ben was born. After the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, Mara led the Jedi alongside Luke and fought in wars against various aliens and the re-emergent Sith. Years later her nephew Jacen turned to the Dark Side and became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. When he tried to corrupt her son Ben, Mara tracked him down to kill him to protect Ben. During the fight, Jacen killed Mara via cheap shot with a poisoned dart. But before she died, Mara told Jacen off while using the Force to alert Luke and Ben and say goodbye to them (Mara's death was one of the main reasons the book series was hated by fans). She later appeared numerous times as a Force ghost, visiting Luke - at one point to give him tips on how to fight Abeloth, and warning her great-great-grandson Cade Skywalker against the Dark Side. Due to being a sexy redheaded woman with a backstory as a spy-cum-assassin (emphasis on cum for neckbeards) for an evil government before joining the good guys, plus her fiery disposition and penchant for black catsuits, Mara's probably a deliberate ripoff of Black Widow from Marvel Comics (ironically, this didn't stop Disney retconning her from the lore despite Disney now owning both the Marvel brand and Star Wars franchise).

* Ben Skywalker: Son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Named for Obi-Wan Kenobi's pseudonym, Ben grew up learning the ways of the Jedi from his parents. He was close to his uncle, aunt and cousins too. Ben was nearly lured to the Dark Side when his cousin Jacen became a Sith but resisted, and any bond between them was destroyed when Jacen killed Ben's mother Mara. Years later when the Jedi got word of a lost tribe of Sith emerging and an emerging Force psychosis started spreading among the Jedi, Luke, Ben and the Jedi Order went to resolve the problem, Ben joining his father in re-tracing Jacen's steps to try and gain insight. Things went from bad to worse when the Jedi and Sith encountered the Lovecraftian Force Entity Abeloth, a shapeshifting being described as a dozen times stronger in the Force than Luke and able to use both sides of it. Things were so desperate, Ben accepted when Luke got the Jedi and the Sith to form an alliance against her. During this time, Ben encountered Vestara Khoi, a Sith apprentice and daughter of one of their leaders. While firmly on the side of the Jedi, Ben found himself often working alongside Vestara in their mission to stop Abeloth, and was attracted to her; for her part, Vestara reciprocated Ben's feelings but was hindered by Ben's disapproval of Sith. Eventually they confessed their feelings, and the two became a couple (with Vestara also leaving the Sith and trying to become a Jedi). Said co-operation proved invaluable when Abeloth kidnapped Ben and Vestara for the final part of her master plan. After Abeloth's ultimate defeat Vestara, after a ruthless act while fighting Abeloth, became convinced she had much of a Sith mindset to be a Jedi, reverted back to the Sith, ended the relationship by zapping Ben with Sith Lightning before fleeing. Heartbroken but resolute, Ben resolved to track her down and redeem her if possible (unbeknownst to Ben, Vestara was also heartbroken about leaving him).

* Jacen Solo: While George Lucas always had a story idea for a son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side, Jacen Solo was the first incarnation, and a major influence on Disney's Kylo Ren. Born to Leia alongside his twin sister Jaina, he was a skilled Jedi, and often tried to be a calming influence on his younger brother Anakin Solo. Played a pivotal role in the Yuuzhan Vong War, killing their military commander Tsavong Lah and their true leader. However, his experiences during the war took a toll, and Jacen started struggling with the Dark Side. Falling into corruption of a Sith Lady, Jacen fell pretty hard. He became a Colonel in the Galactic Alliance and took control of their secret police and converted it into his own Personal SS division. He [[What|legally coup]] the Chief of State and turn the successor to the NR into a evil democratic republic.

* Jaina Solo: Jaina Solo was a Human female Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order and member of the Jedi High Council. Daughter of Han and Leia, twin sister of Jacen Solo and older sister to Anakin Solo, she inherited her father's mechanical aptitude and her mother's Force sensitivity, resulting in her eventual training at the Jedi Praxeum. During her time there as a youth, she had many adventures, including helping to thwart the Second Imperium, where she helped Zekk abandon the dark side of the Force and join the ranks of the Jedi. She became a distinguished pilot during the Yuuzhan Vong War, which also saw the death of her brother Anakin Solo and the birth of her cousin Ben Skywalker. Becomes the Jedi Saber, the Order's sword against the dark.

* Kyle Katarn: A stormtrooper commander who turns mercenary after learning the Imperials were responsible for the death of his father. After being one of the many people who stole the Death Star plans, he destroys an Imperial super soldier project essentially solo. After this he gets wrapped up in the head inquisitor's plot to revive the Empire and gets trained as a Jedi by a force ghost. Straightforward and prone to snark, but also very easy to trick. Partner (if not more) with hot space Asian Jan Ors. Considered one of the more powerful force users in the New Republic, even outside the games where his power level is rather over the top. Where Luke (and most Jedi) keep the dark side away with spiritualism and positivity, Kyle does it through sheer force of will.

* Talon Karrde: A suave rogue smuggler captain who became the new smuggling and black market kingpin after Jabba died. Compared to his predecessor, he's pretty benign given his preference for tariff evasion and illegal goods over straight up extortion and slaving and being a father to his men instead of someone who executes minions on whims. His favored product is selling obscure and/or stolen information. Explicitly what Han might have become if he didn't join the rebellion. Likes punny ship names, with his flagship the Wild Karrde (Wild Card, plus a pun on his last name) and secondary ships like Lastri's Ort (Last Resort), Uwana Buyer (You want to buy her?) and Amanda Fallow (A man to follow). He makes a business arrangement with Mara Jade when she's trying to track Luke down to kill him, where he provided her information if she worked for him temporarily. Years later he acts as a friend in the black market to the Solos and Skywalkers.

* Bevel Lemelisk: An old EU Character that hasn't been quite retconned out yet (even if Director Krennic and Galen Erso more or less took his place in the overall plot), Lemelisk is the Albert Speer/Wernher von Braun of the Imperial war machine. A genius architect and engineer with a serious boner for mass destruction, he designed the Death Star and several others of the Imperial Superweapons, like the discount Death Star battlestation ''Tarkin'' (kinda like a Proof-of-concept prototype for the Death Star concept) or the ''Eclipse''-class of Super Star Destroyers. He bore the brunt of Palpatines anger for the Death Star's destruction, who had him tortured, executed and ressurrected via cloning several times for his failures. After the Empires defeat, he ended up working for the Hutts and worked on a Death Star knockoff called the Darksaber (which he purposefully sabotaged by not pointing out obvious design flaws and the overall shoddy construction work), where he was captured by the New Republic and executed for war crimes.

* Tsavong Lah: An alien [[Horus|Warmaster]], Tsavong was a member of the Yuuzhan Vong species and in charge of their military during most of the Yuuzhan Vong War. His most notable accomplishments were conquering Coruscant and indirectly causing Anakin Solo's death. Tsavong was a skilled tactician but a poor strategist, [[Commander Kubrik Chenkov|a ruthless fanatic who's willing to throw countless lives away to achieve his goals]]. Also took on the Vong Nom Anor as his advisor, despite hating Anor's self-centeredness and lack of piety. At one point Jacen cut off his foot, so Tsavong [[Awesome|cloned an extinct super-predator so he could prove he was still badass by killing it and using one of its feet as a prosthetic foot]]. Also got caught up in a plot by the [[Haemonculi|Shaper Caste, seeking to control him through his body modifications]]. He also dearly loved his dad - a retired military officer he'd often turn to for advice, to the point that his death made Tsavong mentally unstable. Came to view Jacen Solo as his archnemesis, and was eventually killed by him.

* Nom Anor: A Yuuzhvan Vong member of the Intendant caste. After the events of ROTJ, Nom arrived with a Vong advance force as a saboteur to undermine the galaxy in preparation for the Vong invasion/Yuuzhan Vong War. During this time, Nom worked in disguise to manipulate various groups and even clashed with the Chiss Ascendancy... [[Not As Planned|the capture of some of his agents also clued the Empire in to the coming Vong threat]]. He was also such a selfish schemer even Thanquol would turn his nose up in disgust and a major [[Troll]]; before revealing his true identity, when negotiating with Leia he often dress up and act like Darth Vader just to mess with her. Also notable for being an atheist while the Vong as a whole are characterized by being deeply religious. Before the war, Nom infected Luke's wife Mara with a Vong bioweapon that caused a terminal illness, forcing her to use the Force to stop its progression. When Mara confronted Nom, he tried and failed to kill her and was sent packing. After being heavily demoted, Nom tried to rally the outcast class under the guise of a prophet, only to throw them away when they weren't useful to him. Nom later found his way onto the Supreme Overlord's flagship ([[Asdrubael Vect|not that supreme overlord]]) during the battle to retake Coruscant. When the Supreme Overlord was killed and the ship started falling apart, Nom tried to kill the heroes three times but was always thwarted. When offered the chance to escape with the heroes, Nom realized he'd burned all his bridges; he didn't fit in anywhere and was too proud to reconsider his life choices or face punishment for his role in the war. So Nom chose to stay behind and die on the exploding flagship. Essentially [[Fabius Bile]] as a self-centered alien bureaucrat.

* A'Sharad Hett/Darth Krayt: A human Jedi-turned-Sith. Born A'Sharad Hett, he was born to a Jedi and his wife who somehow managed to live among the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine, he eventually joined the Jedi Order, becoming a Padawan of Jedi Masters Ki-Adi-Mundi, and later, An'ya Kuro. When he was only a teen, Hett's father was murdered by the Jedi assassin Aurra Sing, who was later defeated in a duel by a young A'Sharad Hett. During the Clone Wars, he served the Republic as a General. He met and eventually befriended Anakin Skywalker after Skywalker struggled to come to terms with Hett's Tusken heritage. He managed to survive the Clone Wars and Order 66. He was eventually captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, who [[Haemonculus|tortured and experimented on Hett]], which drove him to the Dark Side.

* Darth Talon: A female Twi'lek from the EU comic series "Star Wars: Legacy" who became a Sith Lord in Darth Krayt's One Sith in 137 ABY. Best known for being one of Star Wars most fanservice-y characters on account of her attractive, tattoo-covered body and always wearing skimpy skin-tight clothing (though the character's creators have gone on record to say her appearance is meant to be primal not sexualized, and the skimpy outfit is to show off her tattoos). Apart from the fanservice, she's also visually distinctive for being a rare red Twi'lek and the aforementioned black Sith tattoos. Appointed personal assassin of Darth Kryat, Talon was sent to kill Luke's descendant Cade Skywalker, then later chosen to be Cade's Sith teacher when Darth Kryat tried to induct him into the Dark Side. During this time, Cade and Talon drew close and w slept together, which may have been Kryat's plan (Cade and Talon are shown kissing, and in one scene Cade is shown getting out of bed while a naked Darth Talon is sleeping next to him). Interestingly, George Lucas' original plan for a sequel trilogy involved Talon corrupting Han and Leia's son to the Dark Side of the Force and Talon was nearly in the Disney trilogy and there is early concept art of her.

* Abeloth: A Lovecraftian female entity strong in both the Light and Dark side of the Force, and one of the most powerful beings in any Star Wars canon. She first lived as the Servant, a mortal woman who served the powerful Ones on an unknown jungle planet over a hundred thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. Over the course of her life, she became the Mother: she kept the peace between the Father's warring Son and Daughter and became a loving part of the family. But she was still mortal—she grew old while her ageless family lived on—and she feared she would lose her precious family. In a desperate attempt to hold onto the life she so loved, she drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge. Her actions corrupted her, transforming the Mother into the twisted, immortal entity known as Abeloth. Has numerous titles such as the Bringer of Chaos and Beloved Queen of the Stars (the latter self-proclaimed). Spent millennia trapped on a planet by the Ones, though she'd escape only to be re-imprisoned once more.

* Natasi Daala: Tarkins lover (which, in a surprising twist for the kinds of stories of stories Star Wars tells, was actually reciprocated), the first woman in the Imperial Navy to hold the rank of Admiral and certified badass. Sets herself apart from other Imperial leaders by being much less of a self-interested power-hungry warmonger and instead being fiercely and unquestionably loyal to the Empire and its ideals, which in turn also made her reasonable enough to not want to rule the Imperial Remnants like Thrawn or others, despite being more than capable of it. Her relationship with Tarkin and her sizeable aptitude as a tactician earned her the position to guard the Ultra-Top-Secret R&D base at the center of the clusters of black holes known as the Maw, where she commanded a small flotilla of four Star Destroyers. After having been isolated from the Empire for over a decade after the Battle of Yavin, never wavering from her posting in spite of the suspisous lack of new directions coming in, she was alerted to the fall of the Emperor when Han Solo accidentally crashed right into her turf. Being mightily pissed off, she proceeded to wreck shit for the New Republic just because she could. Later, she allied with Pellaeon, killed a bunch of imperial remnant warlords and helped him fight the New Republic in a series of battles, but vanished without a trace after she ordered her ship to make an unguided hyperspace jump and was declared dead, but not without giving Pellaeon a code with which he could call her she the need arise.

== Villains ==
* Darth Sidious/Sheev "Can't Peeve the Sheev" Palpatine/The Emperor: A creepy old wrinkly dude who sits in his badass evil throne constantly screaming "[[Just as planned]]!" And occasionally frying fools with force lightning. Built a giant planet-destroying weapon, then built another, bigger one as a trap when the first one blew up. He is very clever, managing to scheme and outwit everyone in the prequel trilogy (not particularly hard, given that every good guy in the prequels was written to be a complete dunce), moving them all into place so he could take over the galaxy (although he still needed a big superweapon anyway to hold onto said power) in the original trilogy and even manages to make [[Just as Planned|everything move to his design]] in the sequel trilogy. Chews so much scenery they had to resort to computer-generated imagery. [[Meme|He is the Senate]]. His survival in the third Disney film was so baffling and unexplained that even the characters had to admit that it made no sense; then again, he was only brought back because Disney had no other choice, having killed off Snoke too soon and Kylo Ren not being a credible enough villain on his own.

* Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin: [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Tywin Lannister]] [[Indrick Boreale|IN SPHESS]] (although, given that Star Wars came first it might be more accurate to say Tywin is Tarkin in Grimdark Fantasy). Ruthless, ambitious, and cold, Grand Moff (Governor) Tarkin is the epitome of all that is Imperial in the SW Universe, and represents all the non-Sith elements that makes the Empire so evil. Started out as a career officier in the republican navy, became promoted by Palpatine after he put down early resistance movements against the Empire with ruthless effiency (including literally crushing protestors with a Star Destroyer). The Clone Wars also showed that he briefly served under Anakins command, where their philosophies showed be to quite compatible (Tarkins cold pragmatism combined with Anakins fierce determination to get the job done at any cost) and became the basis of a deep mutual respect for one another. Also happens to be one of the few characters outside of the force users to figure out that Vader was Anakin on his own. His idea of ruling pretty much comes down to [[Konrad Curze|"They can hate me as long as they fear me"]], which is symbolized ultimately by the Death Star. [[Derp|However, he uses the stick far too often and hardly uses the carrot]], and this policy backfires on him horribly when he destroys Alderaan, a Core World and one of the founders of the Old Republic- for instead of cowing the galaxy into submission, it, along with the Battle of Yavin which saw himself and his battle-station destroyed, [[Fail|galvanized half the galaxy into openly declaring for the Alliance]]. Before the Prequels rewrote the origins of the Imperial superweapon programs entirely, he pioneered the idea of weapons like the Death Star and worked hard to lobby political support from Palpatine and the military for their construction, and was the man in charge for a great number of military R&D developments until his death.

* Jango and Boba Fett: Father and son, though the son is actually an unaltered clone of his father. Badass, mostly-silent mercs who get shit done and come from a line of Spartan/Viking/Māori warriors in space called Mandalorians. Mandos are real hardasses who can go toe-to-toe with Jedi, and the Fetts were no exception. Sadly, both had very anticlimactic deaths, though Boba survived his in the EU, through the power of being too popular with the audience to kill permanently, later having his survival added to Disney Canon. With both of his former employers dead (Jabba and the Empire), and having just survived a fate worse than death and separation from his father's armor, Boba seems to have had time to reconsider his past decisions. He becomes an honorary Tusken after helping out a Tusken tribe that kept him alive, and after getting his armor back from Din Djaren, decides to take Jabba's old position as crimelord of Tatooine. Despite being Jabba's number one enforcer for years, he finds the job a lot harder than it looks, fending off Hutts and local gangs while trying to live up to his Mandalorian heritage and sense of honor. Both of them, ''especially'' Boba, are long-time fan-favorites, but there is also a very vocal and obstinate faction of haters who ''never'' shut up about Boba Fett's falling into the Sarlaac and his limited role in the movies proper. [[Rage|No matter how many times Boba's survival and numerous showings of badassery outside of the movies are pointed out, you can count on the Fett haters to stick to their guns as stubbornly as an Imperial Guardsman down to his last lasgun rounds.]] Sadly, the underperformance of Book of Boba Fett has ensured that the Fett-bashing is likely to continue, with Boba's softer characterization being one of the main points of contention.

* Jabba the Hutt: Obese slug who is a cross between a Mexican drug cartel kingpin and Mafia crime-boss. He runs his criminal enterprise from an old palace-monastery on Tatooine. A [[/d/]]eviant at heart, likes to fap to hot alien chicks dancing for him until they try to escape, then faps even harder when he feeds said chicks to Rancor. His power is such that the Republic, and later the Empire, had to negotiate with him to be able to have some influence in the Outer Rim, because even Sheev Palpatine knows that you don't do shit in the Outer Rim without dealing with the Hutts first. Gets strangled to death by a bikini-wearing Leia with her own chains, because symbolism.

* Thrawn: *Star Wars [[Creed]], if Creed was also a philosophical blue-skinned, red-eyed alien who loved art. Originally introduced in the pre-Disney EU/Legends, Thrawn was so popular Disney soon brought him back into the Disney canon (with a few tweaks to his story). Thrawn was renowned for being one of the few high-ranking aliens in the Galactic Empire and one of the Emperor's best subjects. He originally served as a member of the Chiss Ascendancy, but after being backstabbed (Disney canon retconned this into a ploy; he's still loyal to the Chiss, but pretended to be an exile so he can use the Empire as a buffer state) he signed up with the Galactic Empire and worked with Darth Vader - having met him back when the latter was still a Jedi - and even the Emperor himself. In his tactics, Thrawn notably employed his analysis based around understanding the philosophy and art of his enemies, and was a very capable commander. Always one step ahead of his opponents, Thrawn would frequently outplay both rebels and political rivals by anticipating their actions well in advance, sometimes even using their own plans against them. Literally the only things that can stop Thrawn are insubordination, and things he can't anticipate or control like The Force (and he even found an effective countermeasure for the Force in the form of some Force-resistant Sloths). Thrawn quickly became very well-liked with fans, to the point many considered him the best thing to come from Star Wars since the original trilogy.
** He also set up a vassal Empire called "the Empire of the Hand" to combat an alien menace encroaching on Chiss territory that was considered a threat to the Empire; pre-Disney this was the Yuuzhan Vong (AKA the Far Outsiders, AKA the space cenobites who killed Chewbacca by dropping a moon on him), post-Disney it's Vong-knockoffs called the Grysk. Pre-Disney he was killed by the betrayal of one of his closest aides but is alive and well post-Disney, and was last seen when Ezra used the Force and space whales to yeet Thrawn's ship into the unknown regions with all of them on board. His actual name is the near-unpronounceable Mitth'raw'nuruodo. With his philosophical nature and fetish for art collecting, he's probably a deliberate ripoff of M'Quve from ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', but good luck getting Zahn to admit it.
** Out of all the Empire's elite command, Thrawn stands out not just for being a tactical genius, but also for being a stone-cold pragmatist without falling into Tarkin's genocidial dickery or Vader's open disdain for his own men. He prefers to handle situations with subtlety and long-term success rather than with violence or cruelty for short-term gains. Had he not been saddled with working for such an openly tyrannical dictatorship, he could easily have been a more heroic (if ruthless) military leader when faced with an actual threat to the galaxy at large.

* Gilad Pellaeon: The Watson to Thrawn's Sherlock, Pellaeon was a veteran Imperial Navy Officer in the Legends canon with a career stretching from the Clone Wars to the Vong War. Well liked in-universe and out for being a reasonable, fair-minded person with a sense of honor. Basically the complete opposite of guys like Tarkin. As such, he often gets the role of "Token Good Imperial".

* Count Dooku: An elegant, charismatic, gentlemanly Sith lord and master fencer who had dreams of liberating the galaxy from Republic control, but didn't expect his partner in crime to be a backstabbing douchebag (seeing how he was a full-blown Sith Lord by the time of Attack of the Clones, he really should have seen that coming). Was born as a planetary noble, but gave it all up when he became a Jedi, only to get it all back when he gave up being a Jedi to lead the secessionist movement against the Senate's corruption. In spite of all his unethical activities, including assassination plots against virtuous Separatists while actively promoting war criminals in the CIS military, Dooku genuinely believed that the New Order was going to wipe away corruption in the galaxy, and that even the Jedi would have a place once enough of them saw things his way. Turns out, Palpatine had been playing him just like everyone else during the Clone Wars. Hates Anakin/Vader for not being a gentleman.
** In the novels he's also an alien-hating human supremacist who believes the Empire's purpose is to establish humanity as dominant in GFFA; He'd do well as a citizen of the Imperium if he just changed which Emperor he revered. While actually a very cool villain in the EU, because he was so underdeveloped and underused in the movies proper, most younger or more casual fans (IE: anyone who hates or doesn't care about the EU), tend to dismiss him as boring, making Dooku the "unfavorite" of Palpatine's three apprentices.

* Darth Maul: Horned Sith only concerned with bloodshed and fighting. He'd do well as a Khornate Champion. Had his legs cut off then was brought back more badass than ever, making him obsessed with getting revenge on Obi-Wan, as well as Sideous for casting him aside. He creates a massive criminal syndicate and even conquering the Mandalorians to create a small army that posed a serious threat to Sideous' plans; that is, until he was utterly stomped by Sideous, then gets killed in a duel with an elderly Obi-wan almost 18 years later. Wields a sick-looking double-bladed lightsaber, doesn't actually gets a single line in the first film dubbed in by a different actor, and played by famous martial arts master Ray Park. He was a silent badass in the movie but for some reason he was made very talkative in the animated series. The EU gave him a backstory as the scion of a species of Sith-aligned Force witches that ''The Clone Wars'' later made canon. The director of ''Solo'' picked him out of a hat to be the leader of the nefarious criminal gang Han gets stuck working with, which is not unreasonable given his previously established connections. Despite being a rage-filled maniac, the TV shows gave him a lot of depth, as he recognizes that there are bigger forces at play in the universe, and by the time of his death, puts his hope in the Skywalkers finally defeating Sidious.
** In the Legends canon, he was resurrected by some Dark Side cultists very shortly before A New Hope and sicced on Darth Vader so the writer could have an excuse to give the fans the fight they'd been clamoring for since 1999. Vader sent Maul back to the grave, but not easily. Then his brain was salvaged by some mad scientist and kept alive (somehow), with Maul interacting with the world in a limited way through holographic projections. Luke Skywalker pulled the plug on it though, letting Maul finally die for good.

* General Grievous: An alien cyborg even more fucked up than what Darth Vader would become (being a robot body that was a canister for his eyes, brain, and vital organs), Grievous was the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army during the Prequels and the Clone Wars TV series (both versions), and a sadistic Jedi hunter. His competence is usually portrayed two totally different ways; in the 2D animated TV series (created by the same guy who made [[Samurai Jack|Samurai Jack]]), and other EU material created prior to the second Clone Wars cartoon, he is portrayed as an awesome, unstoppable killing machine who roflstomps experienced Jedi Masters, and is only bested by Mace "The Ace" Windu. In the CGI series and the third film, he is an [[Stupid Evil|incompetent, froth-mouthed imbecile]] with a record of failure that even [[Abaddon]] would laugh at hysterically. (Sadly, the latter was what Lucas originally intended him to be - even if the former is way more awesome). By the end of the clone wars, Grievous and his atrocities against civilians became the public face of the Seperatist cause (while Dooku kept Grievous actions a secret from his allies); The death mask of Grievous became a potent symbol in Imperial propaganda in order to associate resistance to the Empire with the horrors of the Clone Wars - just as Palpatine intended. Ironically, in Legends the Empire gave copies of GG's mask to some of their secret weapons (Terror Troopers and Terror Biodroids namely).
** Actually has a somewhat-tragic past in Legends: he was a great and virtuous hero on his primitive planet, but Dooku arranged for the Separatists to shoot Grievous' shuttle down and harvested his shredded body to repurpose him into their general/assassin. Dooku also lobotomized Grievous in way that reduced him to a raging killer. When Grievous recovered, Dooku then pinned blame for the shuttle crash on the Jedi and Republic, turning him into the OG raging murder-machine we all know and love. In all, a considerably more grimdark past than his other versions.
** In the second Clone Wars cartoon, his backstory is kept vague, but Grievous claims he deliberately chose to become a cyborg in order to become better at killing Jedi (and actually becoming extremely good at it, at least in the first CW, where he cuts down four Jedi with ease). Hated being mistaken for a droid, being compared to a droid and all Jedi - especially Obi-Wan Kenobi. His competence ping-pongs around even more violently than before: Grievous [[What|loses to a barely-trained Padawan]] and [[EPIC FAIL|the fucking Gungan army under Jar Jar and Captain Tarpals]] in a couple episodes while [[grimdark|committing on-screen genocide against the Nightsisters]] and going toe-to-toe with Jedi Masters in others. He was voiced by one of the folks at Lucasarts, who submitted his audition under an alias to make sure he'd get a fair shake. Along with Anthony Daniels, he reprises his role more often than most other Star Wars movie actors.

* Clone Troopers: The predecessors of the Storm Troopers. These soldiers were vat clones of Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett cloned in large numbers, trained from birth in combat and clad in environmentally sealed suits of their famous gleaming white full body armor. Despite being genetically engineered to be perfectly obedient automatons, the Jedi they served under encouraged their individuality, and they began giving themselves names and unique tattoos and haircuts. But when Palpatine activated their inhibitor chips via Order 66, the clones' autonomy was completely overridden (the effect appears to only last a couple weeks, but it is extremely intense) and they executed the Jedi without hesitation. The original clonetroopers served the Republic against the Separatists, and were turned into the stormtroopers after Palpatine's total take-over. A very small minority of clones had their chips successfully removed and fought against the Empire, especially those who formed close bonds with their Jedi generals or local freedom fighters, but the vast majority of the Clones were more loyal to Palpatine than to the Republic itself, and didn't need much convincing to stick with the Empire, with or without inhibitor chips.
** Various sources (even within legends) disagree on the exact reasons why Palpatine replaced the clone troopers: the rebels blew up the gene-banks, the Kaminoans rebelled and created their own clone army, the clones were too susceptible to targeted genome-based biological weapons, or that the clones served their purpose and were too expensive to maintain, especially with their accelerated aging. Remaining Clones either were retired, served as instructors and in the case of the Commandos and the 501st Legion (having proven their loyalty and competence over and over, including at the Kamino uprising), kept serving in pure Fett-template units as Vader's personal enforces. Even they were retired after Hoth due to being too old.
** In Disney Canon, the clones were expendable once they served their purpose of killing the Jedi; removing them from the equation freed up resources for the Death Star and reduced the Empire's dependency on Kamino's cloning facilities. However, enough clones started to mutiny or desert that the Imperial military accelerated their replacement with recruited Stormtroopers.
** The old EU canon had a different take on why the Troopers had little trouble with executing Order 66; where the order was merely one of many (151 in total) contingency plans that would be enacted by either the chancellor or the senate if the existence of the Republic or the functioning of its governing institutions were vitally threatened (the irony was certainly not lost on Palpatine) and were just part of the normal training program of the soldiers. Order 66 was buried under plans for events like the Senate being blown up, the Chancellor becoming incapacitated, Coruscant being destroyed etc. What made Order 66 so insidious was that the Jedi thought it was a protection against renegade force users (not unheard of with Dooku and Ventress running around) and that Palpatine masterminded his scheme in such a way that the legal prerequisites of Order 66 - Jedi staging a coup against the Chancellor or the Senate, which technically was what happened when Windu attacked Palpatine (even more explicitly so in the Novelization, where Windu planned to install the Jedi council as an interim government until the Senate would elect a new chancellor) - was fulfilled with no one there to question it. Combined with the Troopers inherent psychological conditioning and more than one Commander holding serious grudges against many Jedi ensured that the Order would not be questioned even by those Clones who were fond of their generals.
* Stormtroopers: The soldiers of the Galactic Empire. Unlike the Clone Troopers, the vast majority of the stormtroopers are enlisted, typically from the underclasses of war-torn and impoverished worlds. Contrary to popular belief, Stormtroopers are ''not'' the rank and file in the Imperial army, and are more skilled and fanatical, akin to Marines. Still, Stormtroopers are a step down in quality from Clone Troopers (including their armor, with a surviving clone trooper making a point of how awful it is compared to his old wargear), but by this point the Empire didn't really need that many high-quality soldiers when it was more concerned with keeping civilian populations under its thumb. Since the First Order doesn't have a good dental plan to bring in recruits, they instead resort to [[Schola Progenium|kidnapping or buying children and raising them as soldiers]] to fill their mook quota. They are unwaveringly loyal and obedient to the Empire, ruthless and brutally efficient foes in combat, and incredibly precise shots with their state-of-the-art weapons. Naturally, these qualities all go out the window when they encounter the protagonists, but that's life when you're wearing a [[helmet]].
**There are some explanations as to the inconsistency in Stormtrooper quality; one is that the Imperial army is so vast that quality differences are inevitable. Stormtroopers that are an actual threat will defend the core worlds or accompany the more "serious" units, such as the 501st legion. Lesser recruits get sent to rim world backwaters or meat grinder conflicts, making them easier prey for the odd band of rebels or pirates. The rebels learned the hard way, though, that trying to fight a conventional way against the former was just asking for trouble. That being said, by the Original Trilogy, the Empire hadn't fought a war even close to the scale of the Clone Wars before the Rebellion, so there were a lot of inexperienced troopers as well.
** Amusingly enough, Legends indicates that many of the Clone Troopers that actually stayed with the Galactic Empire ''hated'' the Stormtroopers, considering them a pack of incompetent idiots with no sense of their surroundings and terrible aim (which can be taken as a canonization of their memetically awful competence). One source even had Commander Cody (yes, that guy from Revenge of the Sith and the Clone Wars CGI cartoon) stating that he'd sacrifice an entire platoon of Stormtroopers for one real Clone Trooper and noting that Fett would probably kill the lot of them himself.
** Lastly, these boys comes in literally ''all'' the flavors. Variants based on environments (Snow, Desert, Shore and many more) and roles (Heavy, Incinerator, Commando and the elite Death Troopers), ensuring that the Star Wars brand always has a new bunch of cool soldier dudes to make toys off of. When things has to get really dangerous for the heroes, the elite variants are brought in, like the Storm Commandoes, Death Troopers and (in Episode IX), Sith Troopers (no relation to the troops of the same name used by the Sith Empires pre-dating Palpatine).

* Inquisitorius: Darksiders trained by the Empire. While the Rule of Two prevents additional Sith Lords, it says nothing about other force users under their command, especially if they're not given full access to Sith lore and thus can't properly challenge Sith Lords on equal footing. It is not known if Darth Bane expected the Imperial Inquisition or if he would have approved of the Emperor bending the Rule of Two such. Their job is primarily to ferret out the remaining Jedi and other force users, but they are also used for all manner of wet work and internal affairs. Since their first mention ''way'' back in ''The Star Wars Sourcebook'', they have served as enemy force users that while still dire threats could still ''conceivably'' be defeated by the player characters. The source of many prominent antagonists in the expanded universe, including Jerec.

== Disney Villains ==

* The Inquisitors: The Disney version of the above, here reimagined as fallen Jedi who have taken up hunting their fellows for the Empire and wielding spinning double-bladed lightsabers while doing so. Actually rock a pretty boss set of designs overall, but sadly most of them are underdeveloped in both personality and backstory, with the exception of the Grand Inquisitor and Fallen Order's Second Sister. They have a "brother/sister" naming system.
** Grand Inquisitor: Head honcho. An Pau'an who used to be a Jedi Temple Guard before going bad. Voiced by Lucius Malfoy / Admiral Zhao and similarly evil. By far the coolest (and most competent), villain in Season 1 of Rebels, so of course they killed him off. Also shows up in live action in Kenobi where Third Sister stabs him, but his showing up in Rebels later suggests he walked it off, which was confirmed outright in Episode 5 of the Kenobi mini-series.
** Second Sister: Main villain of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and as mentioned above, easily one of the more well-developed of the bunch besides GI himself. Once the Padawan of Cal's mentor in the game Cere, and hates her something fierce for feeling abandoned by her, leading to the Empire capturing her and giving her the [[Inquisition]] / [[Dark Eldar]] treatment. Just when it seems like she ''might'' make amends with Cere, Vader, unhappy that Second Sister failed him, cuts her down on the spot.
** Third Sister: Another one of the better fleshed-out Inquisitors. One of the main villains of Kenobi series on Disney+, hunting him in the hope that Vader will give her a promotion in exchange...or so it seems. Turns out she actually just wants a chance to get close to Vader so she can kill him for murdering her fellow Younglings during Knightfall. But of course, Vader's way out of her weight-class. Can pose and parkour like a superhero, and has a [[Angron|bad temper even by Dark Side standards.]] Character and actress got crap from the [[/pol/|usual offenders]].
** Fourth Sister: Another Inquisitor introduced in Kenobi. Looks a bit like a Twi'lek but isn't listed as one. Not much else to say.
** Fifth Brother: One of the more prominent male Inquisitors besides the GI (enough so that he shows up in Rebels and the Obi-Wan mini-series). Like Third Sister he covets the Grand Inquisitor's position, and the two dislike each-other. Confirmed by the creators as being blind in Rebels, but able to see through the Force. Killed off in Rebels Season 2 when Maul wipes the floor with him.
** Sixth Brother: Minor Inquisitor who's main moment in the sun is fighting Ahsoka and getting killed by her.
** Seventh Sister: One of the two main Inquisitors in Rebels besides Fifth Brother. Voiced by Sarah "Buffy" Michelle Gellar, who is also the wife of Kanan's voice actor, which the writers reference by giving Seventh Sister some flirting. Is a Mirialan like Barriss, but it has yet to be confirmed that the two are one and the same even though it would make sense. Killed off in Rebels Season 2, when Darth Maul takes a page out of Kenobi's book (oh the irony) and cuts her in half.
** Eighth Brother: Throwaway Inquisitor who also dies the most embarrassing death of any Inquisitor to date (his helicopter lightsaber malfunctions and he falls to his death). Cool helmet though.
** Ninth Sister: The "muscle" of the bunch, being big, brutish, and filled with rage. Though beaten by Cal Kestis on Kashyyyk, her death hasn't been confirmed, so we might see more of her.
** Tenth Brother: So far exclusive to the comics, he was once a Jedi in the Clone Wars who tried to off Mace Windu, which went as well as you'd expect. Since Jedi tend to frown on executing people, they sent him into exile...which allowed the Empire to pick him up and turn him into an Inquisitor. Whoops. He eventually bit it when a Jedi manipulated several [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Purge_Trooper Purge Troopers] into Order 66-ing his ass, in a moment of positively delicious irony.

* Agent Kallus: Continuing Star Wars' proud tradition of unsubtly named characters, Kallus is Rebel's equivalent to Asajj Ventress, being the semi-competent, semi-bumbling secondary villain who gets a redemption arc. Was involved in a massacre of Zeb's people, but had not actually ordered said massacre and feels kind of bad about how it all went down. Later joins the Rebel Alliance after Thrawn outs him as a spy. Rocks some Wolverine-esque sideburns, but not the weird haircut to go with it. Art crew considered making him a Chiss based on the concept art, but it seems they decided there's only room for one in the Empire's hierarchy.

* Kylo Ren: A Dark Jedi (not Sith, they technically went extinct with Vader, Sheev, Dooku, and Maul) who is actually the son of Han and Leia, Ben Solo, which the Internet absolutely refused to shut up about after it was leaked. He's mostly based on Jacen Solo from the EU (a son of Han and Leia who became a Jedi then fell to the Dark Side and became a Sith) with his new name likely taken from EU character Kybo Ren and having the same real name as Luke's son from the EU with Mara, Ben Skywalker. He idolizes his grandfather, Darth Vader and wears a black suit and a mask to show this. He wields a unique crossguard lightsaber. People thought he would be a badass after seeing the trailers but after seeing the movie, he turned out to be a half-naked pussy looking like a gay Turkish oil wrestler who very often gets temper tantrums and gets his ass kicked by a teenage girl (though to be fair, if he had been a complete badass, everyone would’ve just complained that he was a rehash of Vader. So, you know, rock and a hard place. Also he only had his ass beat since he was already shot by a bowcaster and stabbed with a lightsaber, so fighting even in spite of that is pretty badass). Kylo's character became significantly more fleshed out in TLJ, ironically making him one of the only characters to have actual development in the whole movie. Between that and Kylo's actor Adam Driver being really bro-tier about the whole situation (he even appeared in a skit as Kylo which also included poking fun at Kylo's emo traits), Kylo has managed to win over many fans, with some citing him as probably the most interesting character in the Sequels. Serves Palpatine before turning on him with Rey and gives his life to heal her, scoring a kiss with her before he dies redeemed as Ben, ala Vader dying as Anakin. This relationship between Rey and Kylo ''sharply'' divided the fanbase and created some extreme reactions. The worst cases were some extremely rabid Kylo/Rey shippers who insisted Adam and Daisy Ridley - Rey's actor - become a real-life couple (despite both being in separate relationships), to the point that they '''harassed Daisy Ridley's boyfriend on social media, harassed Adam Driver along with his family (including stalking them and sending messages hoping for the deaths of Adam's wife and/or newborn son) and made death threats against JJ Abrams''' (far surpassing practically any other Star Wars backlash, even the death threats thrown at Ahmed Best - Jar Jar's VA - and the purported backlash against Kelly Marie Tran - Rose Tico's actress); it cannot even be “justified” (and justified is used ''very'' loosely here) as the ravings of butthurt ultra-fanboys, this crossed the line into full-on bullshit. To repeat, this one was Skub incarnate. Most fans either adore the Reylo ship or absolutely hate it with a passion.

* Snoke: Supreme Leader of the First Order who speaks to his underlings through a massive hologram. <s> Very little is known about him at the moment. Though many fan theories say that he is Darth Plagueis, the old master of Palpatine who was assumed dead (everyone assumes every new Darksider is him, though, so grain of salt) the powers that be have repeatedly denied the theory (though it's admittedly a better guess than suggesting that Snoke is [[What|Mace Windu, Boba Fett, or a clone of Darth Vader]], which we would like to stress are [[Derp|actual fan theories]])...unfortunately, we will have to wait for an inevitable comic book or novel to explain it, since he [[RAGE|gets killed like a chump by his own servant, Kylo "Emofag" Ren.]] It is possible he may return given that the ring on his finger has inscriptions that translate to various rephrasing of “survive death” that is carved from the stone of Darth Vader's lava castle (yes, you read that right), but that may actually be a nod to Palpatine’s EU resurrections.</s> Turns out to be a genetically engineered pawn of Palpatine's, like he was literally born looking as shriveled and injured as he did and had some kind of fabricated backstory like an organic Blade Runner Replicant. So in sum, a dime-store Palpatine knock-off.

* General Hux: The First Order's Tarkin equivalent and a moustache-less ginger Hitler in space. Delivers a pretty cool speech, but can't fight to save his life. The backstory for Hux is his father was an Imperial hero, and Hux wants to be the First Order version of his old man and lead the FO to a final victory. Hux openly dislikes Kylo Ren and has frustration with the Force-users borders on meta at times. Spends most of TLJ as a foil to the edgier and more toyetic bad guys, but he seems to be the only one to have noticed how impractical the Empire/FO's fuckhuge weaponry can be when you're fighting something smaller than a planet and have lost the element of surprise. Becomes Kylo Ren's comic relief ginger prison bitch at the end of TLJ, although he has an interesting scene where he was about to finish off the unconscious Kylo until he woke up. Sent some very simple info to the Resistance in Rise Of Skywalker that set off the movie plot (mostly by making them take the info they already had seriously) and later helped the main characters escape, and was immediately shot for his efforts. He is never mentioned again.

* Captain Phasma: A First Order operative in charge of instructing the new Stormtrooper legions, Phasma serves as the Boba Fett of TFA - which is to say that she does nothing of note other than stand around and look cool until she figuratively and literally gets thrown into the trash in Force Awakens. Lucasfilm have apologized for overadvertising the character in the lead-up to the film since she was just supposed to look cool and do nothing like Boba Fett originally did but the huge presence of her in the marketing implied she was going to be a major character (remember, Jar Jar and generic Battle Droids had far more merch than Maul during the release of Episode 1) and have promised to give Phasma an actual role and backstory for TLJ that will play into Finn's story. (This turned out to be bullshit due to the fucked-up nature of TLJ's production, but the reshoots managed to give her a good showing anyway.) Her backstory was released in a novel where she was a tribal on a planet the Empire stripped into the stone age, who backstabbed her tribe for a stronger tribe, backstabbed her second tribe and brother to rescue a stranded Imperial officer and join the Empire, backstabbed her mentor to become the supreme commander of the Stormtrooper Corps in the First Order, then in the comic series she was shown to have survived the trash compactor when a Resistance bomb blew it up and she entirely disregarded everything (including saving Starkiller Base or Kylo Ren) to backstab and frame one of her subordinates for lowering the shields then promptly hunted him down to “bring him to justice”. So [[Skaven|she’s a spear-wielding backstabber extraordinaire.]] At the present she's got a nasty scar on one eye where her hyper durable helmet was busted in, and fell into a fire on a shattered starship to her confirmed demise. Worth mentioning that even many folks who liked TLJ considered this an unsatisfying send-off.

* Commander Pyre: The gold and male version of Phasma, and often the closest thing [[Fail|Star Wars: Resistance]] had to a big bad due to being in charge of most of the First Order's operations in the show. More active than Phasma usually is, but still not likely to become anybody's favorite new villain. And then he died, and no-one fucking cared.

* The Knights of Ren: The Dark Side warriors who Kylo is the leader of, each one having their own unique look and signature weapon. Also probably one of the biggest bits of [[Fail]] in the Sequel Trilogy on account of being teased in the first movie but completely absent in the second, and saying and doing absolutely nothing in the third before being unceremoniously killed off. Seriously, if you're one of those people who grouses about Boba Fett not having enough to do in the Original Trilogy, the way these guys are handled will drive you crazy. To put it into perspective, a ''non-canon LEGO short-film on Disney+'' gave these guys more characterization than the actual Sequel Trilogy did.

== Old Republic Characters ==

* Revan: Simply put, you'd be hard-pressed to find an EU character with a bigger following than Revan, and with good reason: the protagonist of one of the most beloved Star Wars games of all time, ultra-powerful, awesome design, red and purple lightsabers...he's got it all. This is reflected in how he's one of the only EU characters to get an official LEGO minifigure, action figures, a Gentle Giant bust, etc. For backstory, Revan was a bit similar to Anakin in that he was a talented but headstrong young Jedi who during the course of a war (in this case the Mandalorian Wars), got corrupted and fell to the Dark Side. From there became a Sith Lord who waged war on the very Republic he had led/saved before being betrayed by his cowardly dipshit apprentice Malak. One quick round of mind-wiping later, and the Jedi and Republic had themselves <s>a new tool and patsy</s> an important new ally for stopping Darth Malak, who had quickly proven to be a much worse Sith Lord than Revan had been (go figure). That's where the player comes in. After defeating Darth Malak, and remembering his true identity along the way, Revan goes off to fight an "I can't believe it's not Palpatine" Sith Emperor dwelling in the Unknown Regions and disappears. Later returns in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but how the game and its expansions portray him and end his story were divisive to put it mildly. Which is why we're going to skip right over that minefield in favor of giving a neutral summary of it in the timeline section.
**Interestingly, the kind of Sith Lord he was differs somewhat depending on the source. The first game actually depicts his Sith Lord phase as being fairly par for the course: wanting power for power's sake, social darwinist, etc. But the sequel and other sources have instead cast him as more of a [[The God-Emperor of Mankind|visionary who was trying to save/prepare the Galaxy for approaching horrors but also felt that only he had what it took to lead the effort, hence his war of conquest.]]

* Jedi Exile / Meetra Surik: The main character of the second game, and nowhere near as popular as Revan despite the fact that the fondness for her game is at least as strong among older EU fans. Started out as a general under Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. During the big battle of Malachor V, she activated a doomsday weapon that won the battle, but killed so many people and fucked up the planet so hard, that Meetra was shell-shocked and became cut off from the Force. Oh, and kicked out of the Jedi Order. The second game begins with her slowly rediscovering her connection to the Force under the guidance of a mysterious woman who totally won't later turn out to be a villain with an agenda. Her adventures take her to places recovering from the recent Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, and she gets to team up with some of the few surviving Jedi Masters until her mentor kills them near the end of the game. After putting the old woman out of her misery and also stopping the other Sith Lords who have been treating the Galaxy like their personal murder-playground, she follows Revan's lead and disappears into the Unknown Regions. Her anti-climactic death in a subsequent novel drew all sorts of white-hot [[Rage]].

* Carth Onasi: Quite possibly the skubbiest character to ever come out of a Star Wars video game. A Mandalorian Wars veteran and your first permanent party member in the first game, his betrayal by his old mentor and then said mentor's bombing his homeworld and killing his wife has left him with major trust issues. But he's also the romance option if you're playing female, and so many a fan ships him with the female Revan even as others find him whiny and annoying. In a case of history repeating itself, his voice actor would go on to voice ''another'' party member in a Bioware game set in space who is a polarizing romance option for female players. Also shows up in the second game as an NPC, so long as you don't decide that Revan was evil in the first game. "If you find Revan, tell him... tell him that Admiral Onasi is carrying on his duty".

* Bastila Shan: A Jedi with a talent for Battle Meditation (a Force power that basically makes the user's side significantly better in a given fight), Bastila is the one who faced down Revan when Malak betrayed him. Outwardly haughty, holier-than-thou, and a complete stickler for doing things the by-the-book Jedi way. Actually very insecure, and one of many examples of Bioware's fondness for the defrosting ice queen archetype. The romance option for male Revans (and by extension his canonical love interest), she gets captured by Malak later in the game and tortured into becoming his new apprentice, at which point the player has to decide to join her or not. Canonically, Revan doesn't join her but instead gets her to rejoin the Jedi. The two of them get hitched in the period after the game, but then duty calls so Revan has to abandon his wife, much to the unhappiness of many a KotoR fan. Her love story with Revan is roasted by HK-47 in the second game, while Bastila herself makes a return appearance in a minor role.
** Satele Shan: Bastila and Revan's descendant, and having the same voice actress and preference for double-bladed lightsabers as the former, and a similar talent for Battle Meditation too. Appears in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Also had a kid with a Republic soldier as it turns out and later formed an unlikely friendship with the Sith Lord Darth Marr. Said kid was a Republic Spy and was one of the best bros in SWTOR.

* HK-47: In running for the most popular character to come out of KotoR other than Revan himself, HK is basically a blend of Bender and Deadpool, being a sociopathic-but-funny anti-hero who enjoys violence, advocates for violence as a solution to all problems, and calls everyone meatbags (except his beloved master of course). Has a strange verbal quirk where he says the kind of speech he's going to say before saying it (IE: if asking a question, he'll first say "query"). So popular that he later showed up in an expansion for Star Wars: Galaxies despite that game taking place ''thousands of years after his debut appearance''. Got some would-be-replacements in the second KotoR game in the HK-50s, and hates their guts. SWTOR would also give him a successor in HK-55, as well as yet another appearance from the original...before he gets scrapped. As already stated, he shows up on Mustafar later, so he must have gotten rebuilt at some point.

* Canderous Ordo: A Mandalorian veteran of the war who has become a cynical and ruthless mercenary before deciding to join Revan. Actually very pro-Revan, respecting him for being a good warrior and tactician and actually being able to kick his people's teeth in. Becomes the new Mandalore in the second game. So in short, basically the Boba Fett of his day, and accordingly is one of the more popular characters. Unfortunately got his legacy tarnished when the Mandalorians joined the Reformed Sith Empire in the Great Galactic War, though they dodged the karma backlash until thousands of years later in the Great Peace of the Republic.

* Mission and Zaalbar: A young twi'lek and her Wookie buddy, they're ostensibly the game's Han and Chewbacca, but are actually very different. Mission is the spunky-but-somewhat naive female with a can-do attitude who manages to be interesting and not insufferable despite what that description might suggest, and Zaalbar is a depressed exile who's brother is a sociopath that's willing to sell his own people into slavery for profit. Sadly nowhere to be found in the game's sequel.

* Juhani: A Cathar (no, not the Medieval Christian sect condemned as heretical), Jedi who is introduced as a failed Padawan who's in a sufficiently bad mood that she's caused all of the planet's local Kath Hounds (basically lion-dogs) to get extra-aggressive. Dealing with her is part of the player's Jedi Trials needed to pass to become a Padawan, and assuming the player doesn't off her, she later joins as a party member. Probably most famous/remembered for being one of the first LGBT Star Wars characters, and her girlfriend will fall to the Dark Side if you did kill her. Alternatively, female players can hook up with her also.

* Jolee Bindo: A cranky old man living in Kashyyyk's shadowlands who is actually a Jedi living in self-imposed exile. Something of an "unorthodox" Jedi, he adheres firmly to the good parts of the Jedi belief system while relentlessly roasting the bad and dumb parts, such as the Jedi's general aversion to love and families. This, coupled with his often hilarious "back in my day" cranky old man lines, have made him another one of the more popular characters to come out of the first game.

* Atton Rand: He is as Atton as Atton will ever be! Initially appears to be a Han Solo clone, but it turns out this is a front to hide something much darker: he's a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars who, pissed that the Jedi sat the war out but had no problem fighting him and his fellows when Revan became a Sith Lord, reinvented himself as basically a serial killer of Jedi. Eventually, his conscience caught up with him and he struck out on his own. As the ship's pilot and a romance option for female players, he takes over some of the roles of Carth Onasi, but is a lot less skubby, his overall reputation with the fans being a lot stronger (everyone likes a bad boy). Meetra redeemed him into being a Jedi.

* Bao-Dur: Zabrak Carth, being like him a staunchly pro-Republic goody-two-shoes who hates Mandalorians and gets into arguments with Canderous. Is missing an arm but replaces it with an energy field that connects the metal hand to the shoulder, which is different from most Star Wars characters who lose limbs. Also has a pet remote and helps the player character get their first lightsaber. Notably, he is one of the only characters who's futures Kreia isn't able to glimpse into at the end of the game, suggesting the writers either had specific plans in mind for Bao-Dur in an unmade sequel...or that they just got lazy. Meetra also made him a Jedi.

* Brianna the Handmaiden: Only joins if the player is male (and yes, is a potential love interest option). Due to being a handmaiden to the most insufferably puritanical Jedi Master ever, she's been fairly indoctrinated to have an extremely black and white view of what is and is not acceptable behavior for a Jedi. Dislikes Atton (and vice-versa), and may be Kreia's daughter. Member of the Echani, a species that look a lot like humans but white haired and apparently all martial artists. Don't let her slender figure fool you; she's one of the best melee fighters in the second game, especially if made into a Jedi or Dark Jedi. Giving her a double saber is just mean, and is definitely the best leader on the Dxun team for the party splitting on Onderon and Dxun mission (though Atton's skill-set and Visas' power make them good alternatives to the point that the game guide recommends picking one of them, Mira and Bao-Dur are also good picks as team members to stealth through the mines and slice respectively). Canonically traveled with Meetra even though she was female and became a Jedi.

