#xim the despot

[longtimespentinagalaxyfaraway]

Xim Miscellany

Since most of the Xim related pieces are pretty short, I'm going to put them all on a thread here and just reblog update on each one as I go.

So first off: Before Xim: The Pirate-King of Argai.

Excerpt from The History of Xim and the Tion Cluster written by Jason Fry for the Essential Atlas and cut due to space (ha). Posted as a cut excerpt on the official Star Wars blog on December 8th 2012.

This excerpt is about Xer, the father of Xim the Despot and a despot in his own right. Includes a map that would have also been included in the atlas if the material hadn't ended up cut:

I thought this bit was in particular really interesting, as we don't see much in this period of Star Wars:

"In this age before reliable navicomputers, ships plying the Ihala Route jumped through hyperspace between navigational beacons, with only the most daring pilots straying beyond this "lighthouse network." Xer's raiders used a wealth of navigational data to await ships in the interstellar dark between systems. The pirates liked to litter the spacelanes with chunks of ice that would trigger ships' collision-avoidance systems, dropping them into realspace; these hazards could later be melted with a fusillade of laser blasts."

So that's a fun tidbit.

Now on to Xim surpassing his father.

[swtechspecs]

War-Robot of Xim the Despot's Empire

Source: The Essential Guide to Droids (Del Rey, 1999)

[sw5w]

I'm in the Boonta Race Tomorrow

STAR WARS EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace 00:48:06

[cantsayidont]

April 1979, October 1979, and August 1980. These novels by Brian Daley were not the first STAR WARS tie-ins, but they were the best of the early phase, and a strong influence on later SW media. The creative success of these exciting, frequently very funny books, which chronicle three adventures of Han Solo and Chewbacca prior to the first movie, had a lot to do with Daley himself. According to Daley's friends and his partner, novelist Lucia St. Clair Robson, Daley was Han Solo, or close to it: a brash military veteran with no love of authority, a fondness for sports cars and motorcycles, and a notoriously sarcastic sense of humor that concealed a heart of gold. Ironically, Daley, who genuinely loved STAR WARS, would have preferred to explore the history of the Jedi, but Lucas declared that off-limits, and imposed many restrictions on what Daley could and couldn't use from the films. For that reason, the novels take place on the fringes of the Empire: The first two books are set in the Corporate Sector, a region administered semi-autonomously by corporate interests with their own ruthless Security Police (an idea that clearly inspired some of the plot of ANDOR), while the third is set in the Tion Hegemony, a remote principality.

HAN SOLO AT STARS' END has Han and Chewie roped into aiding a group of people whose relatives have been "disappeared" by the Corporate Sector Authority, which is quietly rounding up dissidents and sending them to a secret facility called Stars' End. After Chewbacca is captured by the Security Police, Han concocts an elaborate, harebrained scheme to rescue his friend and the other "lost ones" from the galaxy's most closely guarded high-tech prison. Naturally, things don't go quite as planned, leading to a spectacularly ludicrous finale. (Spoiler: Han accidentally launches the prison complex into space.) This novel was subsequent adapted for the STAR WARS newspaper strip by Archie Goodwin and Alfredo Alcala, although the adaptation unfortunately isn't a patch on the original.

HAN SOLO'S REVENGE finds Han and Chewbacca, desperate for cash, taking a job that turns out to involve transporting slaves. This is a line our heroes will not cross, so after dealing harshly with the slavers, Han agrees to help a Corporate Sector Authority auditor named Fiolla of Lorrd track down the ringleaders of the operation, one of whom is her once-trusted assistant, Magg. Meanwhile, Chewbacca is forced to contend with a stubborn skip-tracer called Spray, who is determined to repossess the Millennium Falcon over Han and Chewie's unpaid bills!

HAN SOLO AND THE LOST LEGACY has Han and Chewbacca agreeing to help Han's old buddy Badure, Badure's friend Hasti, and an academic named Skynx locate a legendary lost starship, the Queen of Ranroon, the fabled treasure ship of an ancient tyrant called Xim the Despot. (The skull on the cover is Xim's emblem.) Although this sounds like it was influenced by RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, the book was actually published almost a year before the premiere of RAIDERS.

