002 - The State of the Galaxy During The High Republic

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Starlight archive, the best crypt podcast about the high Republic this side of the occlusion zone. Today, myself, Bryce Rankins, and Brian Romero, that's me, will be talking to you about the state of the galaxy. [00:00:17] Speaker B: Right. [00:00:17] Speaker A: The beginning of the high Republic. We are in a completely different era. As we said in our first episode, this is a time between the old Republic and the regular Republic. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of. We. Yeah, yeah. Basically the time of. Of the prequels. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Yeah, before the prequels, but after the old Republic, because the old Republic is a very long period of time. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:37] Speaker A: It's like thousands and thousands of years. Yeah. So we're talking about this specific time, specifically in phase one, state of the galaxy. We're trying to go as spoiler free as we possibly can. So where should we start, Brian? [00:00:50] Speaker B: Let's just jump right in. We're gonna start with our good friends the Jedi. [00:00:54] Speaker A: Okay, how are the Jedi? The Jedi council is. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Oh, they're great. They're all homies. They're all chilling on Coruscant. No, they're not. That's kind of the cool part about this era of Star wars is. Yeah, the Jedi are. Are kind of mainly based on Coruscant, but they have temples and outposts throughout the galaxy that the Republic has reaches on. And throughout all these years, Jedi are kind of freely flowing back and forth. Some Jedi are stationed on. On these outposts. Some are kind of visiting from time to time. And it's really cool to see different planets with different Jedi temples and the different Jedi working on them with the different locals and just how that all works throughout the galaxy going on right now. About 150 years before phantom menace, and. [00:01:40] Speaker A: It'S not perfect by any means. There's obviously infighting. There's obviously Terry what's her name in the council, who is a pain in the butt, and you'll learn to hate her if you haven't read this yet. But the system that the Jedi are running on seems to function. Yeah, it seems to be working kind of for everyone, for the most part, definitely, which I appreciate. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And it seems like it's been working like this for probably since the Sith war ended at this point, 850 years. [00:02:10] Speaker A: Before that, near a millennium ago. [00:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah. It's one of those, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. [00:02:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think toward the end of phase one, not to go too much into spoilers, there is a conversation about, does the current model of how the Jedi function fit within what's happening within the galaxy, which is really cool that they're also asking, like, hey, is this system we're running right now? Okay. Like, they're trying to be self aware. They're very self aware. And there's a lot of variation between the groups as far as some Jedi are allowed to be focused on one particular skill set, and others are more servants of the force than they are of the Jedi. And sometimes they bicker about that, but it's not necessarily unhealthy conversation. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And everybody's fairly on the same page that, hey, we're all Jedi, but we all do different things, and that's okay. [00:02:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So, um, let's see. [00:03:00] Speaker A: Should we go? Let's start with the Vatican. I mean, the council on Coruscant. [00:03:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:05] Speaker A: We have an actual Jedi council that. At the council chambers, which is on top of the old Sith temple that the Jedi built their temple on. On Coruscant. Just as in the phantom menace. [00:03:15] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [00:03:16] Speaker A: Same place. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Same place. Yoda is there. [00:03:20] Speaker A: And Yoda's on the council. [00:03:21] Speaker B: He's on the council. So he's. So unlike the prequel trilogy. With the prequel trilogy, there was one grandmaster, and that's Yoda. And it's been changed throughout time, and if it changes, we'll kind of go into that. But during the high Republic time of phase one, there's three of them. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Interesting. I didn't realize that Yoda was, like, the grand master of the council in the prequel trilogy, they all deferred. I know they all defer to Yoda because he has the most time there, but I never really realized that he was kind of the supreme chancellor of the Jedi. [00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah, basically. Yeah. [00:03:56] Speaker A: Which is an interesting thing, because the existence of the supreme chancellor within the Republic is step one of the downfall of the Republic. So despite his best interest, you know, Yoda being a good dude, that does. So there is one grandmaster. In this case, there's now three. Who are the three? [00:04:14] Speaker B: Yeah. So we have Yoda. We also have Grandmaster Larue. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Okay. [00:04:20] Speaker B: And pra tree. Vitor. [00:04:21] Speaker A: Oh, Vitor's interesting species, too. [00:04:24] Speaker B: Yes. [00:04:25] Speaker A: I feel like we've seen the species before, but he's got that, like, weird skull face. [00:04:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:30] Speaker A: He kind of looks like red skull with a big beard. Is he kind of like. He looks like red skull. And oporensis has had a baby who's also on the oporensis, is there. Hooray. [00:04:41] Speaker B: Oh, kind of, yeah. [00:04:42] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a tarnab. [00:04:44] Speaker B: Yes. Cause that means so much to. [00:04:46] Speaker A: Well, there's other tarnabs revenge of the Sith. Okay, so the tarnabs are from the prequel trilogy specifically then. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:51] Speaker A: That's very cool. [00:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really cool that they'll. They're using all these species we've seen before, but also they're pulling in newer species as well. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Right. And Larue. What is Larue? [00:05:00] Speaker B: Laru is an ants male. So he's kind of. He looks like a pterodactyl, basically. Head wise guys. Yeah, he's got the weird long head. Yeah, kind of like the cone heads. [00:05:12] Speaker A: Okay, so he's Dan Aykroyd. [00:05:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. But not quite as round. [00:05:18] Speaker A: Council trust in the farce. Sorry, carry on. [00:05:24] Speaker B: Oh, shoot. I want that movie. [00:05:26] Speaker A: How do the Coneheads fit into the greater Star wars lore? That's what we're here to talk to you today. