Free Worlds

“The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”
   –Leia Organa

The rebellion against the Galactic Empire is an interplanetary and local effort. As a member of the Rebel Alliance you could travel to a new base every few days, or perform acts of civil disobedience in the very town where you grew up. As an Ace, you might be stationed on Chandrila to defend the planet from Imperial attacks or tour the Outer Rim in order to spread news and gather support for the Rebellion. A Spy could spend months undercover at an Imperial outpost or be continuously on the move as she collects and relays intelligence.

Strongholds of Resistance, an upcoming Star Wars®: Age of Rebellion™ sourcebook, offers plentiful details on well-known Alliance worlds and secret Rebel Bases, so your group can act as a strike force darting from system to system or play dangerous games of local politics. Your character might have close family living on one of these worlds, or you might be an offworlder whose mission depends on earning the population’s trust. Today’s preview explores three worlds—Mon Cala, Sullust, and Kinyen—that are all sympathetic to the Rebellion, but otherwise vastly different. 

United in Rebellion

In the far reaches of the Outer Rim, disconnected from the major trade routes, lies the oceanic world of Mon Cala, also known as Dac. The planet is dominated by two species, the adventurious, idealistic Mon Calamari and the more isolationist, often marginalized Quarren. In the days of the Old Republic, the Mon Calamari controlled the planet’s political and economic spheres. Resentment among the Quarren led them to join forces with the Separatists in the Clone Wars, but under the Empire both sentient species were enslaved, forced to strip-mine their colonies and work in Imperial shipyards. Shared oppression united the Mon Calamari and Quarren. Together, with the military assistance of the Rebel Alliance, they expelled the Empire from Mon Cala.  

Naturally, the Quarren and Mon Calamari are not the only species who inhabit the planet’s vast seas. Near the old metropolis of Foamwander lies a collection of sentient, telepathic mollusks known as the Knowledge Bank. The Knowledge Bank maintains telepathic connections with schools of non-sentient fish ubiquitous throughout the planet and passively records everything those fish see and hear, so that it holds a complete history of everything that transpired on the planet since the Knowledge Bank achieved sentience.

Whaladons are the most massive of the planet’s sentient species, stretching almost thirty meters in length. These nomadic cetaceans have coexisted rather peacefully with the warring Mon Calamari and Quarren for millennia, even maintaining some semblance of an embassy. Nevertheless, offworlders have hunted whaladons for both sport and profit, with no regard for the gentle species’s sentience. Less sentient but far more ubiquitous are the four-eyed Mon Cala eels that graze along the ocean floor and electrocute any perceived threat. Quarren have been known to lash these eels together to make underwater prison cells, with every wall perilous to touch. 

Strengthened by Community

Right on the Corellian Trade Spine lies Kinyen, a silvergrass-covered agriworld known for its peaceful, social, and religious inhabitants, the Gran. Evolved from herding, mountain-dwelling herbivores, the Gran created a civilization based on community and codependence that grew into a socialist planetary government. Poverty has almost been eradicated from Kinyen, and the health of its populace is among the best in the galaxy. Yet those few Gran who struggle to belong in their communities are condemned and exiled to colonies on other planets. 

The religion of Doellinism dominates every aspect of culture on Kinyen. Doellin is a vegetation goddess, a cosmic farmer whose most cherished crop is the Gran. She forbids violence and any corporeal or mental addiction such as gambling, alcohol, and spice. Therefore, offworlders often remain close to the more libertine areas of Capra, home of the planet’s spaceport. One of the only places to find alcohol on Kinyen, for example, is a speakeasy hidden between a fabric shop and an eletronics repair shop. There you’re likely to meet all manner of otherworldly low-lifes like spice-dealers, spies, and smugglers. 

Kinyen has always bucked against Imperial rule. When the Empire demanded greater access to Kinyen and an increase in food production, the Gran refused. In response, Imperial forces bombed the populous city of Malthee into a smoking crater of wreckage. Now, the crater has become home to a temple and memorial. There, many Gran pay their respects to the dead, and Doellinist priests secretly meet with agents of the Rebel Alliance.

Dominated by Commerce

In contrast to the blue of Mon Cala’s oceans and the pale green of Kinyen’s fields is the glowing red of Sullust’s volcanos. Enormous factories and cities are built within dry magma chambers, and the Sullustans have tamed the planet’s lava, directing it away from their subterranean homes to the planet's surface, harvesting geothermal energy from it as it flows. The Sullustans themselves are more than accustomed to life in the dark underground tunnels of the planet. They dwell in large, communal homes with as many as a hundred other members of their warren-clan.

Sullust has publicly declared neutrality in the Galactic Civil War, and Sorosuub, the gargantuan corporation controlling the planet, maintains secretive ties with both the Rebel Alliance and the Empire. A single factory will make immense profits from Imperial arms contracts while also stockpiling and smuggling rifles specially designed for Rebel soldiers. Even after the Battle of Yavin, the Empire continues also to maintain secret facilities and garrisons on Sullust from which they launch covert operations across the galaxy. But not all of Sullust is devouted to manufacturing. The ancient city Piringiisi, whose name means “healing lava,” has evolved into a famous resort town. Tourists from offworld, rare in most of Sullust, flock there to enjoy Piringiisi’s hot springs, mud pools, and first-class hotels. 

Seeds of Rebellion

There is no single face or landscape of the Rebellion. Kinyen, Sullust, and Mon Cala are but three of the countless worlds that participate in it. The Rebellion reaches across the galaxy, from scarcely-settled planets in the Outer Rim to the ceaselessly bustling city-world of Coruscant. Revolt against the Empire may be overt and public or as secretive as smuggling weapons and sheltering Rebel symapthizers. But every smuggled weapon, every act of defiance against the Empire, every world able to throw off its procrustean yoke, encourages countless Rebels on countless worlds.

Discover where the Rebellion will take you. Pre-order Strongholds of Resistance from your local retailer today!