Hello board. I'm prepping an Edge/FaD campaign that will focus heavily on re-discovering events in the Star Wars galaxy's ancient history. Here's my conundrum: civilizations in the SW galaxy are really, really, really old; at least by how we measure history today. I'm struggling to figuring out where the dividing lines are between:

1. commonly known history
2. recorded history that's survived the various wars and upheavals
3. what archaeologists and historians generally agree on
4. what only fringe archaeologists and historians agree on
5. what's considered a myth (by which I mean an actual but ancient historical event that has been been exaggerated through the re-telling)
6. and what's considered a fairy tale

I've copied the entire Wookieepedia Galactic timeline feature into a Word document so that it's easier to work with and made some general assumptions:

1. Anything is canon so long as it doesn't conflict with the films, television show, or FFG RPG.
2. Where it has influence, COMPNOR makes it difficult but not impossible to find historical records that conflict with the COMPNOR party line. It's also easier for the Empire to distort history rather than rewrite it. Lies that are partly true are the best kind of lies!
3. Official Jedi texts are the most accurate but even they become muddled at some point. Plus, y'know, the Empire threw them onto a bonfire when and where they could find them.

Here's what I've come up with but I'm not 100% sold on it. I'd appreciate any comments or dissenting feedback with sources that I can research.

The average, basic educated Imperial citizen has a layman's understanding of big galactic and planetary events that happened up to and including the Ruusan Reformation in 1000 BBY. In "Attack of the Clones," Emperor Palpatine's comments about a Republic that has stood for 1000 years makes it sound like the Ruusan Reformation is equivalent to The Signing of the Declaration of Independence for a Yank or the Battle of Hastings for a Brit. Stuff happened before, but this moment is the one that really matters for the average citizen. What led up to the Reformation was the Ruusan campaign but most people don't know/don't care that it was the last formal war between the Republic and the Sith. Your average landspeeder repair technician or smuggler doesn't even know what a "Sith" is, doesn't believe in the Force, and probably thinks the Jedi were a bunch of religious terrorists.

A university educated or intellectually curious Imperial citizen knows a few more details that stretch back, perhaps, to 3000 BBY. They know that the Sith were the hated enemies of the Republic but what they were is a mystery; and that, due to existing records, the history of the Republic goes back much farther than 1000 years. Depending on their political bent, they believe that the Jedi were once a force for good that lost its way or that something fishy happened during the Clone Wars and the government isn't being honest about a "coup attempt" 20 years ago. The Jedi still existed 20 years ago so they're certain that the Force exists but the Imperial government discourages further research on the topic.

Historians mostly agree that the Republic is 25,000 years old but it's hard to be 100% certain. It's not like an original copy of the Galactic Constitution is still floating around and the idea of Core Founders may be something that's considered generally accepted but not historically proven. Just for the sake of comparison, 25,000 BCE is the Upper Paleolithic Era/Old Stone Age on our Earth. Anyway, the closer you get to the contemporary Star Wars-era, the more historians agree on what happened in the past. The Pius Dea Era of 11,000 BBY through to the Old Sith War Period of 4000 BBY is treated the way we in the West view Classical Civilization; the start of who we are as a people today, with a lot of history and fiction muddled together. We're certain about names and general events but not much else. Characters like Ulic Quel-Droma are viewed through the same lens as we view the protagonists of the Trojan Wars, a lot of historical fact with a lot of storytelling embellishment.

Fringe weirdo archaeologists believe that the Celestials and their slave races, like the Rakata, actually existed and were responsible for giving space-going beings hyperdrives. And pyramids! They're right, of course, but events that happened 100,000 years ago have been retold so many times and in so many ways that they're viewed as fairy tales, like the Battalions of Zhell stories that Coruscanti kids learn in school.

Outside of a few isolated races, like the Drall who have incredibly detailed and ancient planetary records, Jedi records tend to be the most accurate and complete when it comes to galactic events. But they're only focused on Jedi-related events. Also, the Jedi don't know their own complete history, such as the Tho Yor pyramids taking Force-sensitives to Tython. I'm hypothesizing that Jedi records only go back about 25,000 years, to the Republic discovering the Jedi on Ossus, and those are pretty dang spotty. They knew the most about the Sith but it's only scratching the surface. They've argued internally that they themselves may have been responsible for bringing the Sith to power through the various Jedi Schisms. And since Palpatine now has access to all the Jedi records, he knows what they knew. He doles out select knowledge to various Hands, Inquisitors, and official researchers.