* Mira: One of the many, many tough, sarcastic redheads in Star Wars' old EU, she's a bounty hunter who, unusually for a character in Star Wars, is actually reluctant to kill people and prefers to avoid doing so. She also has a wrist-launcher that shoots out various projectiles. Has history with the Mandalorians but doesn't really identify as one. One of the more popular characters to come out of the sequel, but you won't get her if you're Dark Side unless you start off Neutral or Light Side on Nar Shadda and ''then'' turn into a dick after getting her on your team. As many people prefer Mira, this is exactly what some Dark Side players do. Meetra made her a Jedi.

* Hanharr: The Anti-Chewbacca, being a bloodthirsty, vicious psychopath who was doing the whole "evil Wookie bounty hunter" thing long before Black Krrsantan was ever a thing. Joins the player if the latter is Dark Side and fittingly for a Wookie who would have done well in Khorne's service, is a melee powerhouse. Actually very depressed to the point of secretly wanting to die, which is part of why he hates Mira for not killing him/constantly hounds her and attacks her; he's always hoping she'll put him out of his misery. Also [[Grimdark|killed his own tribe to keep them from being enslaved due to deciding they were better off dead.]] Mira put him down on Malachor V after she realized that his suicidal state made it impossible to help him.

* Mical the Disciple: The Handmaiden's counterpart, joining only if you're playing female (canonically he accompanied the female Meetra). A very nice and pleasant guy and one of the least morally compromised of the sequel's party members. And this in turn is exactly why some people find him boring relative to the more flawed Atton, though he's also often compared unfavorably to the Handmaiden as well due to the feeling that she's more useful in fights. Secretly a spy for the Republic, though most would say its not much of a secret. And guess what, Meetra made him a Jedi.

* Visas Marr: A Miraluka who has been Darth Nihilus' "apprentice" (by which we mean slave) for an untold period. Unsurprisingly leaps at the chance to ditch him for the player character the first chance she gets. A romance option for male players, to the absolute fury of the Handmaiden (to the point that she might stop speaking to you depending on how things go). Can be talked into killing herself to hurt her ex-boss in the final battle with him, but because Visas is cool hardly anyone takes this option even if playing Dark Side. Gets bonus points for being voiced by Kelly Hu. Canonically Meetra redeemed her to the light side (though it's not a redemption so much as a "literally anything is better than her current situation").

* GO-TO: No, no. Not [[C.S. Goto|he-who-must-be-named and who is universally despised and shunned]]. This is a different GO-TO, who is a droid that runs the Galaxy's largest crime syndicate. Looks exactly like the torture droids used by the Empire despite existing well before the Empire's time. An interesting character, but as he's considered pretty useless in a fight, most players hardly ever use him. Canonically blown up on Malachor after he got stuck with Bao-Dur's remote during the final mission of KOTOR 2.

* Vrook Lamar: Where Jolee Bindo is a funny cranky old man Jedi Master, Vrook is the opposite. Generally fitting the negative perception of "humorless jerk Jedi Master who preaches and lectures a lot", Vrook is one of the few characters to appear in both games. Dark Side players will kill him, and for all his grumbling, this old geezer has the skills and power to back it up. Doesn't save him from Darth Traya in the canonical Light Side path even with Master Zez-Kai Ell and Master Kavar being with him though.

* SWTOR PCs: A Jedi Knight, a Jedi Consular, a Republic Special Forces Soldier, a Smuggler, a Sith Warrior, a slave-turned Sith Inquisitor, a Bounty Hunter who can join the Mandolorians, and a Sith-Imperial Spy. The Eternal Empire/Eternal Throne expansions are basically a continuation of the Jedi Knight's story, though the Outlander's actual background is purposefully kept vague and the story can be tackled with any class. With that said, the story makes a heck of a lot more sense if its one of the Force-Sensitive classes (as otherwise you have silly things like Arcann losing to a Smuggler or a Bounty Hunter). Since their names are player-generated, each one has a title that the fanbase knows them by. Specifically:
** Jedi Knight: The Hero of Tython
** Jedi Consular: The Barsen'thor
** Republic Trooper: Havoc Squad Commander (or by the callsign, Meteor)
** Smuggler: Voidhound
** Sith Warrior: Emperor's Wrath
** Sith Inquisitor: Lord Kallig (actually a surname, the Inquisitor was a slave unaware of the lineage from Sith Lord Aloysius Kallig, later changes to a Darth title that differs depending on your alignment, Imperious for Light Side, Occlus for Neutral and Nox for Dark Side)
** Imperial Agent: Cipher-9
** Bounty Hunter: The Great Hunt Champion
** The one who went on to become the expansion PC is referred to as the Outlander, later the Alliance Commander and after the anti-Zakuul coalition dissolves simply as Commander. For the purposes of default timeline, we will assume that the Hero of Tython is the PC as that makes the most sense story-wise.

== Old Republic Villains==

* Darth Malak: Revan's former apprentice who turned on him because that's what Sith Lords do, and because Malak is a jerk. Unfortunately for the Republic and Jedi, it soon became clear that if Revan was like the Emperor of Man or Vlad von Carstein, Malak was closer to Abbadon or Konrad von Carstein, being that ever-disastrous mix of vicious and stupid. Where people often talk about Revan as a [[Tzeentch|tactical and strategic genius with a real talent for scheming and planning out victories]], Malak always goes for the bluntest, most brutally violent solution. Can't find a single person on a planet? [[Exterminatus|Bomb it]]. Wants to get Jedi on his side? [[Inquisition|Torture them until they join]]. And so on. As a consequence of pissing his master off at least once before betraying him, he's missing his lower jaw, hence the machinery where it used to be. We get a look at him without it on towards the end of the game, and its appropriately grisly.

* Darth Bandon: Malak's utterly generic and forgettable apprentice, who is basically the writers thinking "what if we did Darth Maul, but without the [[Awesome]]?Just about the only memorable thing he does is kill the Republic Soldier Trask Ulgo who helped amnesiac Revan escape the ship crash in the beginning of the game. Fittingly, he's disposed of by Revan and then basically never brought up again. Like Calo Nord, he leaves behind an outfit that doesn't look anything like his actual outfit.

* Darth Traya / Kreia: The main villain of the sequel, though she initially appears as an enigmatic mentor to the Jedi Exile. Generally remembered for her unique philosophy that is often highly critical of both the Jedi and the Sith, and is later revealed to hate the Force itself due to viewing it as a malicious deity (the lead writer has actually admitted that he basically used Kreia as a mouthpiece for things about the Force as a concept that bothered him). This unique perspective on the Force and her regular challenges of the player's actions, motives, and beliefs, has led to Kreia becoming a favorite among fans and critics alike. That her view of the Force is factually incorrect does little to change this (though to be fair, she doesn't have the benefit of knowing everything the audience knows). Was also Revan's Jedi Master as part of her backstory, and clearly still has fond memories of him, as he's one of the only characters she speaks about in an even remotely flattering way. There's also evidence to suggest that she might be the mother of one of the other party members, the Handmaiden, but this has never been conclusively confirmed.

* Darth Nihilus: Another fan-favorite to come out of the KotoR games, Nihilus is the poster-boy for the sequel despite not being the main villain and in fact having the least characterization of the three main Sith Lords. But, he's got the coolest look and has the highest intimidation factor, so he became a huge hit with fans anyway. Voice sounds vaguely like a toilet getting backed up and/or audio from Minecraft, but its much creepier/cooler than that sounds. Specializes in Drain Life, a Force power where the user sucks the life of a person or persons and gives it to themselves. Has become so addicted to using this power that he's become basically a wraith and needs to sate his hunger constantly, even on the planetary level, making him vaguely a Star Wars version of Galactus. Sadly, you can't ever wear his mask in the game, but you can get it as an item after killing him. To SWTOR's credit, you can wear it there.

* Darth Sion: A walking corpse of a Sith Lord whose main shtick is regenerating over and over again, hence his current physical appearance. Gets a crush on the Exile if she's female, and the Exile eventually convinces him to let go of his pain, causing him to die for good. Weirdly, he was also an alternate skin for Galen Marek in the later Force Unleashed game when no other characters from KotoR were.

* Atris: If ever there was a single character who perfectly embodied every negative stereotype about the Jedi, and was everything fans criticize about the Jedi distilled into a single character, it would be Atris. Self-righteous, rude, and more dogmatic and sanctimonious then a bus full of puritans, Atris quickly established herself as a hated character, especially with her constant insulting and lecturing of the Jedi Exile. She also kept the Exile's original lightsaber that she was forced to surrender because she's that petty. Turns out, of course, that she's fallen to the Dark Side from her study of Sith Holocrons, making all of her posturing and bluster completely hypocritical. Her Handmaidens are assholes too, with the exception of the one who joins you. The good news is, because she's gone Dark Side, you don't need to play a villain to have an excuse to cut her down. Though making her eat her words by sparing her and lecturing her right back as she realizes how badly she has been fucking up since the Mandalorian Wars started is on an entirely different level of satisfactory. Meetra most probably spared her and let her spend the rest of her miserable life in depression.

* The HK-50s: The "next-gen" HK-47s that appear in the sequel. Unlike HK-47, they are very much ''not'' on the player's side and are a recurring enemy throughout the game. A subtle difference between them and the original, is that while HK-47 enjoys knowing how to kill efficiently and/or with style, the HK-50s just enjoy killing period. This is why HK-47 hates them.

* Calo Nord: The first KotoR game's equivalent to Jango/Cad Bane, being the top bounty hunter of his day who dual wields blaster pistols. Doesn't save him from getting killed by Revan and company when they go to the first of four planets in their Star Map hunt. Short in temper and stature both, but weirdly leaves behind a shiny set of silver armor after he dies that fits everyone in the party perfectly despite being taller than him (with said armor also looking nothing like his outfit in the game).

* Darth Malgus: Though he was initially dismissed as a lazy blend of Vader and Malak when first introduced in SWTOR's announcement cinematic, this big, bald Sith has actually developed a solid following after both SWTOR and a tie-in novel told from his perspective came out. Where many other Sith in the Empire Malgus is a part of are alien-hating assholes with no real redeeming features, Malgus is depicted as more egalitarian. And while a believer in Sith ideals, argues that wars and other conflicts are necessary for people to grow and realize their full potential. Pulled a Kaiser Soze on his wife when his enemies tried to use her against him, and after a failed bid to become the new Sith Emperor later turned on the Sith in the pursuit of his own agenda, making him something of a spiritual successor to previous Old Republic Sith villains Revan and Traya. In short, he's generally seen as one of the better characters/things to come out of the fairly skubby SWTOR game and tie-ins.

* The Sith Emperor: Very blatantly a Palpatine rip-off who serves as the main villain of SWTOR. Revealed to have been the one who finished corrupting Revan and Malak to the Dark Side before sending them out to pave the way for his arrival. Revan and Malak of course, had other ideas, but the Sith Emperor's longevity meant he was still around to launch an invasion of the Galaxy anyway 300 years later. His backstory is that he's a parasitic body-hopper who transfers his consciousness every time a new, more powerful vessel comes along, and also has the ability to suck ''everything'' from a planet in what is an even more extreme version of what Nihilus does. Not just people's lives, but color, sound, the Force itself, etc. This is seen as so messed up that the few Sith who know the truth about him want him dead as badly as any of the Jedi. Unfortunately, the Emperor's body-swapping shtick continues after the player beats him, and he gets a new form and voice in Immortal Emperor Valkorion. In this body he's even more ridiculously powerful and <s>basically becomes Fire Lord Ozai in space</s> forms his own faction to try and wipe out both the Jedi and the Sith. Gets killed, but his ghost sticks around to cause more trouble, until that's taken out...and then a fragment of him persists even then and has to be taken out too. Since the fragment of the Sith Emperor's essence was wiped out, the jerk's (hopefully) gone for good, but if the game and its expansions have taught us anything at this point, always assume that the Sith Emperor will come back in some way or form down the line. For the purposes of timeline, the Hero of Tython is held to have killed him for real with the destruction of the last fragment.

* Arcann and Vaylin: Valkorion's children. As siblings who are the kids of a heartless, despotic ruler with great power, with the son having facial scarring as a result of his dad's actions and initially being a villain before redeeming himself, they are basically Zuko and Azula in Star Wars. Like their old man they're nothing to scoff at in power, especially Vaylin who has inherited her dad's psychopathic traits (much like Azula relative to Ozai). Furthering the Avatar parallels, Arcann's voice actor also voiced Koh the Face-Stealer. Despite being Dark Siders, neither one is technically a Sith, and both use yellow lightsabers instead of red. Vaylin is later implied to have soul hopped to one of the Jedi apprentices the Emperor's last fragment tried to take over, though further details are TBA as SWTOR is still on going.

== One-Appearance Characters / Other Characters of Note==
* Owen and Beru Lars: Moisture farm couple and Luke's aunt and uncle (sort of, its complicated), who raise him on Tatooine. Effectively Luke's Ma and Pa Kent/Uncle Ben and Aunt May. And like Uncle Ben, their murders prove a major catalyst for Luke's transformation into a hero. Owen's main claim to fame is roasting Obi-Wan figuratively before later getting himself roasted literally. Isn't actually one-appearance, turning up in the prequel as their young selves and again in the Obiwan series where they defend their home from the Third Sister of the Inquisitors, ''successfully''. We can imagine they died fighting those Stormtroopers now.

* FN-2199/"TR-8R": a First Order Stormtrooper who wields a badass riot baton in combat. Appears only in The Force Awakens and notable only for two reasons; he shouts "Traitor!" at Finn, and then he kicks his punk ass despite the latter wielding a fucking lightsaber. Such is the stuff that memes are made of. Gets a bit of backstory that he and Finn trained and grew up together, hence his outrage at seeing Finn fighting for the opposite side. Even if he goes out like a punk to Han Solo, by all accounts, <s>FN-2199</s> TR-8R is what Phasma '''should''' have been. [https://image.prntscr.com/image/VFRN0EFuQkCz3pkBYGCN2Q.jpg He would make a great commissar].

* Jyn Erso: Appears in Rogue One. A former member of the Space Taliban (Rebels who refused to group up with the rest of the Rebels due to their extreme willingness to do evil shit to kill evil assholes) who is captured by the Rebels so they can talk to Space Bin Laden (Saw Gerrara, a character who guest-starred in a few episodes of the cartoon Rebels and pretty much shows up to die in Jyn's movie) about rumors of a planet killer being fueled by Space Iraqi oil crystals (that makes lightsabers work), one that was partially designed by her father. Jyn is angry all of the time because her life sucks, she watches every parental figure in her life die in front of her, most of them over the period of a single day, and the movie hopes this will hide the fact that she really doesn't do much other then flip authority figures the bird. Her name mirrors that of Jan Ors, partner-in-crime of legendary badass Kyle Katarn which is REALLY not as well-received by the fans of the series her movie retconned as Disney thought it would be (to be fair, the old EU had around ten different versions of the Death Star plans being stolen which many fans just figured were combined into the one Leia had, so that doesn't mean Kyle and Jan can't ever be made canon again). Gets killed when Tarkin used the Death Star to destroy the facility in an attempt to stop the Rebels transmitting classified information, but Jyn and Cassian got the Death Star plans beamed into space before that.

* Cassian Andor: Appears in Rogue One. A Rebel spy and assassin, Cassian angsts about the fact that he lives in a political thriller about the space mafia VS the space Nazis set mere days before the simple good and evil morality of the original trilogy kicks in. His only friend is a droid, but that's not exactly as unusual in the setting as the movie implies it is. Shares an award with Luke for not getting the girl in the end...kind of; they do share a final hug and possible kiss in the elevator before he died with her getting atomized by a partial-strength shot from the Death Star. The Disney Canon variant of Kyle Katarn, who was an Imperial officer turned Rebel turned Jedi Master, who is so badass he shaves with a lightsaber. A massive waste of character. UPDATE: We're now getting a TV series based on him, so there's at least that?

* K-2S0: Appears in Rogue One. What C-3P0 would be if he grew a pair and got a stronger droid body. A reprogrammed Imperial tactical droid and Cassian's only friend. Does that thing where he spits out survival odds in stressful moments. Caught a grenade in mid-air then tossed it back at it's original thrower without even looking, shot Stormtroopers (even took out two by [[Angry Marines|picking up a third stromtrooper and whacking them with him]]), and delivered some great deadpan lines which endeared him the audience - even those growing more jaded to these new movies liked him. So of course he dies first in order to establish that shit gets real during the last twenty minutes of the movie, although he died holding the line so Stormtroopers wouldn't reach Cassian and Jyn and his last act was smashing the control panel with his bare hands so at least he went out as cool as he came in.

* Chirrut Îmwe: <s>Discount Jedi</s> The real star of Rogue One. A blind martial artist who may or may not have force powers, can beat a squad of Stormtroopers with a staff, shoot TIE Fighters out of the air, and could take your girl if he wanted to. Haha, jk, he's totally homo for his bara partner-in-crime with the badass autocannon. Dies in a bombing run, but he doesn't fear death. Even his actor (from the badass "Ip Man" series) admitted that he was shoehorned into the movie in a desperate attempt to make China give a shit about Star Wars (which failed, because China really just doesn't give a shit about the franchise). Chirrut is memorable mostly because he belongs to the "Order Of The Whills", notable because "Whills" were a thing George Lucas kept wanting to use in the original trilogy (immortal beings who were supposed to be telling the story, hence "a long time ago", later the spirits that make up the Force itself, and finally an order of warriors that Leia was supposed to found after Luke's death in a sixth movie before he decided to take a break then do prequels instead. Basically Space Moirae).

* Baze Malbus: Chirrut's best mate and self-appointed bodyguard. Has three lines, but comes off as memorable because of his hellgun-looking backpack mounted autocannon with a scanvisor that lets him hold down the trigger and headshot stormtroopers until they are all dead. In early scripts Chirrut was his father figure, in the finished product they're ambiguously gay even though the director intended there to be a "finding peace with the pastor who heard his confession after a very grim life" vibe. Dies shortly after Chirrut, and actually makes a connection with the Force in his final moments. Quite a bit of work went into designing his visual style and his backstory, not a single bit of which ended up in the movie.

* Orson Krennic: Director of the Imperial Military Research Division and Rogue One's villain. Forces Jyn's father into building the Death Star for him, causes the death of Jyn's mother, then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie getting roasted by the more competent Imperial characters because he's a fucking moron with a grudge. He's typical of the average Imperial who doesn't wear Stormtrooper armor in the Expanded Universe as well as Disney canon, notable mainly for giving off "Resident Evil villain" vibes.

* TZ-1719 / Jannah: Appears in Rise of Skywalker. The leader of a unit of First Order Stormtroopers who, upon being ordered to shoot civilians, all laid down their guns at once despite there being no communication between them to do so. Implied to be Force sensitive, with the accidental subtext being that she simply subconsciously Force-tricked her troops into not being evil anymore. They stole their dropships and escaped to Endor, living a non-tech lifestyle by taming some kind of goat aliens as mounts. She personally took on the name "Jannah". Her primary purpose of the movie is to replace Rose as Finn's love interest since they couldn't decide on hooking Finn up with Rey or not (for problems such as "would it offend racists into not buying merch, would it be seen as sexist to end her journey with a Disney Princess ending of getting a relationship, etc"). Further unfortunate subtext is how TZ is quite literally just Rule 63 Finn, although it fixes the "Finn Problem" that has been pointed out where suddenly Stormtroopers dying can be seen as a tragic loss of a potential hero by adding the idea that "<strike>Kanye was right, slavery is a choice</strike> good characters who end up as Stormtroopers can just choose not to shoot the non-combatants so anyone that doesn't deserves to die like the nameless <strike>loot pinatas</strike> mooks they are. The end of the movie adds <strike>spinoff bait</strike> the implication she is Lando's grandaughter, or at the least he has an idea of who she was taken from as a baby.

* Qi'ra: Han Solo's old girlfriend and partner introduced in ''Solo: A Star Wars Story,'' filling in for a number of older EU characters (don't worry, the Disney Star Wars comics had already given Han an ex other than her anyway). Grew up with Han on Corellia before getting forced into the Crimson Dawn, which is like the Mafia in space except run by Darth Maul instead of the Hutts. Helps Han survive an unobtainium deal gone bad, then backstabs her boss to become her gang's alpha dog and Maul's personal agent. Too bad this will probably never be followed up on outside of tie-in novels thanks to how bad the movie did. Also kinda awkward they made her Maul's Personal Assistant right after Rebels killed him off, meaning that Star Wars fans felt absolutely no curiosity about how the entire thing was going to go. She was still kicking around the Galaxy and is now involved in the Bounty Hunter Wars. Qi'ra is played by the famous Emilia Clarke which is one of the many reasons she is popular

* L3-37: While K-2S0 brought droid characters to an awesome new high, L3-37 brought them to a new low. While not being as bad as Holdo and Rose, and being far more memorable than the chick, the spy dude, the TIE Fighter pilot dude, and the two Asian dudes from Rogue One (admit it, you don't fucking remember more than two of their names at best), she suffered the most from the reshoots the movie underwent. The /v/-tier name is only the warning label on this crock of shit. A droid that constructed a body for herself from spare parts and wound up as Lando's version of Chewbacca, L3-37 is a [[SJW|woke robot feminist in space by direct admission of the writers, with everything that implies]] while also being a revolutionary leader who gives no fucks about any disgusting meatbags and at the same time is physically romantically involved with Lando while giving romantic advice to other characters and at the same time is all about profit and shooting up the place while using other droids as just pawns in her rampages (did we mention this character REALLY suffered from the reshoots?) Her body is destroyed in an escape attempt but ends up as one of the droid brains running the Millennium Falcon (yes, the same computer C-3P0 complained about in the original trilogy; draw your own conclusions.) Long story short, the feminist/sexbot/droid-supremacist/human loving/spree killer provides constant tonal whiplash. Did we mention that since she began without having a body there was no reason to stick her in the Falcon which is a fate worse than death based on about 1/4 of her characterization, it adds a LOT of disturbing subtext to Lando's fondness for the Falcon and the fact that Han basically just kept it after winning the game despite knowing Lando's lover was trapped forever inside, the implications for the conversations she had with Threepio during Empire Strikes Back, and the fact it was kept abandoned by a criminal on a desert planet for at least a decade means she's probably gone even more insane? Fan reaction is mixed, but only between "worst character ever, would prefer to watch Jar Jar and Holdo star in a sitcom combining the bad parts of both original EU and Reboot than watch the movie again" and "had potential, was disappointed, still don't like the name".

* Iden Versio: Created for DICE's Battlefront II as the protagonist of the story mode (though she's also playable in multiplayer). The leader of a small squad of Imperial Special Forces (because apparently the Empire can't get enough of black armored elites despite already having Shadow Stormtroopers, Storm Commandos, Purge Troopers, and Death Troopers). Modeled to look like her actress. Initially rabidly pro-Empire, but changed her mind during Operation: Cinder due to Palpatine's posthumous orders to take the rest of the Empire with him if he ever died. Becomes a New Republic soldier along with the one member of her squad who decided to go with her, and then later married him. Dies around the time of the Sequel Trilogy, but takes the member of her squad who ''didn't'' side with her with her. General consensus is that her shift to the Light Side either shouldn't have happened at all (so players could have an Imperial protagonist from start to finish like in TIE Fighter), or needed to come way later / be less sloppily done.

== Nations and Organizations ==
* '''''The Galactic Empire''''': Ever seen an evil, fascist space empire imposing itself on the galaxy with huge, evil spaceships and cool mooks? Then it was probably inspired by the Empire. Itself inspired by the brutalist designs of Nazi Germany, the First Galactic Empire is overall ''the'' classic authoritarian dictatorship, propped up by legions of obedient but easily disposable troops, cool propaganda that paints them as the saviors of the galaxy and ambitious officers ready to be choked for their failures. The Empire was created from the infrastructure of the Republic when Emperor Sheev Palpatine took singular power of the Republic Senate, ostensibly to keep the galaxy safe after the Clone Wars, but totally because he was a powerful Sith Lord who wanted to get his evil fascist dick hard. Once the galaxy got wise to this, the Empire used fear to keep them in line, which is one of the reasons why they took a liking to huge Star Destroyers and Death Stars, since they look fucking terrifying. While evil overall (as our [[Emperor|Lord and Savior]] George of the Lucas proclaims it), individual people go from normal people who knows no better since they've lived with propaganda up their exhaust ports all their lives to genuine psychopaths like Palpatine and Grand Moff Tarkin. Even so, The Empire still possessed deep flaws; apart from the authoritarian top-down rule, the Empire also wasted significant resources on its inefficient military, and their constant poaching of the Galaxy's brightest minds and permanent wartime economy meant the rest of the galaxy stagnated. Severe competition in the officer corps meant that infighting and backstabbing was not uncommon, either, and that the politically connected could still advance ahead of truly competent officers (that is, until their incompetency finally pissed off someone above them, as seen with Vader choking Admiral Ozzel). The Empire eventually broke apart after the Battle of Endor where the Emperor was killed (allegedly; it's more complicated than that...), his apprentice turned (back?) to the Light Side of the Force and the second Death Star blown up. The remains of the Empire's military became the Imperial Remnants who fought the New Republic and each other for control of resources.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Legends)'': in the original continuity, the Empire splintered into different warlord factions after the death of the Emperor and took several decades for the New Republic to defeat. At various points these remnants continued to threaten the New Republic for a long time, including the splinter lead by [[Creed|tactical genius Admiral Thrawn]]. They did team up temporarily to fight off the extra-galactic invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong. Eventually the largest remnant, which had greatly mellowed out its policies since Palpatine's death, made peace with the New Republic. It would continue to exist into Cade Skywalker's era 130+ years after the Battle of the Yavin, where it would split into two major factions; one that was more overtly associated with the Sith and reminiscent of the pre-Rule-of-Two Sith Empire, and the other lead by a royal family of Force sensitives more akin to Grey Jedi. After a war, the One Sith (faction name of the last Sith group) aligned faction is defeated, tries to go back into the shadows but is destroyed by a renegade One Sith, Darth Wredd, who wants to return to the Rule of Two but dies before taking an apprentice leaving the Sith extinct. The Fel Empire joins the New Republic successor government and the Jedi for to form the new galactic government.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Disney)'': In the Disney canon, the Emperor had a two-part plan in the event of his death; firstly, he'd destroy most of his remaining forces in Operation Cinder (this plan appears stupid on its head, but does serve a few purposes; it prevented Warlords from using Imperial resources to carve out their own empires, it tested the loyalty of the remaining officer corps, and denied assets to the New Republic. But mostly he was just a bitter asshole who wanted to take his ball and go home). In the second phase, those considered worthy enough were to retreat to secret fortress worlds in the Unknown Regions. Most of the remaining Imperial forces surrendered not long after the Battle of Endor, but various warlords still existed in the Outer Rim for at least five years since the fall of the Empire. The New Republic decides to just ignore them because fuck it Jar Jar Abrams wanted Rebels vs. Empire again, couldn't be asked to explain it and had no plans for the rest of the trilogy anyways. Considering how a large part of the Galaxy's history can be characterized as "Core Vs Outer Rim," and how the region had always been hard to control, its likely that the New Republic didn't want to fuck around with such a large clusterfuck of a region when they were still trying to consolidate the core, which unfortunately allowed for opportunists like Moff Gideon to grow in the shadows. There's also good evidence that Grand Admiral Thrawn, who's already been integrated into Disney Canon, will once again be a major power player in the Imperial Remnant. Whether he's still working for the Imperials in the Unknown Regions or in it for himself, we'll have to wait and see.
The problem is 90% has been retconned multiple times now and Operation Cinder has suffered from having four different interpretations. Currently evidence points to a Imperial Civil War broke out been again retcons and retcons have frequently become a problem. As such their are several schools of interpretation and the amount of factions.
1. The Yomo Council: A faction which rejected the authority of Gailus Rax and Coruscant. This group was Imperial Army elements and their families which ended getting brutally attacked by the Loyalist Shadow Wing and the New Republic.
2. The Jakku Remnant: The term for the Imperial Forces at Jakku during the battle under Fleet Admiral Rax. This was the force you see at Jakku and was the one who was defeated at the battle. After the battle the Imperial Forces are either killed, Captured a tried as War Criminals, or fled the battle to other Imperial Forces.
3. Moff Gideon's Imperial Remnant: Also known as Gus' boys, these are the main Imperials scene in The Mandalorian. They are pretty good shots and made up of Imperial Veterans. The only reason they Do not kill Mando is because of the literal plot armor. They also had Dark Troopers and some specialized Imperial Assets. Their is a implication from Behind the scenes interviews that Moff Gideon is backed by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
4. The Iron Blockade: A faction led by a Imperial Governor name Adhard who lockdown the Sector and pretended palps was dead, despite the balantant evidence to show otherwise. He held tough control of the Sector and had is own Purge Trooper Squads and custom Imperial Logo.
5. The Outer Rims Remnants: A group of Imperial forces who rejected the FO as a bunch of larping Fags. They decided to fight against them and the Emperor because they saw them as traitors to the Empire they had fought for. These guys are kind of a cool idea of something not explored.
6. The Core World Remnants: These are planets like Fondor, Kuat, the Deep Core, and Coruscant. They kept some Imperial Forces as defense forces and they desire the return of the Empire. Despite be banned by the New Republic from building armies and navies they built tons of weapons and warships from the FO without the NR [[FAIL|realizing]]..... When the FO took out Hosnian Prime, these forces joined up with the FO as sympathizer and auxiliary forces.

* The Republic: Before the Empire, the galaxy was governed by a ''huge'' representative democracy, seen in the prequel movies. It's corrupt as fuck, and not really capable of much other than ignore the fact most of the galaxy is already at war with itself, entire species are being wiped out in ethnic purges faster than they can be counted in a census, and slavery is pretty much everywhere. Acts like one nation, functions as an economic forum for oligarchs while planets police themselves to varying degrees. And since, by law, the Republic had no army before the Clone Wars, planets that were too poor to fight off pirates and slavers had little recourse. Besides failing to act on the many atrocities happening in the galaxy (and those they do intervene in ended up sowing resentment into the future Separatists), a major issue was that Republic policies gave special treatment to the prosperous Core worlds and large corporations over the remote and impoverished Rim worlds. Don’t fuck with Hutts, leaving them to do whatever they want in most of the galaxy, and until Sheev took over and made it the prelude to his Empire the only thing they ever did to get shit done is ask the Jedi to deal with it, whatever it is. The scary thing is that in the final years of the Republic, the Senate voluntarily laid the groundwork for the Empire long before the Declaration of the New Order and nobody even noticed it happened until decades later, when Palpatine received his emergency powers at the start of the Separatist Crisis and the opening of the Clone Wars. As Maul would point out before the end of the War, the Republic was already gone.

* The Old Republic: The early Republic. Far less corrupt, and had a standing army made up of what can charitably be called a mix of rent-a-cop security and elite paramilitary volunteers, the Special Operations department was top notch (although it had a bit of a war crimes problem and had a humiliating defection in the Cold War phase of the Great Galactic War that only didn't destroy them because the rookie and the cynical intel officer in the defecting Havoc Squad and the hacker, the Sith Imperial defector, the demolitions unit and the prototype battle droid assigned to them to rebuild were even better than the traitors and managed to convince three to surrender and killed the psychos) and the Navy as well as the armored land units were great, infantry and random conscript from wherever not so much. It was also far smaller, as the Republic only gradually expanded in stages across the galaxy, with humans leading most colonization efforts. Still rely heavily on Jedi, but mostly just for dealing with Sith. Hutt territory is more formal rather than them operating everywhere.
** Ruusan Reformation: 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, after the apparent destruction of the Sith, the Republic underwent a massive reorganization that made it into the Republic, but started with a dark age due to the damage caused by the war. Used to reconcile a problem in the films where the Republic is said to have existed for both 1000 years and "a thousand generations". This also solves how many details about pre-Prequel works had substantially different depictions of the Republic and Jedi from what the prequels wound up doing, and how there were wars when a character says there hasn't been a full scale war since the formation of the Republic.

* The New Republic: The post-Empire government that the Rebellion forms.
** Legends: Leia rules for a time, trying to manage the various monsters of the week and Imperial remnant groups, gradually stepping down to more minor titles to avoid being another Emperor. Then they have to deal with things like the extra-galactic cenobite invaders that cause a galaxy-wide holocaust while her Jedi kids died or flirted with being evil. Eventually it forms the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a confederation that includes a less-evil Imperial remnants (which it had been at peace with for a while) and some other powers, remaining a stable force combating Sith and their empires ever. During this time, Leia's granddaughter was prophesied to bring the Light Side of the Force into ascendance while a female Force-Cthulhu tried to co-opt the prophecy for herself. After Luke defeats her, a few decades are skipped and the Federation is defeated by a Sith backed Imperial Remnant faction, the Fel Empire. The Sith then backstab the Imperials and kick off the Sith-Imperial war. The Federation and the Jedi help the loyalists defeat the One Sith, and the Sith themselves are rendered extinct after Darth Wredd (who wanted to bring back the Rule of Two) kills them all and dies before taking an apprentice, leaving the Federation, the Fel Empire and the Jedi (who had suffered another purge before the Sith back-stabbed Emperor Roan Fel, who died at the hands of his Gray Jedi/Imperial Knight Bodyguard in the final battle after falling to the Dark Side and succeeded by his daughter Marasiah) to form the last known government, the Galactic Federation Triumvirate.
** Disney: Focused on defeating the Empire, then dismantled the Rebellion militarily. Focused mostly on being an intermediary with independent planets, paying for each one in the alliance to have their own militia with treaties to support each other if attacked, while the Republic itself had a small fleet to bolster anyone in need. Despite sounding like the setup for World War 1, it actually is like the US/Soviet Cold War with the Imperial remnant then its successor the First Order, until the FO performed a Star Wars 9/11 and used a planet killer weapon to destroy all the planets in the sector of the New Republic capital then invaded the independent planets. [[what|Being essentially destroyed with their capital system despite being the galactic government which should have contingencies for such events since existence of planet killers is common knowledge]], the planets focused on their own survival until Lando performed a short planet-hopping tour to rile up the militias and all the scum, villainy, and pirates who wanted to see the true death of the Empire/First Order. During its reign it had far less control over the galaxy than the Republic or Empire, but clever administration and assigned leadership of the militias made traditionally dangerous and lawless planets like Tatooine finally civilized. Its ultimate fate is now unknown.

* Confederacy of Independent Systems: aka the Separatists. Due to the rampant corruption in the Republic, a lot of systems were very unhappy with the state of the galaxy and wanted out. However, many of these separatists included extremely powerful corporate goons, such as the Trade Federation, who simply wanted more power for themselves, and were willing to lease out their droid armies to that end. While outwardly they were simply disgruntled and neglected planets who wanted independence, in reality the CIS existence was deliberately engineered by the Sith in order to further their goals in the creation and maintenance of the Empire. Under the leadership of Count Dooku, they formed a formidable alliance that would threaten the core worlds of the Republic with the biggest army ever created, eventually leading to the Clone Wars that would throw the galaxy into one of the bloodiest conflicts in centuries. And despite Dooku's purported political idealism at the start of the war, the more idealistic and politically motivated worlds who wanted to escape the Republic's corruption found themselves sidelined by the big Corporate worlds who controlled the war effort and stationed their droid armies everywhere. As the war progressed, bloodthirsty war criminals like General Greivous made the Republic fear and loathe any hint of disloyalty, which was a major PR problem for the early Rebellion. One of the big ironies is that, because the CIS turned out to be just as corrupt as the Republic, many Separatist worlds begrudgingly sided with the Empire as the "lesser of two evils" in their minds. The fact that the CIS was made up of powerful, alien corporations from the Outer Rim also served to justify the Empire's xenophobia, nationalization of virtually all heavy industry, and subjugation of worlds far away from the Core. Because the Separatists were simply an expendable puppet of the Sith, Palpatine had no qualms about sending Vader to destroy the remaining leaders once he secured his Empire and they'd outlived their usefulness. The Empire then proceeded to dismantle the remaining Confederate groups along with pirates and other anti-central government forces in the Reconquest of the Rim. Several remnants continued resistance and some helped Order 66 survivors escape. After the Rebel Alliance was formed, surviving Confederate Remnant forces joined it, for those who joined the CIS to fight against Old Republic corruption happily, and for those who were full on separatists somewhat unhappily as a lesser of two evils. Until at least 1 BBY one Imperial Moff, Conan Antonio Motti, referred to them as a threat alongside rebels and criminal enterprises. Presumably, the last few organics holdouts joined the rebels or took the opportunity to disband after the Death Star was destroyed. Handfuls of Droid units that didn't receive the deactivation signal remained active on Tatooine, Lok and Kashyyyhk and were destroyed by the Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG characters. A large leftover unit was present on Geonosis and were destroyed in a Galactic Civil War battle there in 3 ABY. A single Droideka, which had been infiltrated into the Outbound Flight voyage, was out of range of the shut down order and was destroyed by Luke and Mara in 22 ABY during their expedition to the Outbound Flight crash site, ending the last relic of the Confederate cause that was still nominally obeying CIS Parliament orders.

* The Rebel Alliance: After Emperor Palpatine's political takeover succeeded and the Jedi murdered in a [[Horus|galaxy-wide act of backstabbery]], Senators Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, Mon Mothma and a small group of sympathizers come together to form a resistance group, knowing fully well that the new Galactic Empire won't be going quietly with their new "doctrines", especially since the Empire's militarization only increased following the end of the Clone Wars. Prior to the Battle of Yavin, the "Rebel Alliance" was more like the "Rebel Coalition of guys who loosely agree on some things," being made up of individual cells under the coordination of a High Command unit. The rebellion's supporters were an odd mixture of former Separatists, Republic loyalists who found themselves betrayed such as Kashyyk and Mon Calamari, and the occasional Imperial defector who found Imperial service either too immoral or too dangerous. For the next twenty years, the Rebellion will infiltrate, sabotage and generally frustrate the Empire as best they can, but unfortunately doesn't manage to really make a big difference; that is, before a certain Luke Skywalker gets swept up by them and leads them to their first, grand victory against the Empire's first Death Star. From here on out, the Rebellion does their best keeping themselves hidden from the Empire while maintaining strong relations with their allies, who, while few, did let them create a small fleet of outdated vehicles. Eventually, the Rebellion's hard work bears fruit after the second Death Star blows up and the Emperor goes missing. From here, the Rebellion and their members become the New Republic.
** The Resistance: From a first look, the Resistance looks extremely similar to the Rebellion visually (they are called "The Resistance" for Pete's sake!), but there's a little more going on under the hood. Feeling her hairbuns tingle with fear, Leia Organa realizes the First Order will become a galaxy-wide headache soon and moves to get the New Republic to give a shit - except they don't, because her father was Vader, and thinks she's a military maverick that just wants to feel important. Leia then begins to fund a secret militia of her own, looking for supporters among fellow senators and calling in old friends. The result is... Less than ideal. Functionally just a strikeforce of some twenty fighters and one or two capital ships (who by now are über-mega outdated), the Resistance can do jack ''shit'' against the First Order, who literally commands entire space empires by force. By the Force Awakens, they're pretty much fucked - but luckily gets themselves two new heroes to add to the fold (one who is among the most naturally talented forces users ever seen), re-connect with Han and Chewie AND find a fucking map to Luke Skywalker's personal pillowfort he left for some 5-10 years ago. Eventually fucked up after destroying the Starkiller Base and grinded to metal spacedust by a prolonged space chase, they eventually manage to ignite resistance in the entire galaxy, which gets a ''fuckhueg'' navy of ragtag ships to reinforce them at Exegol.

* Sith Empire: The Old Republic's mortal enemy. In the many millenia leading up to the Ruusan Reformation, the Sith Empire held a significant chunk of the northeastern galaxy, holding thousands of worlds under their iron grip. The Sith engaged in several major wars against the Republic, oftentimes defeating the Republic and nearly exterminating the Jedi, only for their own empire to descend into chaos as Sith Lords backstabbed each other once they no longer had a common enemy. This pattern would continue until Bane killed all the remaining Sith Lords and instituted the Rule of Two, plotting to take over the galaxy and exterminate the Jedi through slow and careful planning rather than overwhelming force.

* The Hutt Cartels: Essentially the space mafia, if the mafia had the clout to influence the national government (like in Russia during the 90s with the Russian Mob). The Hutts managed to drive of the Rakatan Infinite Empire despite having no FTL at the time due to the Rakata losing their connection to the force. The original Hutt empire, after fighting some wars of expansion against neighbors and fellow tyrants in Xim the Despot's regime suffered a massive civil war known as the Hutt Cataclysms which ruined their original homeworld and made them move to Nal Hutta (Nar Shadda is it's moon). To prevent things getting this bad, cartels were established between influential factions, all answering to the Council of Elders made up from the heads of houses. Hutt Space is nominally ruled by the Council but it essentially practices anarcho-capitalism and takes its cuts to rule the core planets and lets the cartels compete out of the core however they wish. If there's an affair that's illegal by legal standards, the Hutts probably have a hand in it. Keeps to themselves and doesn't care much for what the Sith and Republic is up to, though Jabba the Hutt, owner of Tatooine, takes part in the original trilogy because of Han Solo's longstanding debt to him, and Jabba had one of the biggest criminal empires at the time, competing with giants like the ancient Black Sun. Gets helped and funded by the Empire to do their dirty work and gets killed for his efforts, so there's a good reason why they keep out of all that. Hutt space has significant overlap with the cartels, but the two are technically separate as mentioned above, with the Council of Elders acting as a government for Hutt Space and as a mafia council for other holdings by the cartels. They get invaded during the Yuuzhan Vong war, but effectively form a guerilla force tying up major assets and reassert their rule after the Vong were defeated. After dealing with some slave revolts around the time of the Second Galactic Civil War and selling arms to Darth Caedus's uprising, they continue as they were until the Fel Empire (reformed Imperial Remnant), backed by the Sith, defeats the Federation. When the Sith backstabbed the Imperials, the Hutts secretly provide support to the Fed Remnants and Imperial Loyalists battling the Sith in the Sith-Imperial War. After the Sith blow up a Hutt temple, they officially declare war and join the anti-Sith coalition. Presumably they joined the Galactic Federation Triumvirate with at least nominal autonomy after the Darth Wredd Insurgency and the destruction of the Sith in 138 ABY.

* The First Order: If the Empire was the textbook fascist dictatorship, Disney's First Order is the Nazi Party itself as a military organization/cult. After the Imperial Remnants began fighting amongst themselves, an Imperial admiral fled to the Unknown Regions to rebuild her version of the Empire. Here the First Order grew slowly as former Imperials joined them and they subjugated small local fiefdoms and kingdoms. Eventually the previously unknown Sith Lord Snoke took control as their Supreme Leader and Ben Solo joined him as his apprentice, becoming Kylo Ren. The New Republic eventually learned of the First Order, but thought they were just a paper tiger with no real power. In actuality, their military tech and capabilities were quite high for how relatively small they were... Oh yeah, and they had created a superweapon built into a trench in the planet Ilum that could ''destroy a whole star-system''. Eventually they fired the thing and waged a war of subjugation on the anarchic remains of the New Republic.
**RETCONS: The First Order apparently never existed until about 8 years before TFA meaning a lot of this does not make sense. Its assume a minor civil war happened in the Unknown Regions but again the FO is not given much lore. They also apparently had a fleet bigger the Empire's fleet at its Height..... just do not bother.
** SPOILERS: Behind the scenes, the Emperor had manipulated the creation of the First Order to retake the galaxy, using an artificial body double (Snoke) to take direct control while hiding on the Sith homeworld. The plan was to eventually add his own fleet of Star Destroyers with planet-destroying capabilities to the First Order and form the Final Order, the one and final armada to take the entire galaxy through force and fear.

* Galactic Federation Triumvirate: The last known galactic government at the ends of the Legends continuity, formed from the Fel Empire, the Federation and the Jedi after the One Sith are defeated by a joint coalition of Fel Empire loyalists, Federation Troops and Jedi in 137 ABY. In 138 ABY, renegade One Sith Darth Wredd, wishing to restore the Rule of Two, manipulates the One Sith to destroy themselves and kills the survivors in the Darth Wredd Insurgency, before being killed himself without managing to take an apprentice in the last known battle, leaving the Sith extinct and the galaxy at least nominally unified by a well armed government.

== Significant Worlds ==
Theres a fuckton of planets in the Star Wars Galaxy, so we'll limit this list to the more noteworthy ones (mostly the ones that show up in films).

* '''Tatooine''': A run down desert world orbiting a binary star system on the outer rim of the galaxy. Its close proximity to major hyperspace routes and its location in Hutt space makes this otherwise unremarkable planet relatively strategic for illicit trade (ie: Space Juárez). It has a few dingy little cities, towns and farms home to a collection of criminals, smugglers, people scraping by and slaves with some basic order imposed by Hutt Crime families. The oral history of the native sand people suggests that it was considerably more lush before its inhabitants pissed off the Rakata, but the source for that notes oral histories are generally inaccurate. Surprisingly it is the most visited world in the franchise, showing up in every one of the six original films but ''Empire Strikes Back'' ''and'' appearing in countless other works due to the Skywalker family's connection to this craphole.

* '''Naboo''': Lush planet between the Mid rim and outer rim, shared by both humans and gungans. Naboo's settlers are descended from Alderaaneans (Leia's home planet), so their culture and politics are extremely similar with a strong emphasis on pacifism, philanthropy, and high art (and ironically, early supporters of the Rebellion). Interestingly, the planet core is connected to the planet's oceans, though travel through the core is quite dangerous due to the leviathans living there. The planet hadn't been terribly important right up until the Trade Federation came knocking to demand tax payments over its trade routes (though in reality Naboo had ''massive'' untapped plasma reserves, and the Tradies wanted free reign to drill), which began a series of conflicts culminating in the Clone Wars. Relatively close to Tatooine, which is how the Jedi end up discovering Anakin Skywalker during the conflict when they're forced to evacuate the Queen of Naboo.

* '''Coruscant''': The Capital of the Republic and the Empire, a Ecumenopolis in which basically every square meter of it's surface is covered in a multi-kilometer thick cityscape. <s>So, Trantor. It's fucking Trantor.</s> Several sources claim it to be humanity's homeworld, or else where humanity initially expanded from since their enslavement by the Rakata. Originally found in George Lucas's notes as "Imperial Center", [[Timothy Zahn]] named it Coruscant (pronounced chorus-saunt and is similar to Coruscate, which is a fancy way of saying to sparkle) in the Thrawn Trilogy (as Imperial Center was clearly not the original name) and Lucas was convinced to keep the name when it came time to make the prequels. Before the prequels, pronunciation in audio books was all over the place. Descriptions of the city are not unlike your typical [[Hive city|Hive City]] (if not as extreme), where the elites live in the upper levels where the sky is still visible, while the lower class live in the dark, crumbling foundations, but with a more Art Deco vibe rather than Gothic. The actual planet surface is mostly landfill now, and the lower levels got increasingly uninhabitable after the Yuuzhan Vong terraformed the planet and later the Force-Cthulhu Abeloth made some new volcanoes. Not much is shown of Coruscant in the Disney canon after the prequel era, and its not even the capital of the New Republic. Supposedly J.J. Abrams wanted to blow the planet up but was told "no" by literally everyone.

* '''Yavin IV''': Jungle moon of the gas giant Yavin. The temples on this moon used to house a warrior race that had been enslaved by the Sith before being driven to extinction; it then became the secret base of the Rebel Alliance, which became the staging area for the Alliance's battle against the first Death Star. After the superweapon's destruction, the Empire launched a conventional attack and the Alliance was forced to relocate to Hoth. After the Thrawn Campaign, it became the site of Luke's new Jedi Academy which, after a brief incident with a Sith wraith haunting the place, flourished until yet another galactic war forced them to relocate.

* '''Hoth''': An obscure snow world devoid of any intelligent life, and seemingly named after a legendary Jedi master of old. It became the new headquarters for the Rebel Alliance after the fall of Yavin Base. It was established ''way'' back in the Newspaper comic that it was chosen by the rebels after Luke crash landed on it and encountered a pair of malfunctioning [[Android|Replica Droid]] prototypes fleeing from their creators. Further sources have expanded on its reasons for being chosen to include the fact that it's just off of a major trade route, which concealed supply runs (and is why Bespin is within backup drive distance).

* '''Bespin''': Gas giant with a breathable upper atmosphere. Home to Cloud City, an independent city that makes its income through mining Tibanna gas (used in blasters). Bespin's independence was used as political leverage when Vader arrived and extorted Lando Calrissian into betraying the rebels to him. After Vader double crossed Lando, the Rebels would later liberate Bespin from the Imperials.

* '''Kamino''': Ocean planet that technically exists outside the Galaxy proper, in between it and what is known as the "Rishi Maze," which was why it was a bitch to find. The inhabitants are expert geneticists, and the place is really hard to get to without knowing exactly what you're doing, making it the ideal location for growing the Republic's clone army. Kamino's cities were destroyed by the Empire shortly after the Clone Wars, as they had decided to switch to recruited soldiers; we don't know much about what became of the Kaminoans themselves other than some were forcibly recruited into more specialized cloning programs. Legends had a revolt break out by the Kaminoans making their own Fett clones which was put down and the planet was irrelevant afterwards.

* '''Geonosis''': Desert world inhabited by bug people. Was used by the separatists to build their armies and strategize, eventually becoming the site of the first battle of the Clone Wars. Geonosis is actually even more of a creepy hellhole than Episode II suggests, as the Geonosian Queen can use worms to turn corpses into zombies and mind control living hosts. During the Clone Wars, Geonosis was the first construction site for the Death Star, since it was technically the Geonosians who made the schematics in the first place. Most Geonosians were wiped out by the Empire when the Death Star was moved for completion.

* '''Utapau''': Temperate planet characterized by its massive sinkhole cities. General Grievous tried to rally the Seperatists here after Dooku's death, but was killed by Obi-Wan in the ensuing battle.

* '''Kashyyyk''': Forest/jungle planet and home to the wookies, who live in gigantic tree houses connected by enormous suspension bridges. The interior of the jungle, known as the Shadowlands, is full of a wide variety of dangerous lifeforms, so the wookies stay close to the canopy. During the Republic it was an important trade world due to its location at the junction of several trade routes, highly prized resources, and the expert craftsmanship of the wookies. Despite their loyalty, during the Empire the wookies were severely subjugated and enslaved (with the help of Trandoshans) and their trees were chopped down for the valuable wood and sap. The Empire never truly took it over but did manage to pollute it to all hell.

* '''Mustafar''': Lava planet and the last holdout of the Separatists. Darth Vader makes his base here after he is forced to don his iconic armor, proving that he did have [[Meme|the high ground]] by plonking a gigantic black tower on the surface. The planet has a strong affinity with the Dark Side, attracting various Sith cults in its history.

