Jorus Merrill
is mek bote
What are you rebelling against?
If you enjoy watching the map change, you've probably noticed that for quite a few IC years, the bulk of the map has been held by factions that are worth rebelling against. Now that the One Sith blitzkrieg and the event have reduced the Republic to a fraction of its former size, there's even more scope for a minor faction to operate as a resistance. We oppose the One Sith, the Lords of the Fringe, the Techno Union, the Shadow Dynasty, the Primeval, and the Imperial Remnant.
Fringe? Aren't you a faction admin for Fringe with another character?
Yup. Makes it awfully easy to coordinate raids, heists and skirmishes out of character. Drama is pretty much nonexistent, even when Really Big Things get blown up or stolen -- or when Fringe wipes an Underground base off the map while we scramble to evacuate. Fun is the priority. It's also worth noting that we try to prioritize good OOC relations with all the factions we oppose IC.
Why the name?
'The Underground' hearkens back to World War Two resistance fighters, with maybe a hint of Star Trek's Maquis.
What makes the Underground different from the current Rebel Alliance?
Broadly speaking, if they're Wedge Antilles, Crix Madine and Admiral Ackbar, we aim to be Han Solo, Dash Rendar and Lando Calrissian, though both factions actively try to include both archetypes. We won't ever try to go Major. We aren't associated with a single political ideology. We're also, so far as I'm aware, a lot more decentralized: we like cell structures and independent operations, and we use a flat organizational structure as much as possible. None of that is a judgment: canon and history both have tons of examples of very diverse resistance movements operating at the same time, and we like it that way.
Also, we do more smuggling.
Why do we need more than one resistance faction?
The Rebel Alliance leader and I had this discussion a while back, and I think the end result has been very positive: we're well on our way to popularizing 'rebel stuff' as a common form of roleplay, with spinoff benefits like more heists and starfighter combat. Frankly, I'd be happy if there were five rebel factions, each with divergent methods and goals. I feel like the One Sith's year of runaway success has really given us a setting where rebel/irregular/guerrilla/resistance factions can and should play a much more prominent role.
What do you do? Just general rebel-ish stuff?
Here are some things we've done recently:
Raids created and spearheaded by faction members.
Dominion opposition for consenting enemy factions (mainly ACA and Fringe so far).
Heists of everything from payrolls to prototypes to unique command ships.
Smuggling to One Sith-controlled planets, with fair opposition.
Discovering, designing, building, evacuating, and/or relocating secret bases.
How do I contact or join the Underground IC?
Offscreen, you know a guy who knows a guy, and he sets it up. We don't normally bother with joining-the-faction RPs unless someone really wants to do one. Just hop on in like you're already part of the Underground, and if you don't know anyone IC, chalk it up to being part of a remote resistance cell or something, or just be a new recruit.
Our main Yavin-style secret base is the mobile space station Rebellion Actual, currently orbiting the desert planet Altir. We often have meetings and random RPs on the station, at the Red Shift Cantina. Everyone aboard is part of the Underground.
What's your policy on Force-users?
So far as I'm aware, we're the first faction on the board to do Master promotion discussions entirely in character. It helps build relationships within the faction, and can get a lot more substantive and interesting than most Master promotion votes.
Our focus is on non-Force-user characters...and on teaching Force-users the skills and mindset to operate like NFU rebels. More Commander Skywalker or Kyle Katarn than General Yoda, you might say.
As far as diversity goes, we've got Jedi, Wardens of the Sky, Jensaarai and Gray Paladins; we've got more active Masters than most major factions, and they're willing to train. We even include a couple of quasi-Darksiders who've kept out of trouble, showed they have the same enemies as we do, and proved they're team players.
Our focus, though, is still NFU-style operations. This isn't a Force order with a rebel coat of paint; this is a resistance movement that happens to include some Force-users as rank-and-file members.
Can I join as a ranking member, like a General or Admiral?
Sure, there's plenty of room for those who like playing the big game, especially if your character has command experience. For fleeters, we generally recommend working with a task force or single ship; the Underground isn't big or centralized enough to have a serious fleet all in one place, and that's on purpose. Think about the leadup to the Battle of Endor, which took a long time to pull in every Rebel ship available from all corners of the galaxy; think about the Battle of Hoth, where the main Rebel base was protected by remoteness, secrecy and snubfighters rather than a starfleet. That's about where we stand. The bulk of our RP so far has focused on the ground level, but we'll never say no if someone wants to play with the big picture.
Even if just as an ally 