Although the novels make clear that Han is not overly fond of droids, the books give Han and Chewbacca a pair of droid companions: a laconic old labor droid called Bollux, and a small, extremely sophisticated, disconcertingly enthusiastic computer probe called Blue Max, who "lives" within a compartment in Bollux's chest. Here's how Alfredo Alcala depicted them in the comic strip:

Daley also includes some delightful aliens, including the skip-tracer Spray, who's a Tynnan — basically a sentient beaver with the dexterity of a raccoon — and the Ruurian academic Skynx, a sentient caterpillar who's determined to complete as much of his research as he can before entering the next phase of his life cycle and becoming a chroma-wing who'll have little memory of his former identity.

A useful companion for the first two books is Michael Allen Horne's HAN SOLO AND THE CORPORATE SECTOR SOURCEBOOK for the West End STAR WARS RPG, published in 1993:

Aside from the inevitable game statistics and some quite decent illustrations of the novels' characters, the sourcebook fleshes out Daley's conception of the Corporate Sector Authority, explaining how the Corporate Sector functions and its relationship to the Empire. This is narrated in part by Han Solo himself, which is presented as excerpts of later interviews with an Alliance historian named Voren Na'al (a common conceit in the WEG game books that works especially well here). The sourcebook is best read after the novels, since it explains their plots in detail, but it's a worthwhile supplement. Unfortunately, a planned followup describing the Tion Hegemony was never published before West End Games lost the SW license.

Brian Daley's other major contribution to STAR WARS lore was scripting the NPR radio adaptations of the first three movies. STAR WARS originally aired in the spring of 1981, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK two years later. Daley also wrote the later adaptation of RETURN OF THE JEDI, but he died of cancer in early 1996, at the age of 49, so the final drafts were completed by John Whitman.

[dapurinthos]

one day this chapter WILL be mangled together If I really wanted to be shiak-to-the-eye accurate, I would use turannos but it’s a bit early to be pulling out any knowledge of that name, even though it does refer to any ruler that became that by any means other than the officially sanctioned one, like overthrowing your predecessor. Sometimes by giving them a good sai tok on an airship. Anything related to despot is out, given the automatic association with Xim. Kehriwos has connotations. Sopʰihstās is no longer valid since he left the Order. It’s also too early for lāwākʷetās, as there’s no army to be led. “Hyukʷyihēs hyūmâs, ho Kyómēs Ntoūkou.” “Did you just call him a tooka?” “No! It was an ‘nt’! Ntoūkou!” “Ancient Tionese, if I'm not mistaken,” interjects Sidious smoothly. Of course he recognises the language. “Delta stands for more of a hard th than what we’re used to hearing for a drill, so the sound becomes a nern-trill. Though the accent is more Ossian than one would have heard in the Tion Sector, where it would have been hukʷihēs, I believe.” “Count Tooka.” Rael Averross savours the sound of it.

10 years later:

sidious: tih-ran-US ari: TYU-ran-nos

[mordicaifeed]

[iskelan]

Xim the Despot and his organic warriors, uhlans and yanychars. Sketchy Commission for Abz Lore youtube channel,

[mimasimp]

Empire and Conquests of Xim The Despot

( 25,130 BBY to 25,096 BBY)

[archeo-starwars]

New Xim Exhibit to Tour

LOLA CURICH, LIANNA - "Cradle of the Galaxy," a display of pre-Republic era artifacts will begin a Core World museum tour next month, announced the Allied Tion Historical Society. The artifacts, culled from worlds in the Tion Hegemony, date back over 25,000 years to a time pre-dating galactic civilization, when small pocket societies developed unconnected by modern hyperspace transportation or communications.

The largest of these fiefdoms was commanded by the notorious Xim the Despot. Ximology has enjoyed a steady, if small, following, particularly among treasure-seekers who long to find a fabled horde of plunder allegedly hidden by Xim before his death.

The tour, funded by a donations from Republic Sienar Systems, the House of Tion and the House of Cron, includes priceless samples of ancient technology, such as war-robots, beam tubes, and fragments of a jump-gate accelerator. Interpretive holography provides a full-immersion experience, recreating pre-historic vistas such as the epic Third Battle of Vontor.

"I think it's very important now to look back at our pre-Republic roots, and see what a unified civilization has saved us from," said ATHS Director Alreeda Tion-Hyme. The tour begins at Ralltiir on the 1st, and continues up the Perlemian Trade Route, eventually arriving on Coruscant by next year.