* '''Ilum''': Small alpine planet covered in ice and snow and by the time of the prequels the galaxy's only known significant source of Kyber crystals, the core ingredient in a little thing we like to call "the lightsaber". Traditionally a place for Jedi to do pilgrimage to find their own Kyber crystal at, as Jedi initiates find that the only crystal visible to them in the caves is the one they're destined to use.
** In Disney canon, the Empire turned one half of the surface into a gigantic strip-mine several hundred kilometers down into the crust. It was eventually rediscovered by the First Order and turned into an actually moon-sized laser cannon called Starkiller Base (This is poorly explained within the films; its not even identified as Ilum except in side stories. The idea is that like the original Death Star, the superlaser is powered by gigantic kyber crystals, and Ilum happens to be well inside the Unknown Regions yet its location and route were still known thanks to Jedi pilgramages).

* '''Dathomir''': [[Death World]]-style hellhole and home of Darth Maul. Filled with gigantic brambles, noxious swamps, poisonous critters and savagely insular tribals. The native inhabitants use the planet's natural Dark Side energy to do all sorts of creepy and arcane shit, including necromancy. Nearly all of its magick-using females were wiped out by the end of the Clone Wars, leaving the planet to decay.

* '''Malachor V''': The last battlefield of the Mandalorian Wars, which blasted the entire planet into a Mars-like wasteland thanks to a superweapon deployed, ironically, by the Jedi. The Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians all regard it as perhaps the most critical place and moment in their respective histories despite it being a lifeless desert littered with crumbling temples and the rusting armor of countless thousands of fallen warriors. The general takeaway is this: Nobody EVER wins on Malachor. It is a tomb-world, a monument to the devastation wrought by pursuing raw power to beat your enemies.

* '''Dagobah''': Uncharted swamp planet where Yoda went to live in exile. Noteworthy for the Dark Side cave, a naturally-occurring phenomenon where the dark side would tempt anyone who entered. Briefly the EU made the cave a remnant of a random dark force user Yoda fought there, but this was retconned away when it was implied Yoda had never visited the place before his exile, then the Clone Wars series made it so Yoda ''did'' visit Dagobah before his exile. This would just be a random detail if not for a significant character having his backstory linked to this event.

* '''Endor''': A gas giant also known as Tana at the end of the Outer Rim before Wild Space (and it probably was in Wild Space before one of the most significant events in Galactic History took place there). The Empire built the second Death Star in its system.
** '''Sanctuary Moon''': Better known than the planet itself is its forest covered moon that the Empire build the shields for the under-construction Death Star 2 on. It's home to the short, furry and deadly Ewoks. It was the nominal capital of the interim Alliance of Free Planets and New Republic for two years till the capture of Coruscant.
** '''Kef Bir''': Ocean moon of Endor. Despite the Death Star II being in orbit of the Forest Moon, Disney decided that the wreckage landed on Kef Bir because JJ wanted an ocean setpiece. No explanation is given other than "wibbley-wobbly hyperdrivey-wimey." The LEGO Skywalker Saga game even takes a bit of a shot at it.

* '''Death Star''' & '''Death Star II''': We're fudging the definition of world here, but its not an exaggeration to say this thing is the size of a small moon and has a very sizeable population. While the Death Star II was incomplete, it was substantially bigger and more deadly. Its main purpose was the protection and operation of a garguantuan superlaser capable of blowing up an entire planet in a singular shot. This thing was able to get around with a battery of hyperspace engines, but still took a fair amount to time to get around in order to get within firing range. Curiously enough, the idea for the superweapon came from Tarkin, but was designed by the Geonosians of all people, which then terrified the pants off the Republic that the Separatists had a superweapon prompting them to start reverse-engineering the design ([[Just as planned]] as far as Palpatine was concerned). Its design ties back to their Genosian origins, who where insectoids living in large anthills with little regard for the concept of "up" or down". As a result, the Death Star became notoriously awful as a posting among its crew, many of which had problems with orientation and becoming nauseaous.

* '''Alderaan''': A perfect pacifist planet until the Death Star blows it up. The planet Leia was raised on by the Organas, and actually shown to have been very nice prior to its destruction, with lush forests and snow-capped mountains.

* '''Felucia''': Another jungle-world, but this one looking like something conceived by either Dr. Seuss or someone from the 60s who got a hold of the good stuff. Rancors can be found here, and some have been tamed by the natives, truly bizarre-looking beings that look a bit like tye-dye, technicolor tree-people who are all Force-Sensitive.

* '''Taris''': Ostensibly an Outer Rim version of Coruscant, in that the planet is a big city that really leans into the whole "what most people think of when they think of a far future city" aesthetic, beneath the shiny exterior is actually a pretty shitty society. Basically, it's society is like Pre-Civil Rights America in space (with aliens as stand-ins for out-groups), and that's before the Sith show up and put the whole planet under quarantine. Beneath the Upper City is the Lower City, which is a slum that gangsters constantly fight over and with shitty apartments that are more likely to house crazed killers or the aforementioned gangsters than honest citizens, as well as looking like they've been abandoned for years. Beneath ''that'' is the Undercity, which is where the descendants of Taris' failed <s>proletariat</s> uprising are consigned. Them, and Rackghouls, who, as the name implies, are basically Ghouls in Star Wars, but as there are no Elves, no one's immune (unless you have some handy Rackghoul serum). So to recap, its a planet that hates aliens, has crime-filled lower levels, and is much more [[Grimdark]] in its overall set-up than the average Star Wars planet. The Imperium would be proud...or would be, if Malak hadn't then bombed the hell out of it. Even thousands of years later, much of the planet is said to still be in ruins.

* '''Telos''': A mix of futuristic cities and natural environments, so unlike Coruscant and Taris it isn't all one big city. A major Republic world, and then Malak bombed it, leaving it badly scarred. As such, the Republic launched a restoration project to try and get the planet back on its feet. Or, in the words of Atton Rand, "a dying world the Republic is trying to breath back to life". Also houses a secret (and defunct), Jedi academy in its polar region, where ultra-bitch Atris and her similarly obnoxious handmaidens reside.

* '''Dantooine''': Farm planet. Fairly idyllic by all appearances, enough so that the Jedi in Legends had an Enclave here for a time...until Malak bombed it (you may be noticing a pattern by now). Even after this bombing though, the planet remains a major agricultural center up to the Clone Wars and beyond. First mentioned in A New Hope as a location Leia gives for the Rebel base to try and save Alderaan (it doesn't work). One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Manaan''': Water-world, but a lot less rainy than Kamino. Source of Kolto, the top healing substance in the Galaxy prior to Bacta. Once that stuff got on the market, Kolto became obsolete, and Manaan and its fish-folk inhabitants fell into decline something fierce. One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Korriban / Moraband''': The homeworld of the Sith, and as to be expected, a place that tends to scream "this is an evil location". A ton of Ancient Sith Lords are entombed here, as is a Star Map (in Legends anyway). The Sith also naturally had an academy here too, which was basically a Hogwarts for sociopaths before it became abandoned. So saturated with the Dark Side that its affected the local wildlife, making most of them vicious, fearsome looking monsters (though who knows what they eat with no apparent herbivores or plant life around).

* '''Jakku''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Tatooine clone (such that when the first trailer dropped, a lot of people thought it ''was'' Tatooine). Where the war between the Rebels and Empire ended in the Disney Canon, being the site of the latter's last stand and with ruined Star Destroyers and other wreckage still littering the place. As such, its mostly populated by scavengers, but in a feeble effort to convince you that it isn't a ''complete'' Tatooine clone, they aren't all Jawas this time.

* '''Hosnian Prime''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Coruscant clone (and again, folks initially thought it ''was'' Coruscant). Gets the Alderaan treatment from Starkiller base, meaning it rips off of two previous planets for the price of one (still better than actually destroying Coruscant though, which according to rumor is what JJ ''really'' wanted to do).

* '''Ach-To''': The planet Luke Skywalker flees to in the Sequel Trilogy. Apparently the planet where the Jedi originated (which is Tython in Legends). Mostly a lot of water, with at least one big landmass that's where Luke's holed up. Rey goes there to get training from him, but that clashes with Luke's whole "I don't want to be a Jedi anymore" bit. Briefly reappears in Episode IX when Rey considers doing what Luke did before his ghost talks her out of it. Also home of the [[Skub|"love 'em or hate 'em"]] Porgs.

* '''Canto Bight''': A mostly barren planet that hosts a giant casino where rich bastards can go. Seems to be a general dress code of only black and white allowed, and filled with wholesome activities like gambling, arms dealing, child labor, and war profiteering. So a lot of glitz and glamor standing side by side exploitation and "rich people are jerks" stuff. So basically Pre-Revolution Cuba in space. Generally considered to be where a bunch of largely unnecessary stuff happened, even by folks who ''didn't'' hate Episode VIII.

* '''Crait''': Site of an abandoned Rebel base that the Resistance remnants flee to at the end of Episode VIII, leading to a vaguely "Battle of Hoth" esque fight involving the First Order's own version of AT-ATs. As one Youtube LEGO video aptly put it, the ground is white but the dirt is red for no real reason other than that it looks "cool". Also, apparently its salt and not snow. So like, a salt-Hoth. Or something.

* '''Exegol''': A world shrouded in darkness and perpetual lightning storms that is where Palpatine and his cronies have been hiding out since losing the Galactic Civil War. How such a large number of people existed or thrived on such a dead world is never explained, but it does manage to give the other Sith world Korriban a run for its money in the whole "obviously evil death world" department.

* '''Rakata Prime / Lehon''': Home of the Rakatans, and where the species has become trapped ever since their empire fell. Actually a pretty lush and scenic place, though as Rakatan tribes and small-but-still-deadly Rancors roam about here, one vacations here at their own risk. That, and the same thing keeping the Rakatans from leaving (the Star Forge), also causes ships that get too close to crash-land, making it a ship's graveyard. By the time of Darth Bane, the planet seems to have become deserted, the Rakatans having apparently gone extinct.

* '''The Maw''': Bears mentioning for being one of the more unique places of the EU. An unusually dense cluster of black holes near Kessel whose gravitational anomalies make it the ideal backdrop for risky hyperdrive spice smuggling operations. Strongly implied to be the work of an unknown precuror civilization, the Maw was considered to be largely impassible, if not for the work of top secret scouting operations that the Empire undertook to find a place to house a big R&D facility kept from the public eye. Within the Maw station, developments like the prototyping of the first Death Star and several other imperial superweapons took place, protected by a small flotilla consisting of four Imperial Star Destroyers.

==Species==
One important thing to note about alien species in Star Wars is that almost all of them were originally singular costumes added to the films for background color or to make a character stand out, then had a species name and culture retconned onto them by Expanded Universe writers. As a result, most species' "personalities" are just shallow clones of the character they're derived from. Many of the species seen in the original trilogy were given names and backstories by [[Star Wars RPG|the original RPG from West End Games]] that became canon as every other EU novel to come after used Star Wars D6 as a reference. All entries after humans are alphabetized.
* '''[[Human]]s''': They originated in the Galactic Core, but have spread to most inhabited planets, first as slaves to a now-extinct species of precursors and then through initial space exploration with pre-hyperdrive generation ships. As a result there are a lot of [[Abhuman|"near-human"]] species kicking around that are basically just weird-looking humans and pretty much the only species humans can crossbreed with.
** '''Mandalorians:''' Bobas/Jangos. A society of space [[Spartans]]/[[Vikings]] with cool armor. Actually not human majority initially (Unless you are a Disney fan), originally made up of a species called the Taung. The Taung had a habit of adopting orphans of other species to the point that when shit hit the fan and they died out following a war with the Jedi, their culture was preserved by other species who remember them as their Progenitors. As it stands, a Mandalorian can be of any race (the adopting the orphans-thing was something else the Taung passed down) but are usually human. Way, way back during the Old Republic, they were death-worshipping genocidal crusaders who were used by the Sith to crush the Republic and provoke the Jedi into war. In more modern times they mellowed out and mostly work as mercenaries or bounty hunters (and for a brief time, even flirted with pacifism), though some extremist sects like the Children of the Watch still exist, clashing with mainstream Mandalorian culture. Following the Empire's purge of Mandalore, the Mando's Beskar Armor became a priceless resource (As only Mandos knew how to make Beskar Iron, a near-impenetrable material and one of the few that can block blaster bolts and lightsabers), with the surviving Mandos sometimes being hunted just to be stripped of their armor.
** '''Corellians:''' Hans. Literally an entire culture of dashing rogues and space cowboys who like to go fast and smuggle shit (and penniless street urchins looking for their big break to become dashing rogues and space cowboys). The Corellian Engineering Corporation made the YT series (of which the Falcon is officially part of, though its modifications are extensive enough to make listing CEC as its manufacturer a [[Wikipedia:Ship of Theseus|Ship of Theseus]] problem) and many of the Rebel ships seen in the original trilogy. Nearly ruined their planet with starship factories, but now they've gone green and relocated all of their heavy industry to space stations. Their home system reeks of precursor meddling and is detailed enough to be a setting in itself, complete with a Big Dumb Object in the middle (Centerpoint Station) for PCs to fuck with.
* '''Aqualish:''' Ponda Babas. Vaguely spider-like (from the neck-up) aliens who are easily one of the ugliest looking species in Star Wars. Generally portrayed as violent thugs, though not always. Apparently they don't usually get along with Biths.
* '''Bith''': Another species that debuted in the original Star Wars movie, and because they did so as a band playing the famous Cantina theme, they were naturally given the species-wide hat of being musicians (though some Bith do pursue other careers). Their bulbous heads are probably owing to their being a fairly intelligent species, as they are big on mathematics and science as well as music. Generally a peaceful species.
* '''Bothans''': [[Meme|Died to bring you this information.]] A species of [[Beastmen (40k)|wolf-men/horse-men/goat-men]] (depending on which author/illustrator) who are almost universally spies thanks to that one-off line from Mon Mothma. When you remember these are hairy-ass, man sized, cloven beastmen, it seems like the bothans would be the shittest race for something as subtle as spywork. In truth the best and early EU works portray them as something far worse than spies: politicians. The most prominent Bothan is Borsk Fey'lya, a Bothan politician who used his role in the acquisition of the second Death Star plans to maintain a place in the New Republic's senior leadership and uses his position for personal gain like any proper politician should. Now possibly NOT wolfhorsegoatpeople, thanks to some Lucasfilm [[Troll|source]] being all like “uh actually, it’s never explicitly stated that they’re aliens, maybe they’re humans, *WINK*”. Let’s hope they’re humans - or at least less dumb than wolfhorsegoats. EU Bothans were as ridiculous a concept as [[Derp|force cancelling weasels]].
** '''Half-Bothans''': Satyrs/Fauns in Star Wars. Seriously, look up a picture of them and that's exactly how they're drawn. Don't seem to be too common, suggesting most humans in Star Wars ''aren't'' Furries.
* '''Chiss''': Thrawns. Near humans with blue skin, dark blue/black hair and red eyes. They dwell in the Unknown Regions, with they’re own fancy schmancy empire, crack navy and altogether superior technological advancements that make the rest of the galaxy look fucking backward (see blaster resistant clothes...whereas [[Derp|fucking stormtroopers in armor can be knocked down by arrows loosed by Care Bears]]). Known for being superb pilots, traders, negotiators, tacticians and all round scheming bastards with Danish accents.
* '''Dugs''': Sebulbas. Except, most of them aren't Podracers, instead being even more explicitly criminal in their professions (gangsters, drug dealers, members of Black Sun, etc.). Usually abrasive, arrogant, pushy, and violent. They share a homeworld with the Gran, which leads to some tension. Understandably hated in-universe by most.
* '''Duros''': Seen once in ''Hope'' during the cantina scene. Naturally they're one of the most important species in the EU despite not having a canon character until The Clone Wars introduced us to Cad Bane. Enslaved by precursors alongside humans, they were among the first to develop FTL travel based on salvaged hyperdrive technology and are the only non-human species to have an equivalent of "near-human" in a few "near-Duros" species. Look a bit like classic sci-fi Gray Aliens, as well as the Tau, but without the whole "Space Stalinism" thing.
* '''Echani''': Similar to humans in appearance, but most if not all of them have white or silver hair. They're also a culture of martial arts experts, specializing in armed and unarmed combat and even being able to "read" their opponents to an extent. [[Bretonnia|Generally seem to prefer melee combat and have comparatively less impressive ranged weapons]] (at least to hear Mandalorians like Canderous tell it).
* '''Ewoks''': If skub became a species, Ewoks would be a contender up there with Gungans and Yuuzhan Vong. Small koala-like creatures, similar to Jawas, that live on the forest moon of Endor, Ewoks are super primitive and live in tribes. They end up playing a big part in the Rebel victory in ''Return'' by attacking Imperial stormtroopers and destroying some walkers. Their reception didn't seem too bad at first, but in the following decades they've become reviled by many, not so much for their design but more for the idea that small bears with spears and rocks could defeat what were supposed to be the Emperor's finest troops. Some people don't mind them (and they were ''definitely'' profitable for merchandise) but others hate them and say they're a prime reason that attitudes toward ''Return'' have gotten increasingly negative over the years. That being said, people tend to overlook that Ewoks have a dark side to them; remember how they were going to eat Luke, Han and Chewie? Some EU material reshaped them into brutally savage death world survivors who practice some shady tribal customs, but are also well-accustomed to hunting much bigger and more dangerous creatures than themselves, which would make them fighting the Empire a little more credible.
* '''Gamorreans''': Space [[Orc]]s: Pig-like, brutish, stupid and violent. Constantly at war with each other, their clan identity is so strong they'll try to kill each other if from opposing clans if they meet off-world. Frequently brought into the galaxy as slaves or by clans trading labor/muscles for outside resources. Like Wookiees, can't physically speak Basic. Unlike Wookiees, only their clan matrons and some high ranking men are literate in their native language.
* '''Geonosians''': The franchise's token bug alien race, because every space setting needs bug aliens. Hugely vital to the CIS due to their homeworld being one of the main planets the Droid armies were built on. Various sources describe them as as rather arrogant. [[Skaven|They're hive-like, seem to treat their warriors and minions as expendable, and use a mix of polearm melee weapons and ranged weapons with green projectiles no one else has]]. Genocided by the Empire in Disney's Canon.
* '''Gran''': Three eyed goat (?) like aliens with rough, tan skin. They are quite nice and peaceful with excellent vision, especially in distinguishing color. Unfortunately for the galaxy at large, Gran exile most of their criminals: They consider being unable to see the rich and beautiful environments of their homeworld a fate worse than death. These exiles often fall into criminal groups.
* '''Grysk''': A near mythical species from the Unknown regions, where starships usually can't go because the hyperspace along its border is a level of fucked-up that only warp storms can match. Little is known about them except that they live on a spacefleet, have a fierce warrior culture, are humanoids with tapered skulls, their weapons and armor are ritualistically disfigured on the right side and they had a penchant for [[Tesla|electrical weapons]]. Likely Disney's replacement for the Yuuzhan Vong, since Space Cenobites with bio-tech is too weird and grimdark for Disney. tl;dr the Grysk are the Rak'gol to the Yuuzhan Vong's Tyranids.
* '''Gungans''': Jar-Jars. These guys suffer from an extremely poor choice of poster-boy (compared to Wookiees who have one of the best possible poster-boys of their species). You may think that just because Jar-Jar is one of the least intelligent (and most hated) characters in the entire Star Wars galaxy, the rest of his species are too, and this is certainly how a lot of people feel. But if you can look beyond Binks you'll see that the Gungans are pretty cool in their own way. Remember that, canonically, Jar-Jar is considered a disgrace in Gungan culture before the Battle of Naboo and after the rise of the Empire (as Senator Binks directly enabled it). Masters of organic technology, they live in bubble-buildings under the sea and have access to bioelectric spears and booma (essentially organic shock grenades fired by the [[Sling|various]] historical throwing devices) alongside [[Awesome|army-wide shield generators]] (in defiance of everyone else in the galaxy deriding them as primitives). Like the Wookiees these guys have a warrior-culture to be proud of, but unlike them they have at least made the effort to have a go at learning to speak basic (even though they still need to work on it). Due to their cartilaginous skeletons they are especially athletic and dynamic, making them pretty good fighters if they are trained properly, and in a rarity for a sci-fi species they have a racial weapon that's actually entirely practical (sling hurled explosives continue to see use today). Certainly if you want an accurate Gungan poster-boy, look no further than Captain Tarpals, who manages to hold General Grievous up in a duel for several minutes with nothing more than his spear. Oh, and their king is voiced by [[Awesome|BRIAN BLESSED]]. Still, for most folks, being the species of Jar-Jar is a hard thing to forgive, but like with many things from the Prequels, time has been a bit kind to their image. Worth mentioning that the writers are acutely aware of how much people find Gungans annoying, and so take shots at them now and then.
* '''Hutts''': Jabbas. (Fun fact: "the Hutt" was just a title in the original trilogy and Jabba was just some random slug dude. The original film didn't even intended for him to be an alien!) Naturally they're all mini-Jabbas who live in a clan/crime-family/zaibatsu type of arrangement known as the ''kadjic''. Kind of like the Mexican drug cartels in that they have their own corner of the galaxy that they rule independently, even after they join the Empire they pay the Moff to look the other way when they do shady shit. (They're always doing shady shit.) Because the Hutts own exactly one third of all organized crime (and a significant number of planets) in the galaxy and it is the third (after Basic and Binary) most widespread full language, Huttese is a good language to take, especially for criminal-types . Be warned! Hutts have four fingered hands and their numbering system uses base eight! Despite being looking and acting like fat [[neckbeards]] they're actually insanely strong and their less bulky youth are very agile for their size. They LOL at the Force, so the RPGs tend to give them a huge bonus to resist mental influence.
* '''Jawas''': Utinni! They roam Tatooine (and a few other planets) scavenging technology and selling it. A handful of sources mention they are [[Ratfolk|rodents]] under the hoods. Popular with the fans, but sadly we haven't yet gotten an (official), Jawa Jedi or Sith.
* '''Kaminoans''': A tall, gaunt species with super long necks hailing from a water-world who's species-wide hat is being expert cloners. Anyone who has a thing for clones always goes to Kaminoans to do the job, including the conspiracy behind the Clone Army that fought in the Clone Wars. Unfortunately for them, the Rise of the Empire led to their downfall in both Disney and Legends, though the circumstances between the two differ.
* '''Miraluka''': A species that look very similar to humans, but for two major differences: they're all blind, and they're all Force-Sensitive. That first part's not as debilitating as it sounds thanks to the second part, as they effectively "see" through the Force. If Visas Marr from Knights of the Old Republic II is anything to go by, they can see what alignments other people are, with good guys being blue, ultra good guys being glowing dark blue, bad guys being red, super-evil bad guys being glowing red, and neutrals being a yellowish-white.
* '''Mirialans''': Luminara Undulis. Look a lot like humans, but with skin along a green/olive spectrum and also often black diamond markings on their cheeks, forehead, and/or chins. As the setting's resident "green-skinned space babes" (other than Twi'leks), they naturally have a bit of a following with the fans.
* '''Mon Calamari''': Ackbars. An aquatic species whose long history of making airtight vehicles for travel in three dimensions has made them excellent ship-builders. During the early days of the Rebellion the Mon Calamari were one of the few species to successfully throw off the Empire during Operation Domino and not be subject to immediate reprisal thanks to their isolated location and strategy of mining hyperspace routes; basically they turned their system in to Space-Finland and the Empire gave up suiciding ships into them. Those weird-looking bubble ships from ''Return of the Jedi'' are built by Mon Calamari.
** '''Quarren''': Another background species from ''Jedi'' who share their homeworld of Dac with the Mon Calamari. Prideful isolationists who stick to the depths, with their main contact to the surface being trading deep sea mined materials to the Mon Calamari. Look more than a bit like [[Illithid]]. Quarren and Mon Calamari have a complicated (by which we mean bad), history and hate each other with a passion, with each species taking opposing sides in the Clone Wars.
* '''Neimoidians''': Nute Gunrays. [[Meme|They will not survive this.]] Their reproductive cycle is really weird: they produce lots of grubs which are raised in warrens fighting over a limited amount of food; this results in only the biggest, most paranoid, and most greedy surviving. Unlike how this usually goes, this process makes the Neimodians prone to hoarding resources and wary of danger. They're also fouler than [[Luke]] when it comes to hygiene; their homeworld's principal export is considered to be Type-B Brainrot, and even the Republic had the place functionally quarantined because of the sheer number of diseases they shit out.
* '''Noghri''': Primitive, short saurian people who happen to be some of the deadliest non-Jedi melee combatants and assassins in the galaxy. Darth Vader bought their loyalty by saving them from the environmental damage a crashed ship caused. They are a major part of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, which they were invented for. Thrawn still has one as a sidekick in ''Rebels''.
* '''Pykes:''' humanoids with bulbous heads and small beady eyes, and typically wear decorative masks. Don’t let the appearance fool you, the Pyke syndicate is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the galaxy as they have a stranglehold on the underworld’s number one resource: Spice. Yes it’s a blatant reference to [[Dune]]. No, it doesn’t give you freaky superpowers, it’s just a very powerful narcotic. The Pykes control the Spice supply chain for the entire galaxy, taking in mined pre-spice from various planets (most of it coming from Kessel, located deep inside a maelstrom that makes navigation extremely hazardous), having it refined on their homeworld in Oba Diah, and then distributed to every corner from Tatooine to Coruscant. The Pykes allow independent smugglers to do supply runs for them but expect their cut, regardless of the smuggler’s success or failure. If you’re really unlucky, they’ll just kill you on the spot, since their leaders are constantly high on their own product.
* '''Rakata''': The aforementioned precursors, developed by [[BioWare]] for the ''Knights of the Old Republic'' game (though there were a few mentions of precursors here and there before that). Formed an "Infinite Empire" long before the Republic using dark side powered hyperdrives only they could use. When they gradually lost their force sensitivity their empire fell apart. Responsible for why there are so many Humans and Human off-shoots everywhere: They were seeded throughout the Infinite Empire as a slave species and abandoned when it fell. Also ''enormous'' assholes as it turns out, doing everything from eating people to genocide and basically having a level of sociopathic awfulness that wouldn't be out of place in 40K. There is no evidence they existed past the Old Republic era, where a few fractured and primitive survivors were seen on their home planet and this planet was devoid of life by the time of the Ruusan Reformation.
* '''Rodians''': Greedos. Their home planet being a death world full of predators means they are often aggressive and put hunters in high regard, which is the EU excuse for most Rodian characters being criminals. Despite being somewhat popular with the fans, they tend to be given the role of blaster/lightsaber fodder, especially in the KotoR games where hordes of Rodian goons and thugs are a relatively common sight. Those Rodians who want to live longer seem to generally gravitate towards jobs like bartenders and merchants if the KotoR games are anything to go by. That, or politicians, but as Senator Farr reminds us, that can be hazardous too.
* '''Shards''': Sapient crystals. They are incapable of movement and don't speak the way humans do. They can however control droid bodies they are implanted into. Several are force sensitive which led to a Jedi teaching them the ways of the Force. The Jedi order shunned these "Iron Knights" and excommunicated the master responsible. This wound up benefiting them though, as the master and his students were able to survive the Jedi purge due to the obscurity this granted. When Luke's new order emerged they welcomed the Shards with open arms.
* '''Sith / Sith Purebloods''': Red skinned near-humans with bony tentacles growing out from near their nose and an affinity for the dark side, especially illusions. Natives of Korriban, the order most people know as Sith were a result of exiled dark Jedi interbreeding with them and adding their knowledge of technology. So diluted with human blood they were extremely rare by the Old Republic era and believed extinct by the time of the prequels. A few small mostly primitive pockets had been discovered however, but were covered up by Palpatine so he could grab more dark side goodies. More or less invented whole-cloth for the EU.
* '''Sullustans''': [[Dwarf|Short, tunnelfaring, crafters who can drink a lot without getting drunk]]. Vaguely simian near-humans with flappy jowls, large ears, and black eyes that originally evolved for tunnels. Their SoroSuub company is one of the largest tech makers in the galaxy, and likely the largest that isn't Human run.
* '''Tarasin''': Invented whole-cloth for the Living Force campaign for [[Star Wars D20]]. Lizardmen with scales that change color based on their emotions and frilled necks. With focus they can control their colors enough to camouflage themselves and even "speak" silently amongst each other. They had a high degree of force sensitivity, though if this a result of their species or their home system being a place where the Force is strong is unknown.
* '''Togruta''': Diet Twi'leks. Humanoids with lekku and hollow horns that allow echolocation. Shaak Ti and Ahsoka were Togruta.
* '''Toydarians''': Wattos. Blue tapir-looking dudes from Hutt Space who can hover on fly-like wings. As their source character is a hilariously offensive Jewish stereotype, the EU largely ignored Toydarians until ''The Clone Wars'' reinvented them as a vaguely Cambodian monarchy on a mud world. Mind tricks don't work on them (only money). Of the non-Watto Toydarians who showed up pre-Clone Wars, they're mostly surly and greedy like Watto, but with the Jewish stereotypes downplayed for obvious reasons.
* '''Trandoshans''': Bossks. Brutish, scaly [[Lizardfolk]] capable of regenerating severed limbs and absolutely obsessed with hunting shit. Have had a continuous species war with the Wookiees since before FTL was a thing, which is a ''long-ass time'' in Star Wars (well over 150,000 years), owing to the fact that the two species share a home system. Their religion is about scoring "points", with the only known method of gaining them is violent action and the only known method of losing them is being captured alive by enemies. The system was first mentioned a mere three years after ''[[Doom]]'' so the fact that they essentially see life as a giant, violent video game is likely pure coincidence. Despite this they aren't universally evil, though they often are. Have their own Predator <s>ripoff</s> homage movie.
* '''Tusken Raiders:''' More commonly known by civilized folks as "Sand People," they are the native race of Tatooine and are your typical desert-dwelling nomadic raiders, with the added twist of having a major cultural taboo against showing any flesh (including their faces) and having "blood spitters" as part of their biology. One of Tatooine's two primary non-human races (the other being Jawas). One of the first alien species encountered in the franchise, yet never as fleshed out as others. Even the actual name of their species is unknown; their current name originates from the first Human colonists, who named them 'Tusken Raiders' after their repeated assaults on Fort Tusken. Fiercely xenophobic and violent, the Tuskens typically have an antagonistic relationship with the other peoples living on Tatooine, usually raiding moisture farmers or sometimes outright kidnapping and killing civilian homesteaders, or even massacring small frontier towns, and in turn being seen by most as [[Always Chaotic Evil|pure monsters]]. In reality they have more nuance than they're often given credit for, and more recent appearances have made them a bit closer to portrayals of 19th Century Plains Native Americans; not taking crap from trespassers, but honorable and fair with those who respect them. Its been shown to be entirely possible to live peacefully with the local tribes if you can communicate and work out a deal with them (that you don't break). Their civilization is quite ancient, with them remembering when Tatooine still had seas and having adapted to both the harsh desert and salvaging the technology of foreigners into blaster-muskets. They also seem to be one of the few cultures in Star Wars that haven't heard of women's liberation, because with the exception of a female Tusken warrior in [[Skub|the Book of Boba Fett]], the female Tuskens seen thus far all seem to tend to the home and not be armed warriors.
* '''[[Twi'lek]]s''': Technicolored humanoids from Ryloth (which is about as far as you can get from the core worlds without leaving the major hyperspace lanes) with weird head-tails ("lekku") that they have instead of hair. Enough have been transported off world, generally as slaves, they can be found anywhere, and many have never seen their ancestral home. Given it's a borderline death world whose chief economic exports are drugs and slaves, they aren't missing anything. Their most interesting physical quality (aside from the girls being hot) is that they can communicate silently with their lekku. TORtanic tried to rationalize their fetish for enslaving their own as being the result of a precursor project to design the perfect slave species, but nobody cares about this because TORtanic is <s>shit</s> Skub.
* '''Wookiees:''' Chewbaccas, and one of the only species to be named in the original films. Huge, swole sloth people that do not live on Endor and can't speak (but absolutely understand) Basic. Most are actually pretty peaceful and intelligent and they have produced a lot of highly skilled engineers. They also have a reputation for being the best [[Navigator]]s in the galaxy, in part because their highly secretive Navigator's guild has plotted all sorts of shortcuts across the galaxy - plus you better be bloody good at orientation, pathfinding, and being able to make your way back to your treehouse at days end if your entire planet is a fucking forest. They highly value people who save their life, becoming their eternal friend in what is known as a Life-debt; this is how Han met Chewie. They have retractable climbing claws, but a cultural taboo on using them in combat leads to those who do so being exiled as "madclaws". Has the unfortunate distinction of being the first species in Star Wars lore to have their home planet and culture detailed... via the ''Star Wars Holiday Special''. Despite the infamy and single airing, the broad strokes survived the entirety of the Expanded Universe's lifespan and would reappear in ''Revenge of the Sith''.
* '''Yuuzhan Vong''': Humanoids with pallid skin and tapered skulls [[Tyranids|from another galaxy and who only use organic technology]]. Native to a living planet called Yuuzhan'tar which they worshipped as a god, their first contact experience was [[Necrons|an interstellar robot war]]. They weaponized their biotech and defeated the invaders - and in so doing gained [[Khorne|a taste for war and conquest (plus a hatred of machines) that led them to invent a war god and conquer their galaxy]]... [[Fail|which they later destroyed through infighting]]. The destruction of their homeworld [[Culexus|cut them off from the Force, unintentionally making them mostly immune to it]]. Their attempts to undo this gave them [[Dark Eldar|a species-wide fetish for pain and body modification]] instead. Centuries later they found and invaded the Star Wars galaxy, leading to a galactic war that decimated the New Republic, caused multiple genocides and had a death toll around '''365 trillion''' ([[Lamenters|including Chewbacca]]). Luke and his family ended the war by killing the various Vong leaders and finding Yuuzhan'tar's offspring, Zonama Sekot. The Vong colonized Sekot, were reconnected to the Force and became terraformers as penance for the war. Rendered part of the Legends by Disney. Some fans consider the Yuuzhan Vong a fresh blast of originality that provided a threatening and utterly badass new foe (even Dave Filoni has tried at least twice to pull the Yuuzhan Vong into his projects), while others consider them a nonsensical edgelord race that relied on major retcons to make sense.
* '''Zabrak''': Mauls. Near-humans with mostly bald, spikey heads and two hearts. Those black markings Maul had are actually ritualistic tatoos that Zabrak men often get. They were pretty divided internally till the Empire decided to oppress them all and force them to join together. Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar of the Jedi Council were also Zabraks.
** '''Dathomirians''' are a sub-species of Zabrak native to Dathomir who supposedly interbred with humans to create a new group, though their origins have been neglected in current canon. Even so, the females of this sub-species do not have the spiked heads typical of other Zabraks, looking more like ashen-skinned humans. Strictly divided along gender lines, with the bulk of the females forming the Nightsisters while the men are [[Drow|relegated to the role of slaves and breeding stock]]. Darth Maul is the most prominent Dathomirian in the films and TV series, with Asajj Ventress close behind.

==Ships, Superweapons and anything in between==
*Imperial-Class Star Destroyer: The iconic dagger-shaped grey icons of Imperial might from the original trilogy, most prominently featured in Empire strikes back. Star Destroyer in itself was a classification for the largest capital ships in the Republican Navy that simply stuck when the Empire took over. Equipped with devastating firepower that outclassed any other type of warship at the time and its own dedicated regiment of ground troops together with fighter and bomber support, a Star Destroyer was built to serve as its own independent strike group to police the Empire and defend it from outside threats completely independently. The Rebellion was scared shitless of the things, as nothing in their arsenal could hope to withstand a direct encounter with them for long and one showing up almost always meant very bad news for them.
*Executor: The FUKHUEG mega-ship that served as Vaders flagship in Episode 5 and 6. So huge that it is even in-universe classified as a "Super-Star Destroyer", with it being about 20 kilometers in length. Built in the years between A new Hope and Empire strikes back, the Executor and the class of dreadnoughts of the same name had the purpose of serving as flagships to the Imperial sector fleets and as a supplement to the Death Star to intimidate any world into submission with a metric ton of weapon systems that afforded it the firepower to glass a sizeable unshielded planetary settlement within minutes. The ability to posess one of these precious few ships (about nine were built in total) was often used in the old EU to indicate the power level of the villain of the day. Most of them ended up being destroyed, but at least found their way into the hands of the New Republic, where they became its foremost power projectors should the need for such arise.
*TIE-Series: The Empires standard pattern of small space vessel and very recognizable for it. Their base construction was built around the core concept of having a cheap, disposable and mass-produced ship that needed very little fuel and maintenance to be operational in order to cut down on the costs for equipping the enourmous numbers of ships in the Imperial Navy. The base model is the TIE-Fighter, equipped with two ion engines (hence the name, TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine) powered by the large solar panels that made up its "wings" and twin-linked laser cannons capable of destroying most fighters it would come into contact with. Despite being blisteringly fast and maneuveable, the design had a lot of serious downsides when compared with more sophisicated designs like the X-Wings the Rebels used; in order to cut down costs, the amount of protection afforded to its pilots was almost non-existent, having no armour to speak of, no shield generator and not even life support systems, requiring the pilots to wear pressurized suits when going on a mission. They also lacked Hyperdrives, although given their intended purpose as short-ranged carrier-based strike craft this is mostly irrelevant.
**TIE-Fighter: Aformentioned base model, the basic star fighter for the Imperial Navy.
**TIE-Bomber: The basic bomber/torpedo boat model of the TIE-Series. An enlarged version of the Fighter with differently shaped solar panels and a massive bomb bay that could either house bombs for conventional bombing campaigns or Proton Torpedoes for destroying enemy battleships up close.
**TIE-Interceptor: A new and improved version of the Fighter, with distinct arrow-shaped Solar Panels and improved propulsion systems, making it even faster than regular TIE-Fighters while also having improved firepower.
**TIE-Defender: Probably the most advanced ship of the TIE-Series, this baby took all the good things from the TIE-Fighter and Rebel-Ship models into an extremely deadly package, boasting shield generators, hyperdrives and weapon systems that transformed its role into a space-superiority-fighter/fast torpedo bomber hybrid. These advanced systems however meant also that it was quite expensive and rare.
* The Sun Crusher: If ever there was a non-living object that can be described as a [[Mary Sue]] this is it. Just go to the Wookiepedia page as anyone who thinks to elaborate on this is suddenly overcome by an urge to smash their heads against the nearest wall. TL;DR: its the original Starkiller Base (IE an even more powerful Death Star), and like Starkiller Base one of the less beloved things about the franchise's post-RotJ period.

==The Galaxy (and beyond)==
The Galaxy Far Far Away is a spiral galaxy about 120,000 light year in diameter. It is home to an unusually high number of populated planets and species. It has a few smaller satellite galaxies, though only one is ever visited in the entity of Star War media and only in an obscure short story (but visitors from the others have come).
*The Deep Core: The innermost part of the galaxy. Due to a high number of black holes, and dense star clusters, only the outer most areas are explored. The sole exception is a top secret Imperial bunker world of Byss, also Empress Teta (a world that once rivaled Coruscan in population, named after the badass who broke Naga Sadow's attempt to destroy the Republic with the Old Sith Empire) is just on the inside of the border between the Deep Core and the Core.
*The "Core" worlds: The most populated and best mapped part of the galaxy. Holds the actual capital of the Republic/Empire/New Republic, and some of the biggest sources of culture. The earliest known home world of Humans and Duros, but the Rakata taking these species as slaves leaves the world of their origin a mystery.
*Colonies: The first areas that was expanded to after hyperspace travel came about.
*Inner Rim: The next set of areas colonized. By the time of the films, they’re pretty developed.
**Hapes Cluster: An independent system of stars ruled by the matriarchal Hapes Consortium. Even for Star Wars, it's incredibly dense in populated worlds. They took in a large number of Separatist scientists at the end of the Clone Wars and by the New Republic it has unique technology that's more advanced in some areas despite lagging behind in some other areas.
*Mid rim: An even further area of expansion. Where the Mid Rim ends and the Outer Rim begins is a bit vague, with a lot of the outer Mid Rim being barely if at all better off than the Outer Rim.
*Outer Rim: The farthest reach of the galaxy. Civilization is sparsely populated, neglected by the galactic authorities and/or largely dominated by the independent and cruel Hutt Empire.
** Hutt Space: An autonomous section of the galaxy ruled by the Hutt clans ("Kajidic"). How, exactly, head of state (or any government function) is determined and what titles they hold is unclear, but there seems to be some Hutt that somehow becomes on top of it. A lack of extradition agreements with the Republic renders it a haven for criminals, who in turn kick money back to the Hutts. It joins the Empire during its existance, only to continue its shifty ways after early Imperial attempts to wipe out crime fail and regain independence after Palpatine's death.
*Corporate Sector/Tingel Arm: The "northern" most edge of the galaxy. Over 400 years before ''The Phantom Menace'', the Republic had the brilliant idea to develop an unpopulated section of the galaxy: Get a bunch of large companies to do it in exchange for some autonomy, resource rights and lower taxes. [[Not As Planned|Naturally this went poorly]], and the whole place is a [[Cyberpunk]] style megacorp controlled dystopia. Originated in the Han Solo books, one of the first expanded universe books ever, and the fluff from there has seen little change.
*Unknown Regions: The vast, largely unexplored due to similar issues to the core, western chunk of the galaxy. It actually has several native hyperspace capable civilizations forging their own empires by the New Republic era, one of which was already active over 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin.
*Wild Space: Wild Space is the area of the galaxy that ''is'' charted and open to Hyperspace travel, but unsettled and most of the detail on the maps is lacking. Holds the Rishi system, the only publicly known path to the Rishi maze (a state secret path in the Outer Rim's Rothana goes to Kamino).
*Rishi Maze: The only one of the satellite galaxies to be visited by those from the main galaxy, able to be accessed by traveling a chain of systems stuck between the two. The one short story that actually goes there describes it as a mess of radiation, but this could be the particular system within the maze. The only people known to live here are exploiting the natural resource deposits and hiding from The Empire. More well known is the cloner planet of Kamino, which is between the main galaxy and the maze.
*(unnamed) Yuuzhan Vong galaxy: This was the home galaxy of the EU race the Yuuzhan Vong, their original homeworld of Yuuzhan'tar, the planet Zonama Sekot, the reptoid Chazrach, and possibly the Silentium (who made first contact and war on the Vong) and the Abominor droid civilizations . The galaxy was a spiral galaxy like GFFA and had a vast number of sentient races in it; however, the Yuuzhan Vong [[Tyranids|wiped the others out]], save the Chazrach [[Dark Eldar|whom they instead enslaved]]. The Yuuzhan Vong referred to it as the "ancestral galaxy", and much of it was destroyed when [[Horus Heresy|the Yuuzhan Vong started fighting among themselves after dominating the galaxy]], with its current state of what's left of it unknown.
*Firefist Galaxy: Another one of the orbiting galaxies. The only contact the main galaxy has had with it has been sending probes. Home to the Faruun, Maccabree, Nagai and Tof, all of which arrived during the early New Republic fleeing the problems of their home or in pursuit. All of this comes from the Marvel comics (with some smoothing in the details in reference books), but despite the general oddness of fitting the Marvel comics into more modern canon and many silly concepts in those comics, the presence of these species and their conflict is largely accepted because, unlike the ''other'' extragalactic visitors, it's not very disruptive to overall canon to include them. Given that Disney now owns both Marvel and Star Wars, we may see more of them.

==Technology==
Star Wars appears to be a fairly standard sci-fi world (because it ''set'' that standard), but there's many subtle nuances that are easily missed
* Hyperdrives take ships to Hyperspace where they can travel and arrive at other destinations at FTL speed. Using a hyperdrive takes careful calculation to not only arrive on target, but avoid hitting anything on your way there.
** Each hyperdrive has a class, which multiplies travel time. At the time of the Rebellion, the standard was 2x, with newer/upgraded ships often packing class 1x and the Millennium Falcon (proclaimed to be the fastest ship in The Galaxy) had a class 0.5 as a result of modifications that made it unreliable. Anything larger than a fighter has a backup hyperdrive of much higher class (typically double digit) to ensure the crew can limp to the nearest populated system in the event of failure of the primary drive.
** Most travel occurs along the great hyperspace lanes, where the way is known to be clear and calculations are more established.
** Vehicles have to start up their shields ''after'' they complete their jump, which makes them vulnerable if you can predict where they are coming from. This makes launching an attack purely to target any reinforcements possible.
** Hyperspace itself [[Warp|is weird]], and standard procedure is to avoid looking outside long term during travel to prevent people from going nuts. Communications while in hyperspace (except to ships making the same jump) are near impossible. Leaving hyperspace without the ship you came in on is impossible, and ejecting someone during travel ensures their death.
** There's a handful of instances of of hyperdrive failures sending people to Otherspace, an alternate dimension populated by a ship graveyard and hostile bug aliens with organic technology.
** One thing that's often overlooked is that modern hyperdrive technology is adapted from the dark side powered hyperdrives of the ancient Rakata after they lost the ability to use The Force and could no longer travel to maintain their empire. The result is that even [[Adeptus Mechanicus|experts don't have a total understanding of ''how'' Hyperspace works]].
** Hyperdrive is quick, a good hyperdrive capable ship can get you across the galaxy in at most a day.
** Interdictor ships are capable of generating artificial gravity well to stop travel through their path and prevent ships from getting away. These first appeared in the Mandalorian Wars of the Old Republic, using spammed tractor beams to fake gravity wells, but these couldn't keep pace with hyperdrive improvements and disappeared till a superior successor technology was developed in the Imperial era. During the early days of the New Republic, Admiral Ackbar devised a tactic of using of such ships to prevent ''ally'' movement, ordering one to power up if it detected sabotage on a planned target had failed so the incoming attackers would be pulled from hyperspace far enough away to retreat. It would be Thrawn however that would prove the true master of such maneuvers, developing a system that allowed reliable same-system hyperspace jumps during tactical combat, hence it's name, Thrawn Pincer. Thrawn himself nicked that idea from Plo Koon and Saesee Tin when they wanted to bomb a planet but also bypass the superior blockade around the planet.
* FTL communication comes in four forms, all with their own issues.
** Holonet: The best known method for FTL communications. Vaguely comparable to the early internet, with news, primitive BBS, email, and some other stuff. Quite rare once you get past the developed core areas, and expensive to use both in setting it up and bandwith costs. Only military command vehicles and those for heads of state are likely to have personal holonet transceivers.
** Subspace relay: The cheaper alternative to the holonet is subspace relays. Relatively slow and has problems with dropped communications, but still FTL. Most capital ships have subspace transceivers, and some smaller vehicles are known to have them as upgrades. Comparable to snail mail, with shopping being a mail order order system like the Sears Catalog (view catalog, send order and payment, await shipping) rather than online shopping.
** Hyperspace Courier: Has all the problems of courier communication, and all the problems of hyperspace combined. Despite these faults, it's often the only choice for the most remote systems or if someone is disrupting the above two (like in a war) and always the only way to send physical goods.
** The Force: Occasionally powerful Force users are seen communicating via The Force across very long distances. This requires both parties be strong in The Force and have a very close connection. Even then being able to do anything more than sense the other is in danger is a crapshoot.
* Blasters use energy to excite special gas that is then expelled to deadly effect. Most blasters have an alternate stun setting which provides less-lethal takedowns. Stun setting is quite reliable and consistent even on physically tough species like Wookiees, though it's not safe to use on pregnant women and outside of specialized stun-only blasters the range is rather low. Despite being energy weapons, they have quite a kick. Routinely dismissed as "slow" despite multiple sources contradicting this idea. How fast they are is somewhat debatable (and differs depending on which canon), but they're considered more advanced than Slugthrowers (detailed below), implying that Blasters are better overall.
** [[Stubber|Normal firearms]], known as slugthrowers, are also present. Compared to blasters they're cheaper, cause bleeding, are far more dangerous to block with a lightsaber (it'll usually just melt the slug and make you get hit with molten metal instead), can be suppressed, and lower maintenance requirements, but have less initial stopping power, lower capacity, can't stun, make far more noise without a suppressor, and have heavier ammo. Considered more primitive than blasters, which is why you rarely see them (well, that and the powers that be preferring Star Wars to not be rated R).
** Ion weapons disrupt electric systems, but cause little structural damage and only minor burns on living creatures. This allows them to disable droids or ships without totally destroying them, making them important in capturing them.
** [[Sonic Weaponry]] exists, but it's considered an odd fork (as powerful as a slug thrower with none of its benefits) by everyone outside of water worlds and Jedi hunters.
* Replusorlift keeps vehicles, industrial equipment and some droids floating off the ground a good distance. Most spacecraft have repulsor systems as well, which is how they're able to operate in atmosphere despite their poor aerodynamics.
* '''[[Robot|Droids]]''' aren't a true species, but are playable in all RPGs. They're supposed to be really smart appliances, but Star Wars technology is so fucked up that a few develop sapience if left on too long without formatting. Despite this droids aren't considered people by the galaxy at large because sapient droids are as rare as non-evil [[drow]] and most of the time leaving droids running for a long time just makes them slower and buggier until they can't do their jobs anymore, like Windows, or, at best, overly attuned to a specific user. That a good number of sapient droids have learned to bypass that pesky "no killing" clause doesn't exactly encourage experimenting with it and trying to replicate it either.
** Class 1 droids are designed to preform scientific applications like medicine or lab work. Since they were designed to be used in fixed locations most, but not all, have limited mobility.
** Class 2 droids are designed to preform technical labor like repair work. Since they are expected to work within artificial locations they are generally on wheels or treads and have short, non-human shapes. One notable subcategory of Class 2 droids are Astromech Droids (like the famed R2 series), which are designed to plug into fighters and bombers where they function as a co-pilot, navicomputer and in-flight repair.
** Class 3 droids are designed for human interaction, with jobs like translator or chef. Some lower end Class 3 droids were made for positions like waiter. Almost all of them are roughly human shape, with the main exception being those built by and for non-humans that instead resemble their intended masters.
** Class 4 droids are the most varied but have one thing in common that clearly separates them: They are made for combat and (except for a few armed with only stun weapons) don't have programming against killing. Class 4 droids vary in intelligence from blaster turrets with some targeting AI to clever and ruthless assassins/commandos. Even [[Android|Human Replica Droids]], designed to be indistinguishable from humans, are technically Class 4. Many Class 4 droids have their nature obfuscated by building them into the shell of a Class 1 or Class 3 droid.
** Class 5 droids are made for manual labor like heavy lifting or a power generator with legs. They are barely intelligent, rarely have names and almost never become sapient. They are however cheap and quite common.
* Cloning: Fairly realistic on most accounts. You take a gene sample, use it to make an ova, grow it in an exowomb and decant it as an adult. The main difference is that SW cloners are much, much better at it, with a vastly higher success rate compared to real life plus the ability to do accelerated aging for army building. The Kaminoans are the best at this. Generally, Force-Sensitives can't be cloned, and when they are, they most often come out as physically and mentally unstable nutjobs who need to be put out of their misery. "Perfect" Force-Sensitive clones are exceedingly rare, to the point that (again), most in-universe consider it impossible.
* Cloaking devices come in two types.
** The first was dependent upon crystals that became rare due to overharvesting. Use of a superweapon for deep excavation allowed an imperial research project to toy with the idea of fitting an entire squadron of fighters equipped with one.
** The second, the hibridium model, used a different rare material and was developed near the end of the Empire, though didn't see use till after the fall. It was substantially (though still only relatively) cheaper but had two unique drawbacks. The first was that it also blinded the ship to the world outside and rendered it unable to communicate as well. These problems would briefly be overcome with the use of the Force instead. Afterwards the Remnant gave up on it as mostly useless, and agreed to ban it during the peace treaty with the New Republic.
** Personal "stealth field" generators also seem to exist, unrelated to these. They simply dampen sound and bend light to make the wearer harder to spot and difficult (but not impossible) to see. Presumably these aren't upscaled for vehicle use because of the real world problem with such a concept of being completely useless against any sensor beyond just human level vision (still being blatantly obvious to thermal, as well as radar if they're big enough ect.).
* In many ways, while technology is advanced it's still in the mindset of 1983, if not 1977. As mentioned above, the internet (at least the interplanetary one) is quite primitive and poorly connected. Even though everyone has a tiny radio set (Comlink), there's no such thing as cellphones (you have to broadcast to a channel and hope whoever you want to hear something is listening). Aside from portable computers, which are quite expensive, and datapads, which still have limited functionality, most non-droid technology only does one thing. Unlike the 1913 rail and M-Lok equipped guns of the 90s onward, weapon accessories either need to be made for a single model or hand-fitted by an expert. Video games are either professional simulators or extremely primitive.
* Energy shields come in several variants
** Ray shields protect from energy weapons but are useless against physical attacks. Most ships are equipped with ray shields.
** Particle shields protect from physical attacks but are useless against energy attacks. Generally only bigger ships are equipped with particle shields while smaller ships such as fighters only have ray shields.
** Planetary shields are the reason why ground battles happen and why orbital superiority isn't enough to secure a planet. They can withstand even the most severe bombardment for weeks, with only weapons like the Death Star being capable of penetrating them almost instantaneously. As a result, it is generally more feasible to land troops on the planet.
* [[Lightsaber]]s are the most iconic weapon of the setting, being plasma-based melee weapons only used by crazy space [[wizard]]-[[monk]]s.
* [[The Force]] isn't so much technology as something in between a religion, [[magic]] and [[psionics]]. This is ''the'' element that turns Star Wars from [[Space Opera]] into [[Science Fantasy]].

