So, a lot of us, for fun, read licensed books based on or taking place in a previously established universe, whether it be a video game, a movie, a TV show, or another book. Essentially, a licensed book is professionally written fan fiction that becomes accepted into the canon of that universe.
We all have fandoms. Let's face it, we're all nerds. So, the question is, if a company asked you to write a book for them, and the company owned one of your fandoms, what would you do? Which fandom would it be? What would the book be about? Mind you, it has to be compatible with the canon of your fandom.
For me, I would love if I were one day asked by Lucasfilm/Disney to write a book that takes place in the new star wars canon that was announced a few months ago. Not only would I be able to restore certain events of the expanded universe that was unfortunately made uncanon a few months ago (since, from now on, everything published is canon), but I can also expand the universe on my own terms, even if just a little. I would have contributed. Here is what I would do.
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I created a fan character years ago, "Jake Shan", who was a clone wars veteren who convinced his clones to become rebels, but I had an idea to use it and completely alter the concept.
I would probably call the book “Architect”
I'd do it on Jake Shan, who is a Jedi historian and tactician before the clone wars, who specializes in studying the old republic and the Rakata. He is especially interested in the reason as to why their empire fell so abruptly, but then discovers some obscure documents surrounding the events where it discusses the repetition of history, and the rakatan study of another empire that abruptly fell thirty thousand years earlier. After noticing a trend, he figures out that there is something beyond the galaxy that returns to destroy the galaxy every thirty thousand years and it happened to the rakata and many empires before that, and that they were unprepared, and that they were unable to defeat it due to the leaders being blinded by power
He calculates that the galaxy will be destroyed in approximately sixty standard years, so he devises a hypothetical plan that could unite the galaxy and defeat the threat. Shan spends months of his freetime designing a ruthlessly efficient political system that he believes the Republic should morph into to prepare for the threat, an imperialistic war machine, based on the political structure of the Sith Empire from SWTOR, that strives for order and has elite troopers and massive industrial starship production. He tells the council of his findings, but they do not believe him. In secret, since he is a representative for the jedi on the senate, he takes it to Chancellor Palpatine who is impressed by his governmental structure. Controversially, Palpatine helps Shan publish a manifesto.
Then the Clone Wars break out.
Shan is made a Jedi master and is given a Padawan, and he proves himself a tactical genius, winning many battles due to his efficient manner of commanding his troops and organizing his personal fleet into a war machine. He believes that Clone Troopers can be made into elite soldiers that can be used in his proposed regime. He tells Palpatine then of what he believes is coming, and that the Jedi do not believe him, so together they devise an order called Order 65 that officially conscripts Jedi into the Grand Army of the Republic without hurting them, but Palpatine secretly replaces it with Order 66.
After the death of his best friend, a female jedi master, he adopts her padawan as well, one of the youngest in the order (A thirteen year old female). He is on Utupau with the girl and Kenobi when Order 66 happens and he is confused when the clones start trying to kill him. He thinks Kenobi is dead and escapes, sabotaging the Republic fleet and fleeing the system with the girl. He rushes back to Corascant to save his padawan who is going through the trials, but he was killed by Anakin. He confronts the new emperor and gets pissed about what happened, but he is offered a position in the new empire, which is, in fact, the very same empire that Shan envisioned.
And so, it is, in fact, Shan, a Jedi Knight, who was the architect of the empire…
Shan declines and says that he has unfinished business, so he goes to the temple to meet Yoda and Kenobi and together they tell the Jedi to stay away. Knowing that there is more to the death of the rakata, he vows that he will spend his self imposed exile searching for their ancient homeworld. Before the Clone Wars, he had spent his time as an archeologist searching for ancient rakatan star maps on Dantooine and Tatooine and he believes that they are the key. He and his new padawan, the girl, end up going to the isolated planet of Korriban for a year to search for another map, but the empire arrives to seize the system, so he sends his padawan off on her own, believing she’d be better off on her own away from danger. He finds the next star map, which he believes to be the last one, but is confused when there is one final piece he is missing. When he is discovered by stormtroopers he figures that the best way to hide in isolation would be to do so on a heavily populated world, so he goes to Nar Shaddaa.
