Star Wars: Dawn of the Republic
Twenty thousand years before the birth of the Empire, the Galactic Republic appeared from the scattered and disorganized core worlds as they united against the menace of Xim the Despot. From a loose organization of barely thirty planets, the young Republic expanded in only a few years to control a thousand worlds across many parsecs of space.
But the Republic was not the only thing to rise in this dim age. The Force, that mysterious energy field that binds the galaxy together, first appeared in this time, as did those who sought to master it, for reasons both Light and Dark. The Jedi first appeared in the early days of the Republic, as did dozens of other Force-using traditions, following their own strange paths and philosophies.
But how did the Republic go from a scattered league of worlds to the galaxy-spanning organization it eventually became? And how did the Jedi go from being just one sect among many to being the greatest masters of the Force ever known?
This is one interpretation of the Dawn of the Republic, a setting for D6 Star Wars for those craving more mystery, more wonder, and more freedom to develop their own themes than they can find during the Rise of the Empire, Rebellion, or New Republic eras. These stories take place in the primordial history of the galaxy, in a time more remote to citizens of the Empire than the days of Jericho and Catal Huyuk are to us. It is an age of grandeur and romance, when the Force is indistinguishable from magic and the will of the gods, when kingdoms barely out of barbarism have discovered the miraculous powers of the hyper-drive.
As classic Star Wars draws from Westerns and sci-fi pulps, Dawn of the Republic should draw from myths and legends, epic stories and pulp fantasies. The first human civilizations are arranged like the city-states of the Greeks or early Sumerians, young and still vulnerable but vibrant and waxing in their might; opposing them are sprawling alien empires resembling Persia, Egypt, and decaying Babylon, strong but already rotting amidst all their finery and decadence. Scattered across the galaxy are strange cults with wondrous powers, god-kings who use technology or the Dark Side of the Force to rule lost worlds, and great phalanxes of battle-ships that clash in titanic battles between the suns.
Heroes of this mysterious era can be Force-using mystics working toward a unified understanding of that mysterious energy, barbarian champions poised to sweep aside the last vestiges of dying alien civilizations, or ambitious kings of vibrant new societies that will one day form the Galactic Republic. All possibilities are open in this ancient era.