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, so who else is on the council? Well, let's not go into all their. [00:05:34] Speaker B: Yeah, so we have. Yeah, so we have twelve. So that was. That was the three grandmasters. [00:05:39] Speaker A: So then we've got Keaton Marag. [00:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah, Keaton Marag. He's a human male. He's around. We also have Ada Lee Caro, another human. We have. Everybody's not favorite. [00:05:49] Speaker A: Terry Rosacea. Terry Rosacen is a jerk. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:53] Speaker A: The karen of the council. [00:05:54] Speaker B: Literally the karen of the council. I feel like. Yeah. [00:05:57] Speaker A: She's constantly questioning the severity of every issue. She butts heads, naysaying everything. Yeah. Always naysaying everything they create. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Anyway, sit up in your tower. [00:06:10] Speaker A: Oppo Rancisis. [00:06:11] Speaker B: We have Opo Rancisis who was around at the time of the phantom menace as well on the council. We've seen him a few times and I believe he was also in episodes of the Clone wars. But we've ever. We've never actually heard him speak. He was always just around and, like, ready to go. And we've seen him with his lightsaber in the clone wars, but. But like, haven't really seen him do a whole lot. So they're really giving him basically just room to breathe and. [00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And be accountable and be fleshed out. [00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Thank God we don't see him pass away in order 66, because I don't need another jedi to love by the end of this whole thing. Adam po. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Yeah, we have Adam Po. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Oh, Adam Po. [00:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:49] Speaker A: Is he. Is he. He's not the old guy? No, no, no. Sorry. I was thinking he was the old guy who got put in a jelly jar up on the inquisitor. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Oh, no, no. [00:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So we have Adam Po we have Yariel. Poof. Who's the long neck guy who's not a kaminoan. [00:07:04] Speaker B: No. [00:07:04] Speaker A: But looks honestly just like, like the gray, like, you know, area 51, like alien. That in Nevada kind of gray with a really, really. [00:07:15] Speaker B: With a three foot neck. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Just a really long. [00:07:17] Speaker B: Yeah. He's also in episode one. [00:07:18] Speaker A: Yes. And then Rana Khan, who's actually super dope. [00:07:22] Speaker B: Ronald. Yep. [00:07:23] Speaker A: And then very cool. Soleil. Soleil. Soleil. Soleil. In French it's Soleil, which means son Agra. Soleil. Agra, who is a Natalan. And Joramali, who is a togruta, which is cool because the togruta are not technically part of the republic yet right at the beginning of this, which is interesting. And more on that later. [00:07:45] Speaker B: Those are our twelve council members, and it's kind of cool because each one has a really cool specialty with what they do. [00:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:52] Speaker B: And we'll kind of get into it more as the books go and because it kind of expands on them a little bit. But like, with Yoda, he likes teaching the younglings and he's, again, he's the grand, one of the grand masters, so he has all this pull, but he still, he still loves hanging out with kids and teaching them. And we've seen that in the Clone wars and all sorts of other stuff. [00:08:08] Speaker A: We also see yaddle taking care of younglings at one point as well. [00:08:10] Speaker B: Yes, we do. [00:08:11] Speaker A: Which is really cool. [00:08:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And, and again, that we have the young Jedi adventures, which is a high republican kids show, but Yoda makes a whole bunch of appearances in there hanging out with those kids and teach them really cool lessons. And also being Yoda and being funny and heartfelt but serious when he needs to. [00:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And other Jedi are also around, including Vronestra, Ro Avar, Kristelen, Elzar, Orla, Nibisik load and great Storm, Endira Stokes Arkoff Douglas Sunville, Jorah, Molly, Porter, Angle, Kilmagvitis, Reeth, Silas, Des Ridden, Emory contaros, lil etora. I hope you're paying attention to all these list because there is a test at the end of this episode. Basically, there's a ton of Jedi to follow. [00:08:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:50] Speaker A: And we're gonna get into the detail of all of them eventually. But as far as just going through. [00:08:55] Speaker B: All the Jedi, like, yeah, there's, it's a big series. It's a big multi media series like we've talked about. And so, you know, a lot of these Jedi are around, but, you know, it's a little, it can be a little overwhelming, but that's. Again, that's what we're here for. We're gonna slowly break them down eventually, once they come up, but there's a lot of great characters to know and love. [00:09:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And moving into the first book, once you start reading this, if you have or haven't already, anybody who already has knows. Charles Soule is managing a very large, expansive story. Yeah. He's basically trying to give you the run of the galaxy that you would need to watch all three original Star wars and prequel movies in. In a book. [00:09:34] Speaker B: In one book. Yeah. [00:09:35] Speaker A: It's like. And so it can be a little daunting to take care of. And as you go into later books, you start going, wait, who was that? Who was that? Who was that? That's what we're here for. So, moving forward from the Jedi specifics, what are the Jedi? Can we divide the Jedi into groups? [00:09:50] Speaker B: Not necessarily. I mean, yes and no. So, again, the Jedi are pretty spread throughout the galaxy, where the Republic has representatives and systems that are a part of the Republic. They help set up the planets and their relationships with the Republic. So it's kind of a nice symbiotic relationship. Symbiotic relationship to a certain extent. [00:10:11] Speaker A: Cool. At the start of this, I feel like you've kind of got a division, at least in regards to. You've got your coruscant council members running the entire Jedi order, and then you have your way seekers who are outgoing and just going kind of with the. Going with the flow of the Force, but going with the Force. And then you've got your smaller temple Jedi who are out there kind of on the ground doing. Doing that work, because, again, this is a time of peace. So this is very much a outreach program. [00:10:44] Speaker B: Yeah, basically. [00:10:46] Speaker A: And all the temples have people manning the temples. [00:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's probably a good 15 to 20 Jedi in some sort of way, either masters, knights, padawans, and younglings at these temples training and. And helping out locals, or going to closer star systems if they require any help, if there's any natural disasters or if pirates show up or if bounty hunters are around causing chaos, you know, they're. They're there to help, and they want to help. We didn't really get to see a whole lot of that in the prequels. No. