Author: stcrmpilot

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

punsbulletsandpointythings:

punsbulletsandpointythings:

MANDO’A NOTES

So a couple people were asking to see my Mando’a language notes, so here we go. It’s pretty much the exact same stuff that you can find on the Wookie Legends page, but I don’t know if other people have the same issues I do with Wookiepedia? (Makes my computer crash like nobodies business).

Anyway, hope there are helpful.

@nautolanshenanigans , @shadow-spires I think you guys were interested in seeing these?

Part One I Part Two

@poplitealqueen

Sharing is caring.

A bunch of you are into Mando’a, so here you go!

Source: punsbulletsandpointythings

Thinking about food in the Star Wars Universe, are there species which lay eggs that would be used in food? It would be downright weird if not, since things like cakes and pastries would be more difficult to make without them!

Yep, plenty. Humans can eat dewback eggs (Tattooine), marlello eggs (Coruscant and other places), hawk-bat eggs (considered a delicacy), ganza eggs, gukked egg (edible but, according to Luke, not good), nuna eggs (Naboo, but found elsewhere too), and werris eggs (Coruscant). If you need eggs for other species, check out the Wookieepedia category for egg products, which is where I got all of those.

Hope that helps!

~ Jacen

Hi! I have so far been very impressed by your posts, so now that I’m in a pickle, I thought I’d send up the distress beacon your way. I need the list of the pilots & their call signs who flew with Rogue Squadron during the evacuation of Hoth. I know that Luke Skywalker flew as Rogue Leader and that Zev Senesca flew as Rogue Two, and I know that Wedge, Wes, Hobbie, and co were there but not their call signs nor the names of the other 7 pilots. My usual sources are unreachable. Help??

As you may know, Rogue Squadron wasn’t actually Rogue Squadron by the time of the Battle of Hoth. Prior to it, it was called Rogue Flight and was part of Red Squadron, and during the battle it was formed into a makeshift force called Rogue Group, which included pilots from several different squadrons (Red, Green, and Rogue Flight). The pilots and gunners together during the battle numbered 23, and each pilot-gunner pair flew one snowspeeder and shared a call sign. So, we have:

Rogue Leader: Luke Skywalker and Dak Ralter

Rogue Two: Zev Senesca and Kit Valent

Rogue Three: Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson

Rogue Four: Derek “Hobbie” Klivian and Kesin Ommis

Rogue Five: Tycho Celchu and Tarn Mison

Rogue Six: Samoc Farr and Vigrat Pomoner

Rogue Seven: Nala Hetsime and Cinda Tarheel

Rogue Eight: Vekozