So, hello, hi, some of you know me as
wendigo kid
So, faction are a very important thing in Star Wars, as a setting, as a narrative playground. Factions are the lifeblood of the galaxy, and they exist because people will naturally gravitate to groups. I have my own opinions on the map game, and how by and large, it shoe horns natural development and narrative because some people think they're playing a Paradox Game.
Chaos is special because it allows us to correct and explore things that Star Wars never properly dealt with, I mean, I've seen full blown discussions on the philosophy of the Force, the nature of Imperialism, nature versus nurture, and a plethora of nonsense that good old George, Disney, nor Legends authors never tackled in a major way. It's amazing, and has breathed so much life into the fandom for me. It's gotten to the point where my head canon for the SW future is the Chaos universe, because of how well built it is by the collaborative efforts of the writers, it is our own Legends.
That all being said, what was a major component of how Star Wars worked? Analogy and astropolitics. What was one of the major issues in Star Wars because of how they handled it? Analogy and astropolitics.
No matter how you cut it, the factions in SW never felt realistic, the timespans we got felt more like the Imperium of Man than the Old Republic, and in general, real worldbuilding of the nations of the galaxy was never a major concern of most of the writers. They were acronyms that the writers could fling at one another until one of them was left standing.
What does Chaos do better than Legends? Nationbuild, worldbuild, I'd argue that the factions that have come into being on Chaos are unique enough to stand out from what we got from Legends and Disney, even if a lot of them are derivative from the films/legends.
With that also being said, do I think factions live too long to suit the nature of the site? Yea, I really do. I first poked my head in about two years ago, just when TSE was finding it's legs. Come back to stay and they're still around without signs of stopping. I'm not singling anyone out, I would say that most factions historically on Chaos have lived long past their prime, and eventually devolve into just a couple of jabronis shooting the shit. Not that there's anything wrong with that by nature, but when these nations occupy such a large space in Galactic politics, history, and narrative, it can turn into a problem. Again, not saying this is the current state of any faction, I could give less of a damn about what people do. People write to write.
What I do think comes down to the problem is the mindset of these faction creators going in, and how they develop. Factions should have a purpose, an end goal narrative that they strive to get to. And once they reach that, they should be able to evolve in a way that helps the flow of the Galactic narrative, or, even have their own deaths planned. Contingencies, contingencies. That's the name of the game. It helps an overall atmosphere of professional narrative writing and proper worldbuilding fitting the genre.
If people are making factions with the end goal to paint the whole map and to rule for 1000 years, they should play EU4 instead. Much more fun and less effort to do something like that.
Organic faction death breeds good narratives, map wipes would feel artificial and utterly kill some peoples love for Chaos as a setting. Map wipes, by their nature, simply turn the setting of Chaos into more of a mechanical driven nightmare than it needs to be. And I absolutely pray the Staff never implement anything like that, because it takes away the feeling of a natural and changing Galaxy that I, at least, have come to love during my time on the site.
If a nation has to die, they should do so organically, in a way that feels natural. Either by war, dissolution, internal strife, whatever. The Galactic Republic didn't go out with a whimper, it morphed into the Galactic Empire by the scheming of a Sith Lord years in the making.
Meanwhile the Jedi of Chaos turn into Vegemite. I just think it would be more helpful as a whole if people writing factions looked into the idea of assuring an organic death, or narrative end goal, for their nations. We are here to write, not to play a game.
At the end of the day, Chaos can improve so much on the formula we we're left with by Star Wars, and I think that every faction right now is trying their damnedest, but that doesn't mean they should all last forever.