Cradle of the Galaxy -- An Exploration of Pre-Republic History Tour Dates: 13:4:1 - Raltiir: The Cambriele Exploration Auditorium 13:9:1 - Rhinnal: Rhire Concourse of Humanity and History 14:2:3 - Esseles: The Darpa Center of History at Calamar 14:3:1 - Brentaal: The Cormond Museum of Arts 14:5:2 - Chandrila: The Hanna Institute of Antiquities

*Dates are tentative. Contact the museums for pricing and schedules.

[totallynotagentphilcoulson]

Go figure, all it took for me to really start writing Star Wars OC content again was to temporarily abandon the idea I’ve been trying to make happen for over a year focused on my core group of OCs and start a new idea with my newest OC at the forefront instead.

And to type in Comic Sans instead of Times New Roman.

[mortallyclearwonderland]

Star Wars Alien Species - Chironian

The Chironian species was native to the planet Chiron. Chiron was located in the galactic east of the Outer Rim Territories, and fell within the borders of the Kiirium Reaches, a portion of the space that was incorporated into Xim the Despot's empire as early as 25,127 BBY. Legends related that, at the order of Kossak the Hutt, many worlds in the region surrounding the Chironians' homeworld were bombarded and poisoned several hundred years later so as to create a desolate buffer between the remains of Xim's empire and Hutt Space to the galactic south. From this destruction, the Chironians' home sector, which they shared with the Abyssins and the Nyny natives, came to be known as the Ash Worlds.

It was not until 5000 BBY that Chiron fell within territory widely explored by the Galactic Republic, the next major galactic power, although during the Jedi Civil War of 3959 BBY to 3956 BBY, the Chironians' planet fell within Darth Revan's Sith Empire. Chiron was in unaligned territory during the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems; however, after the Republic transitioned into the Galactic Empire, many of the Ash Worlds were interdicted and used for weapons testing and other shadowy activities.

Following the rise of the New Republic in 4 ABY, Chiron fell under its polity. During this time, at least one Chironian was kidnapped as a slave by the Empire Reborn, a secretive movement that sought to recreate the Empire following its defeat by the New Republic. Many years later, during the Yuuzhan Vong War, a conflict between the New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong, a species of extra-galactic invaders, Chiron was thought to be beyond the reach of the aggressors. However, the Yuuzhan Vong succeeded in sending to their world a pack of voxyn—creatures shaped by the Yuuzhan Vong to be naturally inclined to hunt and kill Jedi. The voxyn beset the Chironian Jedi Knight Lusa while she was running through a meadow and killed the woman.

By 137 ABY, following the ascendency of Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire against the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances—the New Republic's successor state—the Chironians' homeworld fell within one of only a few areas of the galaxy still under the influence of the Galactic Alliance.

Chironians expressed emotions through the mannerisms of their hooves: when impatient, they stamped them; when excited, they tapped them in a quick dance, or cantered in a spot. The centauriforms frequently shook their heads and manes, and when angry, their faces flushed a deeper shade. Young Chironians, when frightened, were known to rub or press their velvet-covered horns against the foreheads of other beings to whom they were emotionally close. Chironians could swim, and shook themselves dry after such an exertion.

At least some young Chironians, such as Lusa, a Force-sensitive member of the species, wore no clothing on their bodies, shoulders, torsos or midriffs. In her adulthood, however, Lusa wore a robe on her torso.

The Chironians were a warm-blooded, sentient species with centauriform anatomy; that is, they had the head and torso of a humanoid and the lower body of an equine animal. The Chironian lower body had four legs, similar to that of a horse, and each ended in a dainty, cloven hoof. A Chironian could sit down by folding his or her horse-like legs underneath the body. Chironians were tall, and even while sitting in this manner, they could reach the height of a Human adult. A Chironian could also kick backward with both hind legs; this strong kick was sufficient to knock over other beings. A Chironian's pace could vary between a walk, a canter, and a gallop.

At least some young Chironian had red-gold colored bodies, with white spots on the flanks and back. As Chironians aged, the body color darkened to a rich reddish-brown, like polished cinnamon, and the dappled markings on the flanks faded away. Chironians grew long tails, which they often flicked. The Chironian torso had two arms, which ended in dexterous hands capable of skipping stones across water, administering field medicine, and wielding weapons such as stun sticks.

The Chironian head had two wide, round eyes, which could be red-gold in color, and could weep. The eyes were lidded and had eyebrows. The Chironian head had a nose with two nostrils, and a mouth with full lips. Chironians grew long, curly manes on their heads, hair which was sometimes grown to nearly waist-length and flowed down their backs. Chironian manes darkened with age to a rich reddish-brown color.