What do you think?

Sounds interesting. I ask myself these questions pretty often as well.

You have divided up things based on level of expertise, which makes sense. You could go with a specifically thematic approach, though. And it's also useful to distinguish between Empire or Republic-wide knowledge and specific species knowledge, which might vary quite substantially.

One thing to keep in mind is that wars and military history seem to have a pretty long life in this lore, relative to other events (canonical or not). So, the various Mandalorian Wars throughout history will have more or less memory even amongst the average citizenry, depending on where they live and how much their cultures may have been affected -- so you might have "commonly known" facts here, going as far back as 4,000 years.

Also keep in mind the differences in record-keeping between various species. Some cultures, like the Wookiees, have oral storytelling and painting traditions that go back thousands of years. While they haven't been in close contact with the Republic for that long, other races might have similar traditions that preserve stories in highly accurate form. Species like the Caamasi have extraordinary race-memories that might have particular and accurate insight into global affairs -- and they have been part of Galactic culture for many thousands of years (certainly as far back as 12-13,000 years).

Some hutts may still remember the Ruusaan Reformation, since an ancient hutt may have a lifespan longer than a millenia. Maz Kanata isnt fsr off that either so some of her race may remember.

I wonder this too. I'm a bit of a Star Wars geek and I know much of what happened (canon or not) but it's hard sometimes to partition what I know and what my character (a modestly-educated person too young to even remember the Clone Wars) might know. Especially given the propaganda pushed by the Empire for many years and the suppression of information inconvenient to the Empire. And even the Empire's enemies may exaggerate or fabricate facts to make the Empire look bad or romanticize an imperfect Republic.

I'd consider how we view our own history as a basis of comparison. Most of the people I interact with couldn't tell you when the Roman Empire was around, when the actual Dark Ages were, or detail much of anything going back further than the Declaration of Independence (For us Yanks, lol). 300 was a great movie, but ask the average person when those events happened and you'll get a variety of responses from, "a couple hundred (or thousand) years ago," to "that was a real event?" and let's not forgot the always fun "It happened EXACTLY as the movie depicts!".

If you watch the The Force Awakens, you'll notice that Rey and Finn had both heard of Han Solo, but for totally different reasons, and Rey thought the Force and Luke Skywalker were a myth. And this was only thirty years or so after some pretty Major galactic events involving those people/things.

For the average person during the Empire's reign, history only matters as much as it impacts their daily lives. Those under the age of 25-30 probably don't know much about the republic or think that it was a corrupt government overthrown by the Empire. -- Imperial propaganda at work.

Those over 30 probably have memories of the Republic, but age and personal views will contrast with actual history.

As far as beyond the Republic, I'd limit most of that to historians, the highly educated, and military commanders. Even then, the Empire's attempts at rewriting history to eliminate the Jedi will have likely have caused a large number of major galactic events the Jedi had a hand in to become skewed or even erased/classified.

Historians who attempt to prove the Jedi existed and/or had powers are likely to be treated the same way we currently treat people who claim to be psychic or to have seen aliens. Those with actual information would be discredited/threatened and their proof would either be confiscated as classified material or would simply vanish.

I would imagine that under the Emperor's rule, only highly respected imperial's (Military or Civilian) would be allowed to access the real history of the galaxy, maybe not even then. What would be available here is questionable only in what the actual Jedi and Republic historical records would have contained before the rise of the Empire.

The truth of many things has been scattered and after the Empire some knowledge is likely to have been permanently lost and will need to be rediscovered in the future. The Star Forge, the Rakatan Empire, and most events beyond 1-5000 years ago is probably only available in fragments, even to scholars.