==Setting History==
{{stub}}
Bear in mind the highly contradictory nature of canon and many sources from EU to Disney means any attempt to truly form a concrete history would take an in-depth scholarly pursuit of all sources and debate amongst the global community while taking into account upcoming new results that can entirely rewrite the record. You know, like real history ([[Tolkien]] did an admirable job, but nothing quite says plausible history like something everyone has an opinion on but nobody that anyone wants to listen to has fully researched). At any rate, what is presented here is an abridged version of the lore history prior to the Original Trilogy, using the most complete accounts, and combining the EU AKA “Legends” with the Disney canon when not contradictory (because despite having supposedly wiped it out of canon, there are frequent callbacks to parts of it). Though in fairness, Legends lore is far more fleshed out and takes priority in practice. Since it is under construction, it will probably be split into different sections (or we'll put parentheses showing whether it's Disney or OG, going in year order). As a note, most dates are referred to Before or After the Battle of Yavin (with both 0 BBY and 0 ABY existing) for the sake of out of universe convenience. There are various in-universe calendars, but this is pretty much the standard at the time of the end of the story and is the easiest to follow IRL. Thus, when the contradictions majorly start after Episode 6, the format will be Legends-5 ABY, Disney-5ABY, Legends-6 ABY and so on.

* The universe begins, life begins to evolve. A lot of small things happen that tie into other stories, but aren’t worth mentioning outside that story.
* The unknown Celestial race holds dominion around a hundred thousand years Before the Battle of Yavin, they mysteriously vanish soon afterwards.
** Before disappearing, a set of force wielding physical gods known as the Father, the Daughter and the Son help them to seal Abeloth "The Mother", a mortal who lived with them and in desperation for sharing their immortality did some extremely bad dark side Force stuff and turned into an eldritch abomination, in the Maw Cluster of black holes using Centerpoint Station, a super weapon in the partially artificial Corellia System.
* The first galactic civilization (that we know of except whatever the Celestials were, if they even count as a formal polity) are the Rakata, cruel aliens who uplift various other species for slaves and food in the Rakatan Infinite Empire. This explains most aliens that are just paint and simple face prosthetics away from being human, as well as recurring traits like bipedalism.
** The Rakata encounter the Sith species, who also use the dark side. The Sith drive them off after a costly battle thanks to Sith King Adas sacrificing himself.
*** The Sith'ari prophecy is made to indicate a worth successor to Adas who would bring the Sith to the height of their power, Bane would be the Sith'ari more than twenty thousand years later.
** At some point the Rakata encounter the Hutts, and the result is the Rakata being nearly wiped out. Hutts did not possess space travel, nor would they until much later so how the fuck that happened isn’t clear, though it is mentioned that they lost their connection to the Force (universally the Dark Side due to species wide enforcement of being an asshole) after an unknown illness.
** Time progresses and the Rakata are forgotten from general knowledge outside of archeological and historical circles, even then only Force sensitives really know the major significance other than "big empire that collapsed before the Republic was even a dream".
* Civilizations develop and discover space travel, then hyperspace travel. Initial hyperspace colonization and mapping is risky, requiring oftentimes blind jumps and the hope there isn’t a star or something where you end up.
** Blind jumps result in colonists losing contact with the rest of the universe and evolving on their own, explaining some groups that are VERY similar but not the same species (for example, Miraluka are lost human colonists who ended up on a planet with poor light and over generations they evolved to not have eyes, but instead all have a Jedi-tier connection to the Force to “see” with).
* The Force-users find their jumps guided to a specific planet, with aliens from many diverse backgrounds guided to a planet (First Tython in Legends, changed to Ahch-To in the Disney canon. Later material for The Mandalorian brought Tython back alongside Ahch-To as both being early Jedi planets and nobody knowing for sure which was actually the first).
** Bringing their own religions, traditions, and cultures, the Force-users develop schools of thought on the philosophy. Eventually one group decides the meaning of life for the Force is to destroy evil (like [[Paladins]]), and wages war on the others saying “you’re with us or against us”. One group resists which saw honor and personal development as the meaning of life (like [[Cavalier]]s). The rest were split between the two.
** The Paladin-like aggressors were victorious, slaughtering and driving off the Cavalier-types. The Paladin-like Force-users would become the early Jedi. The Cavalier-types would find pain and misery in exile after multiple Great Schism's, sinking deep into worship of power and personal gain. After the Third Great Schism caused by Jedi Knights Ajunta Pall, Sorzus Syn, Xoxaan, Remulus Dreypa and Karness Muur wanting to study the Dark Side after the balance started falling towards Light Side use lead to the Hundred Year Darkness civil war, they are exiled. The exiles find and enslave a species of aliens and stole both their dark Force/alchemy teachings as well as their name when Ajunta Pall killed the last King Hakagram Graush, the Sith, and interbreeding with them to build the Old Sith Empire, Pall as the first Dark Lord of the Sith.
*** The Hundred Year Darkness leads to the invention of Lightsabers, inspired by Rakata Forcesabers, though initial examples like the one Karness Muur used require energy batteries on belts connected by cables.
*** Karness Muur discovers the method of immortality when he transfers his spiritual essence to his Muur Talisman amulet created by Sith Alchemy. Dreypa, his rival, makes a stasis coffin to hold Muur in, said coffin is later named the Jebble Box and is misidentified as a Jedi artifact.
** This becomes a recurring pattern in Star Wars history regarding good and evil Force-users. Good creates its own evil by standing up and declaring themselves good and morally correct, turning any challengers to their orthodoxy towards the Dark Side (look, it comes up whenever Lucas or some other writer wants to go back to the Taoist roots of The Force). Good then defeats the evil it created once evil has almost won, and they reestablish order with some oppression in an attempt to prevent another evil which restarts the cycle.
** The Chosen One to bring balance to the Force prophecy is made. Anakin Skywaker would fulfill this prophecy a thousand years after Bane fulfilled the Sith'ari prophecy.
* Humans and Duro, the first two species to discover hyperspace travel from Rakata technological remnants, eventually meet. The planet they meet on has been implied to be the human homeworld, the Duro homeworld, Earth, and various other things, but it doesn’t matter, final decision settled on as Human homeworld with any connection to real Earth slashed and Duro homeworld being described as another planet in another part of the galaxy. It becomes Coruscant (the homeworld of the Taung, a.k.a. OG Mandalorians, and also the homeworld of the human predecessor race, the latter won and drove off the Taung to Mandalore), and they create the first Galactic Republic in 25553 BBY.
** The exiled Taung found Mandalore, a martial society of warmongers and Social Darwinists, on the planet of Mandalore, which along with it's moon and nearby systems has a massive amount of the substance known as Beskar, capable of making Lightsaber resistant armor.
* Various expansion wars occur after the Republic is founded, including a religiously motivated 1000 year long pro-human genocidal regime, the Pius Dea cult, taking over, brought down by the Jedi and those sick of their shit after their reign, leading to a few decades of Jedi Grandmasters pulling double duty as Supreme Chancellor to restore democracy and arrest leftover cultists. Other wars also occur such as the the Hutt Wars with Xim the Despot, the Hutt Cataclysms (a major series of Civil Wars and natural disasters that ruined the Hutt Empire and instituted the Hutt Cartel system and founded the basis of the galactic criminal underworld), and a series of wars on and off for 20000 odd years over whether Coruscant or another planet (Alsakan) is to be the capital.
** Two important worlds that need to be noted are Corellia, which has disproportionate influence in the founding of the Republic and even has the right to declare neutrality in civil disputes due to economic power of its status on the most important hyperspace shortcut in the galaxy (as well as the Celestial influenced state of their system), and Kuat, founded by pre-Hyperspace human colonists launched from Coruscant and the premier shipyard in the galaxy.
* Eventually the Sith return to destroy the Jedi after two Republic scouts accidentally stumble upon Korriban, the Sith species home planet and now the burial site for the Dark Lords, and return while being followed, kicking off the Great Hyperspace War.
** The Republic is almost destroyed, but survives, and led by Empress Teta (the Empress of a member world that is) in turn smashes the Old Sith Empire led by Dark Lord Naga Sadow.
** The Sith slink back into the shadows. The Jedi start their other big tradition, over-correcting from their past mistakes and creating new ones, by beginning a time of non-interference in galactic affairs and a general desire only for peace.
** During this time, Darth Vitiate (born Tenebrae as the illegitimate son of Sith Lord Dramath [[Grimdark|who raped one of his slaves]]) exploits the defeat and manipulates 8000 fellow Sith Lords to a secret ritual to live forever. It goes [[Just as Planned]] for Vitiate as he consumes the souls of his fellows to become immortal (but not invincible) and names himself Sith Emperor of the Reformed Sith Empire. He secretly builds his forces from the remaining Sith armies and lords.
** Duringthe final battle of the Great Hyperspace War a Sith ship crashes into a planet and the survivors become the Lost Tribe of Sith.
* Freedon Nadd, Jedi apprentice, is denied knighthood and falls to the Dark Side after finding Sadow's tomb and his spirit. He causes the Beast Wars on Onderon and its moon Dxun and rules for a hundred years before dying, his cultists becoming weirdo beast rider types who plague Onderon.
* Two Jedi Knights, Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma fall to the Dark side after finding Dark Lord Marka Ragnos and Nadd's spirits respectively and become Master and Apprentice in that order. After Ulic kills his brother and former fellow Jedi, he returns to the light and kills Exar Kun during their war to destroy the Jedi. Ulic wanders around for a while and then dies in his former lover Grand Master Nomi Sunrider's arms, who had become Grand Master after Exar Kun and Ulic's war ended with the formers death.
* Mandalorians, the space Mongols/Aztecs, start attacking the universe because all they understand is war (and because the Taung species is dying out, leading to them allowing worthy foreigners to join, humans end up as the vast majority).
** This massive war almost wipes out several species but the Jedi do nothing. Eventually one of their number, nicknamed the Revanchist and his friends Alek and Meetra Surik are dispatched to investigate, and upon finding the atrocities committed decide to forsake the Jedi wuss way and break the back of the Mandalorians.
** The Revanchist takes the name of Revan after picking up and putting on the mask of a female Mandalorian who refused orders to massacre civilians and died defending them.
** During the fighting, Mandalore the Ultimate orders Serocco and Jebble nuked from orbit, killing everyone who failed to escape and leaving Jedi Assassin Celeste Morne stranded on Jebble in stasis, which she had gone in to to keep the Muur Talisman which contained to soul of Karness Muur, one of the Dark Jedi exiles who founded the Sith Order, from escaping. The stasis coffin is the same one built by Remulus Dreypa to keep Muur in.
** Revan kills Mandalore the Ultimate in single combat, leaving the Taung extinct. After learning that Mandalore the Ultimate was manipulated through his final words, Revan and Alek go to Dromund Kaas to investigate, then fall to the Dark Side and create a fascist government centered on Dromund Kaas (actually the hidden capital of the Reformed Sith Empire who brainwashed the leader of the Mandos). The Sith Emperor had brainwashed both of them.
** Revan becomes Darth Revan and Alek becomes Darth Malak, which almost destroys the Republic, again (a third recurring theme), with the only loyalists remaining being Surik and her chief engineer, who had returned to the Order after the final battle at Malachor V where they fired a super weapon, the Mass Shadow Generator on Revan's orders which the brainwashed Revan used to kill the other loyalist Jedi, before Revan and Alek went off to open revolt.
** A Jedi named Bastila Shan is sent to assassinate their leader Darth Revan, but believing in redemption instead she wiped his mind. The two went on an adventure while Revan was trained as a Jedi again, and he defeated his apprentice Darth Malak and dismantled his own army (also did a bunch of racing, theme #4).
** Afterwards, the remaining Fallen Jedi institute the First Jedi Purge under the Sith Triumvirate, Darth Nihilus (who vored planets after being reduced to a husk by the superweapon Revan used at Malachor V), Darth Sion (who was so edgy he had to be convinced to let go as he was too angry to die), and Darth Traya (a.k.a. Kreia, actually Jedi Master Arren Kae, who wanted to destroy the force itself) and their followers, survivors of Malak's remaining army.
** The only loyalist Jedi survivor of Revan's initial force, Meetra Surik, having been exiled from the Order after being the only veteran to return, comes back and destroys the Sith Triumvirate (redeeming the only apprentice they had, Visas Marr, in the process) along with her companions (including Visas and her old chief engineer) who she trained as Jedi, plus Revan's old war buddy/current Mand'alor (Mandalorian king) Canderous Ordo and an asshole droid.
** Revan's companions and Meetra's companions then presumably rebuild the Jedi Order and the badly damaged Republic over 300 years, while Revan and Surik go to Dromund Kaas to finish off the Emperor (Revan not telling anyone like a moron, while Surik just went to help her friend) but are betrayed by their ally Darth Scourge, who foresees the Emperor is not going to die for three more centuries.
** Surik ignonomously dies, while Revan is tortured for 300 years while managing to keep the Emperor from attacking the Republic when it is vulnerable.
* A clusterfuck of things happen.
** The Sith create a nearly galaxy-wide coalition to start a civil war with the Republic. The Sith have overwhelming advantage, but are so backstabby and hedonistically asinine they fail to accomplish anything major after the initial strikes, though Darth Malgus manages to sack Coruscant and the Jedi Temple.
** Things cool of for 12 years in a Cold War, then heat back up again and are disrupted when the Sith Emepror (who as stated was the guy who manipulated the Mandalorians and brainwashed Revan) is apparently killed by the Hero of Tython (who is then promoted to Jedi Battlemaster) aided by Darth Scourge (who the Emperor life-extended to serve as his personal assassin, while plotting to kill the Emperor).
** Revan splits in two from the 300 year torture, and after the torturers (the edgiest Sith ever, the Dread Masters, who were personally trained by the Emperor) get killed by the SWTOR player character of your choice (story-wise, the Hero of Tython makes the most sense as the Jedi Knight so will go with that for the purposes of timeline), who had also apparently killed Darth Malgus when he got pissed at the [[Stupid Evil]] of the other Sith and tried to make his own empire, and tries to bring the Emperor back to a physical body, with the protagonist and their allies barely stopping him.
** It turns out the Emperor manipulated Revan's last efforts and used the bloodshed there to transfer all of his spirit to where he was actually focusing on, the Eternal Empire at the planet of Zakuul he made over the past few centuries, after finding a super robot fleet in the planet of Iokath and possessing a local hero named Valkorion. His body is destroyed by the protagonist, and the Emperor's son Arcann (who killed his light-side twin in a rage) invades both the Republic and the Sith Empire.
** Meanwhile, the protagonist is placed in carbonite for five years, while Arcann used the Emperor's supposed death to drum up support for his regime in Zakuul. He is defeated and (due to Light Side Republic Loyalist Jedi Knight being the most reasonable choice for storyline purposes) is redeemed to the light side. His sister tries to take over, and is killed. A large part of the Emperor's soul is destroyed after trying to take over the SWTOR protagonist.
** Afterwards, the Republic and Sith Empire return to war over the remaining superweapons on Iokath and the SWTOR protagonist rejoins the Jedi and the Republic. Empress Acina (who took over the Reformed Sith Empire after Darth Marr, regent after the Emperor faked his death, was killed after being captured along with the protagonist prior to the 5-year timeskip) dies in the fighting and Darth Malgus returns, having survived and rebuilt as a cyborg.
** The Emperor finally loses control of the Force and all three of his personalities (Tenebrae, Darth Vitiate and Valkorion) are destroyed, finally killing him for good and thus letting Revan and Meetra become one with the Force. The protagonist continues heroics and defeats/captures some Dark Council Sith Lords (and Malgus, presumably in the next expansion as of the time of writing - which happened and he was captured by the Republic, further details TBA as SWTOR storyline continues) and the final phase of the Great Galactic War eventually ends in Republic victory, the Reformed Sith Empire shattering to pieces.
* Around 2000 years before the Battle of Yavin some dickwad Jedi falls to the Dark Side as Darth Ruin and reignites the brewing low intensity conflict as the New Sith Wars at full scale as the first undisputed Dark Lord in a millenium since the Sith Empire Remnants shattered to insurgencies and individual Dark Side cabals. Ruin instigates the Fourth and last Great Schism of the Jedi.
** The Sith eventually reform into the Brotherhood of Darkness to prevent the mass backstabbing that restarted with the New Sith Wars and bans the title of Darth, with all Sith Lords being equal (though of course, [[Communism|some are more equal than others]], like fallen Jedi Master Skere Kaan).
** After a thousand straight years of war, a Galactic Dark Age settles in and ruins major tech infrastructure and companies, fixing the dissonance between movie era tech being worse than literally thousands of years ago. The last three hundred years until 1000 BBY are particularly brutal, killing FTL communications past the Mid Rim sans courier and brings the Republic to its knees.
* 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, Sergeant Dessel, transferring from the Sith Army to the Sith Academy after his force sensitivity was discovered, thinks the Brotherhood of Darkness is a bunch of bullshit. He decides that the Dark Side can only have two Sith, one Master to embody power and an Apprentice to crave it, after finding Revan's edgy fanfiction he wrote after the Mandolarian Wars and before the Jedi Civil War in a Sith Holocron. He names himself Darth Bane and manipulates Lord Kaan into building the Thought Bomb, a Dark Side Force weapon.
** The Brotherhood of Darkness are defeated at the (Seventh) Battle of Ruusan. They detonate the Thought Bomb, which wipes them out along with the Army of Light, a Jedi army formed in desperation by Lord Hoth as a last resort to save the Republic, as the Army of Light sacrifice themselves to force Kaan to detonate it early and end the New Sith Wars, [[Just As Planned|exactly as Bane planned]].
** The Rule Of Two is instituted by Bane who takes Zhannah as his apprentice, preventing the Dark Side clusterfuck that happens when too many assholes exist as “equals” in one faction. The Jedi almost destroy the Sith as Zhannah is caught spying in the Jedi Temple and is forced to retreat, chased by three masters and two knights.
** Bane and Zhannah defeat them and Zhannah's cousin is made insane by her Sith Sorcery and attacks the Jedi task force sent after them, who are forced to kill him. Thinking that was the Sith they were looking for the Jedi pat themselves on the back and go back to Coruscant to report the Sith being destroyed.
** Zhannah defeats Bane and takes Cognus as her apprentice. Cognus takes Millenial (yes, Darth Millenial) as her apprentice, who disagrees with the Rule of Two and goes to Dromund Kaas to start the Prophets of the Dark Side, who worship the Dark Side. Cognus takes another apprentice and things continue as they hide, plan, research, and backstab in secret for 1000 years.
* After this apparent victory, the Republic undergoes the Ruusan Reformation, beginning the Great Peace of the Republic in which no major war occurred.
** The Jedi are greatly weakened in political authority and demilitarized. They also begin strictly enforcing the age maximum for training people as Jedi. Having lost its best and brightest save for Grand Master Faye (namely, Lord Hoth and Master Valenthyne Farfhalla) in the Army of Light's sacrifice, degenerate into Lawful Stupid morons with the Ruusan Reformation, which states that the Jedi can no longer create an army, and that the Jedi are under the command of the Senate, although they still have their own Council for internal stuff. They decide to vigorously enforce the age limit and become more and more detached from the people and the small good deeds that help reinforce the light side in an individual (demonstrated in SWTOR with the Hero of Tython, whose dead master as a Force Ghost instructs him to give labor and medical assistance in a small village to help reinforce his soul).
** The Republic disbands its military except for a small anti-piracy force in the Judicial Forces and leaves actual defense to Planetary Defense Forces.
** The Republic massively decentralizes and executive, as opposed to legislative or home planet/sector, power starts falling back into Senators hands for the first time since pretty much the Pius Dea period as Supreme Chancellors and Vice Heads essentially become first and second among equals to other Senators, thus making the executive and legislative significantly accountable to the larger and more bribe friendly Senate rather than the government.
* Due to the infrastructure damage, a period of [[Medieval Stasis]] sets in, turning for example battle droids from multi legged hyper mobile tanks and super deadly assassins to crappy shit tier fodder infantry outside of expensive special models.
* Megacorporations gain power in the sparser regions of the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim as the republic falls into a combination of absurd political corruption and Inner Rim/Core Worlds exceptionalism, to the point that some corps have Senators of their own (not even bribed, literal voting members presumably elected/bribed the electoral offices from corp owned worlds). Senators essentially become mouthpieces of planetary interests or big business and vote based on who bribes them.
* 65 years before the Battle of Yavin, a man from Naboo's House Palpatine (dubbed Sheev in Disney canon) became the apprentice to a Sith Master named Darth Plagueis.
** He learned secrets of Sith Alchemy and pretty much any other plot-related evil shit that writers want, takes on the name Darth Sidious, then killed his master and began a (very convoluted) plan to wipe out the Jedi, rule the galaxy and wage war on things outside the galaxy, and live forever. Just assume anything that happens from here until his death is [[Tzeentch|because of him]].
** Palpatine takes on an apprentice, an older Jedi who left the Order due to its hands-off approach to galactic governance. The now ex-Jedi Dooku Serenno reclaimed the fortune and title of Count he had relinquished to join the Jedi and was secretly contacted by Palpatine to slowly cajole him over years.
* A Jedi named Sifo-Dyas has a prophecy that the galaxy will soon be at war, and concocts an elaborate plan to get an army for the currently armyless Republic using money from criminal organizations and the genetic material of a Mandalorian descended from the old warriors. He’s killed by Palpatine ([[Just As Planned|the guy that planted the idea in his head]]), who takes over the project via Dooku and had each clone implanted with a secret control chip that would override their training and loyalties when Sheev gave “Order 66”.
* As the Republic weakened due to corruption and the rising power of corporations, and the Jedi weakened due to Sheev’s (and his predecessors) tampering with the Force via bullshit Alchemy handwaves and becoming detached from the common people weakening their compassion and the light side, planets and organizations within the Republic began to act aggressively. Sheev was behind many of their moves as his public identity rose as the Senator of his home planet of Naboo.
** As aforementioned, many organizations gained enough power to have Senatorial representatives, making corporations as powerful as entire planets and causing the clusterfuck of alliances and conflicting interests to render the Republic almost powerless.
* The Trade Federation, a simple shipping company that had its own Senator and via shared interests controlled many, MANY more, began using its private army to blockade planets. They did this to secure exclusive contracts with the goal of controlling all trade everywhere eventually, and even hold power over the Republic due to its lack of military.
** Sheev as Sidious reveals himself to be heavily invested in their projects, and they gladly accepted his patronage. He advised them to upscale their ambitions and blockade the planet Naboo, which was far more powerful politically and economically than their previous targets, 32 years before the Battle of Yavin.
* We leave the mists of backstory/dubious canon and enter into the Movie/TV Canon.
** Two Jedi, an apprentice and a master (Obi-wan and Dooku’s old apprentice Qui-Gon) were sent to negotiate an end to the blockade. Fearing that the Federation had gone into dangerous territory, the leaders contacted Sheev, who ordered them to kill the Jedi and continue the blockade as if nothing had happened.
*** The Jedi escaped to the surface of the planet and escaped with the planet’s leader Queen Amidala. They were delayed due to engine problems from the escape, and stopped at Tatooine where they picked up a slave boy named Anakin who was Force-sensitive (implied to be an experiment from Sheev’s Alchemy to create life as he learned under Plagueis, abandoned after accidentally rendering Anakin's mother pregnant with no father, bot Plagueis and Palpatine deeming it a failure). Meanwhile Sheev’s own apprentice Darth Maul had been sent to ensure his plans were carried out. A couple of weeks after this Palpatine kills Plagueis and becomes the Dark Lord.
** Sheev convinced the Queen to start a movement against the administration of the Republic, which was joined by the majority of the Senate; even the corrupt were sick of everyone else’s corruption.
*** This destabilized the Republic leadership, shuffling Sheev into power as Supreme Chancellor and putting his lackeys in charge. Meanwhile, the queen and Jedi returned to Naboo and lead a revolt, defeating the Trade Federation and leaving their leadership as prisoners of the Republic, but Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin dies at the hands of Sidious's apprentice Maul and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi is left grieving and Maul believed dead as he was cut in half by Kenobi.
*** Sheev worked behind the scenes to keep them from being prosecuted for their actions while making plans to turn Anakin Skywalker, who had been found and chosen for training by the Jedi as part of the Chosen One Prophecy (by Obi-Wan, who had literally just become a Knight after Qui-Gon's death, so that was a dumb fucking call giving the kid who needed a father figure to a rigidly dedicated young man in mourning who had almost failed out of the Jedi into the Jedi Service Corps due to relative weakness in the force), into a future asset.
** Sheev progressed his plan for a war to further destabilize the galaxy by pitting the various corporate powers he controlled as Darth Sidious against the united planets he controlled as Supreme Chancellor. This leads to a Separatist movement with both sides financially powerful, both sides possessing armies, and both sides feeling they were the ones who were wronged and both firmly in Sith pockets, the Separatists as a disposable tool under Dooku (who, after Maul's believed death, had become Sidious's apprentice Tyrannus) and the Republic primed to vote for Palpatine to gain more and more power.
*** The “Clone Wars” began after a series of events orchestrated by Dooku where the Jedi discover and deploy the clone armies against Separatists who had been planning to execute the Jedi and former queen of Naboo as revenge on behalf of the Trade Federation.
** Sheev manipulated both sides of the conflict to deplete the strength of all participants. The Separatists were led by the cyborg General Grievous, Count Dooku (Sidious planned to replace both Maul and Dooku from the beginning, with Anakin) and the corrupt Separatist Council essentially acting as Count Dooku's mouthpiece, while the Republic forces were led by the Jedi Master Mace Windu and Grand Master Yoda.
** Public opinion began to turn against the war, and groups of Senators who had previously been allies of Sheev began meeting in secret and planning for militarizing their planets so there would no longer be a need for an army of the Republic.
** When the time was right Sidious orchestrated a finale of battles which resulted in the deaths of Dooku and Grievous, then enacted Order 66 to slaughter almost all of the Jedi and turned Anakin to his side as Darth Vader. He declared himself Emperor and the Republic his Empire, eliminating much of the old government over time, and allowing cronies to make it into the ranks of a galactic military dictatorship which used powerless puppet governments on the local level.
** Separatist remnants continue resistance and a majority of them are defeated in the Reconquest of the Rim.
** Small rebel cells popped up everywhere, which would eventually unite under the surviving members of the old Senate following Palpatine using Vader's "secret" apprentice to lure them out and failing to kill them as said apprentice turns to light and sacrifices himself (the plot of The Force Unleashed).
** The Great Jedi Purge comes to an end one year before the Battle of Yavin with Master An'ya Kuro being killed by Vader, leaving several dozen Jedi alive as the Empire shifted focus to fight the Rebels, now united as the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The Alliance is led by Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, two Senators.
** The Emperor dissolves the Senate and orders his military second Wilhuff Tarkin to use the newly built Death Star, a planet killer super weapon, to enforce his rule, while his civilian second Sate Pestage handles the bureaucracy.
** Han Solo, would be Imperial Officer, quits the academy after saving Wookie Warrior Chewbacca's life due to personal aversion to Imperial policy and turns into one of the best smugglers in the galaxy (having a Wookie owing a life debt to you really helps in fights, by the way).
** Vader turns out to have fathered twins with Padme Amidala, the Naboo senator after Palpatine became Chancellor, who died due to her life force being drained after giving birth to Luke and Leia. Leia got sent to live with Bail Organa and his wife in the idylic paradise Alderaan as Princess, while Luke got given to his in aunt and uncle at the sandy shithole Tatooine, utterly worthless except as a shadowport since the Rakatans bombed it to dust in such a way as to render minerals mined from it useless due to ion fluctuation after the world defied them. When we said the Jedi degenerated into [[Lawful Stupid]] morons, we meant it, given it was Obi-Wan and Yoda, basically the two big name Jedi of several dozen who had their heads screwed on straight, who made this decision.
** In 0 BBY Leia, by this time a very active but powerless Senator, acquires the Death Star plans after various different missions gather bits and pieces of it and rushes to Tatooine to get Obi-Wan's help on her fathers orders. Obi-Wan was on Tatooine to help guard Luke. Leia's ship and its escorts are intercepted by Vader and his units and her corvette attempts to escape from the battle only to be boarded by Vader's personal elite unit since the Clone Wars, the 501st Legion. Leia is captured but two droids, C-3PO (a protocol droid built by Anakin as a child) and R2-D2 (an astromech that used to belong to Naboo and was used by Anakin in the Clone Wars) manage to escape with the plans which Leia gave to R2-D2. The droids crash onto the planet in an escape shuttle.
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Describing even the cursory information on the sheer number of characters, amount of history, and various factions in [[Star Wars]] is a massive undertaking, and one that cannot be folded into another page. As such, here is a summary of things who either are influential, [[Awesome]], [[Fail]], hilariously meme worthy, or all of the above.

==Main Characters==
* Luke Skywalker: All-round good guy and idealist, despite being a complete idiot, Luke wishes to learn the ways of the Force to defeat the Emperor and save the galaxy. A Jedi prodigy, he can lift heavy ton space fighters with just his force powers, though he struggles with doubts. Although he starts all brash and teenage and shit, by the conclusion of the trilogy, Luke is well on the way to becoming a wise and powerful Jedi ready to rebuild the Order. Mark Hamill observed that Luke's role in Star Wars is that of the comedic "straight man"; a bland Abbott in a galaxy of Costellos.
** In Legends continuity, after ''Return of the Jedi'' Luke worked to restore the order and trained many generations of Jedi including his niece Jaina and nephews Jacen and Anakin as well as his future wife and son. About Luke's family? Long story short, Luke met a woman named Mara Jade, a former Force-using agent of the Emperor who sought to avenge him by killing Luke. But he and Mara were forced to work together to survive a death world before Luke freed her from Palpatine's lies and Mara joined the Jedi Order, where the two eventually fell in love, married and had a son - Ben Skywalker. Before and after this, Luke destroyed massive remnants of the Empire over and over again and also fought off an even bigger threat in the form of an [[Tyranids|extragalactic invasion]] by Force-resistant [[Dark Eldar|space Cenobites]] called Yuuzhan Vong, where he defeated many including their best fighter. Years later, Luke nearly turned to the Dark Side after Mara was murdered, but overcame the temptation though he violated the Jedi Code by attempting to murder her enemies in revenge. Following this he killed a resurrected Palpatine repeatedly and took on his most dangerous single foe in the form of a Force-Cthulhu called Abeloth (who was so dangerous Luke had to make a temporary alliance between the Jedi, the Republic '''and the Sith''' to defeat her). After this he continued to be a great hero until he died in an unspecified manner some time before the Cade Skywalker era, but still existed as a Force Ghost who guided future Jedi.

* Han Solo: Dashing [[rogue]] and space cowboy who somehow shoots his way out of debt to the mob, ends up a general, and bags himself a princess. Not a bad series' work. His ship, the Millennium Falcon, deserves a mention too for being as iconic as he is. In pre-Disney continuity he was once a Swoop (flying motorcycle) racer turned Imperial Officer who shot his superior that was beating a Wookiee to death and gained a lifelong friend in said Wookiee - Chewbacca. He also had three kids with Leia pre-Disney with two sons called Anakin and Jacen and a daughter called Jaina.

* Princess Leia: The regulation piece of lady crumpet in the movies, Princess Leia was a leader in the rebel alliance and (spoiler!) Luke's long lost twin sister. Also both a capable soldier and politician. Her being forced to wear a metal thong by an overweight space slug named Jabba the Hutt has since cemented her role as sex idol to legions of adoring fan boys, while her general [[Awesome|door-kicking deadshot sarcastic asskickery]] made her a feminist icon as well (this was back in the 80's when the two could be the same). With her home planet and entire adoptive family destroyed by the Death Star, she became a General although somehow retained her princesshood (yes, she's now a Disney Princess). In the pre-Disney EU Leia became a full-on Jedi warrior in the and had three kids with Han, one of whom had a daughter of his own.

* Obi-Wan Kenobi: If, at any point, in any work of fiction, the hero has an old master/father figure who teaches him part of what he knows, makes sure that he will grow up to be a virtuous and decent hero, but ultimately dies fighting a great evil to buy the hero time to escape, then returns as a spirit guide for the hero later, the Internet has probably accused that character of ripping off Obi-wan Kenobi. The prequels show him as a young Jedi and a deuterotagonist to Anakin Skywalker, acting as ''his'' master, teacher, partner, and dear friend before their eventual falling out [[FATAL|ends with Anakin losing most of his major extremities and organs]] and Obi-wan hiding out in a cave waiting to turn into Alec Guinness. In hindsight he was a fucking moron to expect Anakin stay sane with his mother separated forever from him and doomed to slavery in a shithole planet. Certainly this won't torment the kid's thoughts about her, what's that? Tuskens tortured her to death? We are the Jedi, we do not take reve- oh well he went Sith. So much for Jedi and their wisdom. He is a great source of memes within the SW fandom, as well as jokingly referred to as Jesus due to his hairstyle in Episode II.

* Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker/"The Chosen One": The black-helmeted face of evil and the most well known villain from Star Wars (and arguably the most recognizable character in cinema, full stop). Has become an iconic and memorable figure due to his menacing, robotic appearance and ultra-deep, wheezy respirator voice. He is [[Meme|(spoiler!)]] secretly Anakin, Luke's fallen Jedi father, thus allowing him to be able to say the most memorable line in the film series, "''I'' am your Father!" Abaddon wishes he could be this sinister. His children eventually manage to rekindle the spark of human decency in his heart, and he redeems himself by giving up his own life to save them and destroy the Emperor. Hates sand. Fun Fact: his portrayal required four actors in the original trilogy: body, voice, face and a stunt double. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okAyvguQucs His scene at the end of ''Rogue One''], where he goes absolutely berserk and tears some puny rebels to shreds, is probably the best in the movie, and one of the best in Star Wars as a whole. [[awesome|It ends with him standing in open space]], something originally intended for the original film and the original reason he was designed with the armor in the first place. The scene was well received, so Disney decided to have him go berserk again in the Star Wars: Rebels TV show (several times) and the video game Jedi: Fallen Order, before giving Maul a scene like it in Clone Wars. To this end, Vader’s recent portrayals (which have taught both neckbeards and the new generation of fans alike to be fucking terrified of him) have led many to claim that the changes to his character is the only thing Disney got right in their ownership of Star Wars (well, that and The Mandalorian. And the Clone Wars(*cough* Grievous)). Hreeeeee-kchooooooosh...

* Padmé Amidala: The future Darth Vader's waifu who spends most of the prequel trilogy being a hopeless idealist (though still has enough presence of mind to keep a blaster handy when diplomacy fails). Swaps out outfits and hairstyles at a near constant rate. Get's choked by Vader and dies giving birth to Luke and Leia, which ironically Vader was trying to prevent in the first place after seeing a vision. [[FAIL|Way to go, dumbass]]. Haven't you ''read'' a work of fiction with that kinda prophecy in it before? Much more skubby than her daughter, largely on account of the writing for her love story with Anakin being poorly received, as well as Natalie Portman's performance being divisive.

* Qui-Gon Jin: Liam Neeson as a Jedi. [[Meme|As such, he had a particular set of skills, skills to recognize a Sith plot]], and would've uncovered and exposed Palpatine if it weren't for Darth Maul's sword going through his gut. In life, Qui-Gon was known to be a gadfly who frequently disagreed with the dogma of the Jedi Council, instead putting his trust in The Force and eventually discovering The Chosen One in a little slave boy on Tatooine. Was the master of Obi-Wan, and tried to teach Anakin the basics from beyond the grave. Qui-Gon had learned the secret of immortality before his death, and passed on his knowledge to Yoda in a spiritual journey, and later to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Thanks to him, he was able to preserve the legacy of the Jedi long after the purge.

* Ahsoka Tano: An orange, female togruta jedi padawan that helps tell the story of growing up. When she was first introduced in the skubtastic Clone Wars movie, she was basically annoying beyond belief and attached to the notoriously reckless Anakin Skywalker. However, she began to grow on fans, eventually becoming a fan favorite. Initially, she dressed only a little better than a Dark Eldar wych, raising serious moral questions about a girl her age dressing that way, but this issue was resolved in season 3 of the clone wars. Her character grows from beyond the simplicity of an <s>(un)</s>amusing wisecracker, much like her master, into a wiser, kinder woman, whose actions speak louder than her words. In the penultimate season of the Clone Wars, she leaves her master and the Jedi order, and some believe that she unintentionally caused Anakin Skywalker to fall to the Dark side (It certainly denied him the title of master since the standard way of gaining that is to raise a Padawan to knight). She reappears in Rebels, where she acts as an agent coordinating rebel cells, and takes on the wise guide and teacher for Ezra and Kanan, two other jedi who are fighting the Empire. Thought to have died in the second season, she is revealed to have been saved, and was alive even up to season 2 of The Mandalorian.

== Disney Main Characters ==

* Rey: Protagonist of the new trilogy. Most people either think she's a sloppily written Mary Sue and wish-fulfillment character for the writers' female-empowerment fetish or that she's a fine protagonist and the former group is just being salty about new things and/or a bunch of [[Neckbeard]]s and [[/pol/]]s. The sequel trilogy's Jedi and maybe the most immediately competent of the three (the others being Luke and Anakin). What invited critique in the first place is the fact she is readily bestowed new, often unexplained abilities as ''the'' means of moving the plot forward, and the few failures she has either turn to successes, or have next to no consequences. While it was foreshadowed she would have piloting skills with the pilot memorabilia in her home from which the audience was supposed to infer she knew how, Disney had to later specifically point out "she literally plays flight sims anytime she isn't working, that's the shit on her table". But since the memorabilia didn't look like a flight sim, some viewers concluded this was an asspull by Disney. To the credit of the writers however, the foreshadowing implies X-Wing obsession so it makes sense that she royally trashes the Falcon trying to escape TIE Fighters with it (like everyone else who played the old X-Wing video games). She also has fucking god tier Force talent, able to pull off Force techniques that took the previous protagonists years to learn such as the Jedi Mind Trick. The sequel semi-explained this with an actual asspull by suggesting the Force balances itself and with only one remaining trained Force user below a master left alive she pretty much got cheat-coded to be at his level as Light Side opposite...although that ignores Luke not gaining the same cheats and the Force users left alive in the Disney EU who have no Dark Side opposites while also relying on information from that same EU (the trippy metaphysical Force entity kind) so it only works if you turn off your brain and give up. Apart from all that, Rey is a scavenger who grew up parent-less in a wreck on a desert planet, earning from the scraps of old Rebel and Imperial machinery. While she's been seen using the Light Side of the Force for the most part, the Dark Side allegedly tugs a great deal in her. She also has a vision of herself as a Sith with a double-bladed red lightsaber similar to Luke's tree vision on Dagobah. Due to a spate of leaks, numerous details were revealed before the release of the film such as her being Sheev's grandaughter and the fate of her parents; Rey's parents hid her on Jakku because they were being hunted and were killed shortly after leaving. After Rey joins forces with Kylo to defeat Palpatine, she actually dies... only to be brought back to life by <s>Pokémon tears</s> <s>true love's first kiss</s> Kylo Ren using the Force to give his life to save hers, and the two share a kiss before Kylo dies. She ends up on Tatooine and with the last of the Skywalker line dead (by technicality, the Force powers always came from Palpatine so it just means Shmi's bloodline is dead) Rey, while gaining no new personality to speak of, [[Blood Ravens|takes the Skywalker last name as her own]] since she will never know her actual last name now. As one might expect from a character touted as a strong female protagonist, Rey is propped up by failures of men, sometimes turned failures after the fact for the purpose of redistributing their successes to her. Because of this Rey remains the only character alive with any Jedi training.

* Finn: A First Order Stormtrooper (serial code FN-2187) who has doubts about the First Order after a battle where he has to shoot innocent civilians and ends up defecting to the Resistance, allowing him to actually aim worth a damn. Finn ends up carrying ''The Force Awakens'' thanks to the acting talents of John Boyega. He probably would have made a much better main character than Rey because at least ''he'' has a fucking ''reason'' to go on a space adventure and undergoes actual character development. He’s basically Kyle Katarn, only he didn’t get to steal the Death Star plans or become a Jedi. The second movie unfortunately rendered Finn a character without an arc, as discussed below. Had a really cool scene where he fights a former squadmate with a lightsaber, before said [[FAIL|squadmate beat him with a big electric stick.]] He also had a second cool scene where he attempts to fight on a trained dark Jedi (not a Sith) with that same lightsaber before getting badly injured, showing tremendous fucking balls (and implying that Kylo Ren, after being shot by a laser crossbow that flings stormtroopers in the air, is about on par with a pissed off Stormtrooper with a lightning sick). Revealed to be Force-sensitive in Rise Of Skywalker, and finds an entire division of Stormtroopers on Endor who quit the First Order as a group the same way he did as an individual; the leader of them replaces Rose as his love interest, despite the same movie implying heavily he has an unrequited love for Rey (later in an interview JJ said he was trying to say he was Force-sensitive, while some fans think his knowledge that she is Palpatine's grandaughter was what he was supposed to say which meant a "why didn't you tell me" plot would follow). Ends the franchise as the general of the ground forces of the Resistance, a famous galactic hero, and probably going to be trained as a Jedi. So yeah, Finn is canon Kyle Katarn from start to finish.

* Poe Dameron: An X-Wing pilot and one of the best pilots in the Resistance who gave Finn his nickname. Poe is the son of an ace pilot and an elite Rebel soldier, who was seemingly conceived in an Ewok hut during the Yubyub song and grew up with a holy Force tree in his yard that was a gift from Luke. Gets captured by the First Order but gets rescued by a defecting Finn and they both escape using a TIE Fighter. Assumed dead by Finn after crashing the TIE Fighter, though ends up coming back shooting down an entire squadron of TIE Fighters. Its never really stated why did he leave Finn behind in the crash site, how did he leave the planet or why did he pretty much abandon his mission of trying to find BB-8. As such he's barely in The Force Awakens. This is because the original script George Lucas proposed for Force Awakens used Poe as a means of Finn escaping, whereupon Finn takes it on himself to complete Poe’s last mission and eventually replace Poe in the Resistance. After Poe’s actor lamented that he dies in every movie, Poe was made to survive the crash and Finn gained a fearful coward who becomes a hero subplot, which unfortunately left both characters with nowhere to go for character arcs. Poe is far more important in The Last Jedi, <nowiki>but not in good ways. He disobeys orders and leads an attack on a First Order capital ship which not only results in the destruction of most of the surviving Resistance small fighters, but delays their escape long enough for the First Order flagship (so large it is essentially a giant capital city for the First Order) to catch up with them and massacre the Resistance. Poe then mutinies when the now-comatose Leia’s subordinate Holdo is put in charge of the Resistance (Ackbar was killed before that because his Voice Actor died, leaving Holdo as highest ranking officer) to enact his own plan using Finn...which fails, resulting in the deaths of most of the rest of the Resistance and the loss of their last capital ship. Poe’s counterattack also fails, and by the end its only thanks to Rey and Luke that anyone survives. By the end, there’s barely enough Resistance left to fill up the Millennium Falcon, although the First Order got it just as bad thanks to Holdo’s last act. In short: Poe is Magnus the Red tier of fuckups (for the same reason too, not being trusted with the truth but with even less justification).</nowiki> OR ALTERNATELY : Poe actually scores a massive victory for the Resistance as he destroys a massive dreadnought that would have wiped out a base on the ground and then some with a squadron of a dozen bombers '''and one fighter to protect them''' at the price of said bombers that were so stupidly designed they would basically kamikaze as their payloads are dropped gradually meaning the first explosion would start a chain going all the way up to the bomber itself. So basically, Poe destroyed a massive enemy asset at the price of some worthless ships but he still gets demoted because he had the common sense to not follow the order to retreat '''as the bombers were already hovering over their target and were completely defenseless in the first place and would have been even worse off during a retreat'''. This order makes so little sense, it's safe to assume it was only put in here so Poe could disobey it and the audience would understand he's a hotshot who doesn't respect the hierarchy while he was in the right in terms of tactics and strategy and it's already a miracle he got the raid to succeed. Essentially, claiming Poe fucked up is like saying blowing up a pillbox full of enemy soldiers and loads of ammo stockpiled in it with a single grenade is "fucking up" because you maybe probably possibly could have saved the grenade for later and made even more damage. If Poe hadn't had the dreadnought destroyed, it would have with ease one-shotted their ships and their base if they would have even got there (especially as the First Order could track the resistance and therefore the Dreadnought would've simply followed them and blown them up immediately). Not to mention that the bombers where the worst designed starships to date. No big loss there. In other words, he is the only reason they survived. Revealed to be a former Spice smuggler who had a criminal crew in Rise Of Skywalker, which is the bulk of his character development for most of the movie since he otherwise just banters with Finn and Rey. He gets friendzoned by his ex twice (his abandonment of their crew '''really''' screwed them over and she decides to forgive him for it, so its not like its out of nowhere to not want to shag) and leads initially the small Resistance fleet before the combined forces of the militias and pirate crews and Rebel veterans suddenly show up, meaning he lead the biggest navy in the entire setting and does it well which mostly makes up for the stupidity of the Last Jedi "character arc".

* Luke Skywalker has become a [[Neckbeard|grumpy old man who just wants the Jedi Order to die with him since he's been disillusioned in people not being shitty now that his shitty-feeling self is considered the least shitty person in the universe.]] [[Rage|He also tried to kill his nephew because he had a bad dream.]] (something many fans, and even '''Mark Hamill himself''' considered out of character for Luke). It takes a direct Force-powered intervention from Leia as well as Yoda's Force ghost telling him "don't worry, we both fucked up and the kids still love our <strike>toys</strike> legends" to get him to nut the fuck up and help stop the First Order by embarrassing Kylo Ren in front of everyone. It got to the point where [[The Last Church|he tried to burn a sacred tree with contained the last books about the Jedi code]]. Yoda appeared as a Force ghost and told Luke the Force weren't limited to buildings or writings, destroying the tree which supposedly contained the last books about the Jedi code and history which turns out to be because Rey had already stolen said books and the destruction of the tree prevented Luke from discovering that fact, ensuring the Jedi will continue regardless of Luke's faith crisis. Of course the old codger gets to become a Force Ghost that resides mostly on Ach-To, so lets see if we won't see our boi Mark again in some future movie or series.

* Han Solo has, unfortunately, suffer from how Harrison Ford always went back and forth on wanting to continue the franchise, mostly because he thoroughly hated Solo and wanted him to die pretty much from day one, only to be thwarted in Empire and again in Jedi by the character's popularity. Ford agreed to return for Episode 7 when Disney finally gave him his wish, having Solo fail to redeem his son Ben and getting a metaphorical and literal lightsaber through the heart for it. Post-Disney Han's origin is covered in a solo movie named Solo. It's generally considered skub.

* Leia manages to somehow [[Roboute Guilliman|survive getting shot into space]] using her force abilities in TLJ, probably the most ridiculous part of the film (which is no mean feat considering the rest of the film). Due to the death of her actress Carrie Fisher (given the amount of cocaine and partying she'd done over the years it was amazing Carrie lived as long as she did) Leia only appears in Episode 9 using altered unused footage from Episodes 7 and 8 along with some dubbed lines, where she's shown training Rey then just dies by fading away.

* Dinn Djarin: the titular Mandalorian from the series of the same name. Dinn belongs to a radical sect of the Mandos called the Children of the Watch, who follow an uber-conservative version of the Mandalorian Creed in which they must not allow anyone to see their faces. Dinn is still an honorable, if reserved and standoffish warrior who works for the Bounty Hunter's Guild in the post-Endor galaxy. He ends up breaking one of his contracts when he's hired to kidnap a young Jedi child named Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) and turn him over to the Imperial Remnant; Dinn instead chooses to be the child's protector and deliver him to whatever Jedi remain in the galaxy. During their adventures he bonds with the child, and eventually learns that not all Mandos follow his extreme version of the Creed, eventually removing his helmet for Grogu's sake as they tearfully part ways. But then, Disney remembered that this duo were breakout stars that gave the franchise a massive shot in the arm, so they ended up reuniting shortly after during Din's latest team-up with Boba.

* The Bad Batch: Officially known as "Clone Force 99", they're a Special Ops squad made up of clones with genetic defects that give them a tactical advantage. Initially introduced in the Clone Wars series, before getting a series of their own. Because of their unique traits they were partially immune to their Inhibitor chips and thus didn't initially obey Order 66, later getting on Tarkin's bad side for being too disobedient and getting branded as traitors. Crosshair betrays them as his inhibitor chip still works; they're joined instead by Omega, the only known female clone of Jango Fett, and apparently part of a contingency plan where she and Boba Fett were to become the new gene template for the clone army. The clones witness the rapid transformation of the Republic into the Empire as they live on the run, likely to include the "decommissioning" of the clone army as a whole. Members are:
** Hunter: Team leader, his "trait" being enhanced senses. Hair and red headband, knife skills, and being a badass commando make his Rambo inspiration obvious. Becomes a father figure to Omega and the moral compass of the team, protecting them from their former brothers and an empire that wants them dead.
** Wrecker: Team bruiser and man-child. [[Space Marine|Is super strong, loves a good fight, and wears bulky black and red armor with skull imagery]]. Though sometimes a victim of the Worf effect, he's generally allowed to be fairly cool. In keeping with his gentle giant image, he takes a shine to Omega sooner than many of the others.
** Tech: The brainy one, which is conveyed by Dee Bradley Baker giving him an English accent. Also more mellow and less abrasive than most of the other squad, getting along fine with the "regs" who the Bad Batch as a whole often disdain and dislike working with.
** Crosshair: Vindicaire Assassin in Star Wars, being a cold-blooded sniper with incredible aim who wears black armor and is fanatically loyal to his fascist employers. With special reflectors he can make his blaster bolts ricochet off of solid surfaces. The team's asshole, he unsurprisingly betrays them in the aftermath of Order 66, though he still cares about his former teammates in his own way, even saving Omega in the Season 1 finale. Wants the rest of the Bad Batch to join him in working for the Empire.
** Echo: Originally a regular Clone Trooper, he was one of the titular rookies in the fan-favorite Season 1 episode, and by the end of the series was the only one still breathing. Now is a member of the Bad Batch, the cybernetic modifications he got while a prisoner of the Separatists making him more than ordinary Clone.
** Omega: A barely useful waste of...(sees giant mouse giving evil eye)...uh, I mean, sweet, endearing kid who befriends the Bad Batch and joins them on their adventures. Revealed to be a female clone of Jango and currently the only known one, making her effectively the Bad Batch's cute little sister despite technically being OLDER than them. Main source of Bad Batch's Skub. Also blonde despite being a Jango clone, likely a subtle reference to how Jango's sister in Legends was blonde. That or she's got some of Maketh Tua's DNA thrown in.

