admiral-arelami

[admiral-arelami]

Gotta admit the headline is a banger.

[admiral-arelami]

the pitch of someone’s voice is not an indicator of their gender, goodbye

[admiral-arelami]

bug man 🟡〰🟡

[admiral-arelami]

still a WIP of the previous version still gay

[admiral-arelami]

Hi. Things are bleak, I know that. I know that we paid for Trump's last term with blood and it is likely the price will be blood again.

But listen to me. LISTEN.

You do not have to force yourself to witness horrors as an act of activism. It is not a form of activism. You can put your phone down, you can block that horrific video. We cannot win if you cannot fight and you will not be able to fight if you are hopeless.

Do not let them guilt you into this. People who are exhausted are easier to walk over. Take care of yourself, find community where you find joy.

[admiral-arelami]

[admiral-arelami]

Worlds of the Empire of the Hand - Kalee

Another in my Worlds series, along with Nirauan and Lysatra.

I LOVE the Kaleesh -- they're my second-favourite SW race after the Chiss -- and after learning of their history with everyone's favourite Grand Admiral, I had to have them join the Hand. I also think it's cool that a lot of their culture was inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh, since I see a lot in common between Thrawn's story and The Odyssey -- it's a very nice parallel.

Mostly canon to SW Legends, though I did tweak one character's backstory a little.

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Kalee – homeworld of the Kaleesh (and colonies Oben and Abbaji Minor)

Galactic Map location:  J4 – Wild Space, on the border with the Imperial Remnant

World type:  Terrestrial planet with varied ecosystems. 40 102 km equatorial circumference 1.05 standard gravity.  Standard oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere.  Rotation Peroid:  23 standard hours.  Orbital period:  378 standard days.     

Solar system:  Orbits Iminec, a G-yellow orange dwarf main sequence star, approx. 5.5 billion years old, 0.95 standard stellar masses, sole stellar body in the solar system. Fourth planet from its sun of six (in orbital order): Prelly, a superheated terrestrial in a semi-molten state, Norbon, an airless rock terrestrial, Abbaji Minor, terrestrial with a habitable, mostly forested surface, Kalee,  Remsh, a gas giant with 43 moons, and Elke, a frozen rock terrestrial, possibly a dwarf planet.  (Wookieepedia actually had all this info for once!)

Moons:  1 medium-sized, no atmosphere.   

Surface conditions:  varied ecosphere with a continent/ocean ratio in favour of landmasses, with arctic, desert, tropical and temperate zones in different areas, featuring rainforests, canyons and steppes.

Population:  approx. 4 billion, 99% Kaleesh (spread across Kalee and its colonies)

Capital City:  Kaleela

Other population centres:  Kuru

The planet Kalee, and its proud, warrior/hunter people, the reptilian Kaleesh, were “discovered” sometime during the Old Republic era, but mostly ignored due to its people’s seemingly “primitive” tribal culture, except for a few individuals who wandered out to the wider Galaxy.  While individual Kaleesh served both sides of the ongoing conflict between the Old Republic and Sith Empire, Kalee itself remained mostly undisturbed, notwithstanding internal conflicts between clans.  This changed sometime in the century before the establishment of the Empire, when a neighbouring species, the expansionist, insectoid Yam’rii, or “Huks”, from the planet of the same name, invaded Kalee.  The Huks murdered, enslaved, sold and even ate the Kaleesh, with Kaleesh eggs being a particularly favourite delicacy of the “soulless bugs”.  After enduring generations of guerilla war against those who saw them as mere resources and livestock, two heroes said “enough!”

They were Qymaen jai Sheelal and Ronderu lij Kummar, seemingly invincible fighters who led their Kolpravis warriors in countless campaigns against the Huk and their allies.   It is unclear whether the two were lovers, relatives, or something more, but together, with Qymaen’s skill with his slugthrower and Ronderu with her lig swords, they seemed unstoppable.   Until Ronderu fell in battle.  A distraught Qymaen renamed himself “Greivous”, and massacred the Huk until the Kaleesh warriors finally drove them off their planet for good, and chased the murderous monsters out into the void from where they came.

Facing their own extinction, the Yam’rii cried out to their allies in the Trade Federation.  Through the manipulation of the corrupt Senate, the Huk convinced the Old Republic to send the Jedi to put down the Kaleesh uprising.  The Dogs of the Republic, fooled by the insectoids’ lies claiming they were the victims, put an embargo against Kalee that would lead to millions of Kaleesh dying of starvation. 

