Jackdaw

[Denied] Captain Adam Exodus

Your character, who apparently has Sith ancestry, was born on the capital world of the Republic, was given a misappropriated lightsaber by his mother, briefly joined the Jedi Order (maybe?) despite not being force sensitive, dropped out of the Jedi Order, traded his lightsaber to a homeless man, and was recruited to join the Imperial Army.

This character construction suggests, at best, an insufficient understanding of the setting.

We do not have particularly high standards. The Persistent World is meant to be an inclusive roleplaying experience appropriate for all writing levels. That said, we do require that applicants have some understanding of the Star Wars setting and create characters appropriate to that setting. The sheet presents a character that, for a long list of reasons, is entirely disconnected from the Star Wars setting and cannot be accepted without a substantial overhaul.

The GM team has put a great deal of effort into creating guides that are intended to guide prospective players who are unfamiliar with the setting in their character creation efforts. I would consult those in the editing process, as well as the Star Wars Wiki.

[Coruscant, 6 ATC 4] A House Divided II: A Little Wrong

Towler – Offices of Senator Towler

---

It was a slow day.

Until they had word about the Outworlds Resources amendment, there wasn’t much to be done. The last few other amendments had already been forwarded to the drafting team and were in the process of being incorporated at that moment. Towler found himself with little to do in the meantime and occupied himself with meaningless tasks. He reread the morning issues of the Star-Herald and the Galactic Times. After that, he checked in on the Avenue Journal and Y’Toub Post. He went through the various media channels from Loronar, Byblos, and Hosnian Prime as well, and when nothing caught his eye he moved on to his holomessages. Then his personal messages.

Then, as a last resort, to the legislative proposals docket.

He rarely bothered reading them. Thousands of bills were proposed every year, but if a bill was worth voting for, you’d hear about it. If a bill crossed Towler’s desk without an endorsement or an interesting headlining sponsor, it remained unread until someone gave him a reason to look at it.

He was just in the middle of reviewing an exceedingly ill-conceived proposal outlining a payment of several billion credits to the Sith Empire for the repurchase of several annexed border worlds when the light about his office door lit up, signaling a visitor.

“Come in,” Towler said, setting down his datapad.

The door slid open, and Roker stepped in. “I just got off the phone with Teft. The amendment’s passed. I’ve already sent it to the drafting team,” the chief of staff reported.

“Excellent to hear. Let the undersecretary know we’ll have it to her by the end of the day,” Towler said. “Looks like our Pantoran friends came through.”

“Senator Pharliis wasn’t at the meeting, actually.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Towler asked, disinterestedly.

“I’m not sure. There are rumors going around, though. I heard her chief of staff was found, ah, passed away this morning,” Roker said. “But I haven’t gotten a confirmation on that.”

“Hm,” Towler said. That was something. When he’d visited the Pantoran senator’s office he had been keenly aware of the relative age difference between his staff and hers. It almost seemed that Pantora was being represented by a group of children. It certainly didn’t seem likely that any of them were looking at death by natural causes in the near future. “Well, if you get confirmation of that, send over flowers. Same florist as usual, and make sure they’re nice.”

“Of course, sir,” Roker answered. Towler noticed a flashing indicator on his datapad’s screen. “Anything else I can do for you, sir?” The indicator was a bright, pulsing white, of a tone and size reserved only for the most important people in the galaxy (and Mrs. Towler).

“No, Paul, I think that’ll be all,” Towler answered, opening the notification with a swipe of the holographic projection. Roker nodded and stepped out, the doors sliding shut behind him, while Towler considered the holomessage he’d just received from the President of Hosnian Prime.

FT:

Congress looking to deploy joint PDF/SDF TF against F Cor in conj w/ GRN. SC coalition possible?
Pres. BC

Towler was rarely surprised, but he found himself reading and rereading the message to make sure he understood it properly. This was partially due to the President's apparent reluctance to write out her words in full. Once he'd convinced himself, he reached for his desk holocomm and dialed the Secretary-General of Loronar.