* Cal Kestis: [[Zero Punctuation|Young "Luke Skywalker"-type hero and giner]]; the main character of the Jedi: Fallen Order and upcoming Jedi: Survivor vidya games. Was in hiding after Order 66 on a scrapperyard before being found by the Inquisitorius and taken on a planet-hopping treasure-hunting adventure with former Jedi master Cere Junda and the small-time smuggler Greez. Cal has the ability to use Psychometry, a Force-power that allows him to absorb memories and thoughts connected to items (a Force power made famous by Quinlan Vos), which has made it difficult to live with the lightsaber of his dead mentor. Personality is fairly stock for a Jedi, but does manage to fuck up two Inquisitors, battalions of Stormtroopers, Purge Troopers, vicious fauna and flora and the occasional bounty-hunter with nothing but a scratch on him. Has a thing for ponchos.

== Side Characters ==
* C-3P0 and R2-D2: Two robots trapped in a sexless gay marriage who are the only minor characters to have been in all the movies so far, and even in stories like The Old Republic outside of their millennia of existence will usually have an equivalent. C-3P0 is the shiny golden humanoid robot who constantly fusses about keeping the furniture clean and worries that his pies are getting overdone in the oven while R2-D2 is the brash, brave husband figure who swings into action regardless. He looks like a salt shaker next to the Dalek's pepper shakers, although is he more a plucky rabbit to their rabid wild cats. He's also an angry motherfucker; in Revenge he iced two battledroids by setting them on fire, and his killcount throughout Clone Wars raises the question why the Republic isn't using R2's instead (explained nx the fact that Anakin never resets his memory and thus goes from [[Servitor]] to AI). The robots mostly have comedy roles in the movies, since they might threaten to upstage the human actors if they became too useful, though R2 has an electric cattle prod and serves as the party's computer skillmonkey, while C-3P0 saves the day with his mad linguistic skillz at least once per film in the original trilogy. They starred in their own cartoon series that was surprisingly good. In the pre-Disney EU the two are rarely joined as they are in the films. R2 frequently joins Luke on adventures, giving him someone to talk to during otherwise solo adventures, providing a Doctor Watson like figure even if the droid doesn't add much to the conversation. C-3P0 on the other hand stuck with Leia and assisted her in her duties as mother and head of state. In post Disney continuity the writers don't seem to know what to do with them and they're mostly just there; at least until Rise of Skywalker, where C-3PO's l337 tranzlation skillz are again important to the plot. Both are occasionally funny.

* Chewbacca: The original furry in space, the dog you can have a beer with in the space Winnebago. Nothing sexy about him; he is just hairy, huge, knows how to pilot a space ship, fix stuff, fire a <s>fucking space crossbow</s> gun, and generally get shit done which strangely makes him the coolest furry ever. Best friends with Han, has a family that we can all agree did not appear in the terrible Christmas special that does not exist (he got a much more badass family in the Galactic Battlegrounds games, so go with that). Hates Trandoshans like all Wookiees, since Trandoshans are almost always assholes and are particularly assholish to Wookiees. The prequel trilogy revealed he's REALLY FUCKING OLD thanks to Wookiee lifespan. In post-Disney lore, he is one of the few characters who has lived through the ''entire saga'', including the Clone Wars, the rebellion against the Empire and the resistance against the First Order. In the post-Disney continuity he ultimately generally ignored in endings and the plot overall (ironic that he was the first major character who died in the pre-Disney lore and he's one of the few still alive in post-Disney lore).
**In the pre-Disney continuity he was a slave that the then-Imperial Han saved, then he helped Han save the galaxy. He was also tough as nails having survived numerous injuries and abuse that would've killed most Wookiees, and Wookiees are already tougher than humans. His actual death was getting mooned to death by extragalactic space cenobites - as in they used a gravity manipulation device to smash a moon into the planet Vector Prime while he was accidentally trapped on it. He was hailed as a hero across the galaxy (with the boast among Wookiees that [[Awesome|Chewbacca was so tough, it took something that can wreck a planet to kill him]]) and the fanbase cried or raged at his death; even the authors who killed him off went on record to say they were sad about his death and only did so for the sake of plot.

* Lando Calrissian: Suave, charismatic, and an expert con artist, this guy is the original pirate king in space. He betrays Han and co. when Vader invades his city, later regrets it, and then atones by saving the cast from the Empire as well as the populace of his city at the same time, then helps save Han from the mafia, and finally leading the fleet that blows up the Death Star 2.0. Consistently one of the only two film characters to maintain his original actor in the EU, with Billy Dee Williams showing up for video games, audio dramas, promotional shorts, and the occasional malt liquor ad.

* Yoda: Ancient wise grand master of the Jedi Order who a tiny green alien is. Never named, his species was. Because of his size and age, most assumed just a harmless old teacher he was, your nice old granddad like. His pulling out a lightsaber and engaging a Sith Lord in combat at the end of ''Attack of the Clones'', one of the most surprising and popular fights of the series is. Incredibly powerful in the Force, he is, rivaled by the likes of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Sideous. Became a big franchise mascot he did, despite a surprise for the audience he was meant to be in his first appearance, ruining it for future generations. A unique way of speaking, he has. A very popular target for parody, it has become (though the original trilogy indicated it was just one of many things he was doing to annoy Luke as a test, since he doesn't talk that way to Obi-Wan). A symbol of the Jedi Order's blindness and rigidity in the prequel era, he was. But had a spiritual reawakening, after his journey following the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn. Even after death, a wise mentor he became.

* Wedge Antilles: The anti-redshirt. Has almost no lines in the original movies but somehow survives all of them, even blowing up the second Death Star with Lando. In the EU he is one of, if not ''the'' best starfighter pilot in the galaxy, and co-founder of the über elite Rogue Squadron along with Luke. It also establishes he was the son of humble (mobile) gas station owners who got killed by pirates. After tracking down and killing the pirates, he tried to live to a normal life, but failed when Imperials killed his alliance sympathizing girlfriend. Eventually rises to General after realizing his refusing promotions was screwing the career of everyone under him. Has a weakness of being more of a tactician than a strategist, which extends to his personal character which often fails to see the big picture. The other character to maintain his original actor in most EU works.

* Admiral Ackbar: Giant tactical fish who has the need to point out obvious traps in memetic fashion. Leads the rebel fleet in the sixth film. Dies in the eighth. He has a huge fanbase despite only appearing in a few scenes across the entire film saga and is one of the meme-faces of the fandom alongside Obi-Wan, Anakin and Palpatine. His survival and high rank made him quite prominent in the EU's New Republic works. Pre-Disney was much of the same except he died during the Yuuzhan Vong War (the same war that led to Chewie's death in the Legends).

* Jar-Jar Binks: Solely exists to fuck up everything (and we do mean EVERYTHING) at the worst possible moment. This guy is so hated by everyone in and out of universe that his actor received severe backlash - including '''death threats''', and he even considered suicide because of it - even though he had nothing to do with the writing while also sympathizing with fans' complaints and Lucas shitcanned his role down into a very brief cameo at the end of Episode 3. He's actually something of a tragic figure representing someone good who tries to act to save the galaxy but ended up ruining it instead. All of this only gets more palm-to-head-worthy since Jar Jar was created as a fun kids characters, rather than anything truly important... But of course, [[neckbeards]] gotta rage. Got a depressing meta style sendoff in the Aftermath book after Disney got the rights, which is a shame since it was hinted at in the Clone Wars series that he would marry a powerful alien queen who thinks he's a sex magnet. No really.

* Mace Windu: The original only black dude in space (because everyone forgot about Lando), he was the hardest-as-nails Jedi master of the council during the prequel trilogy and the best swordfighter in the Order, hence his unique purple lightsaber. That, and Sam Jackson wanted his own color to stand out. If Anakin hadn't interfered, he would have killed Darth Sidious and none of the original trilogy would have taken place. His subsequent anti-climatic death in the movie is regarded with annoyance by his fans. His mastery of the Force allows him to channel his anger and enjoyment of battle into his combat style [[Bullshit|without being corrupted by the Dark Side]], basically getting as close to the Dark Side a Jedi can get and still be a Jedi. He can also detect what he calls "shatterpoints", which lets him detect weaknesses to either mess people up in combat or exploit the "for want of a nail" proverb to turn situations to his side. Has a novel, Shatterpoint, which is pretty much Heart of Darkness IN STAR WARS.

* CT-7567/Captain Rex: If the Clone Troopers are the equivalent of Guardsmen, then this guy is the equivalent of the likes of [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|Gaunt]] and [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken|Straken]]. The defacto second-in-command of the 501st Legion under Anakin Skywalker, he fought in nearly every major engagement during the Clone Wars, leading his men through hellish battles like on Geonosis at the beginning of the war and on Mandalore at the end. He has a strong sense of morality and cares for the lives of both the men under him and the officers above him, which meant that he often came into conflict with asshat commanders like the Jedi knight Krell (who treated their troops as little more than disposable cannon fodder). He even managed to face off against dark-side Force users and live- something very few non-Force users are able to accomplish (To get a better picture of what this is like, imagine a sergeant in the guard facing off against a Chaos Space Marine, and living). After the war and his beloved Republic's transformation into the eventually-despised Empire, he and two other clone commanders went into retirement on a backwater world, fishing for worms the size of skyscrapers on an old walker they converted into a mobile home. He was brought out of retirement by a combination of the rebels of Phoenix Squadron, his old friend and commander Ahsoka, and the Empire being their usual backstabbing, overreactive selves, and so resolved to bring down the corrupt regime and restore the nation he had served out of pride (although most clones were programmed to follow the Republic, and specifically the Chancellor, many ended up choosing instead to follow the ideals of the Republic rather than the people in charge, and some even managed to overcome Palpatine's programming via removing the chip he had planted in their heads during the cloning process). To that end, he participated in many Rebel missions. Making him the old man you see with Han Solo's commando group in RoTJ was toyed with, but ultimately rejected due to the character already having an identity in the EU and him having the wrong ethnicity.

* Corran Horn: A Correllian detective who becomes a member of Rogue Squadron during the New Republic. Later becomes a Jedi. His unique bloodline makes him inept at telekinesis, but gives him the unique power of energy absorption. Often accused of being a Mary Sue by people who miss his huge ego and over confidence problem even though right from the start Wedge has to berate him on his putting himself before the squadron. Constantly makes bullheaded mistakes like ignoring his low fuel, causing him to run out of fuel, trying to use his girlfriend's dad infamy to his advantage on someone, before learning ''that's her dad'', thinking having a lightsaber and some ''very'' basic training made him invincible, which would have killed him if bacta didn't exist, and smugly mocked Exar Kun in his temple under the mistaken impression he's physically powerless, only to get mauled in return and needing rescue from Mara Jade. He had legitimate criticism about Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy and told Luke off when Luke tried to warn Corran about the lure of the Dark Side of the Force. Corran was once a police officer and God only knows how corrupt the Correllian police can be, so he's seen his own dark side from "down in the trenches" as it were. Also the only Rogue to ever get downed by SAMs.

* Booster Terrik: A jolly but hot-tempered smuggler boss with a prosthetic eye. Helped Wedge find and kill the pirates who killed his family. Currently working/had to work to reestablish himself after a stint in Kessel, courtesy of Corran Horn's father Hal Horn. Father of Mirax Terrik. That his daughter is dating the son of the guy who put him away drives him crazy, but he eventually gets over it by coming to think of Corran as a Rogue instead of CorSec. Has a serious rivalry with Talon Karrde's organization. A crazy bluff eventually (and inadvertently) leads to him being the sole private owner of an Imperial Star Destroyer, which he operates as a mobile black market known as the Errant Venture.

* Aayla Secura: The space waifu of many a generation of star wars fanboys. A hot Twi'lek jedi chick who dressed skimpy and kicked butt. She was such a popular side character that Lucas took notice of her and added into the second and third prequel movies. Her reason for ditching the traditional jedi robes and showing her midriff was to show pride in Twi'lek culture, as her race tends to be viewed primarily as slaves rather than as an important part of the galaxy. Much like Ahsoka, she wasn't entirely defined by being a hot chick, but had other redeeming characteristics that made her likable, like being mechanically inclined, kind, wise, and somewhat mischievous. Much like Captain Rex, she had a great relationship with clones under her command, and it was rumored she and her Clone Commander had a romantic attachment to each other. Suffers from two tragedies: her death in Revenge of the Sith was brutal, and Disney hasn't done anything with her character since they acquired the franchise. In pre-Disney continuity, Aayla and Jedi master Kit Fisto were rumored to have a romantic attachment to each other.

== Disney Side Characters ==

* BB-8: The R2-D2 replacement and mascot of the new trilogy. Poe's buddy robot, started out as the plot device that the First Order was after in The Force Awakens, saves Finn and Rose's asses twice by taking down prison guards and piloting an AT-ST to attack Stormtroopers in The Last Jedi as well as Poe's in the comic. Saves Rey in Rise and reactivates a small antique droid companion that can speak Common AKA English, giving him his own C-3PO.

* Maz Kanata: An orange alien who knows a lot about the Force. In her backstory she was a Force-sensitive that’s somewhere in Yoda-tier age, but was never trained as a Jedi and instead used her talents to survive among the “third faction” (Hutts, smugglers, mafias, Mandos) while remaining as friendly to the “light side” factions as Hutts are to the “Dark Side” factions. Apparently also a supreme badass, judging from her brief appearance in TLJ. Definitely fucked Chewbacca and somehow survived. She procured Anakin’s/Luke’s blue lightsaber from the depths of the Bespin gas giant simply because she wanted it, and gave it to Rey in Force Awakens as well as some grandmotherly advice to her and Rey. She appears briefly to give the heroes contact information for a codebreaker in The Last Jedi. Joins the Resistance proper for the final movie, but not actually doing much onscreen other than spending some time with Leia.

* Saw Gerrara: Originally a member of the Space Viet Cong, this guy doesn't fuck around. Torture civilians? Check. Massacre entire patrols of Imperials? Check. In fact, his methods were considered so extreme that even the Rebel Alliance wanted nothing to do with him. Strictly speaking, he's a pre-Disney character as his first appearance on-screen was as part of the Clone Wars TV series; his first episode airing the same month that Disney acquired the franchise, making him one of the few characters to make the transition from the small screen to the big screen. Though he gets deaded within the first 30 minutes of Rogue One and does absolutely nothing of any value other than hinder the protagonists long enough to pad the run time, he has a lot more of his back-story filled out in the Rebels TV series. He was played by actor Forest Whitaker, so at least there's that.

* Sabine Wren: One of the main protagonists from the Star Wars Rebels show. A Mandalorian woman with a flair for art, explosions, and kicking Imperial ass, she is probably one of the most recognizable characters from the animated side of Disney canon. At first, she was a patriotic Imperial, designing weapons for the Emperor and his vassal ruler for Mandalore, Gar Saxon, until Gar decided to test one of her weapons on a group of Mandalorians, leading her to be labeled an oath-breaker by her people and cast out from her home-planet of Krownest by her mom. She then spends the events of the TV-series with her new surrogate family, the crew of the rebel freighter *Ghost*, and eventually recovers an ancient sword revered by her people, leading her to reconcile with her past, her birth family, and her people. Now, after the Battle of Endor, she is on a quest with Ahsoka Tano to find her 'totally-not-boyfriend', the Jedi Ezra Bridger, and Grand Admiral Thrawn, as they disappeared into the Unknown Regions following the events of the series finale. Was considered "another Disney female Mary Sue" until she acquired some nice depth in the last season of Rebels, however event before that their are several good moments with her such as her getting captured by Sith Inquisitors and used against Ezra and her fights with Kanan. Overall she is a very likable character and one of the better characters in Rebels.

* Amilyn Holdo: An [[Tumblr|overbearing, purple-haired “Rebel hero”]] and one of the key admirals of the Resistance. If you don't like the direction the Disney canon is going in, this character is your Jar Jar Binks and probably is to you even if you do approve/tolerate it. Her only role was to basically die in style but unfortunately she was pretty forgettable and nobody actually cared when she was atomized, even if it was a really fucking cool death. Tie-in material tried to fix this; the only real requirement for joining the Resistance was "didn’t think Leia was crazy for thinking the First Order was going to perform Star Wars 9/11”, and Holdo was only the captain of a small frigate before her battlefield promotion due to the entire chain of command other than the other frigate commander dying or being incapacitated by a single torpedo blast to the bridge of the Resistance flagship. As a matter of fact, [[skub|her "super-duper secret plan" ends up getting most of the Resistance killed after Finn and Poe fuck it up]], due to the fact that she decided to [[skub|not tell the freshly demoted highest ranking pilot who had just lost the resistance the last of their bombers her plan, causing him to mutiny]], and she only partially redeems herself via [[What|FTL ramming their command ship into the First Order command ship, destroying most of the FO fleet]], which is briefly visually spectacular but [[fluff]]-wise highly.... [[skub|take a guess]]. In the original script there was a subplot about there actually being a First Order spy aboard with the audience knowing in advance that there was a plan that spy could have ruined, but in an absolutely stunning display of terrible choices none of it was even filmed and the story was not changed to cut the references to that dropped plot.

* Rose Tico: A maintenance worker who acts as a tagalong for some of the most boring and annoying parts of The Last Jedi. After losing her sister in the beginning of the movie, she catches her idol Finn (who has apparently become something of a celebrity within the Resistance over the course of the week or so since he defected) trying to desert ship in order to warn Rey not to rendezvous as they were being chased by the First Order's fleet since Leia had given her a beacon indicating a rendezvous point (something that is entirely forgotten about for the rest of the movie, since Rey doesn't even use it to meet up with the Resistance at the end). She later went along with Finn to the Gilded Age planet to find the expert capable of helping them deactivate the First Order's tracking system, and despite literally growing up on a planet like that she still thinks its a great idea to just park their fighter on a luxury beach and run straight into a casino full of arms dealers wearing their military uniforms which results in the two being arrested and meeting a random criminal who sells the two out to the First Order because he overhears them literally explain their entire situation, despite the aforementioned "growing up as either a slave or a poor servant, its kind of unclear" backstory which means she should probably know more than the guy who literally only knows life as a Stormtrooper about shit like that. Her lust for Finn's BBC drives her to cockblock his heroic sacrifice on Salt Hoth before confessing his love for him at the worst possible moment in a plot point that will likely go nowhere. Also delivers the worst line in the entirety of the franchise: "[[What|That's how we are going to win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.]]" Which is even worse because Finn was not fighting a hated foe since he has no hatred towards his enemies and was instead just sacrificing himself for the people he loves. This quantum singularity of [[bullshit]] led to a substantial fraction of TLJ's backlash being directed at her actress despite the fact that she had nothing to do with writing any of it. Said backlash also basically single-handedly torpedoing whatever reputation the Star Wars fandom had with the greater public prior to this. Was an interesting character- how some heroes could come from unlikely places- that got handed shit writing in a movie that was way too crowded with a huge ensemble to begin with, and almost zero development. In The Rise Of Skywalker, instead of giving pithy speeches about love and being oppressed she spends her time doing actual ground crew technician work between battles, when characters are meeting to plan their next move she speaks like a high-ranking member of the Resistance (by process of elimination, but still), and the most important thing; '''she actually gets to participate in a battle and shoots some motherfuckers''' in an attempt address the "her figures don't sell" problem. The plot point of her being in love with Finn is not addressed, like in any way at all, and she has very little screentime so she's pretty much been simultaneously upgraded/downgraded into being the Wedge to Finn's Luke. That last part didn't go over well with a lot of people given her bigger role in VIII, leading to accusations that IX was pandering to the /pol/ crowd by giving Rose so little to say or do. Despite (or maybe because of), getting shafted in the movies proper, the actress has proven fairly game about reprising her role in voice-acting for various projects.

* Torra Doza: D.Va in Star Wars. No seriously. Young female, wears a blue and white bodysuit with gloves, is a pilot, likes video games, cheerful personality, she's got it all...except for being in something that's actually popular. Unfortunately, Torra had the bad luck to be a character in the widely reviled Star Wars: Resistance, which basically guaranteed a status as Skub at best and hated at worst.

== Notable Pre-Disney EU Characters ==
* Thrawn: (See *below under villains since despite being created as part of the Legends - in fact, the 1991 book he debuted in is what began the Star Wars Expanded Universe - he was brought back into canon by Disney)

* Mara Jade: A Force-sensitive former agent of Emperor Palpatine, Star Wars second strong female character after Leia (Nomi Sunrider wasn't high profile or developed enough) and a fiery, snarky, sexy redhead. Taken from her parents at a young age and raised as a servant to Palpatine, Mara trained with him and with his royal guards to become one of several high-level Force-using operatives with the title of "Emperor's Hand", though she used the cover story of being a dancer that Palps liked called Lianna. A life of hard work gave Mara a liking for challenges, and she completed numerous missions for him, living the high life under his patronage. Upon Palpatine's death, he gave Mara one last command and a Force geas - kill Luke Skywalker. Bereft of the Emperor's patronage, without job skills besides spy and assassin and unable to find Luke, Mara was forced to live paycheck to paycheck in numerous jobs until becoming a smuggler under Talon Karrde. When Mara finally met Luke, she tried to kill him but ened up in survival situations that forced them to work together. When she finally learned the the truth of her master and killed and escaped Palpatine's compulsion when she killed Luke's clone. Mara then joined the Jedi Order, and over the years Mara's grudging respect for Luke grew into love - which Luke ironically developed before Mara did despite Luke saying he didn't like fiery women like Mara, and the two eventually married. Then a Yuuzhan Vong agent infected Mara with a deadly bioweapon, and she only survived through using the Force to keep it at bay. When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded at large, she fought while struggling with the virus, being cured of it around the time her and Luke's son Ben was born. After the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, Mara led the Jedi alongside Luke and fought in wars against various aliens and the re-emergent Sith. Years later her nephew Jacen turned to the Dark Side and became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. When he tried to corrupt her son Ben, Mara tracked him down to kill him to protect Ben. During the fight, Jacen killed Mara via cheap shot with a poisoned dart. But before she died, Mara told Jacen off while using the Force to alert Luke and Ben and say goodbye to them (Mara's death was one of the main reasons the book series was hated by fans). She later appeared numerous times as a Force ghost, visiting Luke - at one point to give him tips on how to fight Abeloth, and warning her great-great-grandson Cade Skywalker against the Dark Side. Due to being a sexy redheaded woman with a backstory as a spy-cum-assassin (emphasis on cum for neckbeards) for an evil government before joining the good guys, plus her fiery disposition and penchant for black catsuits, Mara's probably a deliberate ripoff of Black Widow from Marvel Comics (ironically, this didn't stop Disney retconning her from the lore despite Disney now owning both the Marvel brand and Star Wars franchise).

* Ben Skywalker: Son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Named for Obi-Wan Kenobi's pseudonym, Ben grew up learning the ways of the Jedi from his parents. He was close to his uncle, aunt and cousins too. Ben was nearly lured to the Dark Side when his cousin Jacen became a Sith but resisted, and any bond between them was destroyed when Jacen killed Ben's mother Mara. Years later when the Jedi got word of a lost tribe of Sith emerging and an emerging Force psychosis started spreading among the Jedi, Luke, Ben and the Jedi Order went to resolve the problem, Ben joining his father in re-tracing Jacen's steps to try and gain insight. Things went from bad to worse when the Jedi and Sith encountered the Lovecraftian Force Entity Abeloth, a shapeshifting being described as a dozen times stronger in the Force than Luke and able to use both sides of it. Things were so desperate, Ben accepted when Luke got the Jedi and the Sith to form an alliance against her. During this time, Ben encountered Vestara Khoi, a Sith apprentice and daughter of one of their leaders. While firmly on the side of the Jedi, Ben found himself often working alongside Vestara in their mission to stop Abeloth, and was attracted to her; for her part, Vestara reciprocated Ben's feelings but was hindered by Ben's disapproval of Sith. Eventually they confessed their feelings, and the two became a couple (with Vestara also leaving the Sith and trying to become a Jedi). Said co-operation proved invaluable when Abeloth kidnapped Ben and Vestara for the final part of her master plan. After Abeloth's ultimate defeat Vestara, after a ruthless act while fighting Abeloth, became convinced she had much of a Sith mindset to be a Jedi, reverted back to the Sith, ended the relationship by zapping Ben with Sith Lightning before fleeing. Heartbroken but resolute, Ben resolved to track her down and redeem her if possible (unbeknownst to Ben, Vestara was also heartbroken about leaving him).

* Jacen Solo: While George Lucas always had a story idea for a son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side, Jacen Solo was the first incarnation, and a major influence on Disney's Kylo Ren. Born to Leia alongside his twin sister Jaina, he was a skilled Jedi, and often tried to be a calming influence on his younger brother Anakin Solo. Played a pivotal role in the Yuuzhan Vong War, killing their military commander Tsavong Lah and their true leader. However, his experiences during the war took a toll, and Jacen started struggling with the Dark Side. Falling into corruption of a Sith Lady, Jacen fell pretty hard. He became a Colonel in the Galactic Alliance and took control of their secret police and converted it into his own Personal SS division. He [[What|legally coup]] the Chief of State and turn the successor to the NR into a evil democratic republic.

* Jaina Solo: Jaina Solo was a Human female Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order and member of the Jedi High Council. Daughter of Han and Leia, twin sister of Jacen Solo and older sister to Anakin Solo, she inherited her father's mechanical aptitude and her mother's Force sensitivity, resulting in her eventual training at the Jedi Praxeum. During her time there as a youth, she had many adventures, including helping to thwart the Second Imperium, where she helped Zekk abandon the dark side of the Force and join the ranks of the Jedi. She became a distinguished pilot during the Yuuzhan Vong War, which also saw the death of her brother Anakin Solo and the birth of her cousin Ben Skywalker. Becomes the Jedi Saber, the Order's sword against the dark.

* Kyle Katarn: A stormtrooper commander who turns mercenary after learning the Imperials were responsible for the death of his father. After being one of the many people who stole the Death Star plans, he destroys an Imperial super soldier project essentially solo. After this he gets wrapped up in the head inquisitor's plot to revive the Empire and gets trained as a Jedi by a force ghost. Straightforward and prone to snark, but also very easy to trick. Partner (if not more) with hot space Asian Jan Ors. Considered one of the more powerful force users in the New Republic, even outside the games where his power level is rather over the top. Where Luke (and most Jedi) keep the dark side away with spiritualism and positivity, Kyle does it through sheer force of will.

* Talon Karrde: A suave rogue smuggler captain who became the new smuggling and black market kingpin after Jabba died. Compared to his predecessor, he's pretty benign given his preference for tariff evasion and illegal goods over straight up extortion and slaving and being a father to his men instead of someone who executes minions on whims. His favored product is selling obscure and/or stolen information. Explicitly what Han might have become if he didn't join the rebellion. Likes punny ship names, with his flagship the Wild Karrde (Wild Card, plus a pun on his last name) and secondary ships like Lastri's Ort (Last Resort), Uwana Buyer (You want to buy her?) and Amanda Fallow (A man to follow). He makes a business arrangement with Mara Jade when she's trying to track Luke down to kill him, where he provided her information if she worked for him temporarily. Years later he acts as a friend in the black market to the Solos and Skywalkers.

* Bevel Lemelisk: An old EU Character that hasn't been quite retconned out yet (even if Director Krennic and Galen Erso more or less took his place in the overall plot), Lemelisk is the Albert Speer/Wernher von Braun of the Imperial war machine. A genius architect and engineer with a serious boner for mass destruction, he designed the Death Star and several others of the Imperial Superweapons, like the discount Death Star battlestation ''Tarkin'' (kinda like a Proof-of-concept prototype for the Death Star concept) or the ''Eclipse''-class of Super Star Destroyers. He bore the brunt of Palpatines anger for the Death Star's destruction, who had him tortured, executed and ressurrected via cloning several times for his failures. After the Empires defeat, he ended up working for the Hutts and worked on a Death Star knockoff called the Darksaber (which he purposefully sabotaged by not pointing out obvious design flaws and the overall shoddy construction work), where he was captured by the New Republic and executed for war crimes.

* Tsavong Lah: An alien [[Horus|Warmaster]], Tsavong was a member of the Yuuzhan Vong species and in charge of their military during most of the Yuuzhan Vong War. His most notable accomplishments were conquering Coruscant and indirectly causing Anakin Solo's death. Tsavong was a skilled tactician but a poor strategist, [[Commander Kubrik Chenkov|a ruthless fanatic who's willing to throw countless lives away to achieve his goals]]. Also took on the Vong Nom Anor as his advisor, despite hating Anor's self-centeredness and lack of piety. At one point Jacen cut off his foot, so Tsavong [[Awesome|cloned an extinct super-predator so he could prove he was still badass by killing it and using one of its feet as a prosthetic foot]]. Also got caught up in a plot by the [[Haemonculi|Shaper Caste, seeking to control him through his body modifications]]. He also dearly loved his dad - a retired military officer he'd often turn to for advice, to the point that his death made Tsavong mentally unstable. Came to view Jacen Solo as his archnemesis, and was eventually killed by him.

* Nom Anor: A Yuuzhvan Vong member of the Intendant caste. After the events of ROTJ, Nom arrived with a Vong advance force as a saboteur to undermine the galaxy in preparation for the Vong invasion/Yuuzhan Vong War. During this time, Nom worked in disguise to manipulate various groups and even clashed with the Chiss Ascendancy... [[Not As Planned|the capture of some of his agents also clued the Empire in to the coming Vong threat]]. He was also such a selfish schemer even Thanquol would turn his nose up in disgust and a major [[Troll]]; before revealing his true identity, when negotiating with Leia he often dress up and act like Darth Vader just to mess with her. Also notable for being an atheist while the Vong as a whole are characterized by being deeply religious. Before the war, Nom infected Luke's wife Mara with a Vong bioweapon that caused a terminal illness, forcing her to use the Force to stop its progression. When Mara confronted Nom, he tried and failed to kill her and was sent packing. After being heavily demoted, Nom tried to rally the outcast class under the guise of a prophet, only to throw them away when they weren't useful to him. Nom later found his way onto the Supreme Overlord's flagship ([[Asdrubael Vect|not that supreme overlord]]) during the battle to retake Coruscant. When the Supreme Overlord was killed and the ship started falling apart, Nom tried to kill the heroes three times but was always thwarted. When offered the chance to escape with the heroes, Nom realized he'd burned all his bridges; he didn't fit in anywhere and was too proud to reconsider his life choices or face punishment for his role in the war. So Nom chose to stay behind and die on the exploding flagship. Essentially [[Fabius Bile]] as a self-centered alien bureaucrat.

* A'Sharad Hett/Darth Krayt: A human Jedi-turned-Sith. Born A'Sharad Hett, he was born to a Jedi and his wife who somehow managed to live among the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine, he eventually joined the Jedi Order, becoming a Padawan of Jedi Masters Ki-Adi-Mundi, and later, An'ya Kuro. When he was only a teen, Hett's father was murdered by the Jedi assassin Aurra Sing, who was later defeated in a duel by a young A'Sharad Hett. During the Clone Wars, he served the Republic as a General. He met and eventually befriended Anakin Skywalker after Skywalker struggled to come to terms with Hett's Tusken heritage. He managed to survive the Clone Wars and Order 66. He was eventually captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, who [[Haemonculus|tortured and experimented on Hett]], which drove him to the Dark Side.

* Darth Talon: A female Twi'lek from the EU comic series "Star Wars: Legacy" who became a Sith Lord in Darth Krayt's One Sith in 137 ABY. Best known for being one of Star Wars most fanservice-y characters on account of her attractive, tattoo-covered body and always wearing skimpy skin-tight clothing (though the character's creators have gone on record to say her appearance is meant to be primal not sexualized, and the skimpy outfit is to show off her tattoos). Apart from the fanservice, she's also visually distinctive for being a rare red Twi'lek and the aforementioned black Sith tattoos. Appointed personal assassin of Darth Kryat, Talon was sent to kill Luke's descendant Cade Skywalker, then later chosen to be Cade's Sith teacher when Darth Kryat tried to induct him into the Dark Side. During this time, Cade and Talon drew close and w slept together, which may have been Kryat's plan (Cade and Talon are shown kissing, and in one scene Cade is shown getting out of bed while a naked Darth Talon is sleeping next to him). Interestingly, George Lucas' original plan for a sequel trilogy involved Talon corrupting Han and Leia's son to the Dark Side of the Force and Talon was nearly in the Disney trilogy and there is early concept art of her.

* Abeloth: A Lovecraftian female entity strong in both the Light and Dark side of the Force, and one of the most powerful beings in any Star Wars canon. She first lived as the Servant, a mortal woman who served the powerful Ones on an unknown jungle planet over a hundred thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. Over the course of her life, she became the Mother: she kept the peace between the Father's warring Son and Daughter and became a loving part of the family. But she was still mortal—she grew old while her ageless family lived on—and she feared she would lose her precious family. In a desperate attempt to hold onto the life she so loved, she drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge. Her actions corrupted her, transforming the Mother into the twisted, immortal entity known as Abeloth. Has numerous titles such as the Bringer of Chaos and Beloved Queen of the Stars (the latter self-proclaimed). Spent millennia trapped on a planet by the Ones, though she'd escape only to be re-imprisoned once more.

== Villains ==
* Darth Sidious/Sheev "Can't Peeve the Sheev" Palpatine/The Emperor: A creepy old wrinkly dude who sits in his badass evil throne constantly screaming "[[Just as planned]]!" And occasionally frying fools with force lightning. Built a giant planet-destroying weapon, then built another, bigger one as a trap when the first one blew up. He is very clever, managing to scheme and outwit everyone in the prequel trilogy (not particularly hard, given that every good guy in the prequels was written to be a complete dunce), moving them all into place so he could take over the galaxy (although he still needed a big superweapon anyway to hold onto said power) in the original trilogy and even manages to make [[Just as Planned|everything move to his design]] in the sequel trilogy. Chews so much scenery they had to resort to computer-generated imagery. [[Meme|He is the Senate]]. His survival in the third Disney film was so baffling and unexplained that even the characters had to admit that it made no sense; then again, he was only brought back because Disney had no other choice, having killed off Snoke too soon and Kylo Ren not being a credible enough villain on his own.

* Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin: [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Tywin Lannister]] [[Indrick Boreale|IN SPHESS]] (although, given that Star Wars came first it might be more accurate to say Tywin is Tarkin in Grimdark Fantasy). Ruthless, ambitious, and cold, Grand Moff (Governor) Tarkin is the epitome of all that is Imperial in the SW Universe, and represents all the non-Sith elements that makes the Empire so evil. Started out as a career officier in the republican navy, became promoted by Palpatine after he put down early resistance movements against the Empire with ruthless effiency (including literally crushing protestors with a Star Destroyer). The Clone Wars also showed that he briefly served under Anakins command, where their philosophies showed be to quite compatible (Tarkins cold pragmatism combined with Anakins fierce determination to get the job done at any cost) and became the basis of a deep mutual respect for one another. Also happens to be one of the few characters outside of the force users to figure out that Vader was Anakin on his own. His idea of ruling pretty much comes down to [[Konrad Curze|"They can hate me as long as they fear me"]], which is symbolized ultimately by the Death Star. [[Derp|However, he uses the stick far too often and hardly uses the carrot]], and this policy backfires on him horribly when he destroys Alderaan, a Core World and one of the founders of the Old Republic- for instead of cowing the galaxy into submission, it, along with the Battle of Yavin which saw himself and his battle-station destroyed, [[Fail|galvanized half the galaxy into openly declaring for the Alliance]]. Before the Prequels rewrote the origins of the Imperial superweapon programs entirely, he pioneered the idea of weapons like the Death Star and worked hard to lobby political support from Palpatine and the military for their construction, and was the man in charge for a great number of military R&D developments until his death.

* Jango and Boba Fett: Father and son, though the son is actually an unaltered clone of his father. Badass, mostly-silent mercs who get shit done and come from a line of Spartan/Viking/Māori warriors in space called Mandalorians. Mandos are real hardasses who can go toe-to-toe with Jedi, and the Fetts were no exception. Sadly, both had very anticlimactic deaths, though Boba survived his in the EU, through the power of being too popular with the audience to kill permanently, later having his survival added to Disney Canon. With both of his former employers dead (Jabba and the Empire), and having just survived a fate worse than death and separation from his father's armor, Boba seems to have had time to reconsider his past decisions. He becomes an honorary Tusken after helping out a Tusken tribe that kept him alive, and after getting his armor back from Din Djaren, decides to take Jabba's old position as crimelord of Tatooine. Despite being Jabba's number one enforcer for years, he finds the job a lot harder than it looks, fending off Hutts and local gangs while trying to live up to his Mandalorian heritage and sense of honor. Both of them, ''especially'' Boba, are long-time fan-favorites, but there is also a very vocal and obstinate faction of haters who ''never'' shut up about Boba Fett's falling into the Sarlaac and his limited role in the movies proper. [[Rage|No matter how many times Boba's survival and numerous showings of badassery outside of the movies are pointed out, you can count on the Fett haters to stick to their guns as stubbornly as an Imperial Guardsman down to his last lasgun rounds.]] Sadly, the underperformance of Book of Boba Fett has ensured that the Fett-bashing is likely to continue, with Boba's softer characterization being one of the main points of contention.

* Jabba the Hutt: Obese slug who is a cross between a Mexican drug cartel kingpin and Mafia crime-boss. He runs his criminal enterprise from an old palace-monastery on Tatooine. A [[/d/]]eviant at heart, likes to fap to hot alien chicks dancing for him until they try to escape, then faps even harder when he feeds said chicks to Rancor. His power is such that the Republic, and later the Empire, had to negotiate with him to be able to have some influence in the Outer Rim, because even Sheev Palpatine knows that you don't do shit in the Outer Rim without dealing with the Hutts first. Gets strangled to death by a bikini-wearing Leia with her own chains, because symbolism.

* Thrawn: *Star Wars [[Creed]], if Creed was also a philosophical blue-skinned, red-eyed alien who loved art. Originally introduced in the pre-Disney EU/Legends, Thrawn was so popular Disney soon brought him back into the Disney canon (with a few tweaks to his story). Thrawn was renowned for being one of the few high-ranking aliens in the Galactic Empire and one of the Emperor's best subjects. He originally served as a member of the Chiss Ascendancy, but after being backstabbed (Disney canon retconned this into a ploy; he's still loyal to the Chiss, but pretended to be an exile so he can use the Empire as a buffer state) he signed up with the Galactic Empire and worked with Darth Vader - having met him back when the latter was still a Jedi - and even the Emperor himself. In his tactics, Thrawn notably employed his analysis based around understanding the philosophy and art of his enemies, and was a very capable commander. Always one step ahead of his opponents, Thrawn would frequently outplay both rebels and political rivals by anticipating their actions well in advance, sometimes even using their own plans against them. Literally the only things that can stop Thrawn are insubordination, and things he can't anticipate or control like The Force (and he even found an effective countermeasure for the Force in the form of some Force-resistant Sloths). Thrawn quickly became very well-liked with fans, to the point many considered him the best thing to come from Star Wars since the original trilogy.
** He also set up a vassal Empire called "the Empire of the Hand" to combat an alien menace encroaching on Chiss territory that was considered a threat to the Empire; pre-Disney this was the Yuuzhan Vong (AKA the Far Outsiders, AKA the space cenobites who killed Chewbacca by dropping a moon on him), post-Disney it's Vong-knockoffs called the Grysk. Pre-Disney he was killed by the betrayal of one of his closest aides but is alive and well post-Disney, and was last seen when Ezra used the Force and space whales to yeet Thrawn's ship into the unknown regions with all of them on board. His actual name is the near-unpronounceable Mitth'raw'nuruodo. With his philosophical nature and fetish for art collecting, he's probably a deliberate ripoff of M'Quve from ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', but good luck getting Zahn to admit it.
** Out of all the Empire's elite command, Thrawn stands out not just for being a tactical genius, but also for being a stone-cold pragmatist without falling into Tarkin's genocidial dickery or Vader's open disdain for his own men. He prefers to handle situations with subtlety and long-term success rather than with violence or cruelty for short-term gains. Had he not been saddled with working for such an openly tyrannical dictatorship, he could easily have been a more heroic (if ruthless) military leader when faced with an actual threat to the galaxy at large.

* Gilad Pellaeon: The Watson to Thrawn's Sherlock, Pellaeon was a veteran Imperial Navy Officer in the Legends canon with a career stretching from the Clone Wars to the Vong War. Well liked in-universe and out for being a reasonable, fair-minded person with a sense of honor. Basically the complete opposite of guys like Tarkin. As such, he often gets the role of "Token Good Imperial".

* Count Dooku: An elegant, charismatic, gentlemanly Sith lord and master fencer who had dreams of liberating the galaxy from Republic control, but didn't expect his partner in crime to be a backstabbing douchebag (seeing how he was a full-blown Sith Lord by the time of Attack of the Clones, he really should have seen that coming). Was born as a planetary noble, but gave it all up when he became a Jedi, only to get it all back when he gave up being a Jedi to lead the secessionist movement against the Senate's corruption. In spite of all his unethical activities, including assassination plots against virtuous Separatists while actively promoting war criminals in the CIS military, Dooku genuinely believed that the New Order was going to wipe away corruption in the galaxy, and that even the Jedi would have a place once enough of them saw things his way. Turns out, Palpatine had been playing him just like everyone else during the Clone Wars. Hates Anakin/Vader for not being a gentleman.
** In the novels he's also an alien-hating human supremacist who believes the Empire's purpose is to establish humanity as dominant in GFFA; He'd do well as a citizen of the Imperium if he just changed which Emperor he revered. While actually a very cool villain in the EU, because he was so underdeveloped and underused in the movies proper, most younger or more casual fans (IE: anyone who hates or doesn't care about the EU), tend to dismiss him as boring, making Dooku the "unfavorite" of Palpatine's three apprentices.

* Darth Maul: Horned Sith only concerned with bloodshed and fighting. He'd do well as a Khornate Champion. Had his legs cut off then was brought back more badass than ever, making him obsessed with getting revenge on Obi-Wan, as well as Sideous for casting him aside. He creates a massive criminal syndicate and even conquering the Mandalorians to create a small army that posed a serious threat to Sideous' plans; that is, until he was utterly stomped by Sideous, then gets killed in a duel with an elderly Obi-wan almost 18 years later. Wields a sick-looking double-bladed lightsaber, doesn't actually gets a single line in the first film dubbed in by a different actor, and played by famous martial arts master Ray Park. He was a silent badass in the movie but for some reason he was made very talkative in the animated series. The EU gave him a backstory as the scion of a species of Sith-aligned Force witches that ''The Clone Wars'' later made canon. The director of ''Solo'' picked him out of a hat to be the leader of the nefarious criminal gang Han gets stuck working with, which is not unreasonable given his previously established connections. Despite being a rage-filled maniac, the TV shows gave him a lot of depth, as he recognizes that there are bigger forces at play in the universe, and by the time of his death, puts his hope in the Skywalkers finally defeating Sidious.
** In the Legends canon, he was resurrected by some Dark Side cultists very shortly before A New Hope and sicced on Darth Vader so the writer could have an excuse to give the fans the fight they'd been clamoring for since 1999. Vader sent Maul back to the grave, but not easily. Then his brain was salvaged by some mad scientist and kept alive (somehow), with Maul interacting with the world in a limited way through holographic projections. Luke Skywalker pulled the plug on it though, letting Maul finally die for good.

* General Grievous: An alien cyborg even more fucked up than what Darth Vader would become (being a robot body that was a canister for his eyes, brain, and vital organs), Grievous was the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army during the Prequels and the Clone Wars TV series (both versions), and a sadistic Jedi hunter. His competence is usually portrayed two totally different ways; in the 2D animated TV series (created by the same guy who made [[Samurai Jack|Samurai Jack]]), and other EU material created prior to the second Clone Wars cartoon, he is portrayed as an awesome, unstoppable killing machine who roflstomps experienced Jedi Masters, and is only bested by Mace "The Ace" Windu. In the CGI series and the third film, he is an [[Stupid Evil|incompetent, froth-mouthed imbecile]] with a record of failure that even [[Abaddon]] would laugh at hysterically. (Sadly, the latter was what Lucas originally intended him to be - even if the former is way more awesome). By the end of the clone wars, Grievous and his atrocities against civilians became the public face of the Seperatist cause (while Dooku kept Grievous actions a secret from his allies); The death mask of Grievous became a potent symbol in Imperial propaganda in order to associate resistance to the Empire with the horrors of the Clone Wars - just as Palpatine intended. Ironically, in Legends the Empire gave copies of GG's mask to some of their secret weapons (Terror Troopers and Terror Biodroids namely).
** Actually has a somewhat-tragic past in Legends: he was a great and virtuous hero on his primitive planet, but Dooku arranged for the Separatists to shoot Grievous' shuttle down and harvested his shredded body to repurpose him into their general/assassin. Dooku also lobotomized Grievous in way that reduced him to a raging killer. When Grievous recovered, Dooku then pinned blame for the shuttle crash on the Jedi and Republic, turning him into the OG raging murder-machine we all know and love. In all, a considerably more grimdark past than his other versions.
** In the second Clone Wars cartoon, his backstory is kept vague, but Grievous claims he deliberately chose to become a cyborg in order to become better at killing Jedi (and actually becoming extremely good at it, at least in the first CW, where he cuts down four Jedi with ease). Hated being mistaken for a droid, being compared to a droid and all Jedi - especially Obi-Wan Kenobi. His competence ping-pongs around even more violently than before: Grievous [[What|loses to a barely-trained Padawan]] and [[EPIC FAIL|the fucking Gungan army under Jar Jar and Captain Tarpals]] in a couple episodes while [[grimdark|committing on-screen genocide against the Nightsisters]] and going toe-to-toe with Jedi Masters in others. He was voiced by one of the folks at Lucasarts, who submitted his audition under an alias to make sure he'd get a fair shake. Along with Anthony Daniels, he reprises his role more often than most other Star Wars movie actors.

* Clone Troopers: The predecessors of the Storm Troopers. These soldiers were vat clones of Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett cloned in large numbers, trained from birth in combat and clad in environmentally sealed suits of their famous gleaming white full body armor. Despite being genetically engineered to be perfectly obedient automatons, the Jedi they served under encouraged their individuality, and they began giving themselves names and unique tattoos and haircuts. But when Palpatine activated their inhibitor chips via Order 66, the clones' autonomy was completely overridden (the effect appears to only last a couple weeks, but it is extremely intense) and they executed the Jedi without hesitation. The original clonetroopers served the Republic against the Separatists, and were turned into the stormtroopers after Palpatine's total take-over. A very small minority of clones had their chips successfully removed and fought against the Empire, especially those who formed close bonds with their Jedi generals or local freedom fighters, but the vast majority of the Clones were more loyal to Palpatine than to the Republic itself, and didn't need much convincing to stick with the Empire, with or without inhibitor chips.
** Various sources (even within legends) disagree on the exact reasons why Palpatine replaced the clone troopers: the rebels blew up the gene-banks, the Kaminoans rebelled and created their own clone army, the clones were too susceptible to targeted genome-based biological weapons, or that the clones served their purpose and were too expensive to maintain, especially with their accelerated aging. Remaining Clones either were retired, served as instructors and in the case of the Commandos and the 501st Legion (having proven their loyalty and competence over and over, including at the Kamino uprising), kept serving in pure Fett-template units as Vader's personal enforces. Even they were retired after Hoth due to being too old.
** In Disney Canon, the clones were expendable once they served their purpose of killing the Jedi; removing them from the equation freed up resources for the Death Star and reduced the Empire's dependency on Kamino's cloning facilities. However, enough clones started to mutiny or desert that the Imperial military accelerated their replacement with recruited Stormtroopers.
** The old EU canon had a different take on why the Troopers had little trouble with executing Order 66; where the order was merely one of many (151 in total) contingency plans that would be enacted by either the chancellor or the senate if the existence of the Republic or the functioning of its governing institutions were vitally threatened (the irony was certainly not lost on Palpatine) and were just part of the normal training program of the soldiers. Order 66 was buried under plans for events like the Senate being blown up, the Chancellor becoming incapacitated, Coruscant being destroyed etc. What made Order 66 so insidious was that the Jedi thought it was a protection against renegade force users (not unheard of with Dooku and Ventress running around) and that Palpatine masterminded his scheme in such a way that the legal prerequisites of Order 66 - Jedi staging a coup against the Chancellor or the Senate, which technically was what happened when Windu attacked Palpatine (even more explicitly so in the Novelization, where Windu planned to install the Jedi council as an interim government until the Senate would elect a new chancellor) - was fulfilled with no one there to question it. Combined with the Troopers inherent psychological conditioning and more than one Commander holding serious grudges against many Jedi ensured that the Order would not be questioned even by those Clones who were fond of their generals.
* Stormtroopers: The soldiers of the Galactic Empire. Unlike the Clone Troopers, the vast majority of the stormtroopers are enlisted, typically from the underclasses of war-torn and impoverished worlds. Contrary to popular belief, Stormtroopers are ''not'' the rank and file in the Imperial army, and are more skilled and fanatical, akin to Marines. Still, Stormtroopers are a step down in quality from Clone Troopers (including their armor, with a surviving clone trooper making a point of how awful it is compared to his old wargear), but by this point the Empire didn't really need that many high-quality soldiers when it was more concerned with keeping civilian populations under its thumb. Since the First Order doesn't have a good dental plan to bring in recruits, they instead resort to [[Schola Progenium|kidnapping or buying children and raising them as soldiers]] to fill their mook quota. They are unwaveringly loyal and obedient to the Empire, ruthless and brutally efficient foes in combat, and incredibly precise shots with their state-of-the-art weapons. Naturally, these qualities all go out the window when they encounter the protagonists, but that's life when you're wearing a [[helmet]].
**There are some explanations as to the inconsistency in Stormtrooper quality; one is that the Imperial army is so vast that quality differences are inevitable. Stormtroopers that are an actual threat will defend the core worlds or accompany the more "serious" units, such as the 501st legion. Lesser recruits get sent to rim world backwaters or meat grinder conflicts, making them easier prey for the odd band of rebels or pirates. The rebels learned the hard way, though, that trying to fight a conventional way against the former was just asking for trouble. That being said, by the Original Trilogy, the Empire hadn't fought a war even close to the scale of the Clone Wars before the Rebellion, so there were a lot of inexperienced troopers as well.
** Amusingly enough, Legends indicates that many of the Clone Troopers that actually stayed with the Galactic Empire ''hated'' the Stormtroopers, considering them a pack of incompetent idiots with no sense of their surroundings and terrible aim (which can be taken as a canonization of their memetically awful competence). One source even had Commander Cody (yes, that guy from Revenge of the Sith and the Clone Wars CGI cartoon) stating that he'd sacrifice an entire platoon of Stormtroopers for one real Clone Trooper and noting that Fett would probably kill the lot of them himself.
** Lastly, these boys comes in literally ''all'' the flavors. Variants based on environments (Snow, Desert, Shore and many more) and roles (Heavy, Incinerator, Commando and the elite Death Troopers), ensuring that the Star Wars brand always has a new bunch of cool soldier dudes to make toys off of. When things has to get really dangerous for the heroes, the elite variants are brought in, like the Storm Commandoes, Death Troopers and (in Episode IX), Sith Troopers (no relation to the troops of the same name used by the Sith Empires pre-dating Palpatine).