When the Intergalactic Banking Clan offered to alleviate Kalee’s suffering in return for Grevious’ services as mercenary and enforcer, he had little choice but to comply, until he learned of the Huk desecrating Kaleesh burial grounds on the colony worlds the Republic had forced them to abandon to the invaders.  The IBC did not take well to their enforcer breaking his contract, and secretly planted a bomb on the Kaleesh warrior’s shuttle.  This lead to Grievous’ near-death, until the IBC rebuilt him as the cyborg warrior that the rest of the Galaxy would know him as best.  General Grievous became one of the most feared military leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, becoming especially notorious for slaughtering hated, self-righteous Jedi, until one of them finally succeeded in killing him at the closing of the Clone Wars, right before the establishment of the Galactic Empire.

Out of Grievous’ eight elite Izvoshra warriors, only one outlived their leader.  A towering warrior, almost 3 metres tall, Bentilais san Sk’ar, former ruler of Kalee’s western hemisphere, had fought alongside Qymaen jai Sheelal and Rondeur lij Kummar during the Huk War, and joined Grievous during his work for the IBC.  He survived the shuttle bombing that disfigured his leader, seemingly without either knowing of the other’s survival.  He rallied the Kolkpravis under his leadership, slaughtered all the Yam’rii on the colony world of Oben, and most Kaleesh relocated to the more hospitable world, giving Kalee itself time to heal from the Huks’ decades of exploitation.  Following the rise of the Galactic Empire, Sk’ar violently resisted Imperial rule for over a decade, until in 14 AAE (6 BBY) the Empire sent in their specialist in the “Unknown Regions”, then-Captain Thrawn of the ISD Vengeance.  Famous for his talent of predicting his enemies’ tactics by studying their art, Thrawn unfortunately did not have the time to properly examine the few Kaleesh artifacts he managed to find.  Pressured by Emperor Palpatine to “get it over with”, and with his own concerns in the Unknown Regions, Thrawn simply leveled Oben with his fleet.  Though the Battle of Oben was an overwhelming victory for the Empire, Thrawn himself considered it a failure.

Sk’ar, however, was utterly impressed by the Empire’s sheer power, technological superiority, and noted how his adversary had mostly razed legitimate military targets, allowing millions of Kaleesh civilians to escape to the countryside to safety.  When Thrawn himself came down to assess the damage, Sk’ar waited for him in the ruins of his command centre.  He surrendered to the Chiss captain, and asked only one thing:  spare his people, in return for his services to the Empire.  Thrawn was equally impressed by the Kaleesh warrior’s ability to evade and fight back against the Empire for so long, and his willingness to put aside his personal pride for the Greater Good – something Thrawn was intimately familiar with.  With both knowing the xenophobic Empire would not accept a non-human recommending another “alien”, Thrawn had one of the other captains in his fleet take Sk’ar to introduce him to Emperor Palpatine.

Sk’ar quickly rose through the ranks of the Imperial Army, becoming the second-highest ranked alien in the Imperial forces after Thrawn, reaching the rank of Brigadier-General in only 5 short years by 19 AAE (1 BBY).  General Sk’ar was often sent to deal with particularly troublesome Rebel strongholds in the Outer Rim, until he was involved in another shuttle crash (caused by a very annoying Rebel whom Sk’ar had not been allowed to outright kill, much to his displeasure) on the planet Shiva IV and seemed to have died this time.  However, he was pulled from the wreckage by Imperial forces loyal to Thrawn, who had been keeping a close eye on his “colleague’s” progress in the Empire.  Waking up in a bacta tank on Nirauan after a few weeks of recovery, Sk’ar was offered a new position – become the commander of all of Thrawn’s ground forces in his “shadow Empire”, the Empire of the Hand, and in return, Thrawn vowed to always protect Kalee and its colonies, whether or not the Kaleesh agreed to join his Empire.  Sk’ar eagerly accepted.  

As Army General, Bentilais san Sk’ar serves wherever the Empire of the Hand needs boots/claws on the ground with the ruthless efficiency, yet fair and intelligent decisions both he and his Grand Admiral have become known for.  The Empire of the Hand’s numerous special forces divisions – the Chiss Rogue Phalanx, the reborn 501st Stormtrooper Legion, the Paccosh Commandos, Draconian Aerial Infantry, the Lysatran Void Divers and, of course, the reformed Kaleesh Izvoshra, among others, all answer to him.  Sk’ar was also one of the most vocal supporters of Thrawn’s wife, Governor Xelarra of Nirauan’s, ascension to Empress of the Hand.   