Each year, the Chironian head grew two horns above the temples. These horns started as small knobs covered by red-furred velvet; a vascular tissue. Once the knobs had grown sufficiently, they broke through the velvet naturally, emerging as transparent horns, as bright as diamond, cool to the touch and with smooth ridges. However, if the velvet was cut artificially, Chironians could die from the injury. Over time, the horns grew long and sharp enough that adolescent Chironians could use them to gore opponents.

Chironians were strong enough to carry a Human on their backs. Chironians produced a scent that, to Humans at least, smelled of woods and spices.

Chironian age at the following stages:

1 - 10 Child

11 - 16 Young Adult

17 - 39 Adult

40 - 54 Middle Age

55 - 69 Old

Examples of Names: Luna, Sinall, Jefin, Slaturn, Cinall.

Languages: Chironians posses expressive, husky voices, and can speak Galactic Basic Standard, although some speak the language with a heavy accent.

[longtimespentinagalaxyfaraway]

XIM WEEK

OKAY, so as I posted previously, I had to rearrange the order of the pieces about Xim the Despot as I found out I had placed some of them where I didn't want them (This is bound to happen when you have a general familarity with 90% of Legends canon but have not read it all, lol)

So here is the updated section as it is in my spreadsheet now:

Before Xim: The Pirate-King of Argai (Fry, Jason) - Pub. date 2012-12-08, Canon date c. 25,150 BBY - 25,130 (In: The History of Xim and the Tion Cluster)

The Despotica, Part II: The Pirate Prince (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-09, Canon date c. 25,130 BBY (Hyperspace)

The Despot Triumphant (Fry, Jason) - Pub. date 2012-12-08, Canon date c. 25,130 BBY (In: The History of Xim and the Tion Cluster)

The Lost Thrones of Xim (Fry, Jason) - Pub. date 2012-12-08, Canon date c. 25,130 BBY (In: The History of Xim and the Tion Cluster)

War with the Hutts (Fry, Jason) - Pub. date 2012-12-08, Canon date c. 25,105 BBYThe (In: The History of Xim and the Tion Cluster)

Hero of Hutts (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-08, Canon date c. 25,105 BBY (In Hyperspace - The Despotica: Part I)

Wise Investments (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-08, Canon date c. 25,105 BBY (In Hyperspace - The Despotica: Part I)

Kossak's Trap (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-08, Canon date c. 25,105 BBY (In Hyperspace - The Despotica: Part I)

Kossak's Trap: One... (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-08, Canon date c. 25,105 BBY (In Hyperspace - The Despotica: Part I)

Kossak's Trap: ...Two... (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-08, Canon date c. 25,100 BBY (In Hyperspace - The Despotica: Part I)

The Gleam of Kiirium (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2013-12-03, Canon date c. 25,100 BBY

Kossak's Trap: Final Preperations (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-08, Canon date c. 25,100 BBY (In Hyperspace - The Despotica: Part I)

Kossak's Trap: ...Three (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-08, Canon date c. 25,100 BBY (In Hyperspace - The Despotica: Part I)

The Despotica, Part III: Xim at Vontor (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-10, Canon date c. 25,100 BBY (Hyperspace)

Death of the Despot (Kogge, Michael) - Pub. date 2009-12-08, Canon date c. 25,100 BBY (In Hyperspace - The Despotica: Part I)

.... Did I just spend like 30 minutes formatting this like it's a bibliography in a jedikriffing thesis?

Yes. Yes, I did.

[oh-no-eu-didnt]

Boonta Hestilic Shad’ruu was a Hutt warlord who predated the Republic. Leader of the Hutt colony on Ko Vari (which was later renamed in his honor), Boonta became a powerful military commander, and was responsible for defeating the Empire of Xim the Despot. Boonta Eve was named a holiday to honor his victory.

Source: The Essential Guide to Warfare (Art: Bruno Werneck; 2012)

[legendaryexgamer]

A Sourcebook detailing the exploits of Xim the Despot, the overall history of the region.  Planets, locales, ships, vehicles, droids, personalities and more of the Tionese Sector.

[therapardalis]

Headcanons for Thera’s Star Wars verse:

(The basic backstory for the verse is on the ‘About’ or ‘Verses and AUs’ links.)

(Middle Earth headcanons here.)