* Inquisitorius: Darksiders trained by the Empire. While the Rule of Two prevents additional Sith Lords, it says nothing about other force users under their command, especially if they're not given full access to Sith lore and thus can't properly challenge Sith Lords on equal footing. It is not known if Darth Bane expected the Imperial Inquisition or if he would have approved of the Emperor bending the Rule of Two such. Their job is primarily to ferret out the remaining Jedi and other force users, but they are also used for all manner of wet work and internal affairs. Since their first mention ''way'' back in ''The Star Wars Sourcebook'', they have served as enemy force users that while still dire threats could still ''conceivably'' be defeated by the player characters. The source of many prominent antagonists in the expanded universe, including Jerec.

== Disney Villains ==

* The Inquisitors: The Disney version of the above, here reimagined as fallen Jedi who have taken up hunting their fellows for the Empire and wielding spinning double-bladed lightsabers while doing so. Actually rock a pretty boss set of designs overall, but sadly most of them are underdeveloped in both personality and backstory, with the exception of the Grand Inquisitor and Fallen Order's Second Sister. They have a "brother/sister" naming system.
** Grand Inquisitor: Head honcho. An Pau'an who used to be a Jedi Temple Guard before going bad. Voiced by Lucius Malfoy / Admiral Zhao and similarly evil. By far the coolest (and most competent), villain in Season 1 of Rebels, so of course they killed him off. Also shows up in live action in Kenobi where Third Sister stabs him, but his showing up in Rebels later suggests he walked it off, which was confirmed outright in Episode 5 of the Kenobi mini-series.
** Second Sister: Main villain of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and as mentioned above, easily one of the more well-developed of the bunch besides GI himself. Once the Padawan of Cal's mentor in the game Cere, and hates her something fierce for feeling abandoned by her, leading to the Empire capturing her and giving her the [[Inquisition]] / [[Dark Eldar]] treatment. Just when it seems like she ''might'' make amends with Cere, Vader, unhappy that Second Sister failed him, cuts her down on the spot.
** Third Sister: Another one of the better fleshed-out Inquisitors. One of the main villains of Kenobi series on Disney+, hunting him in the hope that Vader will give her a promotion in exchange...or so it seems. Turns out she actually just wants a chance to get close to Vader so she can kill him for murdering her fellow Younglings during Knightfall. But of course, Vader's way out of her weight-class. Can pose and parkour like a superhero, and has a [[Angron|bad temper even by Dark Side standards.]] Character and actress got crap from the [[/pol/|usual offenders]].
** Fourth Sister: Another Inquisitor introduced in Kenobi. Looks a bit like a Twi'lek but isn't listed as one. Not much else to say.
** Fifth Brother: One of the more prominent male Inquisitors besides the GI (enough so that he shows up in Rebels and the Obi-Wan mini-series). Like Third Sister he covets the Grand Inquisitor's position, and the two dislike each-other. Confirmed by the creators as being blind in Rebels, but able to see through the Force. Killed off in Rebels Season 2 when Maul wipes the floor with him.
** Sixth Brother: Minor Inquisitor who's main moment in the sun is fighting Ahsoka and getting killed by her.
** Seventh Sister: One of the two main Inquisitors in Rebels besides Fifth Brother. Voiced by Sarah "Buffy" Michelle Gellar, who is also the wife of Kanan's voice actor, which the writers reference by giving Seventh Sister some flirting. Is a Mirialan like Barriss, but it has yet to be confirmed that the two are one and the same even though it would make sense. Killed off in Rebels Season 2, when Darth Maul takes a page out of Kenobi's book (oh the irony) and cuts her in half.
** Eighth Brother: Throwaway Inquisitor who also dies the most embarrassing death of any Inquisitor to date (his helicopter lightsaber malfunctions and he falls to his death). Cool helmet though.
** Ninth Sister: The "muscle" of the bunch, being big, brutish, and filled with rage. Though beaten by Cal Kestis on Kashyyyk, her death hasn't been confirmed, so we might see more of her.
** Tenth Brother: So far exclusive to the comics, he was once a Jedi in the Clone Wars who tried to off Mace Windu, which went as well as you'd expect. Since Jedi tend to frown on executing people, they sent him into exile...which allowed the Empire to pick him up and turn him into an Inquisitor. Whoops. He eventually bit it when a Jedi manipulated several [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Purge_Trooper Purge Troopers] into Order 66-ing his ass, in a moment of positively delicious irony.

* Agent Kallus: Continuing Star Wars' proud tradition of unsubtly named characters, Kallus is Rebel's equivalent to Asajj Ventress, being the semi-competent, semi-bumbling secondary villain who gets a redemption arc. Was involved in a massacre of Zeb's people, but had not actually ordered said massacre and feels kind of bad about how it all went down. Later joins the Rebel Alliance after Thrawn outs him as a spy. Rocks some Wolverine-esque sideburns, but not the weird haircut to go with it. Art crew considered making him a Chiss based on the concept art, but it seems they decided there's only room for one in the Empire's hierarchy.

* Kylo Ren: A Dark Jedi (not Sith, they technically went extinct with Vader, Sheev, Dooku, and Maul) who is actually the son of Han and Leia, Ben Solo, which the Internet absolutely refused to shut up about after it was leaked. He's mostly based on Jacen Solo from the EU (a son of Han and Leia who became a Jedi then fell to the Dark Side and became a Sith) with his new name likely taken from EU character Kybo Ren and having the same real name as Luke's son from the EU with Mara, Ben Skywalker. He idolizes his grandfather, Darth Vader and wears a black suit and a mask to show this. He wields a unique crossguard lightsaber. People thought he would be a badass after seeing the trailers but after seeing the movie, he turned out to be a half-naked pussy looking like a gay Turkish oil wrestler who very often gets temper tantrums and gets his ass kicked by a teenage girl (though to be fair, if he had been a complete badass, everyone would’ve just complained that he was a rehash of Vader. So, you know, rock and a hard place. Also he only had his ass beat since he was already shot by a bowcaster and stabbed with a lightsaber, so fighting even in spite of that is pretty badass). Kylo's character became significantly more fleshed out in TLJ, ironically making him one of the only characters to have actual development in the whole movie. Between that and Kylo's actor Adam Driver being really bro-tier about the whole situation (he even appeared in a skit as Kylo which also included poking fun at Kylo's emo traits), Kylo has managed to win over many fans, with some citing him as probably the most interesting character in the Sequels. Serves Palpatine before turning on him with Rey and gives his life to heal her, scoring a kiss with her before he dies redeemed as Ben, ala Vader dying as Anakin. This relationship between Rey and Kylo ''sharply'' divided the fanbase and created some extreme reactions. The worst cases were some extremely rabid Kylo/Rey shippers who insisted Adam and Daisy Ridley - Rey's actor - become a real-life couple (despite both being in separate relationships), to the point that they '''harassed Daisy Ridley's boyfriend on social media, harassed Adam Driver along with his family (including stalking them and sending messages hoping for the deaths of Adam's wife and/or newborn son) and made death threats against JJ Abrams''' (far surpassing practically any other Star Wars backlash, even the death threats thrown at Ahmed Best - Jar Jar's VA - and the purported backlash against Kelly Marie Tran - Rose Tico's actress); it cannot even be “justified” (and justified is used ''very'' loosely here) as the ravings of butthurt ultra-fanboys, this crossed the line into full-on bullshit. To repeat, this one was Skub incarnate. Most fans either adore the Reylo ship or absolutely hate it with a passion.

* Snoke: Supreme Leader of the First Order who speaks to his underlings through a massive hologram. <s> Very little is known about him at the moment. Though many fan theories say that he is Darth Plagueis, the old master of Palpatine who was assumed dead (everyone assumes every new Darksider is him, though, so grain of salt) the powers that be have repeatedly denied the theory (though it's admittedly a better guess than suggesting that Snoke is [[What|Mace Windu, Boba Fett, or a clone of Darth Vader]], which we would like to stress are [[Derp|actual fan theories]])...unfortunately, we will have to wait for an inevitable comic book or novel to explain it, since he [[RAGE|gets killed like a chump by his own servant, Kylo "Emofag" Ren.]] It is possible he may return given that the ring on his finger has inscriptions that translate to various rephrasing of “survive death” that is carved from the stone of Darth Vader's lava castle (yes, you read that right), but that may actually be a nod to Palpatine’s EU resurrections.</s> Turns out to be a genetically engineered pawn of Palpatine's, like he was literally born looking as shriveled and injured as he did and had some kind of fabricated backstory like an organic Blade Runner Replicant. So in sum, a dime-store Palpatine knock-off.

* General Hux: The First Order's Tarkin equivalent and a moustache-less ginger Hitler in space. Delivers a pretty cool speech, but can't fight to save his life. The backstory for Hux is his father was an Imperial hero, and Hux wants to be the First Order version of his old man and lead the FO to a final victory. Hux openly dislikes Kylo Ren and has frustration with the Force-users borders on meta at times. Spends most of TLJ as a foil to the edgier and more toyetic bad guys, but he seems to be the only one to have noticed how impractical the Empire/FO's fuckhuge weaponry can be when you're fighting something smaller than a planet and have lost the element of surprise. Becomes Kylo Ren's comic relief ginger prison bitch at the end of TLJ, although he has an interesting scene where he was about to finish off the unconscious Kylo until he woke up. Sent some very simple info to the Resistance in Rise Of Skywalker that set off the movie plot (mostly by making them take the info they already had seriously) and later helped the main characters escape, and was immediately shot for his efforts. He is never mentioned again.

* Captain Phasma: A First Order operative in charge of instructing the new Stormtrooper legions, Phasma serves as the Boba Fett of TFA - which is to say that she does nothing of note other than stand around and look cool until she figuratively and literally gets thrown into the trash in Force Awakens. Lucasfilm have apologized for overadvertising the character in the lead-up to the film since she was just supposed to look cool and do nothing like Boba Fett originally did but the huge presence of her in the marketing implied she was going to be a major character (remember, Jar Jar and generic Battle Droids had far more merch than Maul during the release of Episode 1) and have promised to give Phasma an actual role and backstory for TLJ that will play into Finn's story. (This turned out to be bullshit due to the fucked-up nature of TLJ's production, but the reshoots managed to give her a good showing anyway.) Her backstory was released in a novel where she was a tribal on a planet the Empire stripped into the stone age, who backstabbed her tribe for a stronger tribe, backstabbed her second tribe and brother to rescue a stranded Imperial officer and join the Empire, backstabbed her mentor to become the supreme commander of the Stormtrooper Corps in the First Order, then in the comic series she was shown to have survived the trash compactor when a Resistance bomb blew it up and she entirely disregarded everything (including saving Starkiller Base or Kylo Ren) to backstab and frame one of her subordinates for lowering the shields then promptly hunted him down to “bring him to justice”. So [[Skaven|she’s a spear-wielding backstabber extraordinaire.]] At the present she's got a nasty scar on one eye where her hyper durable helmet was busted in, and fell into a fire on a shattered starship to her confirmed demise. Worth mentioning that even many folks who liked TLJ considered this an unsatisfying send-off.

* Commander Pyre: The gold and male version of Phasma, and often the closest thing [[Fail|Star Wars: Resistance]] had to a big bad due to being in charge of most of the First Order's operations in the show. More active than Phasma usually is, but still not likely to become anybody's favorite new villain. And then he died, and no-one fucking cared.

* The Knights of Ren: The Dark Side warriors who Kylo is the leader of, each one having their own unique look and signature weapon. Also probably one of the biggest bits of [[Fail]] in the Sequel Trilogy on account of being teased in the first movie but completely absent in the second, and saying and doing absolutely nothing in the third before being unceremoniously killed off. Seriously, if you're one of those people who grouses about Boba Fett not having enough to do in the Original Trilogy, the way these guys are handled will drive you crazy. To put it into perspective, a ''non-canon LEGO short-film on Disney+'' gave these guys more characterization than the actual Sequel Trilogy did.

== Old Republic Characters ==

* Revan: Simply put, you'd be hard-pressed to find an EU character with a bigger following than Revan, and with good reason: the protagonist of one of the most beloved Star Wars games of all time, ultra-powerful, awesome design, red and purple lightsabers...he's got it all. This is reflected in how he's one of the only EU characters to get an official LEGO minifigure, action figures, a Gentle Giant bust, etc. For backstory, Revan was a bit similar to Anakin in that he was a talented but headstrong young Jedi who during the course of a war (in this case the Mandalorian Wars), got corrupted and fell to the Dark Side. From there became a Sith Lord who waged war on the very Republic he had led/saved before being betrayed by his cowardly dipshit apprentice Malak. One quick round of mind-wiping later, and the Jedi and Republic had themselves <s>a new tool and patsy</s> an important new ally for stopping Darth Malak, who had quickly proven to be a much worse Sith Lord than Revan had been (go figure). That's where the player comes in. After defeating Darth Malak, and remembering his true identity along the way, Revan goes off to fight an "I can't believe it's not Palpatine" Sith Emperor dwelling in the Unknown Regions and disappears. Later returns in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but how the game and its expansions portray him and end his story were divisive to put it mildly. Which is why we're going to skip right over that minefield in favor of giving a neutral summary of it in the timeline section.
**Interestingly, the kind of Sith Lord he was differs somewhat depending on the source. The first game actually depicts his Sith Lord phase as being fairly par for the course: wanting power for power's sake, social darwinist, etc. But the sequel and other sources have instead cast him as more of a [[The God-Emperor of Mankind|visionary who was trying to save/prepare the Galaxy for approaching horrors but also felt that only he had what it took to lead the effort, hence his war of conquest.]]

* Jedi Exile / Meetra Surik: The main character of the second game, and nowhere near as popular as Revan despite the fact that the fondness for her game is at least as strong among older EU fans. Started out as a general under Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. During the big battle of Malachor V, she activated a doomsday weapon that won the battle, but killed so many people and fucked up the planet so hard, that Meetra was shell-shocked and became cut off from the Force. Oh, and kicked out of the Jedi Order. The second game begins with her slowly rediscovering her connection to the Force under the guidance of a mysterious woman who totally won't later turn out to be a villain with an agenda. Her adventures take her to places recovering from the recent Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, and she gets to team up with some of the few surviving Jedi Masters until her mentor kills them near the end of the game. After putting the old woman out of her misery and also stopping the other Sith Lords who have been treating the Galaxy like their personal murder-playground, she follows Revan's lead and disappears into the Unknown Regions. Her anti-climactic death in a subsequent novel drew all sorts of white-hot [[Rage]].

* Carth Onasi: Quite possibly the skubbiest character to ever come out of a Star Wars video game. A Mandalorian Wars veteran and your first permanent party member in the first game, his betrayal by his old mentor and then said mentor's bombing his homeworld and killing his wife has left him with major trust issues. But he's also the romance option if you're playing female, and so many a fan ships him with the female Revan even as others find him whiny and annoying. In a case of history repeating itself, his voice actor would go on to voice ''another'' party member in a Bioware game set in space who is a polarizing romance option for female players. Also shows up in the second game as an NPC, so long as you don't decide that Revan was evil in the first game. "If you find Revan, tell him... tell him that Admiral Onasi is carrying on his duty".

* Bastila Shan: A Jedi with a talent for Battle Meditation (a Force power that basically makes the user's side significantly better in a given fight), Bastila is the one who faced down Revan when Malak betrayed him. Outwardly haughty, holier-than-thou, and a complete stickler for doing things the by-the-book Jedi way. Actually very insecure, and one of many examples of Bioware's fondness for the defrosting ice queen archetype. The romance option for male Revans (and by extension his canonical love interest), she gets captured by Malak later in the game and tortured into becoming his new apprentice, at which point the player has to decide to join her or not. Canonically, Revan doesn't join her but instead gets her to rejoin the Jedi. The two of them get hitched in the period after the game, but then duty calls so Revan has to abandon his wife, much to the unhappiness of many a KotoR fan. Her love story with Revan is roasted by HK-47 in the second game, while Bastila herself makes a return appearance in a minor role.
** Satele Shan: Bastila and Revan's descendant, and having the same voice actress and preference for double-bladed lightsabers as the former, and a similar talent for Battle Meditation too. Appears in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Also had a kid with a Republic soldier as it turns out and later formed an unlikely friendship with the Sith Lord Darth Marr. Said kid was a Republic Spy and was one of the best bros in SWTOR.

* HK-47: In running for the most popular character to come out of KotoR other than Revan himself, HK is basically a blend of Bender and Deadpool, being a sociopathic-but-funny anti-hero who enjoys violence, advocates for violence as a solution to all problems, and calls everyone meatbags (except his beloved master of course). Has a strange verbal quirk where he says the kind of speech he's going to say before saying it (IE: if asking a question, he'll first say "query"). So popular that he later showed up in an expansion for Star Wars: Galaxies despite that game taking place ''thousands of years after his debut appearance''. Got some would-be-replacements in the second KotoR game in the HK-50s, and hates their guts. SWTOR would also give him a successor in HK-55, as well as yet another appearance from the original...before he gets scrapped. As already stated, he shows up on Mustafar later, so he must have gotten rebuilt at some point.

* Canderous Ordo: A Mandalorian veteran of the war who has become a cynical and ruthless mercenary before deciding to join Revan. Actually very pro-Revan, respecting him for being a good warrior and tactician and actually being able to kick his people's teeth in. Becomes the new Mandalore in the second game. So in short, basically the Boba Fett of his day, and accordingly is one of the more popular characters. Unfortunately got his legacy tarnished when the Mandalorians joined the Reformed Sith Empire in the Great Galactic War, though they dodged the karma backlash until thousands of years later in the Great Peace of the Republic.

* Mission and Zaalbar: A young twi'lek and her Wookie buddy, they're ostensibly the game's Han and Chewbacca, but are actually very different. Mission is the spunky-but-somewhat naive female with a can-do attitude who manages to be interesting and not insufferable despite what that description might suggest, and Zaalbar is a depressed exile who's brother is a sociopath that's willing to sell his own people into slavery for profit. Sadly nowhere to be found in the game's sequel.

* Juhani: A Cathar (no, not the Medieval Christian sect condemned as heretical), Jedi who is introduced as a failed Padawan who's in a sufficiently bad mood that she's caused all of the planet's local Kath Hounds (basically lion-dogs) to get extra-aggressive. Dealing with her is part of the player's Jedi Trials needed to pass to become a Padawan, and assuming the player doesn't off her, she later joins as a party member. Probably most famous/remembered for being one of the first LGBT Star Wars characters, and her girlfriend will fall to the Dark Side if you did kill her. Alternatively, female players can hook up with her also.

* Jolee Bindo: A cranky old man living in Kashyyyk's shadowlands who is actually a Jedi living in self-imposed exile. Something of an "unorthodox" Jedi, he adheres firmly to the good parts of the Jedi belief system while relentlessly roasting the bad and dumb parts, such as the Jedi's general aversion to love and families. This, coupled with his often hilarious "back in my day" cranky old man lines, have made him another one of the more popular characters to come out of the first game.

* Atton Rand: He is as Atton as Atton will ever be! Initially appears to be a Han Solo clone, but it turns out this is a front to hide something much darker: he's a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars who, pissed that the Jedi sat the war out but had no problem fighting him and his fellows when Revan became a Sith Lord, reinvented himself as basically a serial killer of Jedi. Eventually, his conscience caught up with him and he struck out on his own. As the ship's pilot and a romance option for female players, he takes over some of the roles of Carth Onasi, but is a lot less skubby, his overall reputation with the fans being a lot stronger (everyone likes a bad boy). Meetra redeemed him into being a Jedi.

* Bao-Dur: Zabrak Carth, being like him a staunchly pro-Republic goody-two-shoes who hates Mandalorians and gets into arguments with Canderous. Is missing an arm but replaces it with an energy field that connects the metal hand to the shoulder, which is different from most Star Wars characters who lose limbs. Also has a pet remote and helps the player character get their first lightsaber. Notably, he is one of the only characters who's futures Kreia isn't able to glimpse into at the end of the game, suggesting the writers either had specific plans in mind for Bao-Dur in an unmade sequel...or that they just got lazy. Meetra also made him a Jedi.

* Brianna the Handmaiden: Only joins if the player is male (and yes, is a potential love interest option). Due to being a handmaiden to the most insufferably puritanical Jedi Master ever, she's been fairly indoctrinated to have an extremely black and white view of what is and is not acceptable behavior for a Jedi. Dislikes Atton (and vice-versa), and may be Kreia's daughter. Member of the Echani, a species that look a lot like humans but white haired and apparently all martial artists. Don't let her slender figure fool you; she's one of the best melee fighters in the second game, especially if made into a Jedi or Dark Jedi. Giving her a double saber is just mean, and is definitely the best leader on the Dxun team for the party splitting on Onderon and Dxun mission (though Atton's skill-set and Visas' power make them good alternatives to the point that the game guide recommends picking one of them, Mira and Bao-Dur are also good picks as team members to stealth through the mines and slice respectively). Canonically traveled with Meetra even though she was female and became a Jedi.

* Mira: One of the many, many tough, sarcastic redheads in Star Wars' old EU, she's a bounty hunter who, unusually for a character in Star Wars, is actually reluctant to kill people and prefers to avoid doing so. She also has a wrist-launcher that shoots out various projectiles. Has history with the Mandalorians but doesn't really identify as one. One of the more popular characters to come out of the sequel, but you won't get her if you're Dark Side unless you start off Neutral or Light Side on Nar Shadda and ''then'' turn into a dick after getting her on your team. As many people prefer Mira, this is exactly what some Dark Side players do. Meetra made her a Jedi.

* Hanharr: The Anti-Chewbacca, being a bloodthirsty, vicious psychopath who was doing the whole "evil Wookie bounty hunter" thing long before Black Krrsantan was ever a thing. Joins the player if the latter is Dark Side and fittingly for a Wookie who would have done well in Khorne's service, is a melee powerhouse. Actually very depressed to the point of secretly wanting to die, which is part of why he hates Mira for not killing him/constantly hounds her and attacks her; he's always hoping she'll put him out of his misery. Also [[Grimdark|killed his own tribe to keep them from being enslaved due to deciding they were better off dead.]] Mira put him down on Malachor V after she realized that his suicidal state made it impossible to help him.

* Mical the Disciple: The Handmaiden's counterpart, joining only if you're playing female (canonically he accompanied the female Meetra). A very nice and pleasant guy and one of the least morally compromised of the sequel's party members. And this in turn is exactly why some people find him boring relative to the more flawed Atton, though he's also often compared unfavorably to the Handmaiden as well due to the feeling that she's more useful in fights. Secretly a spy for the Republic, though most would say its not much of a secret. And guess what, Meetra made him a Jedi.

* Visas Marr: A Miraluka who has been Darth Nihilus' "apprentice" (by which we mean slave) for an untold period. Unsurprisingly leaps at the chance to ditch him for the player character the first chance she gets. A romance option for male players, to the absolute fury of the Handmaiden (to the point that she might stop speaking to you depending on how things go). Can be talked into killing herself to hurt her ex-boss in the final battle with him, but because Visas is cool hardly anyone takes this option even if playing Dark Side. Gets bonus points for being voiced by Kelly Hu. Canonically Meetra redeemed her to the light side (though it's not a redemption so much as a "literally anything is better than her current situation").

* GO-TO: No, no. Not [[C.S. Goto|he-who-must-be-named and who is universally despised and shunned]]. This is a different GO-TO, who is a droid that runs the Galaxy's largest crime syndicate. Looks exactly like the torture droids used by the Empire despite existing well before the Empire's time. An interesting character, but as he's considered pretty useless in a fight, most players hardly ever use him. Canonically blown up on Malachor after he got stuck with Bao-Dur's remote during the final mission of KOTOR 2.

* Vrook Lamar: Where Jolee Bindo is a funny cranky old man Jedi Master, Vrook is the opposite. Generally fitting the negative perception of "humorless jerk Jedi Master who preaches and lectures a lot", Vrook is one of the few characters to appear in both games. Dark Side players will kill him, and for all his grumbling, this old geezer has the skills and power to back it up. Doesn't save him from Darth Traya in the canonical Light Side path even with Master Zez-Kai Ell and Master Kavar being with him though.

* SWTOR PCs: A Jedi Knight, a Jedi Consular, a Republic Special Forces Soldier, a Smuggler, a Sith Warrior, a slave-turned Sith Inquisitor, a Bounty Hunter who can join the Mandolorians, and a Sith-Imperial Spy. The Eternal Empire/Eternal Throne expansions are basically a continuation of the Jedi Knight's story, though the Outlander's actual background is purposefully kept vague and the story can be tackled with any class. With that said, the story makes a heck of a lot more sense if its one of the Force-Sensitive classes (as otherwise you have silly things like Arcann losing to a Smuggler or a Bounty Hunter). Since their names are player-generated, each one has a title that the fanbase knows them by. Specifically:
** Jedi Knight: The Hero of Tython
** Jedi Consular: The Barsen'thor
** Republic Trooper: Havoc Squad Commander (or by the callsign, Meteor)
** Smuggler: Voidhound
** Sith Warrior: Emperor's Wrath
** Sith Inquisitor: Lord Kallig (actually a surname, the Inquisitor was a slave unaware of the lineage from Sith Lord Aloysius Kallig, later changes to a Darth title that differs depending on your alignment, Imperious for Light Side, Occlus for Neutral and Nox for Dark Side)
** Imperial Agent: Cipher-9
** Bounty Hunter: The Great Hunt Champion
** The one who went on to become the expansion PC is referred to as the Outlander, later the Alliance Commander and after the anti-Zakuul coalition dissolves simply as Commander. For the purposes of default timeline, we will assume that the Hero of Tython is the PC as that makes the most sense story-wise.

== Old Republic Villains==

* Darth Malak: Revan's former apprentice who turned on him because that's what Sith Lords do, and because Malak is a jerk. Unfortunately for the Republic and Jedi, it soon became clear that if Revan was like the Emperor of Man or Vlad von Carstein, Malak was closer to Abbadon or Konrad von Carstein, being that ever-disastrous mix of vicious and stupid. Where people often talk about Revan as a [[Tzeentch|tactical and strategic genius with a real talent for scheming and planning out victories]], Malak always goes for the bluntest, most brutally violent solution. Can't find a single person on a planet? [[Exterminatus|Bomb it]]. Wants to get Jedi on his side? [[Inquisition|Torture them until they join]]. And so on. As a consequence of pissing his master off at least once before betraying him, he's missing his lower jaw, hence the machinery where it used to be. We get a look at him without it on towards the end of the game, and its appropriately grisly.

* Darth Bandon: Malak's utterly generic and forgettable apprentice, who is basically the writers thinking "what if we did Darth Maul, but without the [[Awesome]]?Just about the only memorable thing he does is kill the Republic Soldier Trask Ulgo who helped amnesiac Revan escape the ship crash in the beginning of the game. Fittingly, he's disposed of by Revan and then basically never brought up again. Like Calo Nord, he leaves behind an outfit that doesn't look anything like his actual outfit.

* Darth Traya / Kreia: The main villain of the sequel, though she initially appears as an enigmatic mentor to the Jedi Exile. Generally remembered for her unique philosophy that is often highly critical of both the Jedi and the Sith, and is later revealed to hate the Force itself due to viewing it as a malicious deity (the lead writer has actually admitted that he basically used Kreia as a mouthpiece for things about the Force as a concept that bothered him). This unique perspective on the Force and her regular challenges of the player's actions, motives, and beliefs, has led to Kreia becoming a favorite among fans and critics alike. That her view of the Force is factually incorrect does little to change this (though to be fair, she doesn't have the benefit of knowing everything the audience knows). Was also Revan's Jedi Master as part of her backstory, and clearly still has fond memories of him, as he's one of the only characters she speaks about in an even remotely flattering way. There's also evidence to suggest that she might be the mother of one of the other party members, the Handmaiden, but this has never been conclusively confirmed.

* Darth Nihilus: Another fan-favorite to come out of the KotoR games, Nihilus is the poster-boy for the sequel despite not being the main villain and in fact having the least characterization of the three main Sith Lords. But, he's got the coolest look and has the highest intimidation factor, so he became a huge hit with fans anyway. Voice sounds vaguely like a toilet getting backed up and/or audio from Minecraft, but its much creepier/cooler than that sounds. Specializes in Drain Life, a Force power where the user sucks the life of a person or persons and gives it to themselves. Has become so addicted to using this power that he's become basically a wraith and needs to sate his hunger constantly, even on the planetary level, making him vaguely a Star Wars version of Galactus. Sadly, you can't ever wear his mask in the game, but you can get it as an item after killing him. To SWTOR's credit, you can wear it there.

* Darth Sion: A walking corpse of a Sith Lord whose main shtick is regenerating over and over again, hence his current physical appearance. Gets a crush on the Exile if she's female, and the Exile eventually convinces him to let go of his pain, causing him to die for good. Weirdly, he was also an alternate skin for Galen Marek in the later Force Unleashed game when no other characters from KotoR were.

* Atris: If ever there was a single character who perfectly embodied every negative stereotype about the Jedi, and was everything fans criticize about the Jedi distilled into a single character, it would be Atris. Self-righteous, rude, and more dogmatic and sanctimonious then a bus full of puritans, Atris quickly established herself as a hated character, especially with her constant insulting and lecturing of the Jedi Exile. She also kept the Exile's original lightsaber that she was forced to surrender because she's that petty. Turns out, of course, that she's fallen to the Dark Side from her study of Sith Holocrons, making all of her posturing and bluster completely hypocritical. Her Handmaidens are assholes too, with the exception of the one who joins you. The good news is, because she's gone Dark Side, you don't need to play a villain to have an excuse to cut her down. Though making her eat her words by sparing her and lecturing her right back as she realizes how badly she has been fucking up since the Mandalorian Wars started is on an entirely different level of satisfactory. Meetra most probably spared her and let her spend the rest of her miserable life in depression.

* The HK-50s: The "next-gen" HK-47s that appear in the sequel. Unlike HK-47, they are very much ''not'' on the player's side and are a recurring enemy throughout the game. A subtle difference between them and the original, is that while HK-47 enjoys knowing how to kill efficiently and/or with style, the HK-50s just enjoy killing period. This is why HK-47 hates them.

* Calo Nord: The first KotoR game's equivalent to Jango/Cad Bane, being the top bounty hunter of his day who dual wields blaster pistols. Doesn't save him from getting killed by Revan and company when they go to the first of four planets in their Star Map hunt. Short in temper and stature both, but weirdly leaves behind a shiny set of silver armor after he dies that fits everyone in the party perfectly despite being taller than him (with said armor also looking nothing like his outfit in the game).

* Darth Malgus: Though he was initially dismissed as a lazy blend of Vader and Malak when first introduced in SWTOR's announcement cinematic, this big, bald Sith has actually developed a solid following after both SWTOR and a tie-in novel told from his perspective came out. Where many other Sith in the Empire Malgus is a part of are alien-hating assholes with no real redeeming features, Malgus is depicted as more egalitarian. And while a believer in Sith ideals, argues that wars and other conflicts are necessary for people to grow and realize their full potential. Pulled a Kaiser Soze on his wife when his enemies tried to use her against him, and after a failed bid to become the new Sith Emperor later turned on the Sith in the pursuit of his own agenda, making him something of a spiritual successor to previous Old Republic Sith villains Revan and Traya. In short, he's generally seen as one of the better characters/things to come out of the fairly skubby SWTOR game and tie-ins.

* The Sith Emperor: Very blatantly a Palpatine rip-off who serves as the main villain of SWTOR. Revealed to have been the one who finished corrupting Revan and Malak to the Dark Side before sending them out to pave the way for his arrival. Revan and Malak of course, had other ideas, but the Sith Emperor's longevity meant he was still around to launch an invasion of the Galaxy anyway 300 years later. His backstory is that he's a parasitic body-hopper who transfers his consciousness every time a new, more powerful vessel comes along, and also has the ability to suck ''everything'' from a planet in what is an even more extreme version of what Nihilus does. Not just people's lives, but color, sound, the Force itself, etc. This is seen as so messed up that the few Sith who know the truth about him want him dead as badly as any of the Jedi. Unfortunately, the Emperor's body-swapping shtick continues after the player beats him, and he gets a new form and voice in Immortal Emperor Valkorion. In this body he's even more ridiculously powerful and <s>basically becomes Fire Lord Ozai in space</s> forms his own faction to try and wipe out both the Jedi and the Sith. Gets killed, but his ghost sticks around to cause more trouble, until that's taken out...and then a fragment of him persists even then and has to be taken out too. Since the fragment of the Sith Emperor's essence was wiped out, the jerk's (hopefully) gone for good, but if the game and its expansions have taught us anything at this point, always assume that the Sith Emperor will come back in some way or form down the line. For the purposes of timeline, the Hero of Tython is held to have killed him for real with the destruction of the last fragment.

* Arcann and Vaylin: Valkorion's children. As siblings who are the kids of a heartless, despotic ruler with great power, with the son having facial scarring as a result of his dad's actions and initially being a villain before redeeming himself, they are basically Zuko and Azula in Star Wars. Like their old man they're nothing to scoff at in power, especially Vaylin who has inherited her dad's psychopathic traits (much like Azula relative to Ozai). Furthering the Avatar parallels, Arcann's voice actor also voiced Koh the Face-Stealer. Despite being Dark Siders, neither one is technically a Sith, and both use yellow lightsabers instead of red. Vaylin is later implied to have soul hopped to one of the Jedi apprentices the Emperor's last fragment tried to take over, though further details are TBA as SWTOR is still on going.

== One-Appearance Characters / Other Characters of Note==
* Owen and Beru Lars: Moisture farm couple and Luke's aunt and uncle (sort of, its complicated), who raise him on Tatooine. Effectively Luke's Ma and Pa Kent/Uncle Ben and Aunt May. And like Uncle Ben, their murders prove a major catalyst for Luke's transformation into a hero. Owen's main claim to fame is roasting Obi-Wan figuratively before later getting himself roasted literally. Isn't actually one-appearance, turning up in the prequel as their young selves and again in the Obiwan series where they defend their home from the Third Sister of the Inquisitors, ''successfully''. We can imagine they died fighting those Stormtroopers now.

* FN-2199/"TR-8R": a First Order Stormtrooper who wields a badass riot baton in combat. Appears only in The Force Awakens and notable only for two reasons; he shouts "Traitor!" at Finn, and then he kicks his punk ass despite the latter wielding a fucking lightsaber. Such is the stuff that memes are made of. Gets a bit of backstory that he and Finn trained and grew up together, hence his outrage at seeing Finn fighting for the opposite side. Even if he goes out like a punk to Han Solo, by all accounts, <s>FN-2199</s> TR-8R is what Phasma '''should''' have been. [https://image.prntscr.com/image/VFRN0EFuQkCz3pkBYGCN2Q.jpg He would make a great commissar].

* Jyn Erso: Appears in Rogue One. A former member of the Space Taliban (Rebels who refused to group up with the rest of the Rebels due to their extreme willingness to do evil shit to kill evil assholes) who is captured by the Rebels so they can talk to Space Bin Laden (Saw Gerrara, a character who guest-starred in a few episodes of the cartoon Rebels and pretty much shows up to die in Jyn's movie) about rumors of a planet killer being fueled by Space Iraqi oil crystals (that makes lightsabers work), one that was partially designed by her father. Jyn is angry all of the time because her life sucks, she watches every parental figure in her life die in front of her, most of them over the period of a single day, and the movie hopes this will hide the fact that she really doesn't do much other then flip authority figures the bird. Her name mirrors that of Jan Ors, partner-in-crime of legendary badass Kyle Katarn which is REALLY not as well-received by the fans of the series her movie retconned as Disney thought it would be (to be fair, the old EU had around ten different versions of the Death Star plans being stolen which many fans just figured were combined into the one Leia had, so that doesn't mean Kyle and Jan can't ever be made canon again). Gets killed when Tarkin used the Death Star to destroy the facility in an attempt to stop the Rebels transmitting classified information, but Jyn and Cassian got the Death Star plans beamed into space before that.

* Cassian Andor: Appears in Rogue One. A Rebel spy and assassin, Cassian angsts about the fact that he lives in a political thriller about the space mafia VS the space Nazis set mere days before the simple good and evil morality of the original trilogy kicks in. His only friend is a droid, but that's not exactly as unusual in the setting as the movie implies it is. Shares an award with Luke for not getting the girl in the end...kind of; they do share a final hug and possible kiss in the elevator before he died with her getting atomized by a partial-strength shot from the Death Star. The Disney Canon variant of Kyle Katarn, who was an Imperial officer turned Rebel turned Jedi Master, who is so badass he shaves with a lightsaber. A massive waste of character. UPDATE: We're now getting a TV series based on him, so there's at least that?

* K-2S0: Appears in Rogue One. What C-3P0 would be if he grew a pair and got a stronger droid body. A reprogrammed Imperial tactical droid and Cassian's only friend. Does that thing where he spits out survival odds in stressful moments. Caught a grenade in mid-air then tossed it back at it's original thrower without even looking, shot Stormtroopers (even took out two by [[Angry Marines|picking up a third stromtrooper and whacking them with him]]), and delivered some great deadpan lines which endeared him the audience - even those growing more jaded to these new movies liked him. So of course he dies first in order to establish that shit gets real during the last twenty minutes of the movie, although he died holding the line so Stormtroopers wouldn't reach Cassian and Jyn and his last act was smashing the control panel with his bare hands so at least he went out as cool as he came in.

* Chirrut Îmwe: <s>Discount Jedi</s> The real star of Rogue One. A blind martial artist who may or may not have force powers, can beat a squad of Stormtroopers with a staff, shoot TIE Fighters out of the air, and could take your girl if he wanted to. Haha, jk, he's totally homo for his bara partner-in-crime with the badass autocannon. Dies in a bombing run, but he doesn't fear death. Even his actor (from the badass "Ip Man" series) admitted that he was shoehorned into the movie in a desperate attempt to make China give a shit about Star Wars (which failed, because China really just doesn't give a shit about the franchise). Chirrut is memorable mostly because he belongs to the "Order Of The Whills", notable because "Whills" were a thing George Lucas kept wanting to use in the original trilogy (immortal beings who were supposed to be telling the story, hence "a long time ago", later the spirits that make up the Force itself, and finally an order of warriors that Leia was supposed to found after Luke's death in a sixth movie before he decided to take a break then do prequels instead. Basically Space Moirae).

* Baze Malbus: Chirrut's best mate and self-appointed bodyguard. Has three lines, but comes off as memorable because of his hellgun-looking backpack mounted autocannon with a scanvisor that lets him hold down the trigger and headshot stormtroopers until they are all dead. In early scripts Chirrut was his father figure, in the finished product they're ambiguously gay even though the director intended there to be a "finding peace with the pastor who heard his confession after a very grim life" vibe. Dies shortly after Chirrut, and actually makes a connection with the Force in his final moments. Quite a bit of work went into designing his visual style and his backstory, not a single bit of which ended up in the movie.

* Orson Krennic: Director of the Imperial Military Research Division and Rogue One's villain. Forces Jyn's father into building the Death Star for him, causes the death of Jyn's mother, then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie getting roasted by the more competent Imperial characters because he's a fucking moron with a grudge. He's typical of the average Imperial who doesn't wear Stormtrooper armor in the Expanded Universe as well as Disney canon, notable mainly for giving off "Resident Evil villain" vibes.

* TZ-1719 / Jannah: Appears in Rise of Skywalker. The leader of a unit of First Order Stormtroopers who, upon being ordered to shoot civilians, all laid down their guns at once despite there being no communication between them to do so. Implied to be Force sensitive, with the accidental subtext being that she simply subconsciously Force-tricked her troops into not being evil anymore. They stole their dropships and escaped to Endor, living a non-tech lifestyle by taming some kind of goat aliens as mounts. She personally took on the name "Jannah". Her primary purpose of the movie is to replace Rose as Finn's love interest since they couldn't decide on hooking Finn up with Rey or not (for problems such as "would it offend racists into not buying merch, would it be seen as sexist to end her journey with a Disney Princess ending of getting a relationship, etc"). Further unfortunate subtext is how TZ is quite literally just Rule 63 Finn, although it fixes the "Finn Problem" that has been pointed out where suddenly Stormtroopers dying can be seen as a tragic loss of a potential hero by adding the idea that "<strike>Kanye was right, slavery is a choice</strike> good characters who end up as Stormtroopers can just choose not to shoot the non-combatants so anyone that doesn't deserves to die like the nameless <strike>loot pinatas</strike> mooks they are. The end of the movie adds <strike>spinoff bait</strike> the implication she is Lando's grandaughter, or at the least he has an idea of who she was taken from as a baby.

* Qi'ra: Han Solo's old girlfriend and partner introduced in ''Solo: A Star Wars Story,'' filling in for a number of older EU characters (don't worry, the Disney Star Wars comics had already given Han an ex other than her anyway). Grew up with Han on Corellia before getting forced into the Crimson Dawn, which is like the Mafia in space except run by Darth Maul instead of the Hutts. Helps Han survive an unobtainium deal gone bad, then backstabs her boss to become her gang's alpha dog and Maul's personal agent. Too bad this will probably never be followed up on outside of tie-in novels thanks to how bad the movie did. Also kinda awkward they made her Maul's Personal Assistant right after Rebels killed him off, meaning that Star Wars fans felt absolutely no curiosity about how the entire thing was going to go. She was still kicking around the Galaxy and is now involved in the Bounty Hunter Wars. Qi'ra is played by the famous Emilia Clarke which is one of the many reasons she is popular

* L3-37: While K-2S0 brought droid characters to an awesome new high, L3-37 brought them to a new low. While not being as bad as Holdo and Rose, and being far more memorable than the chick, the spy dude, the TIE Fighter pilot dude, and the two Asian dudes from Rogue One (admit it, you don't fucking remember more than two of their names at best), she suffered the most from the reshoots the movie underwent. The /v/-tier name is only the warning label on this crock of shit. A droid that constructed a body for herself from spare parts and wound up as Lando's version of Chewbacca, L3-37 is a [[SJW|woke robot feminist in space by direct admission of the writers, with everything that implies]] while also being a revolutionary leader who gives no fucks about any disgusting meatbags and at the same time is physically romantically involved with Lando while giving romantic advice to other characters and at the same time is all about profit and shooting up the place while using other droids as just pawns in her rampages (did we mention this character REALLY suffered from the reshoots?) Her body is destroyed in an escape attempt but ends up as one of the droid brains running the Millennium Falcon (yes, the same computer C-3P0 complained about in the original trilogy; draw your own conclusions.) Long story short, the feminist/sexbot/droid-supremacist/human loving/spree killer provides constant tonal whiplash. Did we mention that since she began without having a body there was no reason to stick her in the Falcon which is a fate worse than death based on about 1/4 of her characterization, it adds a LOT of disturbing subtext to Lando's fondness for the Falcon and the fact that Han basically just kept it after winning the game despite knowing Lando's lover was trapped forever inside, the implications for the conversations she had with Threepio during Empire Strikes Back, and the fact it was kept abandoned by a criminal on a desert planet for at least a decade means she's probably gone even more insane? Fan reaction is mixed, but only between "worst character ever, would prefer to watch Jar Jar and Holdo star in a sitcom combining the bad parts of both original EU and Reboot than watch the movie again" and "had potential, was disappointed, still don't like the name".

* Iden Versio: Created for DICE's Battlefront II as the protagonist of the story mode (though she's also playable in multiplayer). The leader of a small squad of Imperial Special Forces (because apparently the Empire can't get enough of black armored elites despite already having Shadow Stormtroopers, Storm Commandos, Purge Troopers, and Death Troopers). Modeled to look like her actress. Initially rabidly pro-Empire, but changed her mind during Operation: Cinder due to Palpatine's posthumous orders to take the rest of the Empire with him if he ever died. Becomes a New Republic soldier along with the one member of her squad who decided to go with her, and then later married him. Dies around the time of the Sequel Trilogy, but takes the member of her squad who ''didn't'' side with her with her. General consensus is that her shift to the Light Side either shouldn't have happened at all (so players could have an Imperial protagonist from start to finish like in TIE Fighter), or needed to come way later / be less sloppily done.

== Nations and Organizations ==
* '''''The Galactic Empire''''': Ever seen an evil, fascist space empire imposing itself on the galaxy with huge, evil spaceships and cool mooks? Then it was probably inspired by the Empire. Itself inspired by the brutalist designs of Nazi Germany, the First Galactic Empire is overall ''the'' classic authoritarian dictatorship, propped up by legions of obedient but easily disposable troops, cool propaganda that paints them as the saviors of the galaxy and ambitious officers ready to be choked for their failures. The Empire was created from the infrastructure of the Republic when Emperor Sheev Palpatine took singular power of the Republic Senate, ostensibly to keep the galaxy safe after the Clone Wars, but totally because he was a powerful Sith Lord who wanted to get his evil fascist dick hard. Once the galaxy got wise to this, the Empire used fear to keep them in line, which is one of the reasons why they took a liking to huge Star Destroyers and Death Stars, since they look fucking terrifying. While evil overall (as our [[Emperor|Lord and Savior]] George of the Lucas proclaims it), individual people go from normal people who knows no better since they've lived with propaganda up their exhaust ports all their lives to genuine psychopaths like Palpatine and Grand Moff Tarkin. Even so, The Empire still possessed deep flaws; apart from the authoritarian top-down rule, the Empire also wasted significant resources on its inefficient military, and their constant poaching of the Galaxy's brightest minds and permanent wartime economy meant the rest of the galaxy stagnated. Severe competition in the officer corps meant that infighting and backstabbing was not uncommon, either, and that the politically connected could still advance ahead of truly competent officers (that is, until their incompetency finally pissed off someone above them, as seen with Vader choking Admiral Ozzel). The Empire eventually broke apart after the Battle of Endor where the Emperor was killed (allegedly; it's more complicated than that...), his apprentice turned (back?) to the Light Side of the Force and the second Death Star blown up. The remains of the Empire's military became the Imperial Remnants who fought the New Republic and each other for control of resources.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Legends)'': in the original continuity, the Empire splintered into different warlord factions after the death of the Emperor and took several decades for the New Republic to defeat. At various points these remnants continued to threaten the New Republic for a long time, including the splinter lead by [[Creed|tactical genius Admiral Thrawn]]. They did team up temporarily to fight off the extra-galactic invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong. Eventually the largest remnant, which had greatly mellowed out its policies since Palpatine's death, made peace with the New Republic. It would continue to exist into Cade Skywalker's era 130+ years after the Battle of the Yavin, where it would split into two major factions; one that was more overtly associated with the Sith and reminiscent of the pre-Rule-of-Two Sith Empire, and the other lead by a royal family of Force sensitives more akin to Grey Jedi. After a war, the One Sith (faction name of the last Sith group) aligned faction is defeated, tries to go back into the shadows but is destroyed by a renegade One Sith, Darth Wredd, who wants to return to the Rule of Two but dies before taking an apprentice leaving the Sith extinct. The Fel Empire joins the New Republic successor government and the Jedi for to form the new galactic government.
** ''Imperial Remnant (Disney)'': In the Disney canon, the Emperor had a two-part plan in the event of his death; firstly, he'd destroy most of his remaining forces in Operation Cinder (this plan appears stupid on its head, but does serve a few purposes; it prevented Warlords from using Imperial resources to carve out their own empires, it tested the loyalty of the remaining officer corps, and denied assets to the New Republic. But mostly he was just a bitter asshole who wanted to take his ball and go home). In the second phase, those considered worthy enough were to retreat to secret fortress worlds in the Unknown Regions. Most of the remaining Imperial forces surrendered not long after the Battle of Endor, but various warlords still existed in the Outer Rim for at least five years since the fall of the Empire. The New Republic decides to just ignore them because fuck it Jar Jar Abrams wanted Rebels vs. Empire again, couldn't be asked to explain it and had no plans for the rest of the trilogy anyways. Considering how a large part of the Galaxy's history can be characterized as "Core Vs Outer Rim," and how the region had always been hard to control, its likely that the New Republic didn't want to fuck around with such a large clusterfuck of a region when they were still trying to consolidate the core, which unfortunately allowed for opportunists like Moff Gideon to grow in the shadows. There's also good evidence that Grand Admiral Thrawn, who's already been integrated into Disney Canon, will once again be a major power player in the Imperial Remnant. Whether he's still working for the Imperials in the Unknown Regions or in it for himself, we'll have to wait and see.
The problem is 90% has been retconned multiple times now and Operation Cinder has suffered from having four different interpretations. Currently evidence points to a Imperial Civil War broke out been again retcons and retcons have frequently become a problem. As such their are several schools of interpretation and the amount of factions.
1. The Yomo Council: A faction which rejected the authority of Gailus Rax and Coruscant. This group was Imperial Army elements and their families which ended getting brutally attacked by the Loyalist Shadow Wing and the New Republic.
2. The Jakku Remnant: The term for the Imperial Forces at Jakku during the battle under Fleet Admiral Rax. This was the force you see at Jakku and was the one who was defeated at the battle. After the battle the Imperial Forces are either killed, Captured a tried as War Criminals, or fled the battle to other Imperial Forces.
3. Moff Gideon's Imperial Remnant: Also known as Gus' boys, these are the main Imperials scene in The Mandalorian. They are pretty good shots and made up of Imperial Veterans. The only reason they Do not kill Mando is because of the literal plot armor. They also had Dark Troopers and some specialized Imperial Assets. Their is a implication from Behind the scenes interviews that Moff Gideon is backed by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
4. The Iron Blockade: A faction led by a Imperial Governor name Adhard who lockdown the Sector and pretended palps was dead, despite the balantant evidence to show otherwise. He held tough control of the Sector and had is own Purge Trooper Squads and custom Imperial Logo.
5. The Outer Rims Remnants: A group of Imperial forces who rejected the FO as a bunch of larping Fags. They decided to fight against them and the Emperor because they saw them as traitors to the Empire they had fought for. These guys are kind of a cool idea of something not explored.
6. The Core World Remnants: These are planets like Fondor, Kuat, the Deep Core, and Coruscant. They kept some Imperial Forces as defense forces and they desire the return of the Empire. Despite be banned by the New Republic from building armies and navies they built tons of weapons and warships from the FO without the NR [[FAIL|realizing]]..... When the FO took out Hosnian Prime, these forces joined up with the FO as sympathizer and auxiliary forces.

