Captain Ash
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For hundreds of years, the Outer Rim was viewed as a wild, lawless frontier overrun by corruption and avarice. And in a way, it was true, as except for a brief period of time known as the High Republic, corporate and political interests ruled the galaxy and saw the Outer Rim as a place to be exploited for their own wealth and power. First the corruption within the Republic allowed it to happen, letting slavery and crime cartels run rampant while the everyday citizens scraped what life they could in the hopes of finding some sliver of that old dream of a brighter future for every individual, away from the established power structures of the Core. Then came the Confederacy in which the corrupt corporations of the Republic now became their government policy, and then the first Galactic Empire, taking the worst of the Confederacy and the Republic and amplifying it a thousand times. Oppression, slavery, extortion, and environmental exploitation became the norm.
And after the Gulag Plague, governments came and went. Democracies. Protectorates. Confederacies, Coalitions, and Cartels. Crusades. Sanctums. All came and went, as governments are wont to do. But now, the Outer Rim has been left mostly to itself while governments wage war across the galaxy, seemingly paying little attention to the southern Outer Rim and its many worlds and systems, except perhaps for what they can bring into their sphere of influence and conquer. Yet the Outer Rim endures.
And now the time has come for something new-- for the peoples of the Outer Rim to stand up and claim their own identity, make their own mark upon the galaxy, assert their rights and their autonomy. To tell the great galactic powers, 'no thank you,' and establish themselves as their own government, uniting the southern Outer Rim not through military force, but through a shared vision.
A vision of an Outer Rim independent of its ancient colonizers and free from the imposition of foreign rule and exploitation. One where every world sees to its own affairs and every individual can work freely for their own wages and know in their heart that they are a cornerstone of a thriving, vibrant interstellar society that values and protects the individual, the belief in individual and community self-rule, the right to be left alone to live peaceably with one's neighbors, be they the farm next door, the next apartment, or the next star system, and one that celebrates the uniqueness, the strangeness, the boldness, and the sheer wonder that fills the Outer Rim. It is a vision meant to persuade and inspire others to want to join, not from fear, but from hope. It is a vision that rebels against the malaise of despair and pragmatism.
It is the vision that unites the worlds of the Rimward Trade League in the pursuit of an independent Outer Rim free of corruption, free of widespread crime, free of exploitation, and free of tyranny.
This is our dream and we're going to make it happen through hard work, collective collaboration, individual sacrifice, and the guts and grit that led to the settlement of the Rim in the first place. Why don't you join us?
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Welcome to the launch of the matured and much more fully developed Rimward Trade League faction! We initially launched back in September with nothing more than a loose framework and some crazy ideas for a different type of faction. The past few months, we have been steadily growing and putting together more and more detail, while running threads for all sorts of characters in a variety of factions. From here, we seek to make that last jump to reach major faction feasibility with a thriving, vibrant community of storytellers, worldbuilders, and designers that create and tell their own stories of all scales and scopes.
At heart, there are two values that drive every story we tell: a love for the wild, the unique, the strange, and often wacky aspects of the Outer Rim that lend themselves to stories about settling a frontier to facing the cosmic horror of the unknown; and a passion for the details and stories that make up the gritty reality of a space-based society. What is life like as a freighter crew hauling cargo through the Outer Rim? Where do ship captains stay when they're in port and want something besides their bunk to sleep in? Who insures the cargo? What about search and rescue in case of an accident? What would planetary governments want to make trade safer and more reliable do to encourage it? What sort of farm equipment is there? What grains do they go? How they transport that grain? How do they navigate through asteroid fields? We're always asking questions and poking into the nooks and crannies of detailed texture that makes up the background of the Star Wars universe and want to explore these as fully as possible while maintaining the Romantic, wondrous, and almost dream-like experience that we get when looking at Ralph McQuarrie's art. Of course, there are other philosophies and attitudes within the League for those who prefer their gritty details with more realism and practicality. We thrive in the tension of paradox that fills the Star Wars setting and hope to offer as many opportunities for as many writers as we can through a variety of groups and organizations within the League. In so doing, we aim to be the go-to faction for spacers, merchants, explorers, and those who just want to season their travel writing some well-placed details. When it comes to the Force, we embrace the diversity of the Light Side, the Jedi, and the many other fringe-focused Force sects that dot the Outer Rim, expanding on both Legends organizations and creating our own as natural developments of character growth and the multiplicity of interpretations that exist within the Light Side.