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Cause it's kind of wartime the entire time, just about. [00:11:22] Speaker B: And even in episode one, they're out a little bit, but they're centralized on Coruscant. Yeah, we don't really get to see or hear about too many other Jedi. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Temples around but there is a dispute, and they send Jedi. [00:11:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:34] Speaker A: So we do kind of see a little bit because qui gon and Obi Wan are off doing their, what the Jedi do during peace, and that is go and help negotiate and be the calm one in the room. [00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And again, they get sent from Coruscant, and that's. And Naboo is kind of closer to the outer rim. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:53] Speaker B: So it's a little bit further away where's like. Because Tatooine is close or at least closer to Naboo, but they're not in the Republic. [00:12:02] Speaker A: Right. And in the phantom menace, they are obviously more relegated toward the core because when the Neimoidians see that Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan are there, they're like, they sent a Jedi. Like, that wasn't part of the plan. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, they had no idea. [00:12:17] Speaker A: And, you know, then the shadowy figure says, you know, take them out, but that whole, like, idea of them going out and doing this thing doesn't necessarily happen on the outer worlds anymore. [00:12:30] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:30] Speaker A: And we're not as spread out, even. [00:12:32] Speaker B: Though Naboo is fully in the Republic. [00:12:34] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So as these books are going on, as the high Republic is going on, we do get to see why and how the Jedi, as an institution, kind of comes together and. And centralizes a little bit more. [00:12:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:50] Speaker B: Which is interesting. So, like we talked about earlier, there's outposts and there's actual Jedi temples that are being built and constructed. And these are all welcomed by the locals of the planets. [00:13:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:02] Speaker B: They don't just show up and start building stuff and be like, we're here. Deal with it. [00:13:06] Speaker A: Yeah, they're not the Spanish. [00:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah, no, but, you know, they're. They're welcomed by the locals and they get permission and they're like, hey, we want to help you. We're not going to bulldoze anything, and we're going to build. [00:13:16] Speaker A: The story goes, there's also instances where the Jedi don't necessarily help out on certain planets because there's a touchy relationship with them. And so they don't have an outpost there. They still show up to help, but they're not immediately able to get there because of something that happened in the past or that culture doesn't like force users, as we see in the high Republic adventures books. So they're not, like, crusading by any means. [00:13:42] Speaker B: Correct. [00:13:43] Speaker A: But they are doing a fair level of outreach and trying to help the locals and not just in, like, fighting, obviously, like in making sure that their crops are doing well, or they can survive natural disasters or diplomacies going on mid planet. Or like, in the manga, I think, like, oh, you had a blight and now your crops are all dead. Well, the Jedi temple can help get you resources so that we can all get back on our feet again. So they're very much this kind of holistic help organization that is not meant to be some, like, galactic police force and is not meant to be a galactic army, but is truly their peacekeepers. [00:14:21] Speaker B: Right. And so it's really awesome seeing this aspect of the Jedi, but with these temples and outposts, we have Jedi that are stationed there, and most Jedi masters are stationed to a temple or an outpost, or they bounce between a couple. But we also have wayseekers. [00:14:40] Speaker A: Yes. [00:14:40] Speaker B: And they've willingly not necessarily stepped away from the Jedi, but stepped away from being controlled by a temple. I don't know, maybe not controlled, but being reporting and committed to a temple. Yeah. And so we have, like, Orla Jureni, who just kind of follows her instincts with the Force and typically the way seekers are very in tune with themselves and attuned to the Force. [00:15:04] Speaker A: And they really let that guide, which I personally like. All of this, I think is really cool because even in the old canon, we had the core trilogy and the prequel trilogy, that is a war. We start off and we get about ten minutes of what were the Jedi doing during peacetime? And then the Neimoidians screw it up, and then the original trilogy obviously starts in the middle of this rebellion. Everything after that. That's not necessarily what the Jedi, like. The Jedi has fallen apart. So everything that gets built up post that, that's the Jedi trying to form something new. It is not the Jedi. Right. It's a attempt to recap. It's an attempt to recapture what the Jedi were. And then in the old Republic, we are looking at the sith war. So we're. Again, we're at a time of war. And then if you look all the way back to, like, those early first Jedi stories with, like, the Jedi. [00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:15:58] Speaker A: They are also at war with other Force users. So this is really cool in that while there is conflict, obviously, because it's a story. Yeah, there's not a Star war. [00:16:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:09] Speaker A: You know, it is a Star War, but the. [00:16:13] Speaker B: There's not a straight up war going on. [00:16:14] Speaker A: There's not a straight up war going on. And when the conflict does come, we see the Jedi kind of struggle with, wait, what are we doing to this? Yeah. When knights of the old Republic happens, we're in the middle of the war. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. There's a couple. There's the mandalorian wars going on. There was a sith war going on separately. [00:16:30] Speaker A: So we're not. They're not used to peace when that happens. It's. You're seeing the Jedi handle things as a wartime Jedi do. [00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:38] Speaker A: And in all the other eras, same thing in this. We are seeing the Jedi function when they are allowed to just be. [00:16:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:48] Speaker A: And I think that is so freaking cool. Not to get into just how much I love this era, but that is part of the reason I enjoy this era so much is because there's so many conversations about is what we're doing functional in a galaxy that is currently in turmoil? [00:17:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:17:02] Speaker A: And, like, do. How do we become wartime Jedi again when we are so used to being these way seekers and peacekeepers? Peacekeepers and. [00:17:12] Speaker B: But peacekeepers when there's already peace. [00:17:14] Speaker A: Yeah, general peacekeepers, not peacemakers. [00:17:17] Speaker B: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we get to see that kind of coming to. Into fruition and. And, yeah, like you said, that when stuff goes down, it's really cool seeing that aspect of the Jedi council, especially because there's. They. They all have different philosophies of how they think it should go. [00:17:33] Speaker A: There's definitely some stages of grief happening in that council. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:35] Speaker A: Like denial and anger and depression and bargaining. Like, all of them are kind of taking different approaches to how do we deal with these disasters. [00:17:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And a lot of times they didn't have time to really sit and think about it. It's like, no, we need to do. We need to have action. We need to do something. We can't just sit here talking about it. [00:17:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that's arguably one of my favorite parts of the Clone wars is them going, wait, we wanted to get back to peace, and they have those conversations, but, like, not nearly to the extent I think that they're happening here because the clone wars, they were already in an existing conflict and they were all together when it happened. This. They're spread to the winds and they are now having to reconcile. Like, how when we're spread this thin, are we able to take a centralized threat and deal with it appropriately, but. [00:18:25] Speaker B: Also at the same time with the republic going on too. And then in their partnership with the republic, the republic is also kind of going through the same sort of thing where we've been at peace for so long, we don't really have a big old army and kind of similar to the. To the Clone wars era, but also, is this threat really a threat. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's a lot of that denial sort of thing, because when a world is. When a galaxy. When a galaxy is so huge and not every planet is in the republic yet, you don't have as much information coming in to say, no, this threat is everywhere. [00:19:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:00] Speaker A: And there's a lot of that kind of discrepancy between, oh, this is a outer rim problem, not a core world problem. [00:19:06] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:19:06] Speaker A: And that comes up later as well. [00:19:08] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that's a perfect segue to what the republic's doing. [00:19:11] Speaker A: Let's talk about the republic. [00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So we have Chancellor Lena Tso. [00:19:15] Speaker A: Lena Tso. [00:19:16] Speaker B: And she's the chancellor of the Republic currently. And at this time, the republic isn't as large as it was during the prequel era. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:25] Speaker B: So there's fewer planets in the republic. [00:19:27] Speaker A: There's fewer systems in the republic, too. [00:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:29] Speaker A: Whole systems that are part of the galactic Republic in the prequel era just aren't. Just aren't. [00:19:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So we get to see kind of that aspect as well, of what's. What are they dealing with on a daily basis on Coruscant, with these planets that are, again, relatively at peace. So there's not really a whole lot of political deception or corruption. Obviously, there's gonna be a little bit, and that happens. [00:19:52] Speaker A: What I. If I may, what I like about the issues with the republic and how it functions are the conversations about, you wouldn't care about this problem if it weren't the planet that's providing the entire republic with x resource. [00:20:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:09] Speaker A: So, like, the very first conflict in this entire high republic story is regarding a planet that happens to have the materials needed for Bacta. [00:20:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:21] Speaker A: And Bacta is new, which is also a really fun thing because it means you can't heal people as fast. And, you know, you're kind of chinking away at the armor that otherwise protects much of the Star wars characters. But there's a Soliston at one point, about midway through phase one, who is very upset because he's like, you don't care about worlds in the republic if they don't provide the republic with something. [00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:46] Speaker A: Sounds kind of familiar, and it's a very common, but it's a very problem. And so if you're here for the political intrigue in this whole Star wars universe, if you watch phantom menace, for all the council meetings and all of the Senate meetings, which are really done really well. Which are done really well. [00:21:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:06] Speaker A: I don't know how I went so long without realizing that that movie's really at its core. An excellent episode of the West Wing. Yeah. But if you are into it for that, there is that conversation, especially toward the middle of the phase when that sullustan senator starts coming up. But there is also some level of political deception going down the line as well when. When people start going, okay, this republic isn't necessarily serving my people or even worse, serving me the right way. So there is still that level of selfishness. [00:21:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But definitely not as prevalent as, like, the prequel era. But that kind of comes to fruition as these waves in the high republic books and comics and stuff, you know, start coming up. Back to Lena. So real quick. She has two arcanines with her. Uh, they're fire type Pokemon. [00:21:57] Speaker A: Yep, that's a fire type Pokemon. Both of them looks like a lion. [00:22:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like she caught both of them on, like, I wouldn't say mustafar, but some sort of fire type. [00:22:05] Speaker A: Yeah, no, for sure. For sure. Yeah, no, Cinnabar. [00:22:08] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. [00:22:08] Speaker A: Yeah, the planet Cinnabar. [00:22:09] Speaker B: Yeah, planet Cinnabar. [00:22:10] Speaker A: Not at all true. No. They are what's called targons. [00:22:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:13] Speaker A: And they are not actually Pokemon and they don't get into tiny balls, but they are fiercely protective of her. And because she walks around with them, she does have this very badass image of herself. She's this lovely woman who says kind words and talks about her great works and says things like, we are all the republic. And she has her little son who, you know, doesn't really want to be in the spotlight. But, like, she's a family person, you know, it's nice. But she walks around with things that are larger than lions. Yeah, these are huge. [00:22:49] Speaker B: Like, they're intimidating. And people don't want to get too close to her because they know, like, they're protective. [00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah, no, she's got very mother of dragons energy in dark prior to the crazy. Yeah, obviously. But the targons are named Voru and Matari, which is actually the names of two gods in Coruscanti, like lore prior to Coruscanti City, you know, 5000 plus city, planet levels. City, planet. But, yeah, part of the original, like, Coruscanti religion. Religion, mythos, if you will. So, yeah, Lena, so total badass. [00:23:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. We're a fan. [00:23:25] Speaker A: There's other senators at play, too. There's sullustan senators. And then there's togruta, ambassador from Chile. There's staros. I'm not gonna get into names of senators past that, but there's obviously other senators and people at play and typically, for the most part, they kind of come in for one book. [00:23:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:45] Speaker A: And they're important to that book, but they're not necessarily a major part of the overall story every time. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Right. But it gives you a nice world building element of what's going on, the great disasters going on. But also, like, that's not the only thing that's going on. [00:24:00] Speaker A: More on that later. [00:24:01] Speaker B: Yeah, so it's kind of cool seeing all these little things that are still happening within the galaxy. It's like, you know, there's big stuff going on, but that's not our only focus. We can't just focus. I mean, it's gonna be a big focus. But just because this one thing's going on doesn't mean these 400 other things are not going on. [00:24:17] Speaker A: Right. And then after the senators and the actual galactic government. The republic government. There are wealthy families that are at play. [00:24:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:27] Speaker A: There's the bind guild, which is an organization of, not quite smugglers. [00:24:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:35] Speaker A: But there's definitely. I'm not entirely sure how shady the bind guilds packaging is. They typically operate in the outer rim for a reason. For a reason. The Hutts are very much at play here. The Hutts. [00:24:49] Speaker B: The cartels. Nar shaddaa. [00:24:51] Speaker A: Cartels. Nar shaddaa. Then there's also two pretty wealthy families. There's the Graff family, which were major prospectors in the overall hyperspace. Hyperspace lane and hyperspace route creation. And then there's the Santecas, who we've already seen Santecas before. Yeah, lor santeca lore santeca. So the Centeca family was also a key part in the hyperspace lanes. So when things start to happen and we need to understand hyperspace, we can actually go to some of the people who helped kind of figuratively paved the way for people to get around the galaxy. Which does bring me to the question of if the hyperspace lanes that came in were coming in during the high Republic or the earlier parts of the high Republic. Does that mean that we weren't using hyperspace in the old republic, et cetera? [00:25:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So it seems like, you know, in doing some of the research and reading some of the stuff from, you know, the new canon and expanded universe early on with the old Republic, it was very much more geared towards the core worlds. [00:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. [00:25:56] Speaker B: You know, Corellia Coruscant was still kind of the center of everything. There was basically, like ten to twelve planets. It seemed like in systems that the old Republic kind of encompassed. [00:26:06] Speaker A: Right. [00:26:06] Speaker B: And then slowly, it slowly expanded because hyperspace got a little bit easier and other planets shared their technologies, but also the Jedi helped out. And then typically, big wars happen because Star wars and it kind of reset things, maybe made things, maybe made the Republic a little bit smaller, and then they had to redo all the diplomacy. Right, and get back out. [00:26:33] Speaker A: And if things blew up or changed, because hyperspace does have moments where you can't go past a certain point because you'll go right through an asteroid field. [00:26:42] Speaker B: Or something or a supernova, like Han said. [00:26:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And even in the Thrawn trilogy, which takes place mostly during the time of rebels and rogue one, there, the Thrawn trilogy, within the new canon, for the record, there are areas of the outer rim, especially, where hyperspace doesn't quite work very well. [00:27:00] Speaker B: Yeah. You have the unknown regions. You have wild space. [00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So I guess it kind of makes sense. I guess it was kind of like you had the 405 and the five, and for those of you in California, and they put it the Santecas. And the graphs were putting in things like the 110 and the two. The two. And. And, you know, how else are you gonna get to the planet Glendale? [00:27:22] Speaker B: Right. So, you mean I have to go all the way over to the west side of the galaxy? [00:27:27] Speaker A: Oh, God, please, no. The 405 lane is terrible. No, Pergol would go through the 405. No, it's a terrible choice. [00:27:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:37] Speaker A: This is funny for people in California. Everyone else, I'm sorry. [00:27:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So. But it's cool seeing, you know, how they kind of came up with this system, and. [00:27:46] Speaker A: And it makes sense that the Republic is now expanding. [00:27:48] Speaker B: Yes. Now that they're at peace, because they're. [00:27:50] Speaker A: At peace, and we have new ways to get around. [00:27:53] Speaker B: Yes. [00:27:53] Speaker A: Because of families, like the grafts in the center. [00:27:55] Speaker B: And not only that, there was a Star wars convention I went to in the summertime. The expanded universe, or the legends. The legends consortium. Jason Fry, one of the big writers of old canon and new canon encyclopedia stuff and books. He did the. [00:28:08] Speaker A: He did the atlas, didn't he? [00:28:09] Speaker B: Yeah, he did the atlas, and he also. He also wrote the novel adaptation of the Last Jedi. So he's been writing Star wars for years, you know, with old canon and new canon, and we got to sit and chat a little bit, and he did a really cool panel. He talked about building maps for the Star wars universe. Like, that's. That's one of his main gigs. And what he totally. What he brought up that totally clicked, and we all didn't really realize is. And we should have the galaxy is, you know, it's 3d, it's not a 2d map. [00:28:39] Speaker A: Right. [00:28:40] Speaker B: So not only are planets, you know, if you look at the map, you know, it's not a discs. Yeah. It's not a disk. And the galaxy is huge. It's not a square, it's not a, the galaxy is not a cube by any means, but it's kind of cube shape. So a little oval ish. [00:28:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:56] Speaker B: And so some planets could easily be accessible going on your x axis, but if you go to the z at the same distance, it could be really tough if there's a supernova or if there's, again, an asteroid field or whatever, or if a new star is being formed, if per grill