He basically gives up after two years and changes his identity. He ends up living in the refugee quad, helping out the homeless, that is until the empire arrives and ends up killing his wife. He is recruited by a rogue clone to join a band of mercenaries, which turns out to be entirely made up of clone war veterans and they operate out of an old venator star destroyer. Some clones he recognizes from his own legion. He eventually becomes leader and goes on various missions for the empire, which is pleased to have an ex jedi ally. On one mission, in about 10 BBY, he is sent to Kashyyk to help the empire quell a rebellion and eliminate a Jedi leading said rebellion. The Jedi turns out to be his padawan, whom he has not seen in eight years. She tells him that she found one final star map on Kashyyk and so he leaves the band and the two of them follow the maps to the rakata homeworld from KOTOR, where they meet an old jedi and his slightly younger wife, who seem to “rule” over what remains of the rakatan population.
A droid, an old HK unit that Shan rebuilt after finding it on Nar Shaddaa, recognizes the man slightly, and also recalls that he dislikes the woman for some reason, believing that she corrupted his old master. The man tells them of Revan and the Star Forge, which was, much to Shan’s shock, not built by the rakatans to conquer the galaxy. It was found by them in another system once they developed lightspeed and they found a warning onboard, telling them that the star forge was created to build a fleet that could be quickly built to defeat the extra galactic invaders when they arrive, and that the race that built it was destroyed, their legacy the star forge to help others defeat the invaders. The civilizations that came before the rakata also found the forge, but became misguided, people becoming corrupted by power and using it simply to subject others and conquer, which was the rakata’s case since they did not use the forge properly and were not prepared when the creatures came. The man then says that Revan was the only one who was able to begin seeing this into fruition. Once he and Malak were corrupted and were sent by Vitiate to find the Star Forge to prepare for his arrival (Vitiate only knew of its existence and not its true purpose) Revan found out why it existed, so began conquering the Republic not for Vitiate, but to protect it from Vitiate, but the true long term goal being to prepare the galaxy for the invaders’ arrival. He was foiled by Malak, who was blinded and only wanted power. The republic destroyed the Star Forge not knowing its true function, effectively dooming future generations. The only other power that could have any hope of fending off the invaders would have been Vitiate’s empire if it were under a wiser man’s control, which happened eventually after SWTOR when the republic teamed up with the Sith Empire to defeat an even older threat, albeit unaware of the extra galactic invaders that were to come. Luckily, Shan had a system devised based after the Sith Empire’s efficient ways, but it was bastardized by Palpatine who, like the corrupted leaders of all civilizations destroyed by the invaders, had lost sight of what the empire’s purpose should have been. That aside, a simple militaristic empire, even with strong leadership, is not enough to defend the galaxy. Only a Star Forge has any chance of defeating them. Finally, the man gives Shan and his old padawan a holocron explaining how to construct a star forge.
The two of them return to the Empire and Palpatine, who, owing much to Shan, the Architect of his empire, gives him control of his old forces once more and even makes him a Moff, controlling armies and multiple star systems. He makes his old padawan, now his lover, a high ranking officer in the Imperial Navy. Realizing the empire is beyond saving, he figures that he needs to rebuild the empire from scratch, so he slowly begins crippling it from the inside. He contacts Rahm Kota and his old mercenary gang to begin fighting a war of attrition against the Empire while he cripples it from the inside, also supplying the new rebel groups with weapons and supplies. He uses his own funding to turn various leaders against one another, but uses a majority of the money to take care of his people, build new star destroyers, and fund a secret project in the Rakata System…the construction of a massive shipyard that will take decades to complete.
Finally, after the Rebel Alliance is formed, Moff Shan secedes from the Empire and creates his own government “The Pure Empire”. His people and armies are all loyal to him because he is good to them. This is how he plans to start his new empire. He then, out of convenience, joins the rebel alliance. While the Alliance fights a war of attrition, the Pure Empire fights a war of conquest, liberating planets to absorb into his own political body, also surrendering some worlds to the Alliance Government. He is also perhaps the largest supplier of rebel starships for the Alliance, but, fearing that no one else in the Alliance will believe him (also hoping that it won’t ruin their morale, since he needs them to help him defeat the empire so they can create a new efficient political system, or empire/new republic alliance, from scratch) he does not tell them of the coming invasion or his secret construction project. As the Galactic Civil War spreads across the galaxy, Shan and his wife openly oppose the empire, hoping to make a difference and wanting to save the galaxy.
In the meantime, construction of the Star Forge continues as scheduled, as it prepares for the coming of the Yuzong Vong
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