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Here are the main organizations that compose the Rimward Trade League, including both non-Force using and Force-using entities
THE RIMWARD MERCHANT-MARINE
What might be considered the heart and soul of the League, the merchant-marine is the sum of all civilian spacers who registered and operated out of a League-system. While the Rim has always been known for its spacers and pilots, the Merchant-Marine seeks to ensure this reputation flourishes and grows to be an acknowledged and respected fact. The merchant-marine is a joint venture created by the founding worlds of the League to improve and strengthen the backbone of their mission: its merchant fleets of captains and spacers ranging from massive corporate bulk freighters to the captain-owned tramp freighters. Crewman, Captains, Navigators, Smugglers, Merchants, and Salvager: the merchant-marine embraces them all. Acting as a regulatory body, the Merchant-Marine establishes standards of competency, licensed ratings, safety protocols, and training academies to ensure that every spacer to come out of the League will be among the best in the galaxy, capable of being hired to any ship belonging to any company anywhere in the galaxy, or even run their own business.
THE RIMWARD RESCUE SERVICE
The only standing armed fleet under the direct command of the Rimward Trade League, the Rescue Service is the most visible and iconic demonstration of the League's commitment to its vision. Eschewing a standing Navy in favor of defense forces, the Rescue Services missions are primarily ones of law enforcement, revenue, and space-based development. When the Merchant-Marine Regulatory Body passes regulations that League ships must have adequate lifeboats and escape pods, the Rescue Service inspects every League vessel for compliance. When intersystem communications are spotty, the Rescue Service sends out ships to deploy relays and beacons. When a ship is caught off-guard by a rogue asteroid, the Rescue Service launches rescue ships from its network of rescue stations dotted around the Outer Rim to rescue survivors and ensure the space lanes are cleared before the debris impacts other travelers. When pirates grow bold and begin preying on shipping, the Rescue Service deploys its iconic white and orange cruisers to track them down and put an end to the menace before redeploying them as floating hospital ships in response to a terrible mining accident on their way back. These stories embrace the legacy of fleet-based science fiction and lean into the inter-crew dynamics, the episodic adventures of a ship dedicated to helping others in a wild region of space, and the small-scale tactical challenges of space-based combat and the drama that occurs as a result.
The Rimward Ranger Corps
Of course, not all things on the Outer Rim are based in and around space. The League recognizes this and established the Ranger Corps as the primary standing body of armed personnel to deal with ground-based threats. Being directly influenced by the Sector Rangers of old and the Ranger's almost direct predecessor, the Judges of the Outer Rim (And those who remain active are recognized and authorized to continue in their duties on any League world), the Rangers are the primary law enforcement, investigative, and armed service body of the League. Divided into Ranger Companies, they are stationed at key planets to be able to quickly respond to pirate invasions, stop criminals from fleeing across sectors, and investigate crimes that tax the resources of local law enforcement, or serving as a first-line of defense against invasion from foreign powers while the system defense forces are mobilized and deployed. Seen as heroic, fearless, the Rangers are often accompanied by journalists, writers, and film-makers eager to score the next big holodrama scoop. Rangers provide their own equipment to best suit the situations they suspect they are likely to find themselves in and best suit their own abilities. With many drawn from former Coalition Partisan fighters, they are experienced, savvy, and always eager to bring those who spread corruption, violence, and degradation to heel in their quest to bring peace and justice to the Outer Rim.
THE OUTER RIM DEVELOPMENT CORPS
A legacy institution from the Outer Planets Alliance brought into the Rimward Trade League via the Susefvi government, the ORDC embodies the League's commitment to building a better Outer Rim for everyone literally from the ground up. Acting as a dedicated development and aid agency, the Corps is composed of volunteers, engineers, researchers, and scientists committed to the building of the physical components of a strong society. Infrastructure, water, basic terraforming, civil engineering, agriculture, and other social necessities are provided at no cost to any world that asks for assistance. These are the cartographers and surveyors who lay out new settlements, the engineers who design water, heat, power, and waste systems in even the harshest of environments, and the many volunteers who want to serve their neighbors and contribute to a future that they believe in. The perfect place for those who enjoy worldbuilding, developing engineering stories, and creating technology.