are getting in the way. So it's kind of interesting to get in that kind of aspect of the galaxy and how it works or doesn't. [00:29:21] Speaker A: While we're on the subject of hyperspace and how it works, there is a new hyperspace kind of function. [00:29:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:29] Speaker A: Within the galaxy travel system that is exclusive to one particular group. And I feel like this is an excellent time to transition to the nihil. The Nile. Yes, the Nile. [00:29:38] Speaker B: Nihil. [00:29:40] Speaker A: Han. Han. [00:29:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:29:42] Speaker A: Markeon. Marcion. [00:29:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:43] Speaker A: So let's talk about the Nile. [00:29:45] Speaker B: Yes. [00:29:45] Speaker A: The Nile are a band of anarchistic marauders. They're pirates. They're not really smugglers. They're just looters and pillagers. [00:29:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And they're typically out on the outer rim. [00:29:58] Speaker A: Yes. [00:29:59] Speaker B: And because the republic's not out there. The republic's not there to stop them or really get in their way. And there's kind of a big group of them, but they're at the, at the start of this phase in the high republic. They're not super organized, so the Republic might get word of them, but they're like, eh, it's the outer rims problem. They don't seem too dangerous. [00:30:20] Speaker A: They're treated very much like a gang. And it's like, yeah, the locals can deal with it. This isn't something we need a galactic referendum to handle. [00:30:30] Speaker B: Right. [00:30:31] Speaker A: And again, it's the outer rim. The Republic is still somewhat focused on the core world. [00:30:38] Speaker B: Right. They're not going to the west side of the galaxy. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah. No, no. And you know, when you have a government that is extremely far away from another part of the galaxy, you will have certain problems that just don't seem to make it back to the government. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Roman empire. [00:30:55] Speaker A: Yeah. California. What? So you've got this group, they're marauding, they're stealing, they're pillaging, they're killing and they go in, they get their stuff. They get out and they can do it weirdly fast. [00:31:08] Speaker B: Yes. It's almost like they appear out of nowhere and then leave out of nowhere. [00:31:12] Speaker A: And they're appearing out of hyperspace. They're coming out of hyperspace right into atmosphere, which shouldn't be allowed. It shouldn't be doable because hyperspace in the galaxy is. It does follow certain rules. It followed somewhat different rules and legends. [00:31:28] Speaker B: But it follows certain trilogy, but, you know. [00:31:30] Speaker A: Yeah, but it follows certain rules in. [00:31:33] Speaker B: Star wars, especially at this point, with their level of technology and understanding of hyperspace. [00:31:38] Speaker A: And if there's one thing I've realized about Star wars, especially in all of my recent viewing of Star Trek, is that Star wars is futuristic beyond an existing futuristic. So we're talking about old technology. You know, the millennium Falcon is an old ship. [00:31:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:57] Speaker A: And so a lot of the people, I feel like, who are in the galaxy especially, it's lived in. It's very lived in. [00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Old tech. Because it was fairly. It looked fairly new when Lando had it. [00:32:08] Speaker A: That's fair. But Lando also likes to keep things shiny. [00:32:11] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a fancy dude. [00:32:12] Speaker A: He's a fancy dude. [00:32:14] Speaker B: Yes. [00:32:15] Speaker A: But when you have even, even when it had all of its shininess, it still had this mismatch of parts on the top. And that is kind of the Star wars aesthetic. It's not always symmetrical. It's not about being pretty. Except for Naboo. They love pretty because artists, and that's very specific to Naboo. But the, the Nile, take that to eleven. [00:32:35] Speaker B: Yes. [00:32:35] Speaker A: Because they are taking these ships and just jamming them together. [00:32:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:40] Speaker A: You know, they're the kid that was like, I like my two Lego sets, but I'm. I feel like this ship really does need dragon legs. [00:32:47] Speaker B: Oh, that was me. [00:32:47] Speaker A: You know, I mean. [00:32:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Kind of reminded me of Sid from Toy Story a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. So these ships have, like, weird parts to them. Some of them look like spiders. There's weird colors going on, or just mismatched colors because of this. They're a little intimidating when they show. [00:33:03] Speaker A: Up and they come out of nowhere and they're these, like, impossible, disgusting looking things. And they come in, oftentimes with a cloud. Yes. As they release what's called the fog of war, which we'll get to that later, but for now, can you please give us a rundown of how hyperdrive works? [00:33:20] Speaker B: No. [00:33:21] Speaker A: Hyperspace works. [00:33:22] Speaker B: No. Because they don't even really know. So in some of the material, they're like, this is how we think hyperspace works. And they're like, the Jedi have classes and philosophers and scientists that are like, here's how we think it works, but we still have no idea. And some. Some of the Jedi think that it's through, like, kind of a worm holy thing, from the force. [00:33:44] Speaker A: Okay. [00:33:44] Speaker B: And then it flows from the force, and some people are like, oh, no, it's just an extra way of travel. And some people are like, oh, no, it's. It's just a different plane of existence, almost, and no one can really figure it out. But also, at this point, no one. No one's really focusing on it that much. [00:34:00] Speaker A: Sure. [00:34:00] Speaker B: But they know there's certain rules at this point that it goes by. [00:34:03] Speaker A: Yeah, and we know those rules. You can't go too close to a planet. You get sucked into a gravity well. You can't go through a star, can't. [00:34:11] Speaker B: Go through a black hole. [00:34:12] Speaker A: Can't go through a black hole, can't appear in atmosphere, can't go through a planet. Typically want to avoid astronomy. [00:34:19] Speaker B: A lot of gravity stuff. [00:34:20] Speaker A: You know, basically, like, if there's some sort of thing of gravity, it can pull you out of hyperspace, and that's bad. [00:34:25] Speaker B: Right. [00:34:26] Speaker A: So, because if it do, it'll end up launching you. You won't be able to do that nice little boom stop. Yeah, that they do when they come out of hyperspace in Star wars. [00:34:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:35] Speaker A: They instead will just go launching straight up into a planet, and then they're going at speed, which means that you're going to very much damage the planet because you're coming in, or you're just fast and you will probably die. [00:34:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:49] Speaker