[Coruscant, 6 ATC 4] A House Divided II: A Little Wrong

Towler – The Trentana Café

---

Artificially managed evening settled in on Coruscant’s Federal District with the assistance of the planet’s enormous orbital mirrors, and the well-dressed diners on the sky patios of the Trentana Café found themselves looking out on a twinkling sea of light in the darkness. The Senate building was lit with a soft blue that night, the structure ringed with white lights in more of the windows than not. Government never truly slept at the center of the galaxy.

“This is delicious,” Towler said, swallowing the last of the steak and setting the silverware down.

“Amazing what money can buy, isn’t it?” Callum Rensler said, leaning back in his chair across from Towler, dark eyes narrow in the fading light. Towler gave him a pursed smile.

It was just the two of them at dinner. Towler knew, as soon as Rensler had called, that it was about the seizure bill. Rensler wasn’t a social friend these days.

“Directly to business. I like it,” Towler said. He certainly did not like it. He had a long working relationship with many of the Federal District’s lobbyists, Rensler in particular. Ku’lya Kast had held the Loronar Corporation account for a solid eighteen years of Towler’s career, right up until Ven Panteer had poached the contract from Rensler. Towler hadn’t worked as much with Rensler since, as the lobbyist had gone on to work other interests outside the scope of Towler’s constituency. Corellian interests, specifically.

“The seizure bill is going to die, Towler,” Rensler said. “The CEC won’t let it happen. That’s a fact you need to accept.”

“You sound like me, Callum, I’m glad I’ve rubbed off on you after all these years,” Towler answered. “But it’s early days yet, and we’re a long way from the floor.”

“The CEC has written twenty million credits’ worth of checks in donations today alone, Fosten,” Rensler parried. “There’s going to be another twenty million credits tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. The CEC is willing to empty the war chest killing this bill.”

“And here I thought this was a social call,” Towler said with a smirk. “I think you’re bluffing. The seizure bill in its current form allows only for a temporary occupation. No more than hwhat's necessary to protect the Republic's interest in the shipyards,” he continued, reaching for the glass of whiskey beside his plate. “I don’t see the CEC wasting its extensive resources to avoid a temporary seizure.”

“Is the duration at the discretion of the Chancellor?”

“We don't have the legal language down yet,” Towler said sourly, knowing full well where Rensler was going with this train of thought, "but that's my expectation.”

“A temporary suspension at the discretion of the Chancellor is as good as permanent. If Free Corellia holds out for ten years, does that mean the CEC operates as a state-owned entity for a decade?” Rensler asked pointedly. Towler saw an opportunity.

“Are we arguing over the sale or the price? What if the bill had a hard cap on the length of the time the Republic could occupy the shipyards? Say, six months?” Towler said.

“Don’t misunderstand me. There’s no room for compromise,” Rensler retorted sharply. Towler pursed his lips and took a sip of the whiskey.

He spoke again after a long moment. “You have to see there’s a compelling interest in securing the shipyards, Callum,” Towler tried. That was weak. Better to not say anything than say something weak. This was not going well. He was being stonewalled at every turn.

“What I think has nothing to do with it. I represent the CEC, and if the CEC doesn’t see a compelling interest, neither do I. This is not a negotiation,” Rensler said. Now that was not true, Towler knew. Rensler represented the CEC, yes, and it was his job to represent the CEC’s interests, yes, but it was also his duty to advise the CEC. What Rensler thought mattered very much as far as advising the CEC went. Towler stayed silent, taking another swig from the glass, and waited for Rensler to speak again. “Could you put a time limit on the possession?”

There it was. The lawyer's ethical obligation to keep the client fully informed. “Maybe. I can’t guarantee anything, but I can try.” Towler thought about it. “For every senator who wants to pass a bill that’s fair to both the Republic and Corellia, there’s another who wants to hurt the CEC so their corporate sponsors can take a piece of the Republic’s naval budget for themselves.”

“Hosnian Prime,” Rensler said coolly.

“You might very well think that, but I certainly couldn’t say,” Towler said. He could, though. Hosnian Prime, Chair World of the South Colonial Caucus, had just finished a massive shipyard in orbit over the planet the previous year, and while private business was booming, they were looking for a seat at the military contracts table. That table that was opening up as Corellia fell out of favor with the Republic, which meant Hosnian Prime was eager to keep up the pressure. “Ask your people if they’d be able to work with a six-month limit on the possession.”

