#belsavis

[jukkariart]

SWTOR thoughts: Belsavis Prison

I've just arrived on Belsavis with one of my Bounty Hunters. It's been years since I've actually done any planetary quest lines, so I'm making sure I'm picking them up this time. This makes me think, tho: how does the judicial system work in the times of the old republic?

On both sides, we get to see quite the nasty sides of the incarceration in the republic. As a republic player, we encounter a group of inmates who were born on Belsavis and remain locked in there. No actual crimes committed, and yet they are forbidden from leaving, locked up in cells. Sentences inherited from their ancestors, as Nyranos says.

As an imperial player, we see not only people simply held in cells, some are locked in stasis, some frozen in carbonite. From other places, we learn that both stasis and carbonite can keep people alive for centuries. Does this mean that these people will one day be thawed and released? Thawed and allowed to actually die of old age at the end of their sentence, but still locked up on Belsavis? Is this part of the punishment system? From what I understand, in the US for example, you can get multiple life sentences, or your sentences may stack up to like 300 years. Does this happen in the Star Wars world too? Is the lifetime of species taken into consideration? Fifty years of prison time is half human lifetime but like 10% for a Wookiee. Is putting people in carbonite common? For how long? Is this a substitute for solitary confinement? We know this is a dangerous procedure. What if they die?

Also, in one of the imp planetary missions, you get to thaw one of the two groups of criminals. One is murderers and people with 'diagnosed criminal pathologies' (which I feel demands looking into already, but for the sake of this conversation, these are actually people who can't be helped and are volatile and dangerous), but the second group is described as 'agitators of large-scale protests and riots', who are expected to organize other prisoners, but are also expected to be much less violent. Does the republic have a big problem with dissenting voices and protesters? Why keep them in carbonite if they are not an active danger to others? Are the wardens afraid that these are such good organizers that they could protest their and other convicts' way out of this prison planet?

Not sure where I'm really going with this, but I just couldn't help myself and wonder how the more lawful parts of the galaxy, where not crime lords and blasters but bureaucrats and verdicts dictate the fate of the unruly.

[legends-expo]

Please join us in wishing a happy birthday to author Barbara Hambly, best known for her work on Children of the Jedi and Planet of Twilight. Ms. Hambly was gracious enough to join us as a guest at our last event, and we were so thrilled to have her!

Photo by Bill Purcell.

[swtorpadawan]

NPC Headcanon: Lhunu, the Last of the Rakata

@sullustangin tagged me for this one - thanks!

Lhunu, the "nice guy" Rakata the Jedi Consular encounters on Belsavis, is an anomally twice over.

First - he's one of the few "full" Rakata left alive in the galaxy, going along with that one unnamed guy with the Star Cabal (who is never followed up on) and the Imprisoned One on Tatooine (who is basically a supercomputer rather than a biological entity by the time we meet him in the game) Soa (who we kill during the Eternity Vault operation), Gorshaa (who introduces us to the Mother Machine) and a couple of others.

Yes, there are some "feral" Rakata we run into in the "Legacy of the Rakata" flashpoint, but they've obviously deteriorated a lot. Primitive. More on them later.

So he's an outlier as a Rakatan survivor.

Second - He's actually remorseful for what was done to the Esh-kha and to everyone else. Heck, he actually APOLOGIZES to Hallow Voice.

This is unprecedented conduct for a Rakata.

That makes him fascinating to me.

So when @sullustangin tagged me to say what he'd been up to in my Halcyon Legacy, I was totally down for it. I gave it a lot of thought.

I think after he secured the release of Hallow Voice and his Free Esh-kha, Lhunu would quietly make sure that all the other surviving Rakatan technology on Belsavis was neutralized as a threat to the galaxy. (No one liked those Transporters anyway.)

Then he'd slip away. There's nothing keeping him on Belsavis any more.

He'd travel the galaxy for awhile, possibly with a small escort of Rakatan droids. He'd travel discreetly, naturally. Few people know about the Rakatans and their Infinite Empire. (Czerka dis-believes their very existence!) But those who do have little reason to view them with anything other than suspicion and scorn. (And violence.)

I think he'd visit Voss, and consider how many mistakes the Rakata had made concerning Tython millennia ago. Mistakes that led to the creation of the Jedi Order. For awhile he'd think about what might have been before moving on.

Eventually, probably after hearing about the Order of Revan, he would go home to Rakata Prime.

There, he would see how far the mightiest species in the galaxy - arguably the most powerful Empire to ever exist - had fallen.

