Daniel Erickson & Rob Chestney On Peace For The Republic Timeline

More yellow text appeared on the Developer Tracker today from both Daniel Erickson and Rob Chestney about "Peace for the Republic?", the latest Star Wars: The Old Republic HoloNet Timeline entry.

First, Rob Chestney explained how the events portrayed in Obsidian's Knights of the Old Republic 2 are relevant to Star Wars: The Old Republic, but were not covered withing the Timeline series:

Hey Folks, always nice to see the healthy debate sparked by the Timeline pieces. I love Star Wars history and particularly anything relating to KotOR. Even though KotOR 2 was developed by another developer, lots of folks at BioWare played and enjoyed it, including myself. If you look closely within the game, you will find several references to events or characters from KotOR 2, and we absolutely treat it as canon. I will also say that there have been discussions about the final fate of the Exile, who was indeed a woman according to the canon.
When outlining the Timeline series, though, we skipped over the events of KotOR2 for a few reasons:

(SPOILER ALERT if you haven't played KotOR 2)

Essentially, what happened in KotOR 2 is that a few years after Revan disappeared, a new trinity of Sith Lords materialized and drove the Jedi into hiding. Kreia (aka Darth Traya) sought out the Jedi Exile, and sought to use her as a mechanism for destroying the Force itself. The Exile defeated the Sith Lords, foiled Kreia's plan, and disappeared into deep space searching for Revan. The galaxy was essentially returned to the same state as it was in before the events of KotOR 2.

A few things about this: first, it all happened behind the scenes; the Jedi of the TOR era don't even know what really happened, in fact the only people who ever knew were the Exile and her companions. Second, because the events of KotOR 2 didn't really change the political landscape of the galaxy in any significant way, it's really more of an historical footnote to the Jedi Civil War rather than a major event in its own right.

This is absolutely not to say the story of KotOR 2 wasn't important. Taken in the context of the Timeline series, however, we decided it would be confusing and that the next note in the history of the galaxy should be the Jedi Civil War.

Thanks for all the feedback and interest in the game and in the Timeline videos. You guys remind us of why we're doing all this, so keep it up.

Cheers


And then BioWare's Lead Writer Daniel Erickson explains how marriage was handled in the Jedi Order:


Originally Posted by simmeh
So this is all well and good, but something's bugging me. Someone else brought it up in this topic, but it seemed to have been ignored.

"... fourth-generation Jedi ... father and grandfather had been Sith infiltrators ..."

Was there some change in the Jedi code that allowed for marriage and children after the Civil War? And was it changed back sometime later? I mean, I could theorize that the whole Revan/Bastilla thing caused a reform for a few hundred years, which was then revoked when it was discovered that there were entire families of infiltrators spanning several generations, but that's just speculation.

Am I really the only one concerned with this, or has BioWare already explained it away somewhere?


How rare that I see a question I'm allowed to answer!

Following the decimation of the Jedi Order as revealed in Knights of the Old Republic 2, the Jedi were forced to bend and rethink many of their restrictions in order to rebuild. There is no denying that Force sensitivity can run strongly in particular bloodlines and so for a brief period of history it was allowable to romance, marry and have children much like anyone else. After a series of horrific feuds and padawans lost to the dark side in the following century, however, the Jedi once again tightened their rules. In the time of The Old Republic it is permissible to have children and even to marry within the order but only with direct permission from the Jedi Council. To be granted permission the Jedi must prove a perfect detachment and serenity, basically that he or she does not care more about their prospective spouse or parent of their child than they do about any other Jedi. Permission is very rarely granted but the rule has become something of a release valve, both relaxing the order from the oppression of earlier years and often bringing budding romances to the surface so they can be dealt with by Jedi Masters.

Comments

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  • #24 ZealotX
    There has probably been a few visual references to this so far in everything that has been released. Every time I see a reverse grip on a lightsaber I wonder if its going to actually be in the game. The was one of my favorite things about Force Unleashed. But will it make it in game? What do you guys think? MMOs benefit from diversity. It would be cool if this was one of those options.
  • #28 Caliber
    It depends on how they decide to deal with stances. If they opt to attribute each type of lightsaber as its own stance or have a set of stances specific to each lightsaber type.

    I hope they decide to have sets of stances for each type of lightsaber because only having one technique for all double-bladed lightsabers, for example, lacks the depth that they have poured into other aspects of the game.

    So yes, I would love to see a reverse hold, two-handed hold, and a single-handed hold for single lightsaber users and equivalent stances for double-bladed and dual lightsabers.

