Alternate SW timelines

[Battlehymn Republic]

I suppose this could go into the Fanfics forum, as well.

Has anyone seen any good alternate SW timelines? I'm particularly interested in ones that either chart a different course post-Endor or a different Galactic Civil War.

Star Wars MUSH has a really good one, with no less than three Imperial Civil Wars after Endor.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Where's the link to the timeline.

I'm working on an alternate or adjusted timeline and a fic universe (think the DrakaFic concept for SW EU, looking for others interested), and I'm interested.

[FedRebel]

How about this...

1. The Commando team on Endor fails (they never meet the Ewoks, Lt. Retard asks for ID from Han when he's in the AT-ST, stormtroopers shoot first and arrest laster)

2. The Rebel fleet is destroyed.

3. The DS2 is completed

4. All opposition to Imperial rule is obliterated

5. The Vong are massacred at Vector Prime and the Empire aggressively pursues their extinction

....there's your SW AU

[Battlehymn Republic]

Where's the link to the timeline.

My error. There's no direct timeline (as far as I can find), but the SW MUSH itself is basically an alternate universe that sketches out a different post-ROTJ world. You can get the gist of it looking up articles such as Galactic Civil War. Though be warned that since it's one of those fan timelines, there are a lot of original characters, and a few original governments such as the Caspians and the Griffon Alliance, which were playable factions that had some roles in the overall metaplot.

The Imperial civil wars are particularly fascinating.

[phongn]

I've actually been working on one off-and-on for the last few months (Chris O'Farrell has seen it). Our POD is the Battle of Yavin.

[Ender]

I was working on one for a while - it had Palpatine killed shortly into the Clone Wars. Dooku won, set up a CIS, Anakin never fell, but Jedi still destroyed, etc. Picked up 20 years later when the Rebellion (made of the former Republic/Empire and thus much much nastier) tried to get in contact with the Jedi remanants.

It is on my backburner now, along with my redoing Star Trek as a hard scifi space opera, SG-1/SW crossover ("You mean I can just buy a huge honking space laser?"), expanding my Replicators in Trek short story, ST XI movie idea, and Hogwarts Year 5: Harry Potter and the Skull of Kemmler (Instead of Umbridge the new DADA teacher is a certain Warden from Chicago).

I should really get back to work on that. Maybe after I update my Holocron and wrapp up my Starship Trooper essay.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I have always wanted tpo see a timeline where the Empier both loose, and win...

Basically Palps Dies, But the Executor is NOT destroyed. When Palps dies, it leads the scatterd forces to route the Rebels. No one holds back and the Executor and other ISD's shred the Rebels..

Hopefully, with the command staff of the Executor as well as the DeathStar intact, the Empier can recover from the loss of Palps without the Insanity of his "Dark Empier" stunts.

[Surlethe]

I am partial to the idea of a completely rewritten EU. There were a couple of threads on this a while ago: one here, for instance.

[Battlehymn Republic]

Two other "Imperial civil war" type conflicts I've found in fanfiction. Both from AU stories, naturally.

Darquecyder 6's "A Simple Decision." Set in one of those Leia on Tatooine, Luke on Alderaan universes. Kind of amusing, really- Leia is of course mechanically inclined, but is also Biggs' lover and for some reason Obi-Wan is present in her life as a distant weird uncle. Luke is as passionate to the Rebel cause as Leia was, but instead of a master diplomat he's a teras kasi-toting bad-ass trained by this guy. I like this story for a lot of its eccentric touches- Leia's droid is R5-D4 (who got shafted in the film) even though she buys the other two droids, and she's accompanied by a jawa shaman and an AWOL stormtrooper when she leaves Tatooine with Ben. I suppose it's a bit EU wanky in the sense that it incorporates a lot of the stuff that we know "in retrospect", so a lot of the expanded details are included, which makes it rather less nice and simple than the classic films. For one thing, there is no Battle of Hoth- the Rebellion relocates to Rexus Prime of all places, where Luke discovers some KOTOR artifacts. And both Kyle Katarn and Jerec are present during the Battle of Yavin.

The Imperial schism occurs between its alt-ANH and ESB. Zaarin's behind it, but he basically links up with a lot of EU and original characters, not to mention people like Moff Trachta.