My 2 cents.

my character (the one I want to play if I ever get to be a pc instead of the gm) doesn't even know his own name or what the face he was born with looked like... what he knows is that he woke up in a bacta tank missing his hands having a ruined face... apparently he guesses that he was at least partially unsuccessful at disarming a bomb... he could have just removed a detonator from a much larger bomb and the detonator went off in his hands.. he got a piece of shrapnel in his brain which (even after it was removed) caused him to have amnesia... the name/identity that the hutt who's bacta tank he woke up in gave him is Jacen Baurne... the hutt was apparently his employer and promises to tell him who he really was once he works off the debt/medical expenses and (ion shielded unobtrusive prosthetic forearms, one is a ion shielded unobtrusive repulsor fist... no finger prints so he can't identify himself that way, and he hasn't been able to find his dna in any data base he's looked in, if it was ever in one then the Hutt's slicers must have deleted it).

the name/identity that the hutt who's bacta tank he woke up in gave him is Jacen Baurne...

I'm pretty sure my GM would never let me name a character Jacen Baurne, especially an amnesiac. That's the kind of stuff that gets items tossed at me at the gaming table.

Well I'm sure in SW, just like here you have the conspiracy theory buffs and the zealots that ignore facts in favor of stories. In the US we have a huge section of the populace that insists the Earth is only 6,000 years old. I'm sure in SW you have all kinds of crazy sects that have their own views and agendas they want to push.

the name/identity that the hutt who's bacta tank he woke up in gave him is Jacen Baurne...

I'm pretty sure my GM would never let me name a character Jacen Baurne, especially an amnesiac. That's the kind of stuff that gets items tossed at me at the gaming table.

If your group throws things at each other it either means you are a very tight/close group comfortable enough to joke around with each other and not take offense or that the guy throwing things is being a jerk. I hope that you have a tight group. But in regards to this character I intend to give the gm some broad parameters about his past and have him/her make up the rest and not tell me and have me discover it through role playing.

Little offtopic, maybe, but bear with me, please.

This discussion made me think about canon and PC knowledge vs player knowledge. I'm considering following when I'm GMing the next game. All the knowledge players have about Star Wars universe is their characters knowledge, through their characters eyes. Real event maybe/are very different. Reason: There are much incorrect information in fairly recent major events. Example: WW2 and Finland and Battle of Raate road. Since seventies the number of dead Soviet fighters has come down from 20000 to 1000). So, you can easily explain all discrepancies in recent history with propaganda or "events are just now actually investigated".

Storyhook! PCs are hired to investigate what actually happened in some recent historical event. (E.g. why was the death star actually destroyed? Rebels took the credit about it, but there is something wrong with their story. Maybe rebels hire PC, because they know their actions didn't destroy it. Or maybe movie events were the official version and PCs actually destroy the death star as Luke does the flashy part and gets all the credit.)

And now, more back to topic. Remember that PC knowledge about historical things may not actually be correct. Firstly, there is certain drama if PCs manage to accomplish something and later find out that the truth was totally different than information their actions were based on. (And by this I mean that with correct information PCs would have never actually tried to do it, because it would have been impossible or too hard.) And secondly, everything can be propaganda. Is empire actually so bad[1]? Are rebels more terrorists than freedom fighters? My main point is that don't have a stress, because actual truth of your game, can be different than truth which is shown in your game. As long as all are having fun everything is OK.

[1] And I personally wouldn't even shy away from totally twisting players expectation. E.g. Everything that PCs (i.e. player) know about the the rebellion is actually rebellion propaganda, and really rebels are the bad guys. But then this would be the theme of the campaign. This could be even played as rebel PCs realising they are at the wrong side of war and are actually terrorist or bad guys. (

And about your points: I wouldn't give layman any kind of clear image about 1000 years of history. Think about this. When man has to fight (other men or nature (farm food etc)) for his survival, history is about last thing in his mind. Also, knowing history probably requires some advanced education (or basic education in more high society societys).

If your group throws things at each other it either means you are a very tight/close group comfortable enough to joke around with each other and not take offense or that the guy throwing things is being a jerk. I hope that you have a tight group. But in regards to this character I intend to give the gm some broad parameters about his past and have him/her make up the rest and not tell me and have me discover it through role playing.

At least 90% of the time.

Okay 100% of the time.

I played an amnesiac once in an old 2nd Ed D&D game. I picked nothing about him, not even his name. It was all the DM's idea. If your GM is on board it could be fun. Also make sure the other players are cool with it too.