    The Fatman - PvP - East Coast

  • #26 LethalSharpshooter
    Ugh! Hell no. Stupid and ugly. The normal grip is good enough.
  • #14 RogueJedi86
    What's with BioWare implying that there was a Jedi marriage taboo prior to KotOR2? Did they forget about the Sunrider clan in the years before KotOR1? Andur and Nomi married and had a daughter, Vima, and this was fully accepted by the Jedi order. Ulic and Cay Quel-Droma were brothers. I was under the impression that marriage and having children were fully accepted in the old Jedi Order, with the Marriage/Children taboo being enacted in the wake of the disastrous Battle of Ruusan 1000BBY. A lot of things changed after the Battle of Ruusan, including the reformation of the Republic, so a Jedi Order policy change wouldn't be unheard of.
  • #13 Drenarb
    Uh, anyone else see the romantic fling for Jedi characters more of a viable option with your companions now, after that last comment up there. You can have romantic relationships "with direct permission from the Jedi Council". I can totally see the Jedi story arcs having you to convince the Jedi Council that allowing you have a mate is a "good idea". :P
  • #17 L'innommable
    That's why recently I've change my mind and inclined towards rolling a Sith. I will be able to take any female I want, without asking any previous authorization to anyone.

    The council with its strict rules doubled by the Senate, are pretty a failure system in my opinion.
  • #20 LethalSharpshooter
    I rather be a virgin than a evil emo-bastard, and be betrayed by my apprentice and having to be tormented forever in the Void.
  • #21 L'innommable
    Haven't you read an article written by one of the devs, explaining clearly that there aren't such things as 'Evil' and 'Good'?
    It is not because we are dressed in black, and privilege 'the end justifies the means' methods, added to deception, lies... that we are compulsorily evil.
    You know what's really evil? A jedi council limiting your deeds and acts at a such extent that they steal/train you since your birth, prevents you from being married, prevents you from doing this, that...
    The more I have freedom, the more I feel happy. This is the reason why the Dark side is the way I have chosen to follow...
  • #22 RogueJedi86
    You know what's really evil? Instigating a costly war with the Republic, then proposing a peace treaty, then using that peace treaty signing as cover for an assault on the capital that resulted in the death of many innocents. The Republic would never propose a peace treaty as mask for assaulting a planet. That's deception and duplicity and potentially betrayal if you consider the peace treaty as a potential end to the war that was a lie for cover of another assault. I don't see anything Good about that at all. Call the Empire morally gray, but the Assault on Coruscant during the signing of the Treaty was Evil.

    Compared to a religion group having a code, the Empire are MUCH worse than the Jedi. You can leave the Jedi Order if you have problems with their rules and want to leave, they won't stop you or execute you for leaving. I wouldn't put it past the Empire to "deal with" people who want to quit.
  • #23 Korrick
    Well we Americans told Japan we were gonna drop a 3rd atomic bomb in there Volcano if they didn't quite fighting in world war 2. Even though we didn't have a 3rd bomb,and we already dropped 2 killing plenty of innocents. Dose that make the US evil?

    Evil is just a point of view, anyone can be evil even the republic. We have seen this in the treat of peace.
  • #25 RogueJedi86
    Dropping a third nuke would've been no more evil than dropping the first 2. I still hate that the US dropped the nukes to begin with, but that's another topic altogether. We didn't nuke the Japanese under guise of a Peace Treaty. BioWare themselves did say that the Empire are the bad guys, they're just not undeveloped 2-dimensional bad guys.
  • #27 Korrick
    Please link the comment were Bioware said they were the bad guys because I have never seen or herd of this.

    My point of the Atomic bomb was we all do things we don't want to do to win a war, its WAR there's no holding back. The Empire needed to get some of there planets back and the actual peace treaty made sure it was agreed on there terms. I don't call that evil at all, that was just a brilliant strategy.
  • #29 L'innommable
    I'm with Korrick on this one. And it seems, RogueJedi86 that we won't never be able to agree on a such subject.
    The Empire will easily argue that the Republic is evil, and vice versa.
    The passion that both of us could show while arguing in favor of our respective factions, gives a glimpse of what will really happen when the game will be released. If both sides are so attached to their convictions, then the battle promises to be fierce and interesting.

    Another sign that Bioware managed to get us immersed enough in the story. I don't recall having such conversations while I was a WoW player.
  • #18 Korrick
    Lol I agree the Sith take what they want with no permission, I mean up untill those rules weren't all jedi virgins?
    I mean they take you at a young age so that means no getting it on. Who wants to be a 50 year old virgin? Or like yoda a 900 year old virgin LOL.
  • #19 GoHann
    LMAO! You both are redici with your comments. LOL

    Wound in the Force::GoHann (lvl 35 Maurader)

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