Kalee, where most of the survivors of Oben had once again relocated, its habitable system-mate Abbaji Minor, and Oben were left to their own devices, to be ruled fully by the Kaleesh themselves for the first time in nearly a century.  Thrawn personally extended an invitation to the Kaleesh to join the Empire of the Hand in 26 AEE (7 ABY), 3 years after Emperor Palpatine’s death.  In Sk’ar’s absence, one of his clanmates, Ninsun san Ve'Tani, rose up to lead the Kaleesh.  A talented hunter, Ve’Tani is rumoured to be the reincarnation of Ronderu lij Kummar, and she does nothing to discourage the myth, even marrying 3 of Grevious’ children – two of his sons and a daughter.  Feeling it was her responsibility to maintain her people’s long-fought for independence, Ve’Tani declined Thrawn’s offer, yet Kalee did become an ally of the Hand, and the two civilisations valued each other’s friendship.

Over the next five years, the Kaleesh became a common sight on Nirauan and other Hand worlds, whether following Sk’ar’s example and serving in the military, lending their survival skills to the Explorer corps, or just enjoying a peaceful civilian life, often being seen in the company of other reptilian races of the Hand – the Paccosh, Draconians, and the sizable community of Trandoshan immigrants, among others.  Inspired by Nirauan’s socialist policies and programs, which had a lot in common with their own tribal traditions, Kalee and its colonies implemented their own, taking the steps needed to make sure no Kaleesh child ever starved to death again.  The Empire of the Hand, in turn, quietly ensured that nobody, especially the Huk, violated their ally’s borders.

In 31 AAE (12 ABY), Ninsun san Ve'Tani would invite then-Govenor Xelarra for a diplomatic visit to her world.  The Chiss and the Kaleesh, both leaders of their people, and fiercely protective mothers to their children, got along quite well, and shortly after the visit, Kalee and all its colonies petitioned for membership to the Empire of the Hand.  A vote in Parliament on the issue was unanimous. 

Shortly after Kalee’s acceptance into the Hand, it became known that the Huk were plotting to cry to the New Republic (whom they were not even a member of), to try to launch another invasion of Kalee, to start the cycle all over again. By doing so, they declared war on the Empire of the Hand.  From his Nightstalker-class assault ship, Grievous, General Sk’ar, with support from Admiral Karyn Faro of Seeker Fleet, launched a pre-emptive strike on Huk.  As the fleet orbital bombarded all other Huk settlements – taking care to utterly destroy all spaceports and ways off-planet, Sk’ar commanded an invasion of the Huk capital, liberated all remaining Kaleesh slaves in the city and personally killed the Yam’rii Queen with his bare hands.  The Hand forces left the surviving Yam’rii in their capital, with no way off their planet and nobody coming to their rescue this time, to starve to death – just as their lies had condemned countless Kaleesh to starvation before the Clone Wars. Probe droids were left in orbit to ensure they don’t escape their well-earned fate.

As a gesture of friendship, then-Govenor Xelarra of Nirauan offered to return to the Kaleesh a sacred relic that Thrawn had managed to acquire for the Hand’s Imperial Museum before his death in 9 ABY – the Mask of General Grievous, which he wanted as the ultimate artistic example of the Kaleesh’s unrelenting warrior spirit.  The Kaleesh declined.  Grievous has ascended to godhood for his people, and the Kaleesh prefer that his mask remain on Nirauan, so all Hand citizens can share in their culture, and pay homage to him. 

[admiral-arelami]

i miss these gay old men

[admiral-arelami]

"Yeah, the galaxy is scary and dangerous, but… everywhere we went, even the worst places, there were good people, too." WHAT A GOOD STAR WARS LINE. The galaxy should be a scary and dangerous place, but ultimately about hope and the light that exists in it. Even if it's just a pinprick of light, a single flame against a galaxy of darkness, that goodness matters. That hope in a terrible time and place matters. Skeleton Crew was a series that was very much Goonies In Space and it stuck to that feeling, but it didn't forget that Star Wars is a story about hope and kindness and caring about other people, even when it's not beneficial to you personally. The people who helped those kids, not because they were personally invested in them, but simply because they cared about other people, that is what the underlying message of a Star Wars show should be about. Skeleton Crew understood the Star Wars assignment.