* The Republic: Before the Empire, the galaxy was governed by a ''huge'' representative democracy, seen in the prequel movies. It's corrupt as fuck, and not really capable of much other than ignore the fact most of the galaxy is already at war with itself, entire species are being wiped out in ethnic purges faster than they can be counted in a census, and slavery is pretty much everywhere. Acts like one nation, functions as an economic forum for oligarchs while planets police themselves to varying degrees. And since, by law, the Republic had no army before the Clone Wars, planets that were too poor to fight off pirates and slavers had little recourse. Besides failing to act on the many atrocities happening in the galaxy (and those they do intervene in ended up sowing resentment into the future Separatists), a major issue was that Republic policies gave special treatment to the prosperous Core worlds and large corporations over the remote and impoverished Rim worlds. Don’t fuck with Hutts, leaving them to do whatever they want in most of the galaxy, and until Sheev took over and made it the prelude to his Empire the only thing they ever did to get shit done is ask the Jedi to deal with it, whatever it is. The scary thing is that in the final years of the Republic, the Senate voluntarily laid the groundwork for the Empire long before the Declaration of the New Order and nobody even noticed it happened until decades later, when Palpatine received his emergency powers at the start of the Separatist Crisis and the opening of the Clone Wars. As Maul would point out before the end of the War, the Republic was already gone.

* The Old Republic: The early Republic. Far less corrupt, and had a standing army made up of what can charitably be called a mix of rent-a-cop security and elite paramilitary volunteers, the Special Operations department was top notch (although it had a bit of a war crimes problem and had a humiliating defection in the Cold War phase of the Great Galactic War that only didn't destroy them because the rookie and the cynical intel officer in the defecting Havoc Squad and the hacker, the Sith Imperial defector, the demolitions unit and the prototype battle droid assigned to them to rebuild were even better than the traitors and managed to convince three to surrender and killed the psychos) and the Navy as well as the armored land units were great, infantry and random conscript from wherever not so much. It was also far smaller, as the Republic only gradually expanded in stages across the galaxy, with humans leading most colonization efforts. Still rely heavily on Jedi, but mostly just for dealing with Sith. Hutt territory is more formal rather than them operating everywhere.
** Ruusan Reformation: 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, after the apparent destruction of the Sith, the Republic underwent a massive reorganization that made it into the Republic, but started with a dark age due to the damage caused by the war. Used to reconcile a problem in the films where the Republic is said to have existed for both 1000 years and "a thousand generations". This also solves how many details about pre-Prequel works had substantially different depictions of the Republic and Jedi from what the prequels wound up doing, and how there were wars when a character says there hasn't been a full scale war since the formation of the Republic.

* The New Republic: The post-Empire government that the Rebellion forms.
** Legends: Leia rules for a time, trying to manage the various monsters of the week and Imperial remnant groups, gradually stepping down to more minor titles to avoid being another Emperor. Then they have to deal with things like the extra-galactic cenobite invaders that cause a galaxy-wide holocaust while her Jedi kids died or flirted with being evil. Eventually it forms the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a confederation that includes a less-evil Imperial remnants (which it had been at peace with for a while) and some other powers, remaining a stable force combating Sith and their empires ever. During this time, Leia's granddaughter was prophesied to bring the Light Side of the Force into ascendance while a female Force-Cthulhu tried to co-opt the prophecy for herself. After Luke defeats her, a few decades are skipped and the Federation is defeated by a Sith backed Imperial Remnant faction, the Fel Empire. The Sith then backstab the Imperials and kick off the Sith-Imperial war. The Federation and the Jedi help the loyalists defeat the One Sith, and the Sith themselves are rendered extinct after Darth Wredd (who wanted to bring back the Rule of Two) kills them all and dies before taking an apprentice, leaving the Federation, the Fel Empire and the Jedi (who had suffered another purge before the Sith back-stabbed Emperor Roan Fel, who died at the hands of his Gray Jedi/Imperial Knight Bodyguard in the final battle after falling to the Dark Side and succeeded by his daughter Marasiah) to form the last known government, the Galactic Federation Triumvirate.
** Disney: Focused on defeating the Empire, then dismantled the Rebellion militarily. Focused mostly on being an intermediary with independent planets, paying for each one in the alliance to have their own militia with treaties to support each other if attacked, while the Republic itself had a small fleet to bolster anyone in need. Despite sounding like the setup for World War 1, it actually is like the US/Soviet Cold War with the Imperial remnant then its successor the First Order, until the FO performed a Star Wars 9/11 and used a planet killer weapon to destroy all the planets in the sector of the New Republic capital then invaded the independent planets. [[what|Being essentially destroyed with their capital system despite being the galactic government which should have contingencies for such events since existence of planet killers is common knowledge]], the planets focused on their own survival until Lando performed a short planet-hopping tour to rile up the militias and all the scum, villainy, and pirates who wanted to see the true death of the Empire/First Order. During its reign it had far less control over the galaxy than the Republic or Empire, but clever administration and assigned leadership of the militias made traditionally dangerous and lawless planets like Tatooine finally civilized. Its ultimate fate is now unknown.

* Confederacy of Independent Systems: aka the Separatists. Due to the rampant corruption in the Republic, a lot of systems were very unhappy with the state of the galaxy and wanted out. However, many of these separatists included extremely powerful corporate goons, such as the Trade Federation, who simply wanted more power for themselves, and were willing to lease out their droid armies to that end. While outwardly they were simply disgruntled and neglected planets who wanted independence, in reality the CIS existence was deliberately engineered by the Sith in order to further their goals in the creation and maintenance of the Empire. Under the leadership of Count Dooku, they formed a formidable alliance that would threaten the core worlds of the Republic with the biggest army ever created, eventually leading to the Clone Wars that would throw the galaxy into one of the bloodiest conflicts in centuries. And despite Dooku's purported political idealism at the start of the war, the more idealistic and politically motivated worlds who wanted to escape the Republic's corruption found themselves sidelined by the big Corporate worlds who controlled the war effort and stationed their droid armies everywhere. As the war progressed, bloodthirsty war criminals like General Greivous made the Republic fear and loathe any hint of disloyalty, which was a major PR problem for the early Rebellion. One of the big ironies is that, because the CIS turned out to be just as corrupt as the Republic, many Separatist worlds begrudgingly sided with the Empire as the "lesser of two evils" in their minds. The fact that the CIS was made up of powerful, alien corporations from the Outer Rim also served to justify the Empire's xenophobia, nationalization of virtually all heavy industry, and subjugation of worlds far away from the Core. Because the Separatists were simply an expendable puppet of the Sith, Palpatine had no qualms about sending Vader to destroy the remaining leaders once he secured his Empire and they'd outlived their usefulness. The Empire then proceeded to dismantle the remaining Confederate groups along with pirates and other anti-central government forces in the Reconquest of the Rim. Several remnants continued resistance and some helped Order 66 survivors escape. After the Rebel Alliance was formed, surviving Confederate Remnant forces joined it, for those who joined the CIS to fight against Old Republic corruption happily, and for those who were full on separatists somewhat unhappily as a lesser of two evils. Until at least 1 BBY one Imperial Moff, Conan Antonio Motti, referred to them as a threat alongside rebels and criminal enterprises. Presumably, the last few organics holdouts joined the rebels or took the opportunity to disband after the Death Star was destroyed. Handfuls of Droid units that didn't receive the deactivation signal remained active on Tatooine, Lok and Kashyyyhk and were destroyed by the Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG characters. A large leftover unit was present on Geonosis and were destroyed in a Galactic Civil War battle there in 3 ABY. A single Droideka, which had been infiltrated into the Outbound Flight voyage, was out of range of the shut down order and was destroyed by Luke and Mara in 22 ABY during their expedition to the Outbound Flight crash site, ending the last relic of the Confederate cause that was still nominally obeying CIS Parliament orders.

* The Rebel Alliance: After Emperor Palpatine's political takeover succeeded and the Jedi murdered in a [[Horus|galaxy-wide act of backstabbery]], Senators Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, Mon Mothma and a small group of sympathizers come together to form a resistance group, knowing fully well that the new Galactic Empire won't be going quietly with their new "doctrines", especially since the Empire's militarization only increased following the end of the Clone Wars. Prior to the Battle of Yavin, the "Rebel Alliance" was more like the "Rebel Coalition of guys who loosely agree on some things," being made up of individual cells under the coordination of a High Command unit. The rebellion's supporters were an odd mixture of former Separatists, Republic loyalists who found themselves betrayed such as Kashyyk and Mon Calamari, and the occasional Imperial defector who found Imperial service either too immoral or too dangerous. For the next twenty years, the Rebellion will infiltrate, sabotage and generally frustrate the Empire as best they can, but unfortunately doesn't manage to really make a big difference; that is, before a certain Luke Skywalker gets swept up by them and leads them to their first, grand victory against the Empire's first Death Star. From here on out, the Rebellion does their best keeping themselves hidden from the Empire while maintaining strong relations with their allies, who, while few, did let them create a small fleet of outdated vehicles. Eventually, the Rebellion's hard work bears fruit after the second Death Star blows up and the Emperor goes missing. From here, the Rebellion and their members become the New Republic.
** The Resistance: From a first look, the Resistance looks extremely similar to the Rebellion visually (they are called "The Resistance" for Pete's sake!), but there's a little more going on under the hood. Feeling her hairbuns tingle with fear, Leia Organa realizes the First Order will become a galaxy-wide headache soon and moves to get the New Republic to give a shit - except they don't, because her father was Vader, and thinks she's a military maverick that just wants to feel important. Leia then begins to fund a secret militia of her own, looking for supporters among fellow senators and calling in old friends. The result is... Less than ideal. Functionally just a strikeforce of some twenty fighters and one or two capital ships (who by now are über-mega outdated), the Resistance can do jack ''shit'' against the First Order, who literally commands entire space empires by force. By the Force Awakens, they're pretty much fucked - but luckily gets themselves two new heroes to add to the fold (one who is among the most naturally talented forces users ever seen), re-connect with Han and Chewie AND find a fucking map to Luke Skywalker's personal pillowfort he left for some 5-10 years ago. Eventually fucked up after destroying the Starkiller Base and grinded to metal spacedust by a prolonged space chase, they eventually manage to ignite resistance in the entire galaxy, which gets a ''fuckhueg'' navy of ragtag ships to reinforce them at Exegol.

* Sith Empire: The Old Republic's mortal enemy. In the many millenia leading up to the Ruusan Reformation, the Sith Empire held a significant chunk of the northeastern galaxy, holding thousands of worlds under their iron grip. The Sith engaged in several major wars against the Republic, oftentimes defeating the Republic and nearly exterminating the Jedi, only for their own empire to descend into chaos as Sith Lords backstabbed each other once they no longer had a common enemy. This pattern would continue until Bane killed all the remaining Sith Lords and instituted the Rule of Two, plotting to take over the galaxy and exterminate the Jedi through slow and careful planning rather than overwhelming force.

* The Hutt Cartels: Essentially the space mafia, if the mafia had the clout to influence the national government (like in Russia during the 90s with the Russian Mob). The Hutts managed to drive of the Rakatan Infinite Empire despite having no FTL at the time due to the Rakata losing their connection to the force. The original Hutt empire, after fighting some wars of expansion against neighbors and fellow tyrants in Xim the Despot's regime suffered a massive civil war known as the Hutt Cataclysms which ruined their original homeworld and made them move to Nal Hutta (Nar Shadda is it's moon). To prevent things getting this bad, cartels were established between influential factions, all answering to the Council of Elders made up from the heads of houses. Hutt Space is nominally ruled by the Council but it essentially practices anarcho-capitalism and takes its cuts to rule the core planets and lets the cartels compete out of the core however they wish. If there's an affair that's illegal by legal standards, the Hutts probably have a hand in it. Keeps to themselves and doesn't care much for what the Sith and Republic is up to, though Jabba the Hutt, owner of Tatooine, takes part in the original trilogy because of Han Solo's longstanding debt to him, and Jabba had one of the biggest criminal empires at the time, competing with giants like the ancient Black Sun. Gets helped and funded by the Empire to do their dirty work and gets killed for his efforts, so there's a good reason why they keep out of all that. Hutt space has significant overlap with the cartels, but the two are technically separate as mentioned above, with the Council of Elders acting as a government for Hutt Space and as a mafia council for other holdings by the cartels. They get invaded during the Yuuzhan Vong war, but effectively form a guerilla force tying up major assets and reassert their rule after the Vong were defeated. After dealing with some slave revolts around the time of the Second Galactic Civil War and selling arms to Darth Caedus's uprising, they continue as they were until the Fel Empire (reformed Imperial Remnant), backed by the Sith, defeats the Federation. When the Sith backstabbed the Imperials, the Hutts secretly provide support to the Fed Remnants and Imperial Loyalists battling the Sith in the Sith-Imperial War. After the Sith blow up a Hutt temple, they officially declare war and join the anti-Sith coalition. Presumably they joined the Galactic Federation Triumvirate with at least nominal autonomy after the Darth Wredd Insurgency and the destruction of the Sith in 138 ABY.

* The First Order: If the Empire was the textbook fascist dictatorship, Disney's First Order is the Nazi Party itself as a military organization/cult. After the Imperial Remnants began fighting amongst themselves, an Imperial admiral fled to the Unknown Regions to rebuild her version of the Empire. Here the First Order grew slowly as former Imperials joined them and they subjugated small local fiefdoms and kingdoms. Eventually the previously unknown Sith Lord Snoke took control as their Supreme Leader and Ben Solo joined him as his apprentice, becoming Kylo Ren. The New Republic eventually learned of the First Order, but thought they were just a paper tiger with no real power. In actuality, their military tech and capabilities were quite high for how relatively small they were... Oh yeah, and they had created a superweapon built into a trench in the planet Ilum that could ''destroy a whole star-system''. Eventually they fired the thing and waged a war of subjugation on the anarchic remains of the New Republic.
**RETCONS: The First Order apparently never existed until about 8 years before TFA meaning a lot of this does not make sense. Its assume a minor civil war happened in the Unknown Regions but again the FO is not given much lore. They also apparently had a fleet bigger the Empire's fleet at its Height..... just do not bother.
** SPOILERS: Behind the scenes, the Emperor had manipulated the creation of the First Order to retake the galaxy, using an artificial body double (Snoke) to take direct control while hiding on the Sith homeworld. The plan was to eventually add his own fleet of Star Destroyers with planet-destroying capabilities to the First Order and form the Final Order, the one and final armada to take the entire galaxy through force and fear.

* Galactic Federation Triumvirate: The last known galactic government at the ends of the Legends continuity, formed from the Fel Empire, the Federation and the Jedi after the One Sith are defeated by a joint coalition of Fel Empire loyalists, Federation Troops and Jedi in 137 ABY. In 138 ABY, renegade One Sith Darth Wredd, wishing to restore the Rule of Two, manipulates the One Sith to destroy themselves and kills the survivors in the Darth Wredd Insurgency, before being killed himself without managing to take an apprentice in the last known battle, leaving the Sith extinct and the galaxy at least nominally unified by a well armed government.

== Significant Worlds ==
Theres a fuckton of planets in the Star Wars Galaxy, so we'll limit this list to the more noteworthy ones (mostly the ones that show up in films).

* '''Tatooine''': A run down desert world orbiting a binary star system on the outer rim of the galaxy. Its close proximity to major hyperspace routes and its location in Hutt space makes this otherwise unremarkable planet relatively strategic for illicit trade (ie: Space Juárez). It has a few dingy little cities, towns and farms home to a collection of criminals, smugglers, people scraping by and slaves with some basic order imposed by Hutt Crime families. The oral history of the native sand people suggests that it was considerably more lush before its inhabitants pissed off the Rakata, but the source for that notes oral histories are generally inaccurate. Surprisingly it is the most visited world in the franchise, showing up in every one of the six original films but ''Empire Strikes Back'' ''and'' appearing in countless other works due to the Skywalker family's connection to this craphole.

* '''Naboo''': Lush planet between the Mid rim and outer rim, shared by both humans and gungans. Naboo's settlers are descended from Alderaaneans (Leia's home planet), so their culture and politics are extremely similar with a strong emphasis on pacifism, philanthropy, and high art (and ironically, early supporters of the Rebellion). Interestingly, the planet core is connected to the planet's oceans, though travel through the core is quite dangerous due to the leviathans living there. The planet hadn't been terribly important right up until the Trade Federation came knocking to demand tax payments over its trade routes (though in reality Naboo had ''massive'' untapped plasma reserves, and the Tradies wanted free reign to drill), which began a series of conflicts culminating in the Clone Wars. Relatively close to Tatooine, which is how the Jedi end up discovering Anakin Skywalker during the conflict when they're forced to evacuate the Queen of Naboo.

* '''Coruscant''': The Capital of the Republic and the Empire, a Ecumenopolis in which basically every square meter of it's surface is covered in a multi-kilometer thick cityscape. <s>So, Trantor. It's fucking Trantor.</s> Several sources claim it to be humanity's homeworld, or else where humanity initially expanded from since their enslavement by the Rakata. Originally found in George Lucas's notes as "Imperial Center", [[Timothy Zahn]] named it Coruscant (pronounced chorus-saunt and is similar to Coruscate, which is a fancy way of saying to sparkle) in the Thrawn Trilogy (as Imperial Center was clearly not the original name) and Lucas was convinced to keep the name when it came time to make the prequels. Before the prequels, pronunciation in audio books was all over the place. Descriptions of the city are not unlike your typical [[Hive city|Hive City]] (if not as extreme), where the elites live in the upper levels where the sky is still visible, while the lower class live in the dark, crumbling foundations, but with a more Art Deco vibe rather than Gothic. The actual planet surface is mostly landfill now, and the lower levels got increasingly uninhabitable after the Yuuzhan Vong terraformed the planet and later the Force-Cthulhu Abeloth made some new volcanoes. Not much is shown of Coruscant in the Disney canon after the prequel era, and its not even the capital of the New Republic. Supposedly J.J. Abrams wanted to blow the planet up but was told "no" by literally everyone.

* '''Yavin IV''': Jungle moon of the gas giant Yavin. The temples on this moon used to house a warrior race that had been enslaved by the Sith before being driven to extinction; it then became the secret base of the Rebel Alliance, which became the staging area for the Alliance's battle against the first Death Star. After the superweapon's destruction, the Empire launched a conventional attack and the Alliance was forced to relocate to Hoth. After the Thrawn Campaign, it became the site of Luke's new Jedi Academy which, after a brief incident with a Sith wraith haunting the place, flourished until yet another galactic war forced them to relocate.

* '''Hoth''': An obscure snow world devoid of any intelligent life, and seemingly named after a legendary Jedi master of old. It became the new headquarters for the Rebel Alliance after the fall of Yavin Base. It was established ''way'' back in the Newspaper comic that it was chosen by the rebels after Luke crash landed on it and encountered a pair of malfunctioning [[Android|Replica Droid]] prototypes fleeing from their creators. Further sources have expanded on its reasons for being chosen to include the fact that it's just off of a major trade route, which concealed supply runs (and is why Bespin is within backup drive distance).

* '''Bespin''': Gas giant with a breathable upper atmosphere. Home to Cloud City, an independent city that makes its income through mining Tibanna gas (used in blasters). Bespin's independence was used as political leverage when Vader arrived and extorted Lando Calrissian into betraying the rebels to him. After Vader double crossed Lando, the Rebels would later liberate Bespin from the Imperials.

* '''Kamino''': Ocean planet that technically exists outside the Galaxy proper, in between it and what is known as the "Rishi Maze," which was why it was a bitch to find. The inhabitants are expert geneticists, and the place is really hard to get to without knowing exactly what you're doing, making it the ideal location for growing the Republic's clone army. Kamino's cities were destroyed by the Empire shortly after the Clone Wars, as they had decided to switch to recruited soldiers; we don't know much about what became of the Kaminoans themselves other than some were forcibly recruited into more specialized cloning programs. Legends had a revolt break out by the Kaminoans making their own Fett clones which was put down and the planet was irrelevant afterwards.

* '''Geonosis''': Desert world inhabited by bug people. Was used by the separatists to build their armies and strategize, eventually becoming the site of the first battle of the Clone Wars. Geonosis is actually even more of a creepy hellhole than Episode II suggests, as the Geonosian Queen can use worms to turn corpses into zombies and mind control living hosts. During the Clone Wars, Geonosis was the first construction site for the Death Star, since it was technically the Geonosians who made the schematics in the first place. Most Geonosians were wiped out by the Empire when the Death Star was moved for completion.

* '''Utapau''': Temperate planet characterized by its massive sinkhole cities. General Grievous tried to rally the Seperatists here after Dooku's death, but was killed by Obi-Wan in the ensuing battle.

* '''Kashyyyk''': Forest/jungle planet and home to the wookies, who live in gigantic tree houses connected by enormous suspension bridges. The interior of the jungle, known as the Shadowlands, is full of a wide variety of dangerous lifeforms, so the wookies stay close to the canopy. During the Republic it was an important trade world due to its location at the junction of several trade routes, highly prized resources, and the expert craftsmanship of the wookies. Despite their loyalty, during the Empire the wookies were severely subjugated and enslaved (with the help of Trandoshans) and their trees were chopped down for the valuable wood and sap. The Empire never truly took it over but did manage to pollute it to all hell.

* '''Mustafar''': Lava planet and the last holdout of the Separatists. Darth Vader makes his base here after he is forced to don his iconic armor, proving that he did have [[Meme|the high ground]] by plonking a gigantic black tower on the surface. The planet has a strong affinity with the Dark Side, attracting various Sith cults in its history.

* '''Ilum''': Small alpine planet covered in ice and snow and by the time of the prequels the galaxy's only known significant source of Kyber crystals, the core ingredient in a little thing we like to call "the lightsaber". Traditionally a place for Jedi to do pilgrimage to find their own Kyber crystal at, as Jedi initiates find that the only crystal visible to them in the caves is the one they're destined to use.
** In Disney canon, the Empire turned one half of the surface into a gigantic strip-mine several hundred kilometers down into the crust. It was eventually rediscovered by the First Order and turned into an actually moon-sized laser cannon called Starkiller Base (This is poorly explained within the films; its not even identified as Ilum except in side stories. The idea is that like the original Death Star, the superlaser is powered by gigantic kyber crystals, and Ilum happens to be well inside the Unknown Regions yet its location and route were still known thanks to Jedi pilgramages).

* '''Dathomir''': [[Death World]]-style hellhole and home of Darth Maul. Filled with gigantic brambles, noxious swamps, poisonous critters and savagely insular tribals. The native inhabitants use the planet's natural Dark Side energy to do all sorts of creepy and arcane shit, including necromancy. Nearly all of its magick-using females were wiped out by the end of the Clone Wars, leaving the planet to decay.

* '''Malachor V''': The last battlefield of the Mandalorian Wars, which blasted the entire planet into a Mars-like wasteland thanks to a superweapon deployed, ironically, by the Jedi. The Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians all regard it as perhaps the most critical place and moment in their respective histories despite it being a lifeless desert littered with crumbling temples and the rusting armor of countless thousands of fallen warriors. The general takeaway is this: Nobody EVER wins on Malachor. It is a tomb-world, a monument to the devastation wrought by pursuing raw power to beat your enemies.

* '''Dagobah''': Uncharted swamp planet where Yoda went to live in exile. Noteworthy for the Dark Side cave, a naturally-occurring phenomenon where the dark side would tempt anyone who entered. Briefly the EU made the cave a remnant of a random dark force user Yoda fought there, but this was retconned away when it was implied Yoda had never visited the place before his exile, then the Clone Wars series made it so Yoda ''did'' visit Dagobah before his exile. This would just be a random detail if not for a significant character having his backstory linked to this event.

* '''Endor''': A gas giant also known as Tana at the end of the Outer Rim before Wild Space (and it probably was in Wild Space before one of the most significant events in Galactic History took place there). The Empire built the second Death Star in its system.
** '''Sanctuary Moon''': Better known than the planet itself is its forest covered moon that the Empire build the shields for the under-construction Death Star 2 on. It's home to the short, furry and deadly Ewoks. It was the nominal capital of the interim Alliance of Free Planets and New Republic for two years till the capture of Coruscant.
** '''Kef Bir''': Ocean moon of Endor. Despite the Death Star II being in orbit of the Forest Moon, Disney decided that the wreckage landed on Kef Bir because JJ wanted an ocean setpiece. No explanation is given other than "wibbley-wobbly hyperdrivey-wimey." The LEGO Skywalker Saga game even takes a bit of a shot at it.

* '''Death Star''' & '''Death Star II''': We're fudging the definition of world here, but its not an exaggeration to say this thing is the size of a small moon and has a very sizeable population. While the Death Star II was incomplete, it was substantially bigger and more deadly. Its main purpose was the protection and operation of a garguantuan superlaser capable of blowing up an entire planet in a singular shot. This thing was able to get around with a battery of hyperspace engines, but still took a fair amount to time to get around in order to get within firing range. Curiously enough, the idea for the superweapon came from Tarkin, but was designed by the Geonosians of all people, which then terrified the pants off the Republic that the Separatists had a superweapon prompting them to start reverse-engineering the design ([[Just as planned]] as far as Palpatine was concerned). Its design ties back to their Genosian origins, who where insectoids living in large anthills with little regard for the concept of "up" or down". As a result, the Death Star became notoriously awful as a posting among its crew, many of which had problems with orientation and becoming nauseaous.

* '''Alderaan''': A perfect pacifist planet until the Death Star blows it up. The planet Leia was raised on by the Organas, and actually shown to have been very nice prior to its destruction, with lush forests and snow-capped mountains.

* '''Felucia''': Another jungle-world, but this one looking like something conceived by either Dr. Seuss or someone from the 60s who got a hold of the good stuff. Rancors can be found here, and some have been tamed by the natives, truly bizarre-looking beings that look a bit like tye-dye, technicolor tree-people who are all Force-Sensitive.

* '''Taris''': Ostensibly an Outer Rim version of Coruscant, in that the planet is a big city that really leans into the whole "what most people think of when they think of a far future city" aesthetic, beneath the shiny exterior is actually a pretty shitty society. Basically, it's society is like Pre-Civil Rights America in space (with aliens as stand-ins for out-groups), and that's before the Sith show up and put the whole planet under quarantine. Beneath the Upper City is the Lower City, which is a slum that gangsters constantly fight over and with shitty apartments that are more likely to house crazed killers or the aforementioned gangsters than honest citizens, as well as looking like they've been abandoned for years. Beneath ''that'' is the Undercity, which is where the descendants of Taris' failed <s>proletariat</s> uprising are consigned. Them, and Rackghouls, who, as the name implies, are basically Ghouls in Star Wars, but as there are no Elves, no one's immune (unless you have some handy Rackghoul serum). So to recap, its a planet that hates aliens, has crime-filled lower levels, and is much more [[Grimdark]] in its overall set-up than the average Star Wars planet. The Imperium would be proud...or would be, if Malak hadn't then bombed the hell out of it. Even thousands of years later, much of the planet is said to still be in ruins.

* '''Telos''': A mix of futuristic cities and natural environments, so unlike Coruscant and Taris it isn't all one big city. A major Republic world, and then Malak bombed it, leaving it badly scarred. As such, the Republic launched a restoration project to try and get the planet back on its feet. Or, in the words of Atton Rand, "a dying world the Republic is trying to breath back to life". Also houses a secret (and defunct), Jedi academy in its polar region, where ultra-bitch Atris and her similarly obnoxious handmaidens reside.

* '''Dantooine''': Farm planet. Fairly idyllic by all appearances, enough so that the Jedi in Legends had an Enclave here for a time...until Malak bombed it (you may be noticing a pattern by now). Even after this bombing though, the planet remains a major agricultural center up to the Clone Wars and beyond. First mentioned in A New Hope as a location Leia gives for the Rebel base to try and save Alderaan (it doesn't work). One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Manaan''': Water-world, but a lot less rainy than Kamino. Source of Kolto, the top healing substance in the Galaxy prior to Bacta. Once that stuff got on the market, Kolto became obsolete, and Manaan and its fish-folk inhabitants fell into decline something fierce. One of the Star Maps is located here.

* '''Korriban / Moraband''': The homeworld of the Sith, and as to be expected, a place that tends to scream "this is an evil location". A ton of Ancient Sith Lords are entombed here, as is a Star Map (in Legends anyway). The Sith also naturally had an academy here too, which was basically a Hogwarts for sociopaths before it became abandoned. So saturated with the Dark Side that its affected the local wildlife, making most of them vicious, fearsome looking monsters (though who knows what they eat with no apparent herbivores or plant life around).

* '''Jakku''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Tatooine clone (such that when the first trailer dropped, a lot of people thought it ''was'' Tatooine). Where the war between the Rebels and Empire ended in the Disney Canon, being the site of the latter's last stand and with ruined Star Destroyers and other wreckage still littering the place. As such, its mostly populated by scavengers, but in a feeble effort to convince you that it isn't a ''complete'' Tatooine clone, they aren't all Jawas this time.

* '''Hosnian Prime''': The Sequel Trilogy's absolutely shameless Coruscant clone (and again, folks initially thought it ''was'' Coruscant). Gets the Alderaan treatment from Starkiller base, meaning it rips off of two previous planets for the price of one (still better than actually destroying Coruscant though, which according to rumor is what JJ ''really'' wanted to do).

* '''Ach-To''': The planet Luke Skywalker flees to in the Sequel Trilogy. Apparently the planet where the Jedi originated (which is Tython in Legends). Mostly a lot of water, with at least one big landmass that's where Luke's holed up. Rey goes there to get training from him, but that clashes with Luke's whole "I don't want to be a Jedi anymore" bit. Briefly reappears in Episode IX when Rey considers doing what Luke did before his ghost talks her out of it. Also home of the [[Skub|"love 'em or hate 'em"]] Porgs.

* '''Canto Bight''': A mostly barren planet that hosts a giant casino where rich bastards can go. Seems to be a general dress code of only black and white allowed, and filled with wholesome activities like gambling, arms dealing, child labor, and war profiteering. So a lot of glitz and glamor standing side by side exploitation and "rich people are jerks" stuff. So basically Pre-Revolution Cuba in space. Generally considered to be where a bunch of largely unnecessary stuff happened, even by folks who ''didn't'' hate Episode VIII.

* '''Crait''': Site of an abandoned Rebel base that the Resistance remnants flee to at the end of Episode VIII, leading to a vaguely "Battle of Hoth" esque fight involving the First Order's own version of AT-ATs. As one Youtube LEGO video aptly put it, the ground is white but the dirt is red for no real reason other than that it looks "cool". Also, apparently its salt and not snow. So like, a salt-Hoth. Or something.

* '''Exegol''': A world shrouded in darkness and perpetual lightning storms that is where Palpatine and his cronies have been hiding out since losing the Galactic Civil War. How such a large number of people existed or thrived on such a dead world is never explained, but it does manage to give the other Sith world Korriban a run for its money in the whole "obviously evil death world" department.

* '''Rakata Prime / Lehon''': Home of the Rakatans, and where the species has become trapped ever since their empire fell. Actually a pretty lush and scenic place, though as Rakatan tribes and small-but-still-deadly Rancors roam about here, one vacations here at their own risk. That, and the same thing keeping the Rakatans from leaving (the Star Forge), also causes ships that get too close to crash-land, making it a ship's graveyard. By the time of Darth Bane, the planet seems to have become deserted, the Rakatans having apparently gone extinct.

* '''The Maw''': Bears mentioning for being one of the more unique places of the EU. An unusually dense cluster of black holes near Kessel whose gravitational anomalies make it the ideal backdrop for risky hyperdrive spice smuggling operations. Strongly implied to be the work of an unknown precuror civilization, the Maw was considered to be largely impassible, if not for the work of top secret scouting operations that the Empire undertook to find a place to house a big R&D facility kept from the public eye. Within the Maw station, developments like the prototyping of the first Death Star and several other imperial superweapons took place, protected by a small flotilla consisting of four Imperial Star Destroyers.

==Species==
One important thing to note about alien species in Star Wars is that almost all of them were originally singular costumes added to the films for background color or to make a character stand out, then had a species name and culture retconned onto them by Expanded Universe writers. As a result, most species' "personalities" are just shallow clones of the character they're derived from. Many of the species seen in the original trilogy were given names and backstories by [[Star Wars RPG|the original RPG from West End Games]] that became canon as every other EU novel to come after used Star Wars D6 as a reference. All entries after humans are alphabetized.
* '''[[Human]]s''': They originated in the Galactic Core, but have spread to most inhabited planets, first as slaves to a now-extinct species of precursors and then through initial space exploration with pre-hyperdrive generation ships. As a result there are a lot of [[Abhuman|"near-human"]] species kicking around that are basically just weird-looking humans and pretty much the only species humans can crossbreed with.
** '''Mandalorians:''' Bobas/Jangos. A society of space [[Spartans]]/[[Vikings]] with cool armor. Actually not human majority initially (Unless you are a Disney fan), originally made up of a species called the Taung. The Taung had a habit of adopting orphans of other species to the point that when shit hit the fan and they died out following a war with the Jedi, their culture was preserved by other species who remember them as their Progenitors. As it stands, a Mandalorian can be of any race (the adopting the orphans-thing was something else the Taung passed down) but are usually human. Way, way back during the Old Republic, they were death-worshipping genocidal crusaders who were used by the Sith to crush the Republic and provoke the Jedi into war. In more modern times they mellowed out and mostly work as mercenaries or bounty hunters (and for a brief time, even flirted with pacifism), though some extremist sects like the Children of the Watch still exist, clashing with mainstream Mandalorian culture. Following the Empire's purge of Mandalore, the Mando's Beskar Armor became a priceless resource (As only Mandos knew how to make Beskar Iron, a near-impenetrable material and one of the few that can block blaster bolts and lightsabers), with the surviving Mandos sometimes being hunted just to be stripped of their armor.
** '''Corellians:''' Hans. Literally an entire culture of dashing rogues and space cowboys who like to go fast and smuggle shit (and penniless street urchins looking for their big break to become dashing rogues and space cowboys). The Corellian Engineering Corporation made the YT series (of which the Falcon is officially part of, though its modifications are extensive enough to make listing CEC as its manufacturer a [[Wikipedia:Ship of Theseus|Ship of Theseus]] problem) and many of the Rebel ships seen in the original trilogy. Nearly ruined their planet with starship factories, but now they've gone green and relocated all of their heavy industry to space stations. Their home system reeks of precursor meddling and is detailed enough to be a setting in itself, complete with a Big Dumb Object in the middle (Centerpoint Station) for PCs to fuck with.
* '''Aqualish:''' Ponda Babas. Vaguely spider-like (from the neck-up) aliens who are easily one of the ugliest looking species in Star Wars. Generally portrayed as violent thugs, though not always. Apparently they don't usually get along with Biths.
* '''Bith''': Another species that debuted in the original Star Wars movie, and because they did so as a band playing the famous Cantina theme, they were naturally given the species-wide hat of being musicians (though some Bith do pursue other careers). Their bulbous heads are probably owing to their being a fairly intelligent species, as they are big on mathematics and science as well as music. Generally a peaceful species.
* '''Bothans''': [[Meme|Died to bring you this information.]] A species of [[Beastmen (40k)|wolf-men/horse-men/goat-men]] (depending on which author/illustrator) who are almost universally spies thanks to that one-off line from Mon Mothma. When you remember these are hairy-ass, man sized, cloven beastmen, it seems like the bothans would be the shittest race for something as subtle as spywork. In truth the best and early EU works portray them as something far worse than spies: politicians. The most prominent Bothan is Borsk Fey'lya, a Bothan politician who used his role in the acquisition of the second Death Star plans to maintain a place in the New Republic's senior leadership and uses his position for personal gain like any proper politician should. Now possibly NOT wolfhorsegoatpeople, thanks to some Lucasfilm [[Troll|source]] being all like “uh actually, it’s never explicitly stated that they’re aliens, maybe they’re humans, *WINK*”. Let’s hope they’re humans - or at least less dumb than wolfhorsegoats. EU Bothans were as ridiculous a concept as [[Derp|force cancelling weasels]].
** '''Half-Bothans''': Satyrs/Fauns in Star Wars. Seriously, look up a picture of them and that's exactly how they're drawn. Don't seem to be too common, suggesting most humans in Star Wars ''aren't'' Furries.
* '''Chiss''': Thrawns. Near humans with blue skin, dark blue/black hair and red eyes. They dwell in the Unknown Regions, with they’re own fancy schmancy empire, crack navy and altogether superior technological advancements that make the rest of the galaxy look fucking backward (see blaster resistant clothes...whereas [[Derp|fucking stormtroopers in armor can be knocked down by arrows loosed by Care Bears]]). Known for being superb pilots, traders, negotiators, tacticians and all round scheming bastards with Danish accents.
* '''Dugs''': Sebulbas. Except, most of them aren't Podracers, instead being even more explicitly criminal in their professions (gangsters, drug dealers, members of Black Sun, etc.). Usually abrasive, arrogant, pushy, and violent. They share a homeworld with the Gran, which leads to some tension. Understandably hated in-universe by most.
* '''Duros''': Seen once in ''Hope'' during the cantina scene. Naturally they're one of the most important species in the EU despite not having a canon character until The Clone Wars introduced us to Cad Bane. Enslaved by precursors alongside humans, they were among the first to develop FTL travel based on salvaged hyperdrive technology and are the only non-human species to have an equivalent of "near-human" in a few "near-Duros" species. Look a bit like classic sci-fi Gray Aliens, as well as the Tau, but without the whole "Space Stalinism" thing.
* '''Echani''': Similar to humans in appearance, but most if not all of them have white or silver hair. They're also a culture of martial arts experts, specializing in armed and unarmed combat and even being able to "read" their opponents to an extent. [[Bretonnia|Generally seem to prefer melee combat and have comparatively less impressive ranged weapons]] (at least to hear Mandalorians like Canderous tell it).
* '''Ewoks''': If skub became a species, Ewoks would be a contender up there with Gungans and Yuuzhan Vong. Small koala-like creatures, similar to Jawas, that live on the forest moon of Endor, Ewoks are super primitive and live in tribes. They end up playing a big part in the Rebel victory in ''Return'' by attacking Imperial stormtroopers and destroying some walkers. Their reception didn't seem too bad at first, but in the following decades they've become reviled by many, not so much for their design but more for the idea that small bears with spears and rocks could defeat what were supposed to be the Emperor's finest troops. Some people don't mind them (and they were ''definitely'' profitable for merchandise) but others hate them and say they're a prime reason that attitudes toward ''Return'' have gotten increasingly negative over the years. That being said, people tend to overlook that Ewoks have a dark side to them; remember how they were going to eat Luke, Han and Chewie? Some EU material reshaped them into brutally savage death world survivors who practice some shady tribal customs, but are also well-accustomed to hunting much bigger and more dangerous creatures than themselves, which would make them fighting the Empire a little more credible.
* '''Gamorreans''': Space [[Orc]]s: Pig-like, brutish, stupid and violent. Constantly at war with each other, their clan identity is so strong they'll try to kill each other if from opposing clans if they meet off-world. Frequently brought into the galaxy as slaves or by clans trading labor/muscles for outside resources. Like Wookiees, can't physically speak Basic. Unlike Wookiees, only their clan matrons and some high ranking men are literate in their native language.
* '''Geonosians''': The franchise's token bug alien race, because every space setting needs bug aliens. Hugely vital to the CIS due to their homeworld being one of the main planets the Droid armies were built on. Various sources describe them as as rather arrogant. [[Skaven|They're hive-like, seem to treat their warriors and minions as expendable, and use a mix of polearm melee weapons and ranged weapons with green projectiles no one else has]]. Genocided by the Empire in Disney's Canon.
* '''Gran''': Three eyed goat (?) like aliens with rough, tan skin. They are quite nice and peaceful with excellent vision, especially in distinguishing color. Unfortunately for the galaxy at large, Gran exile most of their criminals: They consider being unable to see the rich and beautiful environments of their homeworld a fate worse than death. These exiles often fall into criminal groups.
* '''Grysk''': A near mythical species from the Unknown regions, where starships usually can't go because the hyperspace along its border is a level of fucked-up that only warp storms can match. Little is known about them except that they live on a spacefleet, have a fierce warrior culture, are humanoids with tapered skulls, their weapons and armor are ritualistically disfigured on the right side and they had a penchant for [[Tesla|electrical weapons]]. Likely Disney's replacement for the Yuuzhan Vong, since Space Cenobites with bio-tech is too weird and grimdark for Disney. tl;dr the Grysk are the Rak'gol to the Yuuzhan Vong's Tyranids.
* '''Gungans''': Jar-Jars. These guys suffer from an extremely poor choice of poster-boy (compared to Wookiees who have one of the best possible poster-boys of their species). You may think that just because Jar-Jar is one of the least intelligent (and most hated) characters in the entire Star Wars galaxy, the rest of his species are too, and this is certainly how a lot of people feel. But if you can look beyond Binks you'll see that the Gungans are pretty cool in their own way. Remember that, canonically, Jar-Jar is considered a disgrace in Gungan culture before the Battle of Naboo and after the rise of the Empire (as Senator Binks directly enabled it). Masters of organic technology, they live in bubble-buildings under the sea and have access to bioelectric spears and booma (essentially organic shock grenades fired by the [[Sling|various]] historical throwing devices) alongside [[Awesome|army-wide shield generators]] (in defiance of everyone else in the galaxy deriding them as primitives). Like the Wookiees these guys have a warrior-culture to be proud of, but unlike them they have at least made the effort to have a go at learning to speak basic (even though they still need to work on it). Due to their cartilaginous skeletons they are especially athletic and dynamic, making them pretty good fighters if they are trained properly, and in a rarity for a sci-fi species they have a racial weapon that's actually entirely practical (sling hurled explosives continue to see use today). Certainly if you want an accurate Gungan poster-boy, look no further than Captain Tarpals, who manages to hold General Grievous up in a duel for several minutes with nothing more than his spear. Oh, and their king is voiced by [[Awesome|BRIAN BLESSED]]. Still, for most folks, being the species of Jar-Jar is a hard thing to forgive, but like with many things from the Prequels, time has been a bit kind to their image. Worth mentioning that the writers are acutely aware of how much people find Gungans annoying, and so take shots at them now and then.
* '''Hutts''': Jabbas. (Fun fact: "the Hutt" was just a title in the original trilogy and Jabba was just some random slug dude. The original film didn't even intended for him to be an alien!) Naturally they're all mini-Jabbas who live in a clan/crime-family/zaibatsu type of arrangement known as the ''kadjic''. Kind of like the Mexican drug cartels in that they have their own corner of the galaxy that they rule independently, even after they join the Empire they pay the Moff to look the other way when they do shady shit. (They're always doing shady shit.) Because the Hutts own exactly one third of all organized crime (and a significant number of planets) in the galaxy and it is the third (after Basic and Binary) most widespread full language, Huttese is a good language to take, especially for criminal-types . Be warned! Hutts have four fingered hands and their numbering system uses base eight! Despite being looking and acting like fat [[neckbeards]] they're actually insanely strong and their less bulky youth are very agile for their size. They LOL at the Force, so the RPGs tend to give them a huge bonus to resist mental influence.
* '''Jawas''': Utinni! They roam Tatooine (and a few other planets) scavenging technology and selling it. A handful of sources mention they are [[Ratfolk|rodents]] under the hoods. Popular with the fans, but sadly we haven't yet gotten an (official), Jawa Jedi or Sith.
* '''Kaminoans''': A tall, gaunt species with super long necks hailing from a water-world who's species-wide hat is being expert cloners. Anyone who has a thing for clones always goes to Kaminoans to do the job, including the conspiracy behind the Clone Army that fought in the Clone Wars. Unfortunately for them, the Rise of the Empire led to their downfall in both Disney and Legends, though the circumstances between the two differ.
* '''Miraluka''': A species that look very similar to humans, but for two major differences: they're all blind, and they're all Force-Sensitive. That first part's not as debilitating as it sounds thanks to the second part, as they effectively "see" through the Force. If Visas Marr from Knights of the Old Republic II is anything to go by, they can see what alignments other people are, with good guys being blue, ultra good guys being glowing dark blue, bad guys being red, super-evil bad guys being glowing red, and neutrals being a yellowish-white.
* '''Mirialans''': Luminara Undulis. Look a lot like humans, but with skin along a green/olive spectrum and also often black diamond markings on their cheeks, forehead, and/or chins. As the setting's resident "green-skinned space babes" (other than Twi'leks), they naturally have a bit of a following with the fans.
* '''Mon Calamari''': Ackbars. An aquatic species whose long history of making airtight vehicles for travel in three dimensions has made them excellent ship-builders. During the early days of the Rebellion the Mon Calamari were one of the few species to successfully throw off the Empire during Operation Domino and not be subject to immediate reprisal thanks to their isolated location and strategy of mining hyperspace routes; basically they turned their system in to Space-Finland and the Empire gave up suiciding ships into them. Those weird-looking bubble ships from ''Return of the Jedi'' are built by Mon Calamari.
** '''Quarren''': Another background species from ''Jedi'' who share their homeworld of Dac with the Mon Calamari. Prideful isolationists who stick to the depths, with their main contact to the surface being trading deep sea mined materials to the Mon Calamari. Look more than a bit like [[Illithid]]. Quarren and Mon Calamari have a complicated (by which we mean bad), history and hate each other with a passion, with each species taking opposing sides in the Clone Wars.
* '''Neimoidians''': Nute Gunrays. [[Meme|They will not survive this.]] Their reproductive cycle is really weird: they produce lots of grubs which are raised in warrens fighting over a limited amount of food; this results in only the biggest, most paranoid, and most greedy surviving. Unlike how this usually goes, this process makes the Neimodians prone to hoarding resources and wary of danger. They're also fouler than [[Luke]] when it comes to hygiene; their homeworld's principal export is considered to be Type-B Brainrot, and even the Republic had the place functionally quarantined because of the sheer number of diseases they shit out.
* '''Noghri''': Primitive, short saurian people who happen to be some of the deadliest non-Jedi melee combatants and assassins in the galaxy. Darth Vader bought their loyalty by saving them from the environmental damage a crashed ship caused. They are a major part of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, which they were invented for. Thrawn still has one as a sidekick in ''Rebels''.
* '''Pykes:''' humanoids with bulbous heads and small beady eyes, and typically wear decorative masks. Don’t let the appearance fool you, the Pyke syndicate is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the galaxy as they have a stranglehold on the underworld’s number one resource: Spice. Yes it’s a blatant reference to [[Dune]]. No, it doesn’t give you freaky superpowers, it’s just a very powerful narcotic. The Pykes control the Spice supply chain for the entire galaxy, taking in mined pre-spice from various planets (most of it coming from Kessel, located deep inside a maelstrom that makes navigation extremely hazardous), having it refined on their homeworld in Oba Diah, and then distributed to every corner from Tatooine to Coruscant. The Pykes allow independent smugglers to do supply runs for them but expect their cut, regardless of the smuggler’s success or failure. If you’re really unlucky, they’ll just kill you on the spot, since their leaders are constantly high on their own product.
* '''Rakata''': The aforementioned precursors, developed by [[BioWare]] for the ''Knights of the Old Republic'' game (though there were a few mentions of precursors here and there before that). Formed an "Infinite Empire" long before the Republic using dark side powered hyperdrives only they could use. When they gradually lost their force sensitivity their empire fell apart. Responsible for why there are so many Humans and Human off-shoots everywhere: They were seeded throughout the Infinite Empire as a slave species and abandoned when it fell. Also ''enormous'' assholes as it turns out, doing everything from eating people to genocide and basically having a level of sociopathic awfulness that wouldn't be out of place in 40K. There is no evidence they existed past the Old Republic era, where a few fractured and primitive survivors were seen on their home planet and this planet was devoid of life by the time of the Ruusan Reformation.
* '''Rodians''': Greedos. Their home planet being a death world full of predators means they are often aggressive and put hunters in high regard, which is the EU excuse for most Rodian characters being criminals. Despite being somewhat popular with the fans, they tend to be given the role of blaster/lightsaber fodder, especially in the KotoR games where hordes of Rodian goons and thugs are a relatively common sight. Those Rodians who want to live longer seem to generally gravitate towards jobs like bartenders and merchants if the KotoR games are anything to go by. That, or politicians, but as Senator Farr reminds us, that can be hazardous too.
* '''Shards''': Sapient crystals. They are incapable of movement and don't speak the way humans do. They can however control droid bodies they are implanted into. Several are force sensitive which led to a Jedi teaching them the ways of the Force. The Jedi order shunned these "Iron Knights" and excommunicated the master responsible. This wound up benefiting them though, as the master and his students were able to survive the Jedi purge due to the obscurity this granted. When Luke's new order emerged they welcomed the Shards with open arms.
* '''Sith / Sith Purebloods''': Red skinned near-humans with bony tentacles growing out from near their nose and an affinity for the dark side, especially illusions. Natives of Korriban, the order most people know as Sith were a result of exiled dark Jedi interbreeding with them and adding their knowledge of technology. So diluted with human blood they were extremely rare by the Old Republic era and believed extinct by the time of the prequels. A few small mostly primitive pockets had been discovered however, but were covered up by Palpatine so he could grab more dark side goodies. More or less invented whole-cloth for the EU.
* '''Sullustans''': [[Dwarf|Short, tunnelfaring, crafters who can drink a lot without getting drunk]]. Vaguely simian near-humans with flappy jowls, large ears, and black eyes that originally evolved for tunnels. Their SoroSuub company is one of the largest tech makers in the galaxy, and likely the largest that isn't Human run.
* '''Tarasin''': Invented whole-cloth for the Living Force campaign for [[Star Wars D20]]. Lizardmen with scales that change color based on their emotions and frilled necks. With focus they can control their colors enough to camouflage themselves and even "speak" silently amongst each other. They had a high degree of force sensitivity, though if this a result of their species or their home system being a place where the Force is strong is unknown.
* '''Togruta''': Diet Twi'leks. Humanoids with lekku and hollow horns that allow echolocation. Shaak Ti and Ahsoka were Togruta.
* '''Toydarians''': Wattos. Blue tapir-looking dudes from Hutt Space who can hover on fly-like wings. As their source character is a hilariously offensive Jewish stereotype, the EU largely ignored Toydarians until ''The Clone Wars'' reinvented them as a vaguely Cambodian monarchy on a mud world. Mind tricks don't work on them (only money). Of the non-Watto Toydarians who showed up pre-Clone Wars, they're mostly surly and greedy like Watto, but with the Jewish stereotypes downplayed for obvious reasons.
* '''Trandoshans''': Bossks. Brutish, scaly [[Lizardfolk]] capable of regenerating severed limbs and absolutely obsessed with hunting shit. Have had a continuous species war with the Wookiees since before FTL was a thing, which is a ''long-ass time'' in Star Wars (well over 150,000 years), owing to the fact that the two species share a home system. Their religion is about scoring "points", with the only known method of gaining them is violent action and the only known method of losing them is being captured alive by enemies. The system was first mentioned a mere three years after ''[[Doom]]'' so the fact that they essentially see life as a giant, violent video game is likely pure coincidence. Despite this they aren't universally evil, though they often are. Have their own Predator <s>ripoff</s> homage movie.
* '''Tusken Raiders:''' More commonly known by civilized folks as "Sand People," they are the native race of Tatooine and are your typical desert-dwelling nomadic raiders, with the added twist of having a major cultural taboo against showing any flesh (including their faces) and having "blood spitters" as part of their biology. One of Tatooine's two primary non-human races (the other being Jawas). One of the first alien species encountered in the franchise, yet never as fleshed out as others. Even the actual name of their species is unknown; their current name originates from the first Human colonists, who named them 'Tusken Raiders' after their repeated assaults on Fort Tusken. Fiercely xenophobic and violent, the Tuskens typically have an antagonistic relationship with the other peoples living on Tatooine, usually raiding moisture farmers or sometimes outright kidnapping and killing civilian homesteaders, or even massacring small frontier towns, and in turn being seen by most as [[Always Chaotic Evil|pure monsters]]. In reality they have more nuance than they're often given credit for, and more recent appearances have made them a bit closer to portrayals of 19th Century Plains Native Americans; not taking crap from trespassers, but honorable and fair with those who respect them. Its been shown to be entirely possible to live peacefully with the local tribes if you can communicate and work out a deal with them (that you don't break). Their civilization is quite ancient, with them remembering when Tatooine still had seas and having adapted to both the harsh desert and salvaging the technology of foreigners into blaster-muskets. They also seem to be one of the few cultures in Star Wars that haven't heard of women's liberation, because with the exception of a female Tusken warrior in [[Skub|the Book of Boba Fett]], the female Tuskens seen thus far all seem to tend to the home and not be armed warriors.
* '''[[Twi'lek]]s''': Technicolored humanoids from Ryloth (which is about as far as you can get from the core worlds without leaving the major hyperspace lanes) with weird head-tails ("lekku") that they have instead of hair. Enough have been transported off world, generally as slaves, they can be found anywhere, and many have never seen their ancestral home. Given it's a borderline death world whose chief economic exports are drugs and slaves, they aren't missing anything. Their most interesting physical quality (aside from the girls being hot) is that they can communicate silently with their lekku. TORtanic tried to rationalize their fetish for enslaving their own as being the result of a precursor project to design the perfect slave species, but nobody cares about this because TORtanic is <s>shit</s> Skub.
* '''Wookiees:''' Chewbaccas, and one of the only species to be named in the original films. Huge, swole sloth people that do not live on Endor and can't speak (but absolutely understand) Basic. Most are actually pretty peaceful and intelligent and they have produced a lot of highly skilled engineers. They also have a reputation for being the best [[Navigator]]s in the galaxy, in part because their highly secretive Navigator's guild has plotted all sorts of shortcuts across the galaxy - plus you better be bloody good at orientation, pathfinding, and being able to make your way back to your treehouse at days end if your entire planet is a fucking forest. They highly value people who save their life, becoming their eternal friend in what is known as a Life-debt; this is how Han met Chewie. They have retractable climbing claws, but a cultural taboo on using them in combat leads to those who do so being exiled as "madclaws". Has the unfortunate distinction of being the first species in Star Wars lore to have their home planet and culture detailed... via the ''Star Wars Holiday Special''. Despite the infamy and single airing, the broad strokes survived the entirety of the Expanded Universe's lifespan and would reappear in ''Revenge of the Sith''.
* '''Yuuzhan Vong''': Humanoids with pallid skin and tapered skulls [[Tyranids|from another galaxy and who only use organic technology]]. Native to a living planet called Yuuzhan'tar which they worshipped as a god, their first contact experience was [[Necrons|an interstellar robot war]]. They weaponized their biotech and defeated the invaders - and in so doing gained [[Khorne|a taste for war and conquest (plus a hatred of machines) that led them to invent a war god and conquer their galaxy]]... [[Fail|which they later destroyed through infighting]]. The destruction of their homeworld [[Culexus|cut them off from the Force, unintentionally making them mostly immune to it]]. Their attempts to undo this gave them [[Dark Eldar|a species-wide fetish for pain and body modification]] instead. Centuries later they found and invaded the Star Wars galaxy, leading to a galactic war that decimated the New Republic, caused multiple genocides and had a death toll around '''365 trillion''' ([[Lamenters|including Chewbacca]]). Luke and his family ended the war by killing the various Vong leaders and finding Yuuzhan'tar's offspring, Zonama Sekot. The Vong colonized Sekot, were reconnected to the Force and became terraformers as penance for the war. Rendered part of the Legends by Disney. Some fans consider the Yuuzhan Vong a fresh blast of originality that provided a threatening and utterly badass new foe (even Dave Filoni has tried at least twice to pull the Yuuzhan Vong into his projects), while others consider them a nonsensical edgelord race that relied on major retcons to make sense.
* '''Zabrak''': Mauls. Near-humans with mostly bald, spikey heads and two hearts. Those black markings Maul had are actually ritualistic tatoos that Zabrak men often get. They were pretty divided internally till the Empire decided to oppress them all and force them to join together. Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar of the Jedi Council were also Zabraks.
** '''Dathomirians''' are a sub-species of Zabrak native to Dathomir who supposedly interbred with humans to create a new group, though their origins have been neglected in current canon. Even so, the females of this sub-species do not have the spiked heads typical of other Zabraks, looking more like ashen-skinned humans. Strictly divided along gender lines, with the bulk of the females forming the Nightsisters while the men are [[Drow|relegated to the role of slaves and breeding stock]]. Darth Maul is the most prominent Dathomirian in the films and TV series, with Asajj Ventress close behind.