The other one is one Darth Yoshi's Infinites stories ("The Apprentice", "The Warrior","The Master", "I, Sith", all can be found here. They begin in an alternate TPM, where the Jedi Council refuses to train Anakin and he's taken in by Dooku instead. I kind of skimmed "The Apprentice", because I wasn't too interested in it (it was written in 2002-3), so it seemed a bit dated, but it ended with Amidala becoming a fake Force-user (with powers artificially boosted by the Kaiburr Crystal and her connection to Anakin), basicaly a weak Lady of the Sith. Luke is raised by her as an Emperor's Hand, Leia is still Bail's foster daughter, and there's a lot of stuff going on with Corellia (which is naturally a very autonomy-minded planet that's really disloyal to about everybody). In any case, in this version, Tarkin believes that Palpatine has sold out his own values, and basically takes the Death Star over Corellia and rallies a section of the Imperial Fleet to defect with him. However, only a few admirals do, including his successor Daala and the EU-character General Loor, and the "Tarkin Confederacy" never really gets a lot of support nor success, though they do have the Death Star. I'd guess it would be akin to Himmler and other hardliner Nazis trying to secretly oust Hitler because they view him as old and weakened, except in this case Hitler can Force-choke you from light-years away. Which makes the story a bit hard to swallow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personally, the sort of alternate devolution of the Empire I'd make is influenced by some of these AU's, as well as ideas from threads like the aformentioned one that Surlethe linked to.. The underlying idea I guess is kind of like an alternate history where the Third Reich doesn't fall, but is caught up with internecine conflict following Hitler's decline. And so it ends up with ironic scenarios like that of The Man in the High Castle, where ironically you're more inclined to support the horrific Heydrich than the rather more sane Goering. I'd split the Imperials into three vaguely drawn camps of different sizes (the last is the least) following Endor- you'd have one populated by New Order hardliners who believe in preserving Palpatine's ideals and policies (and probably would fall over themselves in rushing to worship him if he- or a canny enough impostor- returned), one populated by Tarkin technocrat state terrorizers, and one populated by his scattered Dark Jedi apprentices, inquisitors, and dark prophets trying to create a new Sith Empire (though seeing as how all of them are relatively weak, scattered, and caught up with in-fighting, all they can really do is subvert state appratus to their power, gather cultist followers, and try to summon one of those Force ghosts to help them). And in the background, of course, is a lot of rival moffs and admirals playing warlord. It's a bit like the Russian/Chinese Civil War- there's a few major (ideologically-aligned) factions, but there's a lot of local warlords as well.

I'd try to model this conflict based on the French Revolution, possibly, with differing factions gaining power but with limited control of the state and never for a long time. (It's also a bit like the SW MUSH history, I guess).

[Darth Yoshi]

Just to clarify, however, I am not the Darth Yoshi in question, as I have never released any fanfiction.

[Molyneux]

I have always wanted tpo see a timeline where the Empier both loose, and win...

Basically Palps Dies, But the Executor is NOT destroyed. When Palps dies, it leads the scatterd forces to route the Rebels. No one holds back and the Executor and other ISD's shred the Rebels..

Hopefully, with the command staff of the Executor as well as the DeathStar intact, the Empier can recover from the loss of Palps without the Insanity of his "Dark Empier" stunts.

..."Empire". Sorry to make a nitpicky post, but reading yours literally gave me a headache.

That would be an interesting AU to read, though.

[Sidewinder]

My favorite AU is Darth Fanboy's. Some of my own ideas for AU include:

1) Dooku kills Palpatine in front of Anakin and tries to recruit the young Jedi. Anakin goes nuts and kills Dooku. After the battle, he learns that he was named as Palpatine's heir in the late Supreme Chancellor's will-- he's not interested in the money he'll inherit, but the fact that he was named as Palpatine's heir leads to the other Jedi becoming suspicious of Anakin's motives. An angry Anakin leaves the Jedi Order and moves to Naboo with Padme. Years later, Anakin founds an "orphanage" for Force sensitive children-- basically, a rival Jedi Order-- and, riding on the goodwill generated by the many charities he set up with Palpatine's money, runs for politics. Chaos ensues as the Jedi try to deal with this upstart.

2) Luke runs away from home and, under the alias "Solid Snake," joins the Imperial Navy and becomes a TIE fighter pilot. At the Battle of Yavin, he unknowingly destroys Biggs' X-Wing to save Vader-- the Rebel attack fails, and the base is destroyed. When Vader meets the man who saved his TIE x1, he learns of Luke's real name, and decides to train Luke to be his apprentice. Meanwhile, Palpatine gets his hands on Leia, and begins to train her to replace Vader. Chaos ensues when Vader and Luke rebel, taking the "Metal Gear"-- a shrunken Death Star with a fully functional superlaser-- with them.

[Battlehymn Republic]

Fanfiction aside, is Tarkin a good candidate for a rebellion/attempted coup within the Imperial government itself, in the same way Zaarin was for the military? He's the head of a strong ideological faction that could win the support of many other moffs and governors. He's in charge of the Death Star. Of course, it's not as if he could really take the throne, and there's not much of a reason for why he would turn on Palpatine.

[Darth Fanboy]

Fanfiction aside, is Tarkin a good candidate for a rebellion/attempted coup within the Imperial government itself, in the same way Zaarin was for the military? He's the head of a strong ideological faction that could win the support of many other moffs and governors. He's in charge of the Death Star. Of course, it's not as if he could really take the throne, and there's not much of a reason for why he would turn on Palpatine.

I can't really tell if Tarkin could have overthrown Palpatine or would have tried to. But with Vader over his shoulder I think it was a moot point because one wrong move and his windpipe couldn't be any more crushed if you had dropped an AT AT on top of it.

But he is indeed a good candidate for one, he had enough ambition that is for sure. If Tarkin thought it possible (withlittle risk to himself or with a plan he thought sure to work) then he would have made an attempt.

EDIT:

Just want to add that this is speculation on my part.