1. Her ship is named the Nocturne Wing, after the callsign of the marine squad she used to lead. It’s a YT-1930 freighter, with a bunch of modifications that I’m sure I made a post about but I can’t find just now (more on this later when I do) Found it!.

2. She’s a smuggler - or rather she’s a cargo hauler who leans very easily toward running contraband as well. She will not transport Spice or non-sentient life forms, and if anyone even suggests carrying slaves she will end them on the spot.

3. Bounty hunting is a sideline. Again she’s selective on which jobs she takes, and unless she has a personal stake in something it’s not an important enough sideline that she’ll kill or die to bring a bounty in.

4. She works for a Hutt. For the Prequel and Classic eras it’s Durga Besadii, in the Sequel era his descendant Braga Besadii, in both cases based on Nar Shaddaa rather than Nal Hutta. Her job description runs through smuggler, pilot, bodyguard, enforcer, spy and occasional assassin. She also sometimes wears the skimpy clothing and pretends to be a dancing girl, hostess or pretty-little-thing rather than be obvious security.

5. She has a greater-than-usual respect for Hutts in general, given that they’ve held their own turf for millennia, and more specifically they defeated Xim the Despot, who is an historical Big Badass Deal around her home system in the Tion Cluster.

6. Following from that, since she works for Durga and he and Jabba hate each other’s corpulent guts, she avoids Tattooine whenever possible.

7. Of her old Marine Squad, Roybe Malais (heavy weapons) now works in security (for senators in the Prequel era), Vezpin Yenks (tech specialist) is at Kuat Drive Yards, and Corrigan De Trooge (demolitions) is a freelance explosives expert for mining companies in the Outer Rim. Thera knows where they are but she’s not telling anybody.

8. Thera’s own specialities within the squad were leadership, piloting, strategy, ancient/exotic weapons and banthashitting chain of command.

[opinions-about-tiaras]

I’m sure this is already in the notes somewhere, but what the hell.

The Hutts USED to be a clan-based society of warriors. Take Jabba. Now imagine that he’s immensely heavily muscled and can move a lot faster than you think he can. Now cover him in really heavy armor, armor thick enough to stop blasters and lasers. Put a huge giant fuckoff weapon in his hands. THAT was the Hutt “ideal” back thirty thousand years ago. (Obviously they had scientists and workers and whatnot to.)

The Hutts were a power in the galaxy; they stood off real ancient badasses like Xim the Despot. They also destroyed their original homeworld and almost their race through constant infighting.

So the Hutts set out to deliberately reform their society by channeling their competitive impulses into subtle, deliberate, behind-the scenes combat. The various clans (kajidics) would still fight and compete with each other, but for influence, power, wealth, that sort of thing. No more orbital bombardments; instead, more like corporate takeovers and backroom dealings.

This worked, and it also combined with the fact that Hutts are a truly racist society (they don’t think any non-Hutt is really a real person) of slavers to develop skills that made them pretty good at crime lording. Because they don’t give a shit about treating other species with respect and dignity, and were ruthless and skilled manipulators, that gave them a real in to becoming a force in the galactic underworld. They use their dominance there to both enrich themselves personally and for the “good” of all Hutts by keeping first the Republic and later the Empire from conquering their slice of the galaxy. They’ve stood off Sith invasions, galactic dark ages, and all manner of fuckery from within their enclaves on the rim because they’re just that great at playing the soft power game.

As for how you can have a whole race of Jabbas... slaves. That’s how. Once they got off-world they started enslaving the shit out of people. That frees up the ruling class to play their own aristocratic games.

Some Hutts have engaged productively with the wider galaxy. There was a Hutt Chancellor! Blottus the Hutt was Chanceller of the Republic for like a hundred and fifty years and is regarded as one of the best ones.

I had an official novelization of Return of the Jedi when I was a kid and it described Jabba as being bloated, immobile, slimy, misshapen, and hairless all due to his lifestyle and unspecified diseases.

Which all implies a healthy Hutt would be sleek, maneuverable, symmetrical and have either luxurious hair or a coating of fur, like some sort of ferret-naga.

That we assume every alien we see is representative of its species is so cheap and I wish the expanded Universe and expanded actual canon hadn’t run with the idea that all hutts are essentially more Jabbas, right down to criminal proclivities and ruthlessness. How would that even work.

How would a whole planet of just a million Jabbas ever conceivably even hold a society together long enough to make it into space?

Did someone help them? What dipshit gave all these fucking Jabbas access to space travel? Jar Jar?