If your group throws things at each other it either means you are a very tight/close group comfortable enough to joke around with each other and not take offense or that the guy throwing things is being a jerk. I hope that you have a tight group. But in regards to this character I intend to give the gm some broad parameters about his past and have him/her make up the rest and not tell me and have me discover it through role playing.

Generally when stuff is throw at me I deserve it.

At least 90% of the time.

Okay 100% of the time.

I played an amnesiac once in an old 2nd Ed D&D game. I picked nothing about him, not even his name. It was all the DM's idea. If your GM is on board it could be fun. Also make sure the other players are cool with it too.

Sounds interesting. I ask myself these questions pretty often as well.

You have divided up things based on level of expertise, which makes sense. You could go with a specifically thematic approach, though. And it's also useful to distinguish between Empire or Republic-wide knowledge and specific species knowledge, which might vary quite substantially.

Truth. I mentioned the Drall. Suns of Fortune states that the Drall have incredibly detailed records that go back several millennia... but they only cover Drall events so their usefulness to a general historian is pretty limited. Unless, of course, there was an event that affected by the Drall and the greater galaxy at large.

One thing to keep in mind is that wars and military history seem to have a pretty long life in this lore, relative to other events (canonical or not). So, the various Mandalorian Wars throughout history will have more or less memory even amongst the average citizenry, depending on where they live and how much their cultures may have been affected -- so you might have "commonly known" facts here, going as far back as 4,000 years.

Good point about the Mandalorians though, as a non-Fandalorian, my understanding of their various military campaigns is limited. The first Mandalorian/Republic skirmishes happened around 5400 BBY but the actual wars with the Republic didn't start until over 1000 years later. I'm also curious about how much the Mandalorians rely on the stereotypical warrior oral tradition versus detailed record keeping.

Also keep in mind the differences in record-keeping between various species. Some cultures, like the Wookiees, have oral storytelling and painting traditions that go back thousands of years. While they haven't been in close contact with the Republic for that long, other races might have similar traditions that preserve stories in highly accurate form. Species like the Caamasi have extraordinary race-memories that might have particular and accurate insight into global affairs -- and they have been part of Galactic culture for many thousands of years (certainly as far back as 12-13,000 years).

Again, truth. But, as the Republic/Empire has been the dominant socio-political force in the SW galaxy, I'm keeping focused on what its citizens know, versus what isolated alien species know.

I ignored almost all of the galactic timeline even before Disney took over. I mostly wing it when players ask me that question and most of the time just drop cryptic references to Xim the Despot as a tribute to Brian Daley. But that's just my personal style.

Going strictly by canon, we know that

• the Jedi order is very old and with much of its written history unreliable due to COMPNOR influence, there is a lot of the Jedi Order's history to rediscover with plain old archeology. (E.g., the Lothal temple.)
• the Sith once ruled over somebody or something Mace Windu cared about, possibly the entire galaxy (because of his line that "The oppression of the Sith will never return!")
• the Jedi have had a limited (and maybe at times not so limited) role in Republic governance that lasted until the Clone Wars.

Other than that, I like to tell my players that they know very little for sure when they ask me about specifics. I also give them reasons for that:

• archaeology and history are probably extremely region-specific fields. Galaxy-wide conflicts should be much rarer than regional conflicts, so you will have a ton of experts on the history of particular worlds or regions, and very little on the galaxy as a whole. Connecting the dots by researching the histories of two worlds in context of each other is probably a very fertile field and probably happens far too little.
• There is probably no funding for unbiased historical research right now. The Empire clearly has a revisionist agenda, and people won't trust the rebels not to have the same.
• There is no internet research or wikipedia in the Star Wars Galaxy, so unless you really paid attention in school, you probably don't know a whole lot about ancient history and can't find out in a couple of minutes. And then again, much of what you have learned or could find out quickly could be the wrong kind of ancient history or heavily biased. And to research the other kind you need to do your legwork, which is an adventure in its own right.
• The galaxy as a whole has been surprisingly stagnant/stable. There has been a Republic for millenia. The Jedi Order is even older than that. Some individuals have lifespans that are simply astonishing, and even they won't have seen a lot of radical change, technology-wise or other.