THE JEDI PILGRIMS
The Jedi are not left out of the efforts of the Rimward Trade League despite the polarization between the ideology of the main extant Jedi Orders. Starting with the first post-Gulag Galactic Alliance and then the Outer Rim Coalition, there is a strong tradition of Jedi living and serving amongst the peoples of the Outer Rim. And with the Jedi Pilgrims, they continue that tradition in a way that hearkens back nearly a thousand years to the Jedi of the High Republic. The Pilgrims do not work directly for the League, although they maintain a voting representative on the League's Charter Council, instead following the Force wherever it guides them, responding to crises before anyone thinks to call for them, or responding to requests from communities throughout the Outer Rim, with requests being sent through and broadcast via the strong network of Church of the Force chapterhouses that have spread throughout the territories that have for decades supported the Light and freedom from imperialism. These Jedi own no fleets and fewer ships and operate primarily through charity and donations. They are mystics and wanderers, serving as champions of the common people and a beacon of hope for those who suffer, knowing they can directly petition for Jedi aid without worrying about political implications taking precedence.
THE CIRCLE OF THE LIGHT HAND
Yet there are other Force-sensitives who align themselves with the Jedi and the Light that wander the Outer Rim. Founded by Jedi Master Tiland Kortun, the Circle of the Light Hand is composed of Jedi mystics and monks who reject even carrying a lightsaber in favor of relying fully on the Force alone. They instead rely on martial arts when violence becomes necessary, but would rather achieve a compromise and reconcile conflicting parties together through mercy and addressing root issues within communities that lead to conflict, seeking the better nature that resides within all who are connected to the Force, even if they initially seem to reject the Force's guidance and their own interconnectedness. Calligraphy, exercises, tea brewing, and other arts that hone one's focus are a crucial element of their training and philosophy, as they believe it brings self-awareness and self-discipline necessary to live fully immersed within the Force. Some have formed an off-shoot, the Tree-Dreamers of Qi-Ko who live and sleep amongst the many boughs of the massive tree that seems to serve as a focus point for dreams of the past, dreams of the present, and dreams of the futures.
THE JENSAARAI
Not all who use the Force in the Outer Rim are Jedi, although they may still follow the Light. Counted amongst these many other philosophies are the Jensaarai, founded nearly a thousand years before as a splinter sect of Jedi who sought to embrace the teachings of both the Jed and the Sith, and yet managed to do so without falling to the Dark Side. Unlike the Light Hand and the Pilgrims, the Jensaarai operate in secret out of their hidden enclave on Susefvi, funded by shell-corporations and investment, and blending into the wider society, donning their signature armor only when necessary, and then operating as stealthily and secretly as possible. Many have day jobs that they use to live off and embed themselves fully into their community. Despite practicing both Jedi and Sith techniques, the Jensaarai reject the use of the Dark Side in its entirety but use their passion and emotions to fuel their focus and resolve. They live in the tension of paradox. Compared to Jedi, the Jensaarai are much more pragmatic, using techniques developed for spies, investigators, and other non-Force using specialists to accomplish their goal of protecting Suarbi, the surrounding systems, and the Outer Rim without anyone ever know they did so.
What might be considered the heart and soul of the League, the merchant-marine is the sum of all civilian spacers who registered and operated out of a League-system. While the Rim has always been known for its spacers and pilots, the Merchant-Marine seeks to ensure this reputation flourishes and grows to be an acknowledged and respected fact. The merchant-marine is a joint venture created by the founding worlds of the League to improve and strengthen the backbone of their mission: its merchant fleets of captains and spacers ranging from massive corporate bulk freighters to the captain-owned tramp freighters. Crewman, Captains, Navigators, Smugglers, Merchants, and Salvager: the merchant-marine embraces them all. Acting as a regulatory body, the Merchant-Marine establishes standards of competency, licensed ratings, safety protocols, and training academies to ensure that every spacer to come out of the League will be among the best in the galaxy, capable of being hired to any ship belonging to any company anywhere in the galaxy, or even run their own business.
THE RIMWARD RESCUE SERVICE
The only standing armed fleet under the direct command of the Rimward Trade League, the Rescue Service is the most visible and iconic demonstration of the League's commitment to its vision. Eschewing a standing Navy in favor of defense forces, the Rescue Services missions are primarily ones of law enforcement, revenue, and space-based development. When the Merchant-Marine Regulatory Body passes regulations that League ships must have adequate lifeboats and escape pods, the Rescue Service inspects every League vessel for compliance. When intersystem communications are spotty, the Rescue Service sends out ships to deploy relays and beacons. When a ship is caught off-guard by a rogue asteroid, the Rescue Service launches rescue ships from its network of rescue stations dotted around the Outer Rim to rescue survivors and ensure the space lanes are cleared before the debris impacts other travelers. When pirates grow bold and begin preying on shipping, the Rescue Service deploys its iconic white and orange cruisers to track them down and put an end to the menace before redeploying them as floating hospital ships in response to a terrible mining accident on their way back. These stories embrace the legacy of fleet-based science fiction and lean into the inter-crew dynamics, the episodic adventures of a ship dedicated to helping others in a wild region of space, and the small-scale tactical challenges of space-based combat and the drama that occurs as a result.