“Four months. They won’t take it, but I’ll float it. It’s an invasion of Corellian autonomy and they won’t stand for that.”

“Fine, float four months too, if you have to. If it’s really an absolute ‘no’ based on the principle of the matter it won’t hurt, but if we’re haggling over the terms they might as well know the option's on the table,” Towler answered. Rensler reached for his own glass and took a sip of liquor, considering the offer.

“Fine. But I have to tell them that you can’t guarantee a delivery on that,” Rensler said.

“I can only do what I can.”

“If the CEC turns the offer down, I’d advise you to give up, Fosten,” Rensler warned. “The CEC will find the projects you care about and kill them, and they’ll find the projects your opponents care about and pour money into them. The only winners are the people who oppose you. Someone else might be sitting in your office in a couple of years.”

That was a threat, and Towler didn’t like threats. He shifted in his seat, taking his time as he collected his thoughts. Rensler watched him expectantly. Aware that he had struck a nerve, maybe? Towler couldn’t tell. Rensler was hard to read, which made him an excellent choice for an advocate and a poor choice for an adversary.

“Let's not say things that'll make us look foolish when the cards are played out," he began, doing his best to keep the venom out of his voice. Cooler heads always prevailed in these talks, he knew well enough. Rensler lifted his chin a bit. Defiance, Towler figured.

“The Rim Faction hates the CEC because it’s a corporate monolith that receives all the favorable treatment in the galaxy from the Republic,” Towler continued, slowly and deliberately, setting his elbows on the table as he spoke, “and the Core Faction hates Corellia because it refuses to stand with the Republic as part of a unified galactic state. The CEC has far fewer friends than you’d like to pretend, Rensler, and I've always found it very difficult to win on the Senate floor without a few of those.”

“Money makes more friends than ideologies. We don’t have to be enemies, Fosten,” Rensler said. “If you want to come over to the winning side, you have my number.”

“I agree. We don’t have to be enemies. If your client comes around to see that the value in compromising with the Republic outweighs the cost of ‘winning,’ if that's what you'd call wasting billions on a losing fight, you have mine,” Towler answered. “I’ll propose a time-limit to the possession to my side if you propose it to yours.”

“They won’t take it, but I’ll run it by them anyway. It was nice seeing you again, even if we’re on opposite sides this time around,” Rensler said, and he stood to leave.

“Likewise,” Towler said, and honestly at that. He liked Rensler, circumstances aside.

“Don’t worry about the bill, by the way. Dinner’s on the CEC tonight,” the lobbyist said, buttoning his jacket and turning away. Towler watched him leave, and then looked into the shallow finger of liquor that was left in the bottom of his glass. Much less than half-full, far more than half-empty.

[Coruscant, 6 ATC 4] A House Divided II: A Little Wrong

Towler - Offices of Senator Towler

---

“The Chair wants to start putting together a vote count for the seizure bill. We want to build a list of people we’ll have to push to our side of the aisle,” Casmir’s voice came over the comm.

Casmir Covost, Senator for Byblos, was the closest thing Towler had to a supervisor. He was the Vice Chair for the South Colonial Caucus, a position Towler had deeply wanted but lacked the capital to secure. Towler’s corporate supporters on Loronar had deep pockets, but there were few who could match BlasTech, and Covost had a talent for shaking down Byblos’s military-industrial complex for the benefit of the galaxy and, more importantly, himself.

“I hear you, Casmir, we’ll put out interest letters before we leave today,” Towler answered.

“Thanks, Fosten,” Casmir said crisply, and he hung up. Towler considered Roker, who stood in the far corner of the conference room, sunken eyes watching and waiting. Iyla, sitting across the table, sat with a datapad, ready to work.

“The seizure bill is happening,” Towler said, stating the obvious. “Let’s use the same list we used for the initial interest letters with the mining bill. That had a good cross-section, I liked it.”

Iyla smiled. “Thank you. I’ll have those out before the end of the day.”