A: So when the Nile show up, it's like, how do they do that? Already? You're scared. [00:34:54] Speaker B: Yes. [00:34:54] Speaker A: And then they release this gas called the fog of war. And that is why all the niall wear masks, not just anonymity, but also because they've all got gas masks on. [00:35:04] Speaker B: Right. [00:35:05] Speaker A: But that makes them even more monstrous. And they are made up of all species. There's a Gungan, there's an ithorian twileks, there's powins, there's twileks, there's all number of species. Anyone can be a Nile, and it's very, very inclusive in that regard, which I think is lovely. Good for them, but they have a structure for how their system works. They have basically what's called the rule of three, not to be confused with the rule of two, because trickle down economics works. If the top three are getting it, then they'll get money, and everybody else gets equal pay. Yeah. Anyway, so you have the eye. Who is Marc yon Roe? [00:35:46] Speaker B: Yes. And even before him, his father. [00:35:48] Speaker A: And before him, Asgar. Asgar Row. And before them, there was some other row that started kind of this group, but didn't necessarily organize them, but there was a plan, and we'll talk about that later. Beneath the eye, or rather adjacent to the eye, according to them, are the tempest runners. And there's three tempest runners. Each tempest runners runs a tempest, basically a fleet. They have a lot of storm words in this group. It's very cool, it's very weathery. So their fleet. It's very. What? [00:36:20] Speaker B: Weathery. [00:36:20] Speaker A: It's very weathery. Yes. So their fleet is called the tempest, and the tempest is made up of the tempest runner. And then beneath the runners are storms. And the storms run the clouds. And the clouds run the strikes. Strikes. Like lightning strikes. Strikes are your initiates. They're your. [00:36:40] Speaker B: They're the grunts. [00:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:41] Speaker B: The. On the ground, you know, when they go to go do the pillaging, that's typically the ground crew. [00:36:47] Speaker A: Yeah, the strikes. So the ground crew, you know, the strikes, you hear at one point, like, how did this guy ever make cloud? Like, it is a rank. And the strikes are your. They're your fodder. They're your. They're the ones you send in. They're the ones who are doing the pillaging. But they are only making a percentage of the overall money. And then some of that money will. Then, you know, more of that money will be distributed amongst the clouds, more of that money will be distributed amongst the storms. And then the majority of it is going to be divided essentially four ways. Most of it goes to the tempest runner. [00:37:19] Speaker B: Yep. [00:37:20] Speaker A: And then it gets divided amongst the other two runners, and then some to the eye, and then. Yeah, and the eye provides the paths. And I don't want to get too much into it without spoiling a whole bunch, but the paths and path engines are how they are getting around the overall rules of hyperspace. Of hyperspace. [00:37:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And this. Yeah. That kind of sets up pretty much everything bad happening to the Jedi going in. The Nihil are coming in. They're wreaking some havoc. They do some stuff that the Jedi aren't prepared for and that the Republic isn't prepared for. [00:37:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And the. There. There's some key names to know. Number one, Marc Yonra. [00:37:58] Speaker B: Yep. [00:37:59] Speaker A: That is the eye of the storm weather. That is the eye of the storm. That is the center of the. Of all of it going down. That's kind of the guy running the show. Beneath him are the three tempest runners, and they are Marquion row. Sorry. They are pan Ada Kasev and Lorna Dee. And Pan Ada is this fancily dressed doatan. Those are the real. That's. You may remember him in the last Jedi. There was one at Maz Kanata's castle. Castle who's like sitting back in a chair and he's got two little spikes coming out of his chin and he's got a lady on him. He's huge. [00:38:37] Speaker B: Yes. [00:38:38] Speaker A: Never gets up from the chair. Because fun fact, that puppet wasn't supposed to get up from the chair. That puppet was like part of the couch. But doatans are these massive, hulking, kind of beastly. [00:38:49] Speaker B: And actually they do. They pulled that puppet out for Star wars celebration this last year in London when they. Where they brought all the puppets out. [00:38:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:59] Speaker B: And it for the. Should have been a whole exhibit for this little mini exhibit during the main panel. And that thing was massive. [00:39:05] Speaker A: It was huge. Yeah. Online on the Star wars show and the coverage of celebration, you can see they go through each of the puppets and they do talk about. That's where I actually learned about that. Cause they go through each and every one of those puppets. And then Lorna Dee is Twilek, Twilek, Twilek. However you wanna say it, she's a Twilek and she is vicious. And one of the newer ones, she is a newer tempest runner, so she doesn't have as much history with the organization, with the nigh hill, but she is a powerhouse. And her inner machinations, you wanted that political intrigue, and that's backstabbing. This is where you're gonna find it, on the Nile side of things. And then after that is Kassev. And Kasev is his own man. He is also kind of a backstabber, and he is much more on the. Let's go. Just get anything. He's a little more reckless. He wants the money, and that's it. Whereas Pan Ada wants the finer things. Lorna Dee wants respect. Like, they all have their own motivations and they all have their own ships. There's the gaze electric, which is Marcion Rowe's ship. There's the Lorna Dee, which is Lorna Dee's ship. What? Yeah, it's great, honestly. And how that came to be actually comes up. And then Kassev flies the new elite, pan Eta flies on the elegencia. And again, fancy, he likes fancy. He wants to be above his station as a doitan, he's viewed a certain way, and he definitely uses that to his advantage. But he also has this sort of, I'm better than what you think I am, which is so cool. Yeah. So cool. And Lorna Dee has kind of that as well. [00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. That's the interesting part about the Nile. They're. If they're. If they're banded together, they could do some cool stuff. But there's so much infighting going on, not only at the top with. With the tempest runners. [00:41:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:41:01] Speaker B: But also within their own tempest themselves. [00:41:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:04] Speaker B: And so they'll get on each other. [00:41:06] Speaker A: For taking each other's score. Like, hey, my tempest was gonna take care of that. How did you find out about that, that kind of thing? [00:41:12] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:12] Speaker A: Casuv, especially. [00:41:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, and that's why there's. There's. You can move up, but it's really hard. Cause you're. You're infighting with your people