Note: This is a far longer, more of a ramble style on what people who live in the Star Wars Galaxy know about, including general histories, facts, etc. The other post is the short version of what people know...
All stories have the same preconditions set upon their foundations: most of these preconditions are dependent on the culture the story is produced from, the genre, the writers perceived strengths, weaknesses, interests, and many other factors, all save for perhaps one: there must be a main character. Now, the main character can be human, alien, a city, time itself, the subject does not matter; the fact that there is a subject, a main character that the audience can view through and begin to understand what is going on is essential to any story. As a result of this, almost all stories must, in return of giving an audience a lens to view the story via a main character, must sacrifice the big picture. Star Wars is not alone in this.
In previous posts, I've discussed about how the main (but not always the expended universe) universe (the movies) ignore the potential problems with the seemingly lack of religion and lack of conflict with droids, two issues usually considered important in Sci-Fi universes (or for religion, written out). But another aspect that is often not considered is the general public. You know, the actual trillions of denizens of the galaxy who live (or live nearby) in the actual order. And by proxy, what this means, just what is the general knowledge of people living in the Star Wars universe? We, as movie watchers, know what is going on through our lens: we know Luke is part of the good guy rebel forces against an evil empire, because well, the empire blows up planets and the rebel forces don't, and luckily, we as a human society agree that nuking people for the hell of it is not acceptable. (Though really, Moff Tarkin's plans really should have thought of the potential PR problems of blowing up a settled planet....just saying). But what would the public thinks?
We know that by the time the original movies are coming around, people don't like the Empire......at all. The celebrations at the end of the new version of episode 6 demonstrate this, particularly by way of showing Coruscent celebrating, a planet that a) was still under the Empire's rule at the end of the movie and b) probably was in a period of large growth due to the empire military/industrial/fear order. I mean, that planet had to be in an economic boom, and they were celebrating their ruler's death? Big statement about the Empire at that point (and yes, we're going to ignore the more probable fact that Lucas didn't even think of that implication and included there in his revised version just because it was in the 2nd trilogy).
But what about for our game? It is only set 3 years after the Clone Wars, and let's face it, I've not read all that much Star Wars expended universe stuff (I'm working on it!), so I can't say for sure how the expended universe has treated this. So, using old friend wookiepedia, let's review what is, and isn't, common knowledge, and how the people think of the Empire.
First off, the Republic is now the Galactic Empire....just one still with a Senate. So the empire itself is sort of structured like the Roman Empire. Of course, the senate will be gotten rid of as soon as it becomes too annoying of a pest (sort of like.....the Roman Empire). The senate itself is mostly a symbolic creature, one there to support the policies and make the Empire seem more democratically supported than it really was. Those who don't support the Empire are allowed to live, usually, as long as the thorn is not too huge...though efforts are made to make their lives....uncomfortable.
The second thing that must be kept in mind is the perception of the Emperor himself, Palpatine. Palpatine, as we've seen in the movies, is by far a master politician, a Hall of Fame manipulator. Interesting thing about Palpatine is, we don't know his background. We just know that he had a Sith Lord, he killed him, he's from Naboo, and he was an elected Senator. Palpatine was known in the political circles as being a serious, provincial and uncorrupted man, albeit not one with any great deeds to his name and who often went home after work. He was also known as a scholar, publishing many political treatises. Palpatine was appointed as Supreme Chancellor due to his political cunning (as seen in Episode I), and he, in his PR, only kept extending his reign due to the Clone Wars; he held no great deeds otherwise, but made no visible enemies either. Otherwise, he stated publicly, he would have sat down and retired. So right before the end of the war, he's considered, really, a good honest tough-in-war leader.
Palpatine then had the perfect PR move for him; Mace Windu came in and tried to "assassinate" him. Palpatine had his coup'd'grat (sp). Palpatine appearance was not permanently changed from his old slightly grandfatherly ways to a decrepit old man....perfect for sympathy arousal. After giving Order 66 and telling Anakin to do his Vader thing, Palpatine played his PR violin, perfectly striking the strings of control. He stated that the Clone Wars was, in reality, a coup attempt by the Jedi, and the proof was the following: creating the Clone Soldiers in secret; trying to assassinate him and make him look like a poor man (complete with walking cane (and black cloak); and with a Jedi leading the Separatist conflict that caused the War to begin with. While smarter minds may see the flaws in this logic, this seems to have been accepted by the general public. As a result of this attempt, he then made the Empire to help eliminate the enemy of the people, the Jedi and declared that from this point on, a New Order was to be made. It is NOT known that the Emperor is a Jedi/Sith Lord....people believe he really is a weak but determined fellow at this point in time.
Darth Vader is definitely known as a Jedi Killer; the PR spin has greatly exaggerated his deeds of killing the Jedi, though he did kill the Temple. He is known to be assigned to the elite 501 Vader's Fist, and is the unit sent to take care of thorny issues. Vader is known to be a force-user, a jedi, but likely not Sith. The Sith, after all, were supposed to be wiped out a 1000 years ago. The Sith, for the average layman, is not heard or learned; for the learned, a history lesson, a curiosity; and for the Jedi, a myth, a legend. People would not even associate Vader's saber to the dark side; the dark side, save for the Jedi, is not even heard of for the most part. Think about yourself....how much of history do you know about 1000 years ago? So Vader would be considered a fearsome Jedi Hunter and Military Officer, working for his Emperor in securing the peace. Vader would be a known, feared quality and likely known throughout the galaxy; he would be one of the few with his own Star Destroyer.... In terms of whether what Vader is in terms of the Jedi, Jedi would think he of a Sith; without guidance for Masters though, most did not think or bother to think if Vader was the master or the pawn. Survival is a bit more important and any thoughts of vengeance go towards Vader.