“And let me know where the Axis Caucus stands on this as soon as we hear, especially Tychus. This bill will be a lot easier to pass if the Axis supports it.” That was crucial. Corellia had enjoyed a special autonomy thanks to the role it played in the founding of the Republic, and the seizure bill’s proponents needed a strong, unified show from the founding worlds. If founding worlds like Alsakan stood apart from the pack, the message of the seizure being for the greater good of the Republic would lose its legitimacy as the moral high ground, and quickly.

“Of course,” Iyla said. “Anyone else you’re interested in particular?”

“We could use a face for the bill,” Roker suggested. “Someone with a proven track record of putting the Republic first. Someone with service history?”

“No, there’ll be war heroes on both sides of the issue. We need something rarer if we want to put a face on the bill,” Towler answered, thinking. Not an advocate for war, but someone who could represent the gravity of losing the CEC shipyards to Free Corellia. “What about one of the governments-in-exile? We lost dozens of worlds to the Sith. If we had co-sponsorship that represented the impact of losing our military-industrial base, that might mean something to the constituents.”

“T’Sombe?” Iyla suggested. “Senator for Amar? She’s a hero of the war refugee crisis. She was a major leader in evacuating her homeworld and resettling the Amaran people.”

“Now that,” Towler said, pointing a finger at the Twi’lek, “is some damn good thinking. Make sure she’s on the list and let me know where she stands as soon as we hear.”

“Thank you, sir,” Iyla said, and she excused herself to return to her desk.

Towler leaned his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers. “Today’s been a good day.”

“Very productive, sir,” Roker agreed, unmoving. “What’s the next step for Senator Pharliis?”

“That was expensive, Roker,” Towler said. “We need to make that shipyard work somehow, and that means we need to tackle Alzoc III.”

Alzoc III and the Talz people had long been the center of the Sujimis Sector. The lone Republic military starbase in the sector, a relatively small-scale installation but formidable nonetheless, orbited the planet and served as the primary refueling and repair station in that corner of the galaxy. It had been heavily damaged during the last years of the war, and word was that the Armed Forces committee felt that finishing the repairs and expanding the base into a full-scale installation was the best approach to securing the sector. That would leave Pantora without a case for a base.

“Teft will have my head if I lead the charge against his base,” Towler started, “so we’ll need to go through backchannels to make it work. We have to move people toward the idea that Pantora is the better place to put the base without getting our hands dirty.”

“That’s hard even if we’re open about it, the Alzoc III base was a sound location for the base during the war,” Roker said.

“I know,” Towler said. And then he smiled. “But we lost the war, didn’t we? And that’s all the public cares about. You still have your media contacts? Leak this to press,” Towler said, pausing a moment to think of the words, “’Doubling Down on Losing Strategies.’ Five-word headline. The angle is just what it says, the Armed Forces committee is putting money into ideas that failed us during the war and will fail us in the future. We need a new strategy to secure the Outer Rim.”

“Pantora.”

“Exactly.”

[Approved] Amar Senator O'Keemi T'Sombe (Amaran)

Approved!

[Approved] Amar Senator O'Keemi T'Sombe (Amaran)

A few things that I’ll need prior to approval.

First, please please change the font color. This shade of blue against the RPG color scheme was a lil difficult to read. It can stay blue, but like a lighter shade at least if you could because my eyes hurt.

First, and this one's optional, Star Wars names are usually derived from real world names, but they aren’t usually direct transplants.

Her name is, well, it’s Japanese. Not inspired by Japanese, which I have no problem with and rather like as a naming convention for the Amarans if you’re going for that, but just, actually Japanese. Add to that the name “Tsunade” is a relatively well-known Naruto character, and I just feel like it’s a little too straining for the immersion. This extends to all the names Amarans in the profile.

If you feel strongly on this one, though, I’m not going to withhold approval, but I would recommend you consider switching the names up a lil bit to make them Japanese-adjacent, rather than Japanese.

Third, I was happy to see you bumped up the age of your character to 35. I read further and discovered that you probably did that because you have her down as being a 12 year veteran as a Senator, which means she won her first election at age 23. This is the only real issue with the sheet, and I can’t approve this, unfortunately.

The youngest sitting U.S. Senator is 39 years old. The youngest sitting House Rep is 28. The youngest U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in history was 42.