Of course, not all things on the Outer Rim are based in and around space. The League recognizes this and established the Ranger Corps as the primary standing body of armed personnel to deal with ground-based threats. Being directly influenced by the Sector Rangers of old and the Ranger's almost direct predecessor, the Judges of the Outer Rim (And those who remain active are recognized and authorized to continue in their duties on any League world), the Rangers are the primary law enforcement, investigative, and armed service body of the League. Divided into Ranger Companies, they are stationed at key planets to be able to quickly respond to pirate invasions, stop criminals from fleeing across sectors, and investigate crimes that tax the resources of local law enforcement, or serving as a first-line of defense against invasion from foreign powers while the system defense forces are mobilized and deployed. Seen as heroic, fearless, the Rangers are often accompanied by journalists, writers, and film-makers eager to score the next big holodrama scoop. Rangers provide their own equipment to best suit the situations they suspect they are likely to find themselves in and best suit their own abilities. With many drawn from former Coalition Partisan fighters, they are experienced, savvy, and always eager to bring those who spread corruption, violence, and degradation to heel in their quest to bring peace and justice to the Outer Rim.
A legacy institution from the Outer Planets Alliance brought into the Rimward Trade League via the Susefvi government, the ORDC embodies the League's commitment to building a better Outer Rim for everyone literally from the ground up. Acting as a dedicated development and aid agency, the Corps is composed of volunteers, engineers, researchers, and scientists committed to the building of the physical components of a strong society. Infrastructure, water, basic terraforming, civil engineering, agriculture, and other social necessities are provided at no cost to any world that asks for assistance. These are the cartographers and surveyors who lay out new settlements, the engineers who design water, heat, power, and waste systems in even the harshest of environments, and the many volunteers who want to serve their neighbors and contribute to a future that they believe in. The perfect place for those who enjoy worldbuilding, developing engineering stories, and creating technology.
The Jedi are not left out of the efforts of the Rimward Trade League despite the polarization between the ideology of the main extant Jedi Orders. Starting with the first post-Gulag Galactic Alliance and then the Outer Rim Coalition, there is a strong tradition of Jedi living and serving amongst the peoples of the Outer Rim. And with the Jedi Pilgrims, they continue that tradition in a way that hearkens back nearly a thousand years to the Jedi of the High Republic. The Pilgrims do not work directly for the League, although they maintain a voting representative on the League's Charter Council, instead following the Force wherever it guides them, responding to crises before anyone thinks to call for them, or responding to requests from communities throughout the Outer Rim, with requests being sent through and broadcast via the strong network of Church of the Force chapterhouses that have spread throughout the territories that have for decades supported the Light and freedom from imperialism. These Jedi own no fleets and fewer ships and operate primarily through charity and donations. They are mystics and wanderers, serving as champions of the common people and a beacon of hope for those who suffer, knowing they can directly petition for Jedi aid without worrying about political implications taking precedence.
Yet there are other Force-sensitives who align themselves with the Jedi and the Light that wander the Outer Rim. Founded by Jedi Master Tiland Kortun, the Circle of the Light Hand is composed of Jedi mystics and monks who reject even carrying a lightsaber in favor of relying fully on the Force alone. They instead rely on martial arts when violence becomes necessary, but would rather achieve a compromise and reconcile conflicting parties together through mercy and addressing root issues within communities that lead to conflict, seeking the better nature that resides within all who are connected to the Force, even if they initially seem to reject the Force's guidance and their own interconnectedness. Calligraphy, exercises, tea brewing, and other arts that hone one's focus are a crucial element of their training and philosophy, as they believe it brings self-awareness and self-discipline necessary to live fully immersed within the Force. Some have formed an off-shoot, the Tree-Dreamers of Qi-Ko who live and sleep amongst the many boughs of the massive tree that seems to serve as a focus point for dreams of the past, dreams of the present, and dreams of the futures.
