Galactic Empire v. Infinite Empire

WarScarab · Post by **WarScarab** » 2005-08-22 03:16pm

I was playing through KOTOR again when I came across actual numerical info describing the height of the Rakatan Infinite Empire. It stated that they ruled over 500 worlds with a population of 10 billion Rakata and over a trillion slaves. I was wondering if there had ever been any numbers like this given for the height of the Galactic Empire. Seeing as they described the Infinite Empire as 'spanning the galaxy' or somesuch, I'm interested in how they stack up.

President Sharky · Post by **President Sharky** » 2005-08-22 03:22pm

The Galactic Empire had 1 million member systems, with 50 million colonies and protectorates. Its population was over 100 Quadrillion.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-22 03:23pm

Tarkin wrote:This station [Death Star] will be the final link in the chain that binds the million worlds of the empire together!

The Infinite Empire<The Galactic Empire.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2005-08-22 03:25pm

Corusant itself probaly had more poeple in it then the Rakatan Empire at the height of its power.

EDIT:Fixed a typo

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-08-22 03:30pm

'Infinite', as you can tell, is here simply self-aggrandizing hyperbole, something that a mighty lot of cultures/kingdoms/empires are guilty of here on Earth, let alone fictive universes...

WarScarab · Post by **WarScarab** » 2005-08-22 03:40pm

Yeah, I thought 500 planets sounded pretty small, but they sure seemed to stretch out pretty far for only really controlling so little. Dantooine, Tatooine, Korriban, Kashyyyk, Manaan...none of these seem to be in the same area of the galaxy. Also, were they implying the Rakata introduced hyperdrives to the galaxy with both the fall of the Infinite Empire and the advent of hyperdrive travel occurring 20,000 years ago?

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-22 03:44pm

Also, were they implying the Rakata introduced hyperdrives to the galaxy with both the fall of the Infinite Empire and the advent of hyperdrive travel occurring 20,000 years ago?

Tecnically: By Imperial terms, that's 24,000/25,000 years beforehand...

But, yes, I think it's possible that the Infinite Empire introduced Hyperspace travel.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2005-08-22 03:45pm

WarScarab wrote:Yeah, I thought 500 planets sounded pretty small, but they sure seemed to stretch out pretty far for only really controlling so little. Dantooine, Tatooine, Korriban, Kashyyyk, Manaan...none of these seem to be in the same area of the galaxy. Also, were they implying the Rakata introduced hyperdrives to the galaxy with both the fall of the Infinite Empire and the advent of hyperdrive travel occurring 20,000 years ago?

It's 25,000 years ago, and the game did seem to be implying that at least some of the species that used hyperdrive at the beginning of the Republic period had reverse-engineered it from abandoned Rakatan outposts.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2005-08-22 03:47pm

I think even offically said that The Rakata are not the so called "hyperspace aliens" that invented/introduced hyperdrive.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2005-08-22 04:00pm

Lord Revan wrote:I think even offically said that The Rakata are not the so called "hyperspace aliens" that invented/introduced hyperdrive.

There seem to be multiple sources of hyperdrive tech. The Devaronians and either the Givin or Bith developed it on their own supposedly, the Hyperspace aliens introduced it to several others, and so did the Rakata (it is possible that the Hyperspace aliens simply gave it to them as well and they inadvertantly helped spread it.)

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-08-22 04:48pm

There are those other guys, Monks of Somethingorother, who use the Force to travel space. I think they were around before the Hyperspace drives were discovered. And teh Gree seem mighty ancient, and they have very advanced hyperspace technology, those Stargate like things. There appears to be no one 'source' of hyperspace tech, but several.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-08-22 06:55pm

Something just struck me was the part about 10 billion Rakawhatevers and 1 trillion slaves.

Wha? How?

I mean there are, what, six or seven billion people on Earth right now. Are they saying there are nearly as many Humans, right now, as the Raka at their height? How did they control a hundred times their own number in slaves...and why build the Starforge with so few people, it's not like they could man a very big fleet. More than that, five hundred worlds and only about as many people as modern Earth, that doesnt seem to make sense.

I mean i heard people talk about EU minimalism but shoot.

WarScarab · Post by **WarScarab** » 2005-08-22 07:24pm

It was probably just an oversight by whomever was writing the dialogue spoken by Rakata loremasters and computers. The numbers weren't actually spoken by any of the characters, just translated with subtitles, and continuity errors can slip through like that. 500, 1 billion, 1 trillion, those are all pretty generic large numbers. It's entirely possible they didn't realize how large the Galactic Empire or Republic were when they wrote something they figured most people wouldn't root around the dialogue trees long enough to find.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2005-08-22 08:55pm

I mean there are, what, six or seven billion people on Earth right now. Are they saying there are nearly as many Humans, right now, as the Raka at their height? How did they control a hundred times their own number in slaves...and why build the Starforge with so few people, it's not like they could man a very big fleet. More than that, five hundred worlds and only about as many people as modern Earth, that doesnt seem to make sense.

The Rakata have exibited highly advanced droid technology (those spiders.) It is entirely possible that most of their military strength and fleet corps were artificial, and the Rakata didn't participate much in their conquests and slave control operations. After all, when they lost their Force control, which they very well might have used to control their droids, their Empire collapsed very quickly, indicating that they lost much of their military prowess after the epoch occured. Perhaps the Majority of the Rakata population lived on a few densely populated worlds, while colonies of several hundred or so Rakata oversaw rach slave world.

FOG3 · Post by **FOG3** » 2005-08-30 06:48pm

While I haven't actually got my hands on KOTOR2 yet I did notice something in the items list at Game Banshee.

Rakatan band:
This simple device improves the wearer's ability to perceive the reality of their surroundings. The origin behind the item's name is unknown, but rumor has it that these bands were constructed as a defense against a ancient species of alien deceivers, who made absurd claims of dominance concerning their role in the galaxy. It is said this species of lying primitives went so far as to claim credit for almost every major event in galactic history since the discovery of the hyperdrive.

--------

Food for thought.

Srynerson · Post by **Srynerson** » 2005-08-30 11:46pm

18-Till-I-Die wrote:There are those other guys, Monks of Somethingorother, who use the Force to travel space.

The Aing-Tii?

I think they were around before the Hyperspace drives were discovered. And teh Gree seem mighty ancient, and they have very advanced hyperspace technology, those Stargate like things. There appears to be no one 'source' of hyperspace tech, but several.

The Columi also independently developed interstellar travel, although I don't know if they used hyperdrive per se.