Winning an election for the Senate, whether it’s the U.S. Senate in the real world or the Galactic Senate here, requires the candidate to show that they can do the job. Further, a nation/planet’s Galactic Senator is the only voting representative at the federal level. It’s not like there’s 20 other house representatives and you killed it campaigning in your tiny district. You’re the one person a nation of people voted for to represent them all. It’s kind of a huge deal.

With that in mind, the position of Galactic Senator should be wildly difficult to attain and should require a strong resume. Your character spent a few months transporting refugees and seems to have just fallen into the job by accident.

“Before I knew it I was a Senator” is not sufficient. Reduce her time on the Senate to four years at most (can be more if you age her up) and choose one of these backgrounds to color the time before her Senatorial career: business, politics, military service. These are the three broad background categories capturing nearly every U.S. Senator’s pre-Senatorial experience, though this is not an exhaustive list, and should serve as touchstone ideas.

Maybe she was the founder and president of a hugely successful nonprofit that had a major impact on resettling the Amaran people before running for Senator. That or something similar would be all I’d really need to see, but as it stands it does need to change to include something like that.

[Abandoned ATD-170a Tactical Droid

First approval.

[Approved] Cora Vane, Swoop Racer

I'll second Sini's approval.

[Coruscant, 6 ATC 4] A House Divided II: A Little Wrong

Towler - Offices of Senator Towler

---

Much has changed across the galaxy since this court last considered the Contemplanys Hermi. The plain meaning of that clause, however, has not. . . .

Towler paged through the holographic display, reading through the cover story for the Coruscant Star-Herald. He was a voracious reader. He read everything, from op-eds and lifestyle pieces to hard news from dozens of publications across as many worlds. He had a keen eye for the news, and would but rarely miss an update. When the first articles reporting on the Corellia v. Galactic Republic decision were announced, Towler was on them. Then again, who wasn't? It was a landmark decision. Every political reporter, lawyer, and politician in every corner of the galaxy was reading about it.

. . . provides the Corellian Sector a means by which it may temporarily dissociate from the Galactic Republic to tend to the sector’s internal affairs. It does not provide to the Corellian Sector an instrumentality of secession. . . .

“Sir, Undersecretary Avala is on the comms,” Roker said, poking his head into Towler’s office, comm to his ear. Roker was Towler’s chief of staff, a sharp, loyal Loronar man. He was one of the very few people Towler trusted, but even then it was only as far as Fosten could throw him.

“Is it about the decision?” Towler asked, eyes hardly leaving the screen of his datapad.

Just over a month ago, as the Free Corellia movement was gaining traction and threatening to become a revolutionary threat to the Galactic Republic’s sovereign control over the planet, the delegation for Corellia had invoked the privilege of Contemplanys Hermi in an effort to suspend the planet’s membership of the Republic. The Senate, in a surprisingly unified voice, had come together with a strong ad hoc supermajority and vetoed the resolution. Corellia had gone directly to the Supreme Court, and, as of just a few moments ago, had officially lost.

. . . Even the most cursory analysis of the totality of these circumstances would lead one to an obvious conclusion; this invocation of the Contemplanys Hermi is not intended to achieve a temporary suspension of the Corellian Sector’s relationship with the Galactic Republic, but rather a permanent dissociation therewith. . . .

“Yes,” Roker said. Towler set the datapad down. “She wants the mining bill done.”

Towler breathed deep and exhaled. He’d just had his conversation with Avala only a few hours ago. But the decision did change things. Now that Corellia could not pull out of the Republic, the Supreme Court had, effectively, given the Senate the green light to pass the seizure bill. If the Contemplanys Hermi measure had been approved, and Corellia had left the Republic and become a sovereign state, the Senate would have had no authority over the planet. Alternatively, he supposed, it changed nothing. They had all the time in the world to seize the CEC shipyards, now that Corellia was barred from leaving the Republic.

Unless they seceded outright, of course.

“Tell Avala we’ll resolve the Outworlds issue today and have that bill to her as soon as we get the final amendments tomorrow. Then get in the boardroom and let’s figure out how to buy off these senators,” he growled. Roker nodded and left the doorframe. The door slid shut, and Towler went back to the datapad, pulling up the profiles on the Outworlds Mineral Resources subcommittee.