on your own level, where if they just unionized, they could just move their right. Right up to the top there. But again, that's how this organization works. [00:41:30] Speaker A: And being able to get in and get out requires this path engine technology. Getting in and getting out of these scores and being able to go in, pillage, get the heck out of there before the authorities arrive. That kind of thing is only possible with these path engines. And the paths and the path engines are only accessible through the eye of the storm. Yes. So they can know a couple of ways to get to these places, but if they're going to do it as efficiently as they can, they have to get the information from Marquanro, which is how he kind of holds leverage over all of these people, which is important to know going in, how this all works. [00:42:06] Speaker B: Right. And that whole, like, infighting thing, you know, it kind of sounds like the. [00:42:11] Speaker A: Sith a little bit. [00:42:12] Speaker B: Yeah. So, like, that brings us to the Sith. Like, where are the Sith? [00:42:15] Speaker A: Where are the Sith, Brian? [00:42:16] Speaker B: Nowhere. Doesn't matter. We haven't seen him in, like, 800 years, so whatever. [00:42:21] Speaker A: Yeah, the Sith. The Sith don't even show up. Who? Sith? Who? [00:42:24] Speaker B: Yeah, they don't. [00:42:25] Speaker A: Please. [00:42:25] Speaker B: We're fine. They're fine. Whatever. [00:42:28] Speaker A: I mean, that's why when the Sith get referenced by Qui Gon Jinn, the council's like, girl, what are you talking about? Yeah, bro. What? You're bringing up fairy tales. What are you talking about? That don't exist anymore. [00:42:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:40] Speaker A: What? That's like, being like, I'm really afraid of the roman empire. Yeah. The Romans are coming. [00:42:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:46] Speaker A: Any moment, centurions are gonna storm the castle, like, no, bro, they don't exist anymore. [00:42:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And so that's kind of where they're at in the galaxy right now. They're very much in hiding in secret. Like, they'll. They'll mention every once in a while, and they. There's a few things from Sith past that comes up, but it's nothing super huge. Nothing's really focused on it. It's all just sprinkled in. [00:43:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's not like we've completely forgotten them. The Jedi temple on Coruscant is built on. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:13] Speaker A: A Sith shrine. Shrine. A Sith temple of itself. [00:43:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:18] Speaker A: And Sith things do show up, but when they do, they're like, ah, shoot, this is some serious dark side stuff. We have to be careful about this. [00:43:26] Speaker B: And they move on, and then. [00:43:27] Speaker A: Yeah, they move on. Or they grab some things and go, yeah, let's take this back to Coruscant. And that'll solve all of our problems. [00:43:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So, again, this is all about the nihil kind of going up against the Jedi, not necessarily the Sith or Darksiders or. Yeah, I mean, they're Darksiders to an extent, where they're. They're making things out of balance, which is what Star wars is all about. But they're not Sith. They're not dark side force users. So that's kind of what's up with the Sith. [00:43:52] Speaker A: They're not up. So that's kind of the full run of the main groups of the galaxy. There's other citizens and civilians that come up within certain books, and I think we can wait on getting to those right now. I didn't even read that entire list of Jedi when I was going through the list. For the record, there are more. But now is the time for our quiz. Ready? No, I'm just kidding. We're not gonna do that. You don't need. You don't need that stress in your life. The correct answer, however, was Obertuk, who. [00:44:20] Speaker B: I failed that one. [00:44:21] Speaker A: No worries. Anyway, so this is kind of everything you need to know about the state of the galaxy. We are at peace. Things are okay. We're expanding the new Republic. The high Republic is doing great things. [00:44:34] Speaker B: Yeah, Jedi are cool. They're all around the galaxy there. There's a weird pirate thing going on in the. In the unknown regions, but we'll let them work. [00:44:41] Speaker A: I mean, we do want to resolve that problem when it comes up, but we don't even have temples on the planets they're hitting because they aren't anywhere near the Jedi. So, like, the Nile can't possibly be that big of a threat. They're just somebody to focus on later. [00:44:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:54] Speaker A: So anyway, yeah. Other things to know. The Halcyon cruiser is running at this time. [00:45:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:45:01] Speaker A: That is the Disney Hotel. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Yeah. You want to go on vacation? Well, you can't because they shut that one down, but it's still going in the high Republic. [00:45:07] Speaker A: It is indeed. And we will get to the Jedi as they come up because we've got to talk about them as each book comes in so that you can be fully aware of who are all the players, the Persona dramatized or what have you in this world. And we'll try to kind of keep those separate as the episodes go through so that we can make sure we're always talking about the relevant players so that you don't have to keep track of everything every single time. [00:45:34] Speaker B: Yeah. We're not going to Charlie day this. No, I mean, we will, but we won't. [00:45:37] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Yeah. Good. [00:45:39] Speaker B: I think we're good. [00:45:40] Speaker A: All right, well, thank you, everybody, for listening. Make sure to follow us and subscribe to this podcast so you can hear our next episode, which will all be all about wave one of phase one of the high Republic. [00:45:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And we're going to talk about the main books in that one. [00:45:52] Speaker A: That one's non spoilery. We're going to try to do as much as we can to avoid giving you too much away, in case you haven't read it yet, and then we'll move on from there into comics and characters and all that sort of thing. So, really excited about that and really excited about where this is going. Hopefully you are psyched to read this, and if you have already read it, then maybe revisit some of it now that you've kind of got all the pieces moving together. [00:46:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Especially now that phase three is in full swing. And it's nice getting a little bit of refresher. [00:46:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So thanks. Make sure you follow us on our socials and subscribe on online, and we will see you next time. The Starlight archive hosts Bryce Rankins and Brian Romero embark on our journey into the depths of Lucasfilm's multimedia storytelling initiative, the High Republic. Every week, they venture into uncharted territories of literature and comics, exploring the rich tapestry of this era with meticulous detail.