Not all who use the Force in the Outer Rim are Jedi, although they may still follow the Light. Counted amongst these many other philosophies are the Jensaarai, founded nearly a thousand years before as a splinter sect of Jedi who sought to embrace the teachings of both the Jed and the Sith, and yet managed to do so without falling to the Dark Side. Unlike the Light Hand and the Pilgrims, the Jensaarai operate in secret out of their hidden enclave on Susefvi, funded by shell-corporations and investment, and blending into the wider society, donning their signature armor only when necessary, and then operating as stealthily and secretly as possible. Many have day jobs that they use to live off and embed themselves fully into their community. Despite practicing both Jedi and Sith techniques, the Jensaarai reject the use of the Dark Side in its entirety but use their passion and emotions to fuel their focus and resolve. They live in the tension of paradox. Compared to Jedi, the Jensaarai are much more pragmatic, using techniques developed for spies, investigators, and other non-Force using specialists to accomplish their goal of protecting Suarbi, the surrounding systems, and the Outer Rim without anyone ever know they did so.
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Wait, there's more?
Despite the number of organizations listed there, there are a variety of other means of interacting with the League that are still in development. One is the League Charter Council, in which one representative from each member-system and the Jedi all convene to make League-wide decisions via a simple majority vote. They include everything from declarations of war, economic sanctions, approving new regulations from the Merchant-Marine, dividing up the funding for the various initiatives, signing contracts on behalf of the League, and assessing the functionality of the limited and basic tax that the League levies.
There is also the fact that each member system maintains its own autonomy. Beyond the stipulations required to sign the League charter, which include things like ensuring the rights of the sentients who dwell there, fair pay to all workers, and other measures to protect the individuals and communities, each system maintains its own unique system of government and defense forces, creating an even wider array of political and military opportunities. Perhaps you want to lead and world-build a specific star system or planet! We have three such ones so far- Susefvi, Crossroads, and Arsenae.
Susefvi is a constitutional republic with a heavy emphasis on mining in its system as well as a strong merchant-republic vibe. And for those who prefer a more military focus in their stories and greatly enjoy military science-fiction with a heavy emphasis on realism in detail and theory, there is the Crossroads Republic as a member system with a strong military society acting as its own subfaction with a large standing fleet and navy composed of members of its many moons, as well as cutting edge technology and tactics to counter any threat. The group has its own advancement system for characters based on time spent writing there and loyalty to advance through the ranks. They have their own army, their navy, and even their own Force-tradition that operates as an elite investigative and intelligence agency.
Then there is also the Outer Rim Manufacturing Union to help Outer Rim companies support each other with large contracts, foster collaboration in public-private partnerships, and prove that the Outer Rim is just as capable of developing technology and ships both advanced and elegant as any of the Core manufacturing giants. And for those who prefer some more financial shenanigans, there is the Interstellar Merchant-Captain's Guild that acts as a shipping insurance company, brokerage, salvage arbiter, and home away from home for spacers far from their native world.
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FACTION NARRATIVE
One of the most important questions for a faction is simple: what story are they telling? For the Trade League, we are telling the story of the Outer Rim in all its glories, all its shortcomings, all its wonders, and all its struggles as seen through the eyes of the individuals. Many of our threads are 'static location' or 'slice of life' stories where the focus is less driven by a traditional narrative than it is the experience of life in the Outer Rim. Ship captains gossiping while waiting for cargo inspection, merchants working out what to buy and sell, engineers working out problems, and Develop Corps folks working on the latest project to enhance survivability on a colony long neglected. For more narrative threads, we have trade deals, salvaging operations, political negotiation, Jedi training, and the usual Chaos escapades. After all, even the ordinary life of an ordinary person in Star Wars can quickly become extraordinary. We also like ongoing narratives, with one focusing on the crew and officers of the Rescue Service vessel Frontier's Hope as they perform their duties, with each character being part of the crew and working together. The goal is to branch out further and include more close-knit type narratives among a variety of types of characters- company employees, Rangers, Jedi, ship captains with intersecting routes, freighter crews, and the like.
Looking further to the future, the metanarrative is about strengthening the Outer Rim through peaceful and collaborative efforts. Not that there aren't pirates and cartels to quash, raiders to hunt down, and the like, but the idea is that by working together for a better Outer Rim, the identity of the Outer Rim begins to shift and become more cohesive and unified. To misquote the most recent Star Wars novel, the idea is that 'We are all the Outer Rim" and that everyone looks out for each other and does what they can to support each other. In the process, the idea is to develop more and more interstellar trade, stronger diplomatic agreements, end widespread criminal activity, and exploitation from corporations and governments alike, so that over time, the Outer Rim becomes a much more stable region for its inhabitants and one where the society can really flourish. The key to the narrative is collaborative and ground-up. The League doesn't believe in forcing its reforms on other systems and instead wants to show people a better future they can believe in and want to be involved with.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I've written enough already, alright? This is for you to add to.
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