==Ships, Superweapons and anything in between==
*Imperial-Class Star Destroyer: The iconic dagger-shaped grey icons of Imperial might from the original trilogy, most prominently featured in Empire strikes back. Star Destroyer in itself was a classification for the largest capital ships in the Republican Navy that simply stuck when the Empire took over. Equipped with devastating firepower that outclassed any other type of warship at the time and its own dedicated regiment of ground troops together with fighter and bomber support, a Star Destroyer was built to serve as its own independent strike group to police the Empire and defend it from outside threats completely independently. The Rebellion was scared shitless of the things, as nothing in their arsenal could hope to withstand a direct encounter with them for long and one showing up almost always meant very bad news for them.
*Executor: The FUKHUEG mega-ship that served as Vaders flagship in Episode 5 and 6. So huge that it is even in-universe classified as a "Super-Star Destroyer", with it being about 20 kilometers in length. Built in the years between A new Hope and Empire strikes back, the Executor and the class of dreadnoughts of the same name had the purpose of serving as flagships to the Imperial sector fleets and as a supplement to the Death Star to intimidate any world into submission with a metric ton of weapon systems that afforded it the firepower to glass a sizeable unshielded planetary settlement within minutes. The ability to posess one of these precious few ships (about nine were built in total) was often used in the old EU to indicate the power level of the villain of the day. Most of them ended up being destroyed, but at least found their way into the hands of the New Republic, where they became its foremost power projectors should the need for such arise.
*TIE-Series: The Empires standard pattern of small space vessel and very recognizable for it. Their base construction was built around the core concept of having a cheap, disposable and mass-produced ship that needed very little fuel and maintenance to be operational in order to cut down on the costs for equipping the enourmous numbers of ships in the Imperial Navy. The base model is the TIE-Fighter, equipped with two ion engines (hence the name, TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine) powered by the large solar panels that made up its "wings" and twin-linked laser cannons capable of destroying most fighters it would come into contact with. Despite being blisteringly fast and maneuveable, the design had a lot of serious downsides when compared with more sophisicated designs like the X-Wings the Rebels used; in order to cut down costs, the amount of protection afforded to its pilots was almost non-existent, having no armour to speak of, no shield generator and not even life support systems, requiring the pilots to wear pressurized suits when going on a mission. They also lacked Hyperdrives, although given their intended purpose as short-ranged carrier-based strike craft this is mostly irrelevant.
**TIE-Fighter: Aformentioned base model, the basic star fighter for the Imperial Navy.
**TIE-Bomber: The basic bomber/torpedo boat model of the TIE-Series. An enlarged version of the Fighter with differently shaped solar panels and a massive bomb bay that could either house bombs for conventional bombing campaigns or Proton Torpedoes for destroying enemy battleships up close.
**TIE-Interceptor: A new and improved version of the Fighter, with distinct arrow-shaped Solar Panels and improved propulsion systems, making it even faster than regular TIE-Fighters while also having improved firepower.
**TIE-Defender: Probably the most advanced ship of the TIE-Series, this baby took all the good things from the TIE-Fighter and Rebel-Ship models into an extremely deadly package, boasting shield generators, hyperdrives and weapon systems that transformed its role into a space-superiority-fighter/fast torpedo bomber hybrid. These advanced systems however meant also that it was quite expensive and rare.
* The Sun Crusher: If ever there was a non-living object that can be described as a [[Mary Sue]] this is it. Just go to the Wookiepedia page as anyone who thinks to elaborate on this is suddenly overcome by an urge to smash their heads against the nearest wall. TL;DR: its the original Starkiller Base (IE an even more powerful Death Star), and like Starkiller Base one of the less beloved things about the franchise's post-RotJ period.

==The Galaxy (and beyond)==
The Galaxy Far Far Away is a spiral galaxy about 120,000 light year in diameter. It is home to an unusually high number of populated planets and species. It has a few smaller satellite galaxies, though only one is ever visited in the entity of Star War media and only in an obscure short story (but visitors from the others have come).
*The Deep Core: The innermost part of the galaxy. Due to a high number of black holes, and dense star clusters, only the outer most areas are explored. The sole exception is a top secret Imperial bunker world of Byss, also Empress Teta (a world that once rivaled Coruscan in population, named after the badass who broke Naga Sadow's attempt to destroy the Republic with the Old Sith Empire) is just on the inside of the border between the Deep Core and the Core.
*The "Core" worlds: The most populated and best mapped part of the galaxy. Holds the actual capital of the Republic/Empire/New Republic, and some of the biggest sources of culture. The earliest known home world of Humans and Duros, but the Rakata taking these species as slaves leaves the world of their origin a mystery.
*Colonies: The first areas that was expanded to after hyperspace travel came about.
*Inner Rim: The next set of areas colonized. By the time of the films, they’re pretty developed.
**Hapes Cluster: An independent system of stars ruled by the matriarchal Hapes Consortium. Even for Star Wars, it's incredibly dense in populated worlds. They took in a large number of Separatist scientists at the end of the Clone Wars and by the New Republic it has unique technology that's more advanced in some areas despite lagging behind in some other areas.
*Mid rim: An even further area of expansion. Where the Mid Rim ends and the Outer Rim begins is a bit vague, with a lot of the outer Mid Rim being barely if at all better off than the Outer Rim.
*Outer Rim: The farthest reach of the galaxy. Civilization is sparsely populated, neglected by the galactic authorities and/or largely dominated by the independent and cruel Hutt Empire.
** Hutt Space: An autonomous section of the galaxy ruled by the Hutt clans ("Kajidic"). How, exactly, head of state (or any government function) is determined and what titles they hold is unclear, but there seems to be some Hutt that somehow becomes on top of it. A lack of extradition agreements with the Republic renders it a haven for criminals, who in turn kick money back to the Hutts. It joins the Empire during its existance, only to continue its shifty ways after early Imperial attempts to wipe out crime fail and regain independence after Palpatine's death.
*Corporate Sector/Tingel Arm: The "northern" most edge of the galaxy. Over 400 years before ''The Phantom Menace'', the Republic had the brilliant idea to develop an unpopulated section of the galaxy: Get a bunch of large companies to do it in exchange for some autonomy, resource rights and lower taxes. [[Not As Planned|Naturally this went poorly]], and the whole place is a [[Cyberpunk]] style megacorp controlled dystopia. Originated in the Han Solo books, one of the first expanded universe books ever, and the fluff from there has seen little change.
*Unknown Regions: The vast, largely unexplored due to similar issues to the core, western chunk of the galaxy. It actually has several native hyperspace capable civilizations forging their own empires by the New Republic era, one of which was already active over 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin.
*Wild Space: Wild Space is the area of the galaxy that ''is'' charted and open to Hyperspace travel, but unsettled and most of the detail on the maps is lacking. Holds the Rishi system, the only publicly known path to the Rishi maze (a state secret path in the Outer Rim's Rothana goes to Kamino).
*Rishi Maze: The only one of the satellite galaxies to be visited by those from the main galaxy, able to be accessed by traveling a chain of systems stuck between the two. The one short story that actually goes there describes it as a mess of radiation, but this could be the particular system within the maze. The only people known to live here are exploiting the natural resource deposits and hiding from The Empire. More well known is the cloner planet of Kamino, which is between the main galaxy and the maze.
*(unnamed) Yuuzhan Vong galaxy: This was the home galaxy of the EU race the Yuuzhan Vong, their original homeworld of Yuuzhan'tar, the planet Zonama Sekot, the reptoid Chazrach, and possibly the Silentium (who made first contact and war on the Vong) and the Abominor droid civilizations . The galaxy was a spiral galaxy like GFFA and had a vast number of sentient races in it; however, the Yuuzhan Vong [[Tyranids|wiped the others out]], save the Chazrach [[Dark Eldar|whom they instead enslaved]]. The Yuuzhan Vong referred to it as the "ancestral galaxy", and much of it was destroyed when [[Horus Heresy|the Yuuzhan Vong started fighting among themselves after dominating the galaxy]], with its current state of what's left of it unknown.
*Firefist Galaxy: Another one of the orbiting galaxies. The only contact the main galaxy has had with it has been sending probes. Home to the Faruun, Maccabree, Nagai and Tof, all of which arrived during the early New Republic fleeing the problems of their home or in pursuit. All of this comes from the Marvel comics (with some smoothing in the details in reference books), but despite the general oddness of fitting the Marvel comics into more modern canon and many silly concepts in those comics, the presence of these species and their conflict is largely accepted because, unlike the ''other'' extragalactic visitors, it's not very disruptive to overall canon to include them. Given that Disney now owns both Marvel and Star Wars, we may see more of them.

==Technology==
Star Wars appears to be a fairly standard sci-fi world (because it ''set'' that standard), but there's many subtle nuances that are easily missed
* Hyperdrives take ships to Hyperspace where they can travel and arrive at other destinations at FTL speed. Using a hyperdrive takes careful calculation to not only arrive on target, but avoid hitting anything on your way there.
** Each hyperdrive has a class, which multiplies travel time. At the time of the Rebellion, the standard was 2x, with newer/upgraded ships often packing class 1x and the Millennium Falcon (proclaimed to be the fastest ship in The Galaxy) had a class 0.5 as a result of modifications that made it unreliable. Anything larger than a fighter has a backup hyperdrive of much higher class (typically double digit) to ensure the crew can limp to the nearest populated system in the event of failure of the primary drive.
** Most travel occurs along the great hyperspace lanes, where the way is known to be clear and calculations are more established.
** Vehicles have to start up their shields ''after'' they complete their jump, which makes them vulnerable if you can predict where they are coming from. This makes launching an attack purely to target any reinforcements possible.
** Hyperspace itself [[Warp|is weird]], and standard procedure is to avoid looking outside long term during travel to prevent people from going nuts. Communications while in hyperspace (except to ships making the same jump) are near impossible. Leaving hyperspace without the ship you came in on is impossible, and ejecting someone during travel ensures their death.
** There's a handful of instances of of hyperdrive failures sending people to Otherspace, an alternate dimension populated by a ship graveyard and hostile bug aliens with organic technology.
** One thing that's often overlooked is that modern hyperdrive technology is adapted from the dark side powered hyperdrives of the ancient Rakata after they lost the ability to use The Force and could no longer travel to maintain their empire. The result is that even [[Adeptus Mechanicus|experts don't have a total understanding of ''how'' Hyperspace works]].
** Hyperdrive is quick, a good hyperdrive capable ship can get you across the galaxy in at most a day.
** Interdictor ships are capable of generating artificial gravity well to stop travel through their path and prevent ships from getting away. These first appeared in the Mandalorian Wars of the Old Republic, using spammed tractor beams to fake gravity wells, but these couldn't keep pace with hyperdrive improvements and disappeared till a superior successor technology was developed in the Imperial era. During the early days of the New Republic, Admiral Ackbar devised a tactic of using of such ships to prevent ''ally'' movement, ordering one to power up if it detected sabotage on a planned target had failed so the incoming attackers would be pulled from hyperspace far enough away to retreat. It would be Thrawn however that would prove the true master of such maneuvers, developing a system that allowed reliable same-system hyperspace jumps during tactical combat, hence it's name, Thrawn Pincer. Thrawn himself nicked that idea from Plo Koon and Saesee Tin when they wanted to bomb a planet but also bypass the superior blockade around the planet.
* FTL communication comes in four forms, all with their own issues.
** Holonet: The best known method for FTL communications. Vaguely comparable to the early internet, with news, primitive BBS, email, and some other stuff. Quite rare once you get past the developed core areas, and expensive to use both in setting it up and bandwith costs. Only military command vehicles and those for heads of state are likely to have personal holonet transceivers.
** Subspace relay: The cheaper alternative to the holonet is subspace relays. Relatively slow and has problems with dropped communications, but still FTL. Most capital ships have subspace transceivers, and some smaller vehicles are known to have them as upgrades. Comparable to snail mail, with shopping being a mail order order system like the Sears Catalog (view catalog, send order and payment, await shipping) rather than online shopping.
** Hyperspace Courier: Has all the problems of courier communication, and all the problems of hyperspace combined. Despite these faults, it's often the only choice for the most remote systems or if someone is disrupting the above two (like in a war) and always the only way to send physical goods.
** The Force: Occasionally powerful Force users are seen communicating via The Force across very long distances. This requires both parties be strong in The Force and have a very close connection. Even then being able to do anything more than sense the other is in danger is a crapshoot.
* Blasters use energy to excite special gas that is then expelled to deadly effect. Most blasters have an alternate stun setting which provides less-lethal takedowns. Stun setting is quite reliable and consistent even on physically tough species like Wookiees, though it's not safe to use on pregnant women and outside of specialized stun-only blasters the range is rather low. Despite being energy weapons, they have quite a kick. Routinely dismissed as "slow" despite multiple sources contradicting this idea. How fast they are is somewhat debatable (and differs depending on which canon), but they're considered more advanced than Slugthrowers (detailed below), implying that Blasters are better overall.
** [[Stubber|Normal firearms]], known as slugthrowers, are also present. Compared to blasters they're cheaper, cause bleeding, are far more dangerous to block with a lightsaber (it'll usually just melt the slug and make you get hit with molten metal instead), can be suppressed, and lower maintenance requirements, but have less initial stopping power, lower capacity, can't stun, make far more noise without a suppressor, and have heavier ammo. Considered more primitive than blasters, which is why you rarely see them (well, that and the powers that be preferring Star Wars to not be rated R).
** Ion weapons disrupt electric systems, but cause little structural damage and only minor burns on living creatures. This allows them to disable droids or ships without totally destroying them, making them important in capturing them.
** [[Sonic Weaponry]] exists, but it's considered an odd fork (as powerful as a slug thrower with none of its benefits) by everyone outside of water worlds and Jedi hunters.
* Replusorlift keeps vehicles, industrial equipment and some droids floating off the ground a good distance. Most spacecraft have repulsor systems as well, which is how they're able to operate in atmosphere despite their poor aerodynamics.
* '''[[Robot|Droids]]''' aren't a true species, but are playable in all RPGs. They're supposed to be really smart appliances, but Star Wars technology is so fucked up that a few develop sapience if left on too long without formatting. Despite this droids aren't considered people by the galaxy at large because sapient droids are as rare as non-evil [[drow]] and most of the time leaving droids running for a long time just makes them slower and buggier until they can't do their jobs anymore, like Windows, or, at best, overly attuned to a specific user. That a good number of sapient droids have learned to bypass that pesky "no killing" clause doesn't exactly encourage experimenting with it and trying to replicate it either.
** Class 1 droids are designed to preform scientific applications like medicine or lab work. Since they were designed to be used in fixed locations most, but not all, have limited mobility.
** Class 2 droids are designed to preform technical labor like repair work. Since they are expected to work within artificial locations they are generally on wheels or treads and have short, non-human shapes. One notable subcategory of Class 2 droids are Astromech Droids (like the famed R2 series), which are designed to plug into fighters and bombers where they function as a co-pilot, navicomputer and in-flight repair.
** Class 3 droids are designed for human interaction, with jobs like translator or chef. Some lower end Class 3 droids were made for positions like waiter. Almost all of them are roughly human shape, with the main exception being those built by and for non-humans that instead resemble their intended masters.
** Class 4 droids are the most varied but have one thing in common that clearly separates them: They are made for combat and (except for a few armed with only stun weapons) don't have programming against killing. Class 4 droids vary in intelligence from blaster turrets with some targeting AI to clever and ruthless assassins/commandos. Even [[Android|Human Replica Droids]], designed to be indistinguishable from humans, are technically Class 4. Many Class 4 droids have their nature obfuscated by building them into the shell of a Class 1 or Class 3 droid.
** Class 5 droids are made for manual labor like heavy lifting or a power generator with legs. They are barely intelligent, rarely have names and almost never become sapient. They are however cheap and quite common.
* Cloning: Fairly realistic on most accounts. You take a gene sample, use it to make an ova, grow it in an exowomb and decant it as an adult. The main difference is that SW cloners are much, much better at it, with a vastly higher success rate compared to real life plus the ability to do accelerated aging for army building. The Kaminoans are the best at this. Generally, Force-Sensitives can't be cloned, and when they are, they most often come out as physically and mentally unstable nutjobs who need to be put out of their misery. "Perfect" Force-Sensitive clones are exceedingly rare, to the point that (again), most in-universe consider it impossible.
* Cloaking devices come in two types.
** The first was dependent upon crystals that became rare due to overharvesting. Use of a superweapon for deep excavation allowed an imperial research project to toy with the idea of fitting an entire squadron of fighters equipped with one.
** The second, the hibridium model, used a different rare material and was developed near the end of the Empire, though didn't see use till after the fall. It was substantially (though still only relatively) cheaper but had two unique drawbacks. The first was that it also blinded the ship to the world outside and rendered it unable to communicate as well. These problems would briefly be overcome with the use of the Force instead. Afterwards the Remnant gave up on it as mostly useless, and agreed to ban it during the peace treaty with the New Republic.
** Personal "stealth field" generators also seem to exist, unrelated to these. They simply dampen sound and bend light to make the wearer harder to spot and difficult (but not impossible) to see. Presumably these aren't upscaled for vehicle use because of the real world problem with such a concept of being completely useless against any sensor beyond just human level vision (still being blatantly obvious to thermal, as well as radar if they're big enough ect.).
* In many ways, while technology is advanced it's still in the mindset of 1983, if not 1977. As mentioned above, the internet (at least the interplanetary one) is quite primitive and poorly connected. Even though everyone has a tiny radio set (Comlink), there's no such thing as cellphones (you have to broadcast to a channel and hope whoever you want to hear something is listening). Aside from portable computers, which are quite expensive, and datapads, which still have limited functionality, most non-droid technology only does one thing. Unlike the 1913 rail and M-Lok equipped guns of the 90s onward, weapon accessories either need to be made for a single model or hand-fitted by an expert. Video games are either professional simulators or extremely primitive.
* Energy shields come in several variants
** Ray shields protect from energy weapons but are useless against physical attacks. Most ships are equipped with ray shields.
** Particle shields protect from physical attacks but are useless against energy attacks. Generally only bigger ships are equipped with particle shields while smaller ships such as fighters only have ray shields.
** Planetary shields are the reason why ground battles happen and why orbital superiority isn't enough to secure a planet. They can withstand even the most severe bombardment for weeks, with only weapons like the Death Star being capable of penetrating them almost instantaneously. As a result, it is generally more feasible to land troops on the planet.
* [[Lightsaber]]s are the most iconic weapon of the setting, being plasma-based melee weapons only used by crazy space [[wizard]]-[[monk]]s.
* [[The Force]] isn't so much technology as something in between a religion, [[magic]] and [[psionics]]. This is ''the'' element that turns Star Wars from [[Space Opera]] into [[Science Fantasy]].

==Setting History==
{{stub}}
Bear in mind the highly contradictory nature of canon and many sources from EU to Disney means any attempt to truly form a concrete history would take an in-depth scholarly pursuit of all sources and debate amongst the global community while taking into account upcoming new results that can entirely rewrite the record. You know, like real history ([[Tolkien]] did an admirable job, but nothing quite says plausible history like something everyone has an opinion on but nobody that anyone wants to listen to has fully researched). At any rate, what is presented here is an abridged version of the lore history prior to the Original Trilogy, using the most complete accounts, and combining the EU AKA “Legends” with the Disney canon when not contradictory (because despite having supposedly wiped it out of canon, there are frequent callbacks to parts of it). Though in fairness, Legends lore is far more fleshed out and takes priority in practice. Since it is under construction, it will probably be split into different sections (or we'll put parentheses showing whether it's Disney or OG, going in year order). As a note, most dates are referred to Before or After the Battle of Yavin (with both 0 BBY and 0 ABY existing) for the sake of out of universe convenience. There are various in-universe calendars, but this is pretty much the standard at the time of the end of the story and is the easiest to follow IRL. Thus, when the contradictions majorly start after Episode 6, the format will be Legends-5 ABY, Disney-5ABY, Legends-6 ABY and so on.

* The universe begins, life begins to evolve. A lot of small things happen that tie into other stories, but aren’t worth mentioning outside that story.
* The unknown Celestial race holds dominion around a hundred thousand years Before the Battle of Yavin, they mysteriously vanish soon afterwards.
** Before disappearing, a set of force wielding physical gods known as the Father, the Daughter and the Son help them to seal Abeloth "The Mother", a mortal who lived with them and in desperation for sharing their immortality did some extremely bad dark side Force stuff and turned into an eldritch abomination, in the Maw Cluster of black holes using Centerpoint Station, a super weapon in the partially artificial Corellia System.
* The first galactic civilization (that we know of except whatever the Celestials were, if they even count as a formal polity) are the Rakata, cruel aliens who uplift various other species for slaves and food in the Rakatan Infinite Empire. This explains most aliens that are just paint and simple face prosthetics away from being human, as well as recurring traits like bipedalism.
** The Rakata encounter the Sith species, who also use the dark side. The Sith drive them off after a costly battle thanks to Sith King Adas sacrificing himself.
*** The Sith'ari prophecy is made to indicate a worth successor to Adas who would bring the Sith to the height of their power, Bane would be the Sith'ari more than twenty thousand years later.
** At some point the Rakata encounter the Hutts, and the result is the Rakata being nearly wiped out. Hutts did not possess space travel, nor would they until much later so how the fuck that happened isn’t clear, though it is mentioned that they lost their connection to the Force (universally the Dark Side due to species wide enforcement of being an asshole) after an unknown illness.
** Time progresses and the Rakata are forgotten from general knowledge outside of archeological and historical circles, even then only Force sensitives really know the major significance other than "big empire that collapsed before the Republic was even a dream".
* Civilizations develop and discover space travel, then hyperspace travel. Initial hyperspace colonization and mapping is risky, requiring oftentimes blind jumps and the hope there isn’t a star or something where you end up.
** Blind jumps result in colonists losing contact with the rest of the universe and evolving on their own, explaining some groups that are VERY similar but not the same species (for example, Miraluka are lost human colonists who ended up on a planet with poor light and over generations they evolved to not have eyes, but instead all have a Jedi-tier connection to the Force to “see” with).
* The Force-users find their jumps guided to a specific planet, with aliens from many diverse backgrounds guided to a planet (First Tython in Legends, changed to Ahch-To in the Disney canon. Later material for The Mandalorian brought Tython back alongside Ahch-To as both being early Jedi planets and nobody knowing for sure which was actually the first).
** Bringing their own religions, traditions, and cultures, the Force-users develop schools of thought on the philosophy. Eventually one group decides the meaning of life for the Force is to destroy evil (like [[Paladins]]), and wages war on the others saying “you’re with us or against us”. One group resists which saw honor and personal development as the meaning of life (like [[Cavalier]]s). The rest were split between the two.
** The Paladin-like aggressors were victorious, slaughtering and driving off the Cavalier-types. The Paladin-like Force-users would become the early Jedi. The Cavalier-types would find pain and misery in exile after multiple Great Schism's, sinking deep into worship of power and personal gain. After the Third Great Schism caused by Jedi Knights Ajunta Pall, Sorzus Syn, Xoxaan, Remulus Dreypa and Karness Muur wanting to study the Dark Side after the balance started falling towards Light Side use lead to the Hundred Year Darkness civil war, they are exiled. The exiles find and enslave a species of aliens and stole both their dark Force/alchemy teachings as well as their name when Ajunta Pall killed the last King Hakagram Graush, the Sith, and interbreeding with them to build the Old Sith Empire, Pall as the first Dark Lord of the Sith.
*** The Hundred Year Darkness leads to the invention of Lightsabers, inspired by Rakata Forcesabers, though initial examples like the one Karness Muur used require energy batteries on belts connected by cables.
*** Karness Muur discovers the method of immortality when he transfers his spiritual essence to his Muur Talisman amulet created by Sith Alchemy. Dreypa, his rival, makes a stasis coffin to hold Muur in, said coffin is later named the Jebble Box and is misidentified as a Jedi artifact.
** This becomes a recurring pattern in Star Wars history regarding good and evil Force-users. Good creates its own evil by standing up and declaring themselves good and morally correct, turning any challengers to their orthodoxy towards the Dark Side (look, it comes up whenever Lucas or some other writer wants to go back to the Taoist roots of The Force). Good then defeats the evil it created once evil has almost won, and they reestablish order with some oppression in an attempt to prevent another evil which restarts the cycle.
** The Chosen One to bring balance to the Force prophecy is made. Anakin Skywaker would fulfill this prophecy a thousand years after Bane fulfilled the Sith'ari prophecy.
* Humans and Duro, the first two species to discover hyperspace travel from Rakata technological remnants, eventually meet. The planet they meet on has been implied to be the human homeworld, the Duro homeworld, Earth, and various other things, but it doesn’t matter, final decision settled on as Human homeworld with any connection to real Earth slashed and Duro homeworld being described as another planet in another part of the galaxy. It becomes Coruscant (the homeworld of the Taung, a.k.a. OG Mandalorians, and also the homeworld of the human predecessor race, the latter won and drove off the Taung to Mandalore), and they create the first Galactic Republic in 25553 BBY.
** The exiled Taung found Mandalore, a martial society of warmongers and Social Darwinists, on the planet of Mandalore, which along with it's moon and nearby systems has a massive amount of the substance known as Beskar, capable of making Lightsaber resistant armor.
* Various expansion wars occur after the Republic is founded, including a religiously motivated 1000 year long pro-human genocidal regime, the Pius Dea cult, taking over, brought down by the Jedi and those sick of their shit after their reign, leading to a few decades of Jedi Grandmasters pulling double duty as Supreme Chancellor to restore democracy and arrest leftover cultists. Other wars also occur such as the the Hutt Wars with Xim the Despot, the Hutt Cataclysms (a major series of Civil Wars and natural disasters that ruined the Hutt Empire and instituted the Hutt Cartel system and founded the basis of the galactic criminal underworld), and a series of wars on and off for 20000 odd years over whether Coruscant or another planet (Alsakan) is to be the capital.
** Two important worlds that need to be noted are Corellia, which has disproportionate influence in the founding of the Republic and even has the right to declare neutrality in civil disputes due to economic power of its status on the most important hyperspace shortcut in the galaxy (as well as the Celestial influenced state of their system), and Kuat, founded by pre-Hyperspace human colonists launched from Coruscant and the premier shipyard in the galaxy.
* Eventually the Sith return to destroy the Jedi after two Republic scouts accidentally stumble upon Korriban, the Sith species home planet and now the burial site for the Dark Lords, and return while being followed, kicking off the Great Hyperspace War.
** The Republic is almost destroyed, but survives, and led by Empress Teta (the Empress of a member world that is) in turn smashes the Old Sith Empire led by Dark Lord Naga Sadow.
** The Sith slink back into the shadows. The Jedi start their other big tradition, over-correcting from their past mistakes and creating new ones, by beginning a time of non-interference in galactic affairs and a general desire only for peace.
** During this time, Darth Vitiate (born Tenebrae as the illegitimate son of Sith Lord Dramath [[Grimdark|who raped one of his slaves]]) exploits the defeat and manipulates 8000 fellow Sith Lords to a secret ritual to live forever. It goes [[Just as Planned]] for Vitiate as he consumes the souls of his fellows to become immortal (but not invincible) and names himself Sith Emperor of the Reformed Sith Empire. He secretly builds his forces from the remaining Sith armies and lords.
** Duringthe final battle of the Great Hyperspace War a Sith ship crashes into a planet and the survivors become the Lost Tribe of Sith.
* Freedon Nadd, Jedi apprentice, is denied knighthood and falls to the Dark Side after finding Sadow's tomb and his spirit. He causes the Beast Wars on Onderon and its moon Dxun and rules for a hundred years before dying, his cultists becoming weirdo beast rider types who plague Onderon.
* Two Jedi Knights, Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma fall to the Dark side after finding Dark Lord Marka Ragnos and Nadd's spirits respectively and become Master and Apprentice in that order. After Ulic kills his brother and former fellow Jedi, he returns to the light and kills Exar Kun during their war to destroy the Jedi. Ulic wanders around for a while and then dies in his former lover Grand Master Nomi Sunrider's arms, who had become Grand Master after Exar Kun and Ulic's war ended with the formers death.
* Mandalorians, the space Mongols/Aztecs, start attacking the universe because all they understand is war (and because the Taung species is dying out, leading to them allowing worthy foreigners to join, humans end up as the vast majority).
** This massive war almost wipes out several species but the Jedi do nothing. Eventually one of their number, nicknamed the Revanchist and his friends Alek and Meetra Surik are dispatched to investigate, and upon finding the atrocities committed decide to forsake the Jedi wuss way and break the back of the Mandalorians.
** The Revanchist takes the name of Revan after picking up and putting on the mask of a female Mandalorian who refused orders to massacre civilians and died defending them.
** During the fighting, Mandalore the Ultimate orders Serocco and Jebble nuked from orbit, killing everyone who failed to escape and leaving Jedi Assassin Celeste Morne stranded on Jebble in stasis, which she had gone in to to keep the Muur Talisman which contained to soul of Karness Muur, one of the Dark Jedi exiles who founded the Sith Order, from escaping. The stasis coffin is the same one built by Remulus Dreypa to keep Muur in.
** Revan kills Mandalore the Ultimate in single combat, leaving the Taung extinct. After learning that Mandalore the Ultimate was manipulated through his final words, Revan and Alek go to Dromund Kaas to investigate, then fall to the Dark Side and create a fascist government centered on Dromund Kaas (actually the hidden capital of the Reformed Sith Empire who brainwashed the leader of the Mandos). The Sith Emperor had brainwashed both of them.
** Revan becomes Darth Revan and Alek becomes Darth Malak, which almost destroys the Republic, again (a third recurring theme), with the only loyalists remaining being Surik and her chief engineer, who had returned to the Order after the final battle at Malachor V where they fired a super weapon, the Mass Shadow Generator on Revan's orders which the brainwashed Revan used to kill the other loyalist Jedi, before Revan and Alek went off to open revolt.
** A Jedi named Bastila Shan is sent to assassinate their leader Darth Revan, but believing in redemption instead she wiped his mind. The two went on an adventure while Revan was trained as a Jedi again, and he defeated his apprentice Darth Malak and dismantled his own army (also did a bunch of racing, theme #4).
** Afterwards, the remaining Fallen Jedi institute the First Jedi Purge under the Sith Triumvirate, Darth Nihilus (who vored planets after being reduced to a husk by the superweapon Revan used at Malachor V), Darth Sion (who was so edgy he had to be convinced to let go as he was too angry to die), and Darth Traya (a.k.a. Kreia, actually Jedi Master Arren Kae, who wanted to destroy the force itself) and their followers, survivors of Malak's remaining army.
** The only loyalist Jedi survivor of Revan's initial force, Meetra Surik, having been exiled from the Order after being the only veteran to return, comes back and destroys the Sith Triumvirate (redeeming the only apprentice they had, Visas Marr, in the process) along with her companions (including Visas and her old chief engineer) who she trained as Jedi, plus Revan's old war buddy/current Mand'alor (Mandalorian king) Canderous Ordo and an asshole droid.
** Revan's companions and Meetra's companions then presumably rebuild the Jedi Order and the badly damaged Republic over 300 years, while Revan and Surik go to Dromund Kaas to finish off the Emperor (Revan not telling anyone like a moron, while Surik just went to help her friend) but are betrayed by their ally Darth Scourge, who foresees the Emperor is not going to die for three more centuries.
** Surik ignonomously dies, while Revan is tortured for 300 years while managing to keep the Emperor from attacking the Republic when it is vulnerable.
* A clusterfuck of things happen.
** The Sith create a nearly galaxy-wide coalition to start a civil war with the Republic. The Sith have overwhelming advantage, but are so backstabby and hedonistically asinine they fail to accomplish anything major after the initial strikes, though Darth Malgus manages to sack Coruscant and the Jedi Temple.
** Things cool of for 12 years in a Cold War, then heat back up again and are disrupted when the Sith Emepror (who as stated was the guy who manipulated the Mandalorians and brainwashed Revan) is apparently killed by the Hero of Tython (who is then promoted to Jedi Battlemaster) aided by Darth Scourge (who the Emperor life-extended to serve as his personal assassin, while plotting to kill the Emperor).
** Revan splits in two from the 300 year torture, and after the torturers (the edgiest Sith ever, the Dread Masters, who were personally trained by the Emperor) get killed by the SWTOR player character of your choice (story-wise, the Hero of Tython makes the most sense as the Jedi Knight so will go with that for the purposes of timeline), who had also apparently killed Darth Malgus when he got pissed at the [[Stupid Evil]] of the other Sith and tried to make his own empire, and tries to bring the Emperor back to a physical body, with the protagonist and their allies barely stopping him.
** It turns out the Emperor manipulated Revan's last efforts and used the bloodshed there to transfer all of his spirit to where he was actually focusing on, the Eternal Empire at the planet of Zakuul he made over the past few centuries, after finding a super robot fleet in the planet of Iokath and possessing a local hero named Valkorion. His body is destroyed by the protagonist, and the Emperor's son Arcann (who killed his light-side twin in a rage) invades both the Republic and the Sith Empire.
** Meanwhile, the protagonist is placed in carbonite for five years, while Arcann used the Emperor's supposed death to drum up support for his regime in Zakuul. He is defeated and (due to Light Side Republic Loyalist Jedi Knight being the most reasonable choice for storyline purposes) is redeemed to the light side. His sister tries to take over, and is killed. A large part of the Emperor's soul is destroyed after trying to take over the SWTOR protagonist.
** Afterwards, the Republic and Sith Empire return to war over the remaining superweapons on Iokath and the SWTOR protagonist rejoins the Jedi and the Republic. Empress Acina (who took over the Reformed Sith Empire after Darth Marr, regent after the Emperor faked his death, was killed after being captured along with the protagonist prior to the 5-year timeskip) dies in the fighting and Darth Malgus returns, having survived and rebuilt as a cyborg.
** The Emperor finally loses control of the Force and all three of his personalities (Tenebrae, Darth Vitiate and Valkorion) are destroyed, finally killing him for good and thus letting Revan and Meetra become one with the Force. The protagonist continues heroics and defeats/captures some Dark Council Sith Lords (and Malgus, presumably in the next expansion as of the time of writing - which happened and he was captured by the Republic, further details TBA as SWTOR storyline continues) and the final phase of the Great Galactic War eventually ends in Republic victory, the Reformed Sith Empire shattering to pieces.
* Around 2000 years before the Battle of Yavin some dickwad Jedi falls to the Dark Side as Darth Ruin and reignites the brewing low intensity conflict as the New Sith Wars at full scale as the first undisputed Dark Lord in a millenium since the Sith Empire Remnants shattered to insurgencies and individual Dark Side cabals. Ruin instigates the Fourth and last Great Schism of the Jedi.
** The Sith eventually reform into the Brotherhood of Darkness to prevent the mass backstabbing that restarted with the New Sith Wars and bans the title of Darth, with all Sith Lords being equal (though of course, [[Communism|some are more equal than others]], like fallen Jedi Master Skere Kaan).
** After a thousand straight years of war, a Galactic Dark Age settles in and ruins major tech infrastructure and companies, fixing the dissonance between movie era tech being worse than literally thousands of years ago. The last three hundred years until 1000 BBY are particularly brutal, killing FTL communications past the Mid Rim sans courier and brings the Republic to its knees.
* 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, Sergeant Dessel, transferring from the Sith Army to the Sith Academy after his force sensitivity was discovered, thinks the Brotherhood of Darkness is a bunch of bullshit. He decides that the Dark Side can only have two Sith, one Master to embody power and an Apprentice to crave it, after finding Revan's edgy fanfiction he wrote after the Mandolarian Wars and before the Jedi Civil War in a Sith Holocron. He names himself Darth Bane and manipulates Lord Kaan into building the Thought Bomb, a Dark Side Force weapon.
** The Brotherhood of Darkness are defeated at the (Seventh) Battle of Ruusan. They detonate the Thought Bomb, which wipes them out along with the Army of Light, a Jedi army formed in desperation by Lord Hoth as a last resort to save the Republic, as the Army of Light sacrifice themselves to force Kaan to detonate it early and end the New Sith Wars, [[Just As Planned|exactly as Bane planned]].
** The Rule Of Two is instituted by Bane who takes Zhannah as his apprentice, preventing the Dark Side clusterfuck that happens when too many assholes exist as “equals” in one faction. The Jedi almost destroy the Sith as Zhannah is caught spying in the Jedi Temple and is forced to retreat, chased by three masters and two knights.
** Bane and Zhannah defeat them and Zhannah's cousin is made insane by her Sith Sorcery and attacks the Jedi task force sent after them, who are forced to kill him. Thinking that was the Sith they were looking for the Jedi pat themselves on the back and go back to Coruscant to report the Sith being destroyed.
** Zhannah defeats Bane and takes Cognus as her apprentice. Cognus takes Millenial (yes, Darth Millenial) as her apprentice, who disagrees with the Rule of Two and goes to Dromund Kaas to start the Prophets of the Dark Side, who worship the Dark Side. Cognus takes another apprentice and things continue as they hide, plan, research, and backstab in secret for 1000 years.
* After this apparent victory, the Republic undergoes the Ruusan Reformation, beginning the Great Peace of the Republic in which no major war occurred.
** The Jedi are greatly weakened in political authority and demilitarized. They also begin strictly enforcing the age maximum for training people as Jedi. Having lost its best and brightest save for Grand Master Faye (namely, Lord Hoth and Master Valenthyne Farfhalla) in the Army of Light's sacrifice, degenerate into Lawful Stupid morons with the Ruusan Reformation, which states that the Jedi can no longer create an army, and that the Jedi are under the command of the Senate, although they still have their own Council for internal stuff. They decide to vigorously enforce the age limit and become more and more detached from the people and the small good deeds that help reinforce the light side in an individual (demonstrated in SWTOR with the Hero of Tython, whose dead master as a Force Ghost instructs him to give labor and medical assistance in a small village to help reinforce his soul).
** The Republic disbands its military except for a small anti-piracy force in the Judicial Forces and leaves actual defense to Planetary Defense Forces.
** The Republic massively decentralizes and executive, as opposed to legislative or home planet/sector, power starts falling back into Senators hands for the first time since pretty much the Pius Dea period as Supreme Chancellors and Vice Heads essentially become first and second among equals to other Senators, thus making the executive and legislative significantly accountable to the larger and more bribe friendly Senate rather than the government.
* Due to the infrastructure damage, a period of [[Medieval Stasis]] sets in, turning for example battle droids from multi legged hyper mobile tanks and super deadly assassins to crappy shit tier fodder infantry outside of expensive special models.
* Megacorporations gain power in the sparser regions of the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim as the republic falls into a combination of absurd political corruption and Inner Rim/Core Worlds exceptionalism, to the point that some corps have Senators of their own (not even bribed, literal voting members presumably elected/bribed the electoral offices from corp owned worlds). Senators essentially become mouthpieces of planetary interests or big business and vote based on who bribes them.
* 65 years before the Battle of Yavin, a man from Naboo's House Palpatine (dubbed Sheev in Disney canon) became the apprentice to a Sith Master named Darth Plagueis.
** He learned secrets of Sith Alchemy and pretty much any other plot-related evil shit that writers want, takes on the name Darth Sidious, then killed his master and began a (very convoluted) plan to wipe out the Jedi, rule the galaxy and wage war on things outside the galaxy, and live forever. Just assume anything that happens from here until his death is [[Tzeentch|because of him]].
** Palpatine takes on an apprentice, an older Jedi who left the Order due to its hands-off approach to galactic governance. The now ex-Jedi Dooku Serenno reclaimed the fortune and title of Count he had relinquished to join the Jedi and was secretly contacted by Palpatine to slowly cajole him over years.
* A Jedi named Sifo-Dyas has a prophecy that the galaxy will soon be at war, and concocts an elaborate plan to get an army for the currently armyless Republic using money from criminal organizations and the genetic material of a Mandalorian descended from the old warriors. He’s killed by Palpatine ([[Just As Planned|the guy that planted the idea in his head]]), who takes over the project via Dooku and had each clone implanted with a secret control chip that would override their training and loyalties when Sheev gave “Order 66”.
* As the Republic weakened due to corruption and the rising power of corporations, and the Jedi weakened due to Sheev’s (and his predecessors) tampering with the Force via bullshit Alchemy handwaves and becoming detached from the common people weakening their compassion and the light side, planets and organizations within the Republic began to act aggressively. Sheev was behind many of their moves as his public identity rose as the Senator of his home planet of Naboo.
** As aforementioned, many organizations gained enough power to have Senatorial representatives, making corporations as powerful as entire planets and causing the clusterfuck of alliances and conflicting interests to render the Republic almost powerless.
* The Trade Federation, a simple shipping company that had its own Senator and via shared interests controlled many, MANY more, began using its private army to blockade planets. They did this to secure exclusive contracts with the goal of controlling all trade everywhere eventually, and even hold power over the Republic due to its lack of military.
** Sheev as Sidious reveals himself to be heavily invested in their projects, and they gladly accepted his patronage. He advised them to upscale their ambitions and blockade the planet Naboo, which was far more powerful politically and economically than their previous targets, 32 years before the Battle of Yavin.
* We leave the mists of backstory/dubious canon and enter into the Movie/TV Canon.
** Two Jedi, an apprentice and a master (Obi-wan and Dooku’s old apprentice Qui-Gon) were sent to negotiate an end to the blockade. Fearing that the Federation had gone into dangerous territory, the leaders contacted Sheev, who ordered them to kill the Jedi and continue the blockade as if nothing had happened.
*** The Jedi escaped to the surface of the planet and escaped with the planet’s leader Queen Amidala. They were delayed due to engine problems from the escape, and stopped at Tatooine where they picked up a slave boy named Anakin who was Force-sensitive (implied to be an experiment from Sheev’s Alchemy to create life as he learned under Plagueis, abandoned after accidentally rendering Anakin's mother pregnant with no father, bot Plagueis and Palpatine deeming it a failure). Meanwhile Sheev’s own apprentice Darth Maul had been sent to ensure his plans were carried out. A couple of weeks after this Palpatine kills Plagueis and becomes the Dark Lord.
** Sheev convinced the Queen to start a movement against the administration of the Republic, which was joined by the majority of the Senate; even the corrupt were sick of everyone else’s corruption.
*** This destabilized the Republic leadership, shuffling Sheev into power as Supreme Chancellor and putting his lackeys in charge. Meanwhile, the queen and Jedi returned to Naboo and lead a revolt, defeating the Trade Federation and leaving their leadership as prisoners of the Republic, but Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin dies at the hands of Sidious's apprentice Maul and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi is left grieving and Maul believed dead as he was cut in half by Kenobi.
*** Sheev worked behind the scenes to keep them from being prosecuted for their actions while making plans to turn Anakin Skywalker, who had been found and chosen for training by the Jedi as part of the Chosen One Prophecy (by Obi-Wan, who had literally just become a Knight after Qui-Gon's death, so that was a dumb fucking call giving the kid who needed a father figure to a rigidly dedicated young man in mourning who had almost failed out of the Jedi into the Jedi Service Corps due to relative weakness in the force), into a future asset.
** Sheev progressed his plan for a war to further destabilize the galaxy by pitting the various corporate powers he controlled as Darth Sidious against the united planets he controlled as Supreme Chancellor. This leads to a Separatist movement with both sides financially powerful, both sides possessing armies, and both sides feeling they were the ones who were wronged and both firmly in Sith pockets, the Separatists as a disposable tool under Dooku (who, after Maul's believed death, had become Sidious's apprentice Tyrannus) and the Republic primed to vote for Palpatine to gain more and more power.
*** The “Clone Wars” began after a series of events orchestrated by Dooku where the Jedi discover and deploy the clone armies against Separatists who had been planning to execute the Jedi and former queen of Naboo as revenge on behalf of the Trade Federation.
** Sheev manipulated both sides of the conflict to deplete the strength of all participants. The Separatists were led by the cyborg General Grievous, Count Dooku (Sidious planned to replace both Maul and Dooku from the beginning, with Anakin) and the corrupt Separatist Council essentially acting as Count Dooku's mouthpiece, while the Republic forces were led by the Jedi Master Mace Windu and Grand Master Yoda.
** Public opinion began to turn against the war, and groups of Senators who had previously been allies of Sheev began meeting in secret and planning for militarizing their planets so there would no longer be a need for an army of the Republic.
** When the time was right Sidious orchestrated a finale of battles which resulted in the deaths of Dooku and Grievous, then enacted Order 66 to slaughter almost all of the Jedi and turned Anakin to his side as Darth Vader. He declared himself Emperor and the Republic his Empire, eliminating much of the old government over time, and allowing cronies to make it into the ranks of a galactic military dictatorship which used powerless puppet governments on the local level.
** Separatist remnants continue resistance and a majority of them are defeated in the Reconquest of the Rim.
** Small rebel cells popped up everywhere, which would eventually unite under the surviving members of the old Senate following Palpatine using Vader's "secret" apprentice to lure them out and failing to kill them as said apprentice turns to light and sacrifices himself (the plot of The Force Unleashed).
** The Great Jedi Purge comes to an end one year before the Battle of Yavin with Master An'ya Kuro being killed by Vader, leaving several dozen Jedi alive as the Empire shifted focus to fight the Rebels, now united as the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The Alliance is led by Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, two Senators.
** The Emperor dissolves the Senate and orders his military second Wilhuff Tarkin to use the newly built Death Star, a planet killer super weapon, to enforce his rule, while his civilian second Sate Pestage handles the bureaucracy.
** Han Solo, would be Imperial Officer, quits the academy after saving Wookie Warrior Chewbacca's life due to personal aversion to Imperial policy and turns into one of the best smugglers in the galaxy (having a Wookie owing a life debt to you really helps in fights, by the way).
** Vader turns out to have fathered twins with Padme Amidala, the Naboo senator after Palpatine became Chancellor, who died due to her life force being drained after giving birth to Luke and Leia. Leia got sent to live with Bail Organa and his wife in the idylic paradise Alderaan as Princess, while Luke got given to his in aunt and uncle at the sandy shithole Tatooine, utterly worthless except as a shadowport since the Rakatans bombed it to dust in such a way as to render minerals mined from it useless due to ion fluctuation after the world defied them. When we said the Jedi degenerated into [[Lawful Stupid]] morons, we meant it, given it was Obi-Wan and Yoda, basically the two big name Jedi of several dozen who had their heads screwed on straight, who made this decision.
** In 0 BBY Leia, by this time a very active but powerless Senator, acquires the Death Star plans after various different missions gather bits and pieces of it and rushes to Tatooine to get Obi-Wan's help on her fathers orders. Obi-Wan was on Tatooine to help guard Luke. Leia's ship and its escorts are intercepted by Vader and his units and her corvette attempts to escape from the battle only to be boarded by Vader's personal elite unit since the Clone Wars, the 501st Legion. Leia is captured but two droids, C-3PO (a protocol droid built by Anakin as a child) and R2-D2 (an astromech that used to belong to Naboo and was used by Anakin in the Clone Wars) manage to escape with the plans which Leia gave to R2-D2. The droids crash onto the planet in an escape shuttle.
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