-

“Toonan Teft,” Roker said, gesturing to the display, “Senator for Alzoc III and Chair for the Outworlds Mineral Resources subcommittee, needs twenty-five votes to send the amendment up to the Committee on Energy, Environment & Natural Resources. We have more than enough votes to get it through Energy and into the bill, but Toonan only has twenty-two. So it's stuck where it is for now.”

Towler’s boardroom was a long room dominated by long table, too large for the two people who sat at it. He sat a chair down from Iyla Tyndulla, his Twi’lek deputy chief of staff and third-in-command. Across the table, standing in front of a large holographic display projected from a screen fixed to the wall, stood Roker. The chief of staff had created a quick visual guide to the Outworlds Mineral Resources subcommittee with three columns. Twenty-two names were in the leftmost column, representing those senators that approved of the amendment and were ready to pass it through. Twenty-six were in the rightmost column, representing the holdouts keeping the amendment from moving forward.

Fourteen of those were staunch Core Factionists. Another three were Rim Factionists with deeply entrenched mining industries on their worlds. There’d be no moving from any of those. Senator Lyannis for Farstine was the most influential of the Rim Faction holdouts, and from the names Towler found under the rightmost column, he figured at least a few of those were behind her.

“We need three votes. Toonan thinks that if we can swing Lyannis she can bring over five of them and it passes,” Roker continued.

“The Republic navy is looking into locations for Outer Rim shipyards and starbases. Farstine is on the short list for one,” Iyla offered. “The planet is a perfect location for it, and the money and jobs a military base will bring might bring her over.” With a wave of the hand, Roker brought Lyannis’s name over to the middle column, and then a few more.

Towler frowned, shook his head. “Lyannis is too experienced. She’ll want a guarantee we can’t give her unless we burn a lot of goodwill and capital making it happen. Hell, she might not even need our help getting it.” Towler could put Farstine at the top of list, but so could Lyannis, and the favors he’d have to call in would put him deep in debt to the Senators on the Armed Forces committee. “Let’s call it a last resort. Who else do we have here?”

“Eyri Pharliis,” Roker said, moving Lyannis and her senators back to the rightmost column and moving Eyri to the center. He followed up by bringing three more over. “She controls three other votes on the subcommittee. If we can swing her we'll have just enough to pass it.”

“Who’s Eyri Pharliis?” Iyla asked.

“Senator for Pantora, just elected. She’s in her first term,” Towler said. He’d never met the woman, had never met many of the sitting Senators, but he knew who almost all of them were. This was a promising one. Towler flipped to her profile on his datapad. “She wants to almost double the Outer Rim small business exception, now why is that exactly?”

“Pharliis and the other senators in her corner represent developing planets with smaller automated workforces and more organic employees,” Roker explained. “Their mining corporations have less droid support than most worlds. A Core Worlds mining company with a hundred employees posts more than twice the profits of a Pantoran mining company with the same number.”

“Which means she’s looking at a lot of mining companies that aren’t going to be able to keep up with the regulations,” Towler extrapolated. “Good. What can we give her?”

“Maybe a subsidy amendment? We can allocate funds for developing worlds so they can augment their work forces with droids,” Iyla suggested. “I can write something like that in an hour.”

“You can write it in an hour but the debates on that will take weeks. Besides that we’ll burn a lot of bridges if we start handing out millions of credits to holdouts and next time we have a bill like this you can bet there’ll be more holdouts looking for handouts. There'll be hell to pay with Avala if we make moves like that.” Towler flipped through the datapad. “Write it up anyway, though, and make sure these Senators’ planets qualify under the language. Roker, Pantora is in the Sujimis Sector?”

“Yes,” Roker said.

“And, astrographically speaking, the Sujimis Sector is near the Sith Empire’s Sullustan Province?”

“That’s correct.”

“Tell me, Roker,” Towler said with a smile, “doesn’t that sound like a fine place for a Republic Navy starbase?”

[Approved] Tychus Alastor, Republic Senator for Alsakan

Approved.