After the Clone Wars, the Galactic Clone Based Republic Army got new clothes, new ships, new blasters, new...well everything as they became the Imperial Forces. The army took advantage of the fact that the Clone Wars never officially ended (the leaders never did surrender after all) to build up forces, and there were some planets that revolted early on, including Naboo (this is Canon, our version....not so much). The style in the movies became more standard and prevalent, and by our game the style and culture of the military has been set. An order based on fear though was still growing in popularity in the New Order and was not standard throughout the galaxy, though, with a military based ruler, a little sense of fear is to be expected.
The so-called New Order was, at first, and during this game, supported by the Inner Rim. Violence seemed to greatly decline, the War almost over, and a sense of control and peace was finally in the galaxy. Most senators approved of the new order as they desired and others merely waited to see the fallout. The authoritarian nature of the Empire would not be apparent for several more years, so support in the Inner Rim is still strong. The New Order stated that the Republic feel into chaos due to the following reasons: too decentralized, too weak to solve issues between its members, and too weak to prevent war (aka what we saw in Episodes 1 and 2). The New Order, in response, would be a strong, centralized political and military order that would destroy the previous era's chaos for civilized control. Alone with clone elites, the New Order would enlist millions of imperial forces for its operations.
The New Order is already at this point, a widely human, male only organization, due the character of Palpatine, his advisers and the military forces. The argument was that aliens were simply unfit for positions of power, and though there was no formal law, aliens simply wielded significantly less power. I would also argue that the Jedi Order and the Senate, complete with non-xenophobic methods and leaders, made the Emperor want to spin the PR this way; we saw he had no problem in training Darth Maul (A Near-Human), and if the candidate was good enough and loyal enough, the Emperor would allow the very rare alien (or female) to acquire power. So I don't think the Emperor himself was xenophobic....but as history has shown, when society reaches a rough period, the temptation to lash out the strangest or newest annoyance can become great. As a side-product of this, the elite rich of human society often received more powerful positions than in years past....and while this will eventually be a sign of corruption, it is not a big point yet at this point in time for our game.
The New Order did allow the extermination of alien races if it threatened the prosperity or power of the Empire, so reports of planets being eliminated and then used for slave labor is known....but should be treated as a dirty secret. The arts and cultures were not terribly impacted, though human based art and plays displayed its zenith of its artistic height. Obviously, much PR work has been used to spout the evils of the Jedi Order, and they are very likely among the masses to be at its lowest levels among many audiences. In addition, most reminders of the Jedi order, from holocrons to symbols to techniques, are destroyed on a daily basis by the Empire. Publicly, the temple on Coruscent has been abandoned with a couple of guards but in reality......
Another usual constant in our world's military based orders are a public based organization that is meant to support the current regime....think of Iran's militias. The Empire, not surprisingly, had its own: Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR). COMPNOR was a compilation of various culture and youth organizations supporting the New Order, put under one umbrella. Like many militia orders, though starting small, COMPNOR eventually slithers its slime throughout all of the political and back-end parts of the Empire, eventually becoming a key personnel source for the Empire, as over two trillion people became part of COMPNOR. COMPNOR would eventually become the a loyal fanatic regiment of troops, information gatherers, police-work, figuring out hard galactic problems with not-so moral answer and other generally evil-aligned activities associated with military autocratic empires. However, the organization, while loyal, was still getting its power during this period, and outside some core inner rim worlds, does not have an impact in our game.
Droid Rights are at their lowest in thousands of years, as they were the army of the Separatists...hatred of Droids are at an all-time high among much of the galaxy society at this time. Economy-wise, many functions were centralized, many trade federations were nationalized (thus increasing revenues for the Empire), and the one of the main expenses of the Empire, the holocron news, that would spread news about an Empire in an instant throughout the galaxy, was shut down, resulting not only in more funds for the military, but also less information about the Empire in the outer rims. The Empire's consolidation thus had a duel effect of consolidating their control and popularity in the Inner Rim, but made it seem as if the Empire had largely forsaken the Outer Rim. While the Empire does go after Pirates, "Separatists", "Jedi", and rebellious planets, it does NOT interfere with the local politics of a planet. The Moffs, the leaders of the provinces of the Empire, are largely focused on military affairs and not economical or local ones. It is certain that the influence of the Empire could be felt in the Inner Rim and in some of the planets, along with the occasional Outer Rim World. While high end elites and politicians of various Outer Rim world would be concerned, it would seem as long one did not cause trouble or makes an effort to be an asset, the planet would be fine and life would continue to be the same.
We know to be true from Luke's comment about Tattooine....yes he's a rural farmer on a desert planet, but he believes the Empire has no impact on his planet...and Luke, for the sake of audiences, is the closest thing we get, at the beginning of Episode IV anyways, of being an average layman. And that's the thing: most people in the Outer Rim, where you guys have been playing at throughout the game, would not really care or know! They would be glad that the Clone Wars is over, but not really care on who was involved, or how things are different. As long as you can live your life without interference from the Empire, then it was fine. Most people I think, would think of the New Order as the Old Order, at least for the few years....the nature of the Empire has not been revealed yet. Only those directly impacted would be against the Empire....the Jedi, Naboo, some pirates....otherwise....life goes on and on for the common folk. That's the reality for the galaxy and for most people....as long as the government does seem to interfere in the negative for your life....as long as the governments seem to be doing good.....then why question its chosen path? At this point, it is doing too much good for any questioning....the Empire, to the common person, may not be a great institution, but is superior to the Old Order....and coming off years of war, that in itself is a great thing.
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