Warning! Massive load of self-importance incoming! Abandon ship! Abandon-*skoosh skoosh BOOM*
Hey all!
Some of you may have noticed some customs of mine floating around with references to Emperor Plagueis, Darth Cyclone, and Grandmaster Dooku. (Heh, just noticed that spellcheck dosen't flag "Darth.....). They're Infinities, or alternate timelines. Now, that's nothing new, especially for Star Wars. However, I've gotten quite a few requests for more indepth details (I originally went the MTG route of having story info scattered in the flavor texts, I haven't published them as a set becuase I want to be able to keep adding characters as new ideas occur to me), and at least one request to start a thread about it, so here I am.
To keep this brief (relatively speaking),
In this alternate timeline Plagueis has taken Mace Windu as an apprentice instead of Palpatine, Windu becomes Darth Cyclone. Things proceed as normal during Episode 1 (with Plagueis taking the role of Sidious, with Plagueis' alter ego Supreme Chancellor Fiall; and Cyclone taking the place of Maul), but immediately afterwards Plagueis reveals that he had commissioned a clone army years previously in anticipation of such an event and uses the blockade as an excuse to expand the Republic's borders. He manipulates the Separatist movement but kept Cyclone in reserve during the Droid Wars (what the Clone Wars is called in this timeline, as the public knew about the clones for years beforehand but found out about the droid armies only near the start of the war). However, due to Fiall's conquests of the Outer Rim, in response to which the Separatist movement sprung up, the Jedi could not be persuaded to fight the Separatists until the situation was extremely dire for the Republic. At risk of losing the war and losing his chance of triggering Order 66, Plagueis had to give the command for the clones to turn on the Jedi prematurely, resulting in a large number of Jedi escaping (among them Anakin Skywalker and Master Dooku, although Grandmaster Yoda was assassinated by Darth Cyclone at the moment the Order 66 command was issued). Empire is established, droids are shut down, and Cyclone kills Trade Federation leaders, similar to the normal timeline. The Jedi Remnant, under the leadership of Grandmaster Dooku, and various groups of soldiers loyal to it wage a guerilla campaign of sorts against the Empire, but once Luke and Leia Skywalker reach adulthood (and the end of their apprenticeship), things change. Luke and many of his followers fall to the dark side on their single minded quest to destroy the Sith, which eventually culminates (for the time being) in Luke's defeat of Plagueis (who escapes with his life, as does Darth Cyclone), and Luke's crowning as Emperor. He invites the Jedi Remnant to join him, saying he has made the galaxy safe for the Jedi once again, and many follow (mostly those who followed him down the road to the dark side) do so. The rest, seeing what Luke has become, continue their campaign against the Empire. The Force senses that Luke has corrupted his destiny, and tries to kill him, wipie him from the face of reality with flesh (and soul) eating energies, but somehow Luke survives, becoming a wound in the Force.To understand what has vecome of him, Luke begins to study some of the Sith texts left behind by Plagueis, and eventually finds references to a Darth Nihilus, who suffered a similar aliment. The texts also mention that Darth Nihilus' spirit survived in his armor and mask, and it gives the location of these items. Luke heads to the planet named and finds that only the Mask remains there. Donning it, Luke finds Nihilus' spirit mixing with his own, an d the two continually wage a battle against one another for possession of Luke's body. Around this time, a young Imperial lieutanant named Han Solo kills a Wookiee named Chewbacca during the Wookiee's escape attemp. This is the start of Solo's long career, and he rventually attains the rank of Grand Admiral due to his ingenious and unpredictable tactics. A group of Separatist inspired revolutionaries find a manufacturing system left over from the Droid Wars, and begins pumping out droids for a new war with the Empire, and any other takers. And, somewhere on the Outer Rim, Plagueis and Cyclone (identifying themselves only as Sith, not as the former Emperor and servant) unify dissidents into an Alliance to Restore the Republic......
Whatdya think?
I'll probably keep editing that hunk of text as new things occur to me and/or I want to flesh some bits out.
Edit: Whoops! looks like I didn't understand the Custom Set system as well as I thought I did! I've started a set for these minis, also called A Galaxy Ravaged (Infinities).