[admiral-arelami]

Searching for rarepair fics is so uniquely frustrating and rewarding. Out of every fic tagged with your pairing, approximately 55% will have them interact once (once). Another 30% will decpit your rarepair in an unhappy relationship for a single scene so that one of them can break it off and date the other half of the endgame ship.

The remaining 15% of fics are immaculate, divinely inspired masterpieces that fuel you for months and remind you there is good in the world. These are the fics you come back to again and again. I love you, 15%ers. Keep up the good work.

[admiral-arelami]

“I fail to see how you came to that conclusion in the first place-”

“Fuck stars.”

[admiral-arelami]

Next Chiss in my Ascendancy series is Thurfian’s work hubby Zistalmu! I always imagined him very slim and regal compared to Thurfian. I was a bit inspired by Thandruil from the Hobbit when it came to his hair. I wanted to give him a fancier robe but ngl I’m struggling with burnout right especially since I’ve spend 2 straight weeks on just his face trying to capture what I was hearing. I’m gonna be trying some things out with my art style as I just got done with some digital art classes. Let me know if you guys like the new styles or not. I also am thinking about doing some timelapse videos of my drawings if that’s y’all are interested once I get my new ipad! Again love feedback and let me know what else y’all want to see!

[admiral-arelami]

What really kills me about Skeleton Crew being so good is that, at this point, I'm not sure it matters. The ratings have been terrible for the show, despite that I don't think I've ever really seen anyone say anything against it, which I think means that people are just absolutely burnt out on these live action shows and I can't really blame them. I've enjoyed things about all of them, I've enthusiastically loved several of them, but even I'm tired of stories that feel like they're half a story. To the point that, even when one of the shows defies that, it doesn't matter anymore. Skeleton Crew is the first show in a long time that feels like you can actually watch it without feeling like they're holding back something for another season or even another show all together. (Maybe Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi escape this to some degree, but not as well as Skeleton Crew.) I think the idea is that they want that MCU kind of tie-in connectivity, they want a big shared universe that gets everyone hyped up to go watch everything--the problem is that D+ Star Wars just is not good enough or fun enough consistently to pull that off. So little of it is new, it's just filling in the gaps and telling half a story. Even The Mandalorian, which started out so much fun and a breath of fresh air, fell hard into this--it tells half of the story of the fall of Mandalore, it throws in characters that their primary story is in another series all together, it undercuts its own characters' arcs by having major moments take place in spin-off series. Very little feels whole anymore. And you can get away with that when you have a strong series of movies to build a foundation on, like with the originals and the prequels, but Disney has so thoroughly fucked up with the structure and direction of the sequels that what should be fertile ground for covering stories is leaning back harder on the originals and the prequels rather than the sequels. And then the shows themselves aren't building anything new and almost nothing ever finishes. Nothing is a satisfying arc or conclusion because The Story Can't Be Over Yet. (This is why I think OWK and Andor work best, they're leading up to an ending we already know. There is already a built-in end point. Rebels as well had an end point!) I think that's what Disney has really fucked up--almost nothing ever ends because they don't know what's going to be a hit, so they want the option to bring everything back and never let go of anything. They can't give The Mandalorian an actual story arc because they don't know where this story is going. They can't give Ahsoka a complete story because Felony can't let go of her. So even when Skeleton Crew comes along, tells a story that's satisfying in and of itself, has a satisfying conclusion and arc, it doesn't matter because so many people are exhausted and just don't care anymore. And I'm not sure Disney even realizes that's a major problem, because they're too focused on wanting to never let go of anything.

[admiral-arelami]

I need to learn to do scenes & landscape stuff, so i figured I’d copy barbwalken and kobadit’s ezra+thrawn adventure stuff.

[admiral-arelami]

Professor in the making hehehehe

[admiral-arelami]

always funny when people on here have the "ezra would NEVER cooperate with thrawn!!!" discourse because every - and i mean every - argument misses the point that one of the most common narrative tropes in star wars stories is "unlikely allies". a lot of the ~meat~ of star wars is people from opposing sides finding ways to recruit each other for their respective causes. saying that it "wouldn't make sense" is ignoring like, a good chunk of the most interesting and intriguing stories told in this franchise.

[admiral-arelami]

doodle that i’ll revisit eventually fuq it whole canvas