Dev Diary #12: Imperial Leadership Succession
What if C'Baoth outlived Thrawn and claimed the Empire? Could Mas Amedda have become Emperor? What would have happened if Pestage ruled until the Vong Invasion?
These are the exciting possibilities coming in v1.4! Today I want to talk about one of my longer term projects: the leadership of the Empire in the sweeping, era-progressive campaigns that will be coming.
From the aftermath of Endor in 4 ABY to the shattered galaxy following the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion, who will claim the empty throne?
This article is all about the upcoming Imperial Leadership Succession mechanic, something I will be implementing gradually across the next release cycles.
While this won’t be coming in the v1.34 release, it will be a fundamental part of v1.4, the mod’s planned ‘finished’ state, so I want to skip ahead and talk about it now.
How It Works
Age of Legends v1.4 will include scenarios going from 4 ABY and the aftermath of Endor all the way through the Vong War and beyond. That’s 40 years of lore to draw upon, in which dozens of people tried to rule the Empire, or else plausibly could have attempted to. I want to give you, the player, the widest range of possible Imperial leadership choices of any mod, ever. Each leader will bring their own advantages and disadvantages, including different sets of heroes and some unique unit locks and unlocks. Others will appear on the galactic map as hostile forces if you snub them.
This will add hugely to the Total War-style gameplay the mod is increasingly working towards, allowing a huge range of counter-factual scenarios to play out.
One crucial point is that leaders can persist across time: if you start in 4 ABY you can get Sate Pestage all the way to the end and have him leading the Empire or Imperial Remnant in 30 ABY.
But leaders aren’t available if you start a campaign after their canonical death: so if you start in 11 ABY, there’s no Isard. But if you start in 4 ABY, and choose Isard as leader, she could survive into the Vong War and beyond into the 30s ABY as Imperial leader.
Read below for a full breakdown of EVERY possible Imperial leader you can choose, split up by era. The method of appointing them will vary: sometimes you can back a palace coup, others will require a pitched battle to install. Potential leaders appear in bold.
Endor Aftermath (4-5 ABY)
In this period the default Imperial leader is the Grand Vizier, Sate Pestage. He is backed by Sarcev Quest, Jeng Droga and Grand Admiral Peccati Syn, among others. But he has rivals. You can back a coup against him from the Imperial Ruling Council and, from their ranks, appoint Ars Dangor or Paltr Carvin and the Tribune as leader. If you’re sick of scheming politicians on Coruscant, you can embrace the Dark Side and choose Lord Cronal. If you do this you will gain access to his sinister forces for yourself… but if you don’t, he will spawn as an independent, hostile faction on Mindor, and begin raiding across the Galaxy. There’s one final choice in this period, the Clone Sate Pestage - just in case the real one meets a sticky end.
Rise Of The New Republic (5-10 ABY)
In the Expanded Universe this is the era of Director Ysanne Isard and her Super Star Destroyer Lusankya. But she had many rivals for the throne: you could back Trioculus and the Central Committee of the Grand Moffs. If you do, Isard will become a warlord, unleashing Lusankya on the galaxy at the hand of the scored chief of the Imperial Security Bureau. If you don’t, Trioculus and his cronies will emerge as a hostile force on Kessel.
What follows then is of course the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. But he had a rival: Admiral Betl Oxtroe, who saw the writing on the wall for the Empire and plotted to install Ederlath Pallopides, a distant relative of Palpatine, as Empress and cut a deal with the New Republic that would preserve the Empire as a constitutional monarchy. Her power base would centre around Naboo, with the aid of Moff Panaka. But Thrawn would not give up easily, and you’ll face the full force of the Empire of the Hand as an emergent faction on the galactic map if you back Admiral Oxtroe.