There's this old Einstein quote: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." He may not have actually said it, but it resonates regardless.

The "modern" Rakata of the SWTOR era are basically fighting with sticks and stones. Yes, they have a small handful of mystics who seem to be using the Force, but they unquestionably sliding backwards.

He mulls his people's fate. Then he gets to work, gathering as much Rakatan technology as he can and making sure no one can ever use that technology to harm the galaxy again.

(Gathering up the Star Forge remnants alone takes him years.)

He is not a total hermit; he and Jedi Master Ulannium Kaarz, the Barsen'thor, remain in contact off and on, though there is a gap when the Jedi retreat to Ossus.

Years later, he reacher out to Ulannium and Corellan with the Eternal Alliance to inform them that Tassar, an exile of Zakuul, is trying to build a new Star Fortress at Rakata Prime. (This is one of the Alliance Uprisings.) He doesn't join the Alliance, but he does stay in touch.

Thanks for the prompt, @sullustangin !

Click here to ask me about other SWTOR NPCs !

[kemendin]

Vault

[wolfynsong]

hanna and i started belsavis today! i could only snag a couple quick scenery shots this session due to time restraints, but i’m going to be exploring a bunch here for sure.

bonus: our cutscene interrupted by an incredibly stylish cowboy

[the-tomato-patch]

[atomic-lola]

SWTOR: The trees of Belsavis

[chaoticspacefam]

"Good day, and welcome to the psychiatric unit. A high-ranking Republic officer has left instructions that I am to restrain a prisoner suffering from a delusion that she is a Jedi."

What the JC says in game: "Did Geland do this???" What Aria probably actually said: "Geland, you MOTHERFUCKER!"

Also I do love how you can break the droid's logic processors but "out-logic'ing" it. That's a very Aria(tm) method. (You'd think she'd just go charging in with her saber and say "fuck it" but no, ya girlie is a glass cannon and she KNOWS it, if she can get by with trickery and deceit she absolutely will)

[sullustangin]

What happens to Komi in your Legacy! (She appears on Belsavis in the Jedi Consular story.)

This took a bit to sort out and I had to replay part of the Consular story to remember her :X ... but I did it! Annnd ... then the plot bunnies invaded.

The trauma of Belsavis's invasion by the Empire, Geland's reveal, and then -- in the middle of all this nonsense -- some smuggler named Eva something-weird showing up and demanding justice for generationally imprisoned criminals: Komi decides that corrections is not for her. Rather, she rather be on the opposite end -- she wants to help kids rather than punish adults. She wants to prevent them from even starting going down a road toward Belsavis or being railroaded by the system.

Komi returns to Coruscant for a graduate degree in Social Work. Then the Eternal Empire shows up...but she continues her studies and finishes about 3 years after the Eternal Fleet Incident. Komi develops a list of therapists that are good with kids. One of them is Frank, and Komi will occasionally escort kids that are part of her casework to Frank, particularly if a parent or guardian.... isn't the best option.

Frank -- they are who they are -- there is no adequate description of Frank. They appear near human, but there are some indications that their family history is very interesting. Frank deals with some of the more complicated cases, because they're the best. Frank is one of the professionals that is on the 'approved' list of therapists for government workers, such as SIS, that have to deal with disturbing and highly classified matter...

Frank will formally be introduced in the next fic I write (about the five years in carbonite).

@swtorpadawan -- I'm going to return the volley to you: what happens to Lhunu? :D

[selfpossesedghost]

Belsavis

[christinethalassinou]

Bad Bitches on Belsavis

[legends-expo]

We are so happy to announce that our next guest for #LegendsCon is the prolific author Barbara Hambly, known to the Star Wars fandom for the classic Expanded Universe novels Children of the Jedi and Planet of Twilight, as well as several short stories. She is a powerful force in the genres of science fiction and fantasy writing with an extensive bibliography of novels and TV writing credits. We are so excited to have her join us!

Photo Credit: Bill Purcell

You can meet Barbara at LegendsCon in Burbank, CA on September 9th & 10th 2023! Tickets are available now on Eventbrite:

[theshijlegacy]

Khay does his thing on Belsavis.

(I swear I am not intentionally doing a Mirialan toon pile-on but they do look good don't they??)

[kemendin]

Every time I do this daily I think to myself 'this is the friggin coolest name ever'. Sith wish they had names as cool as this. I LOVE this.

[hoiist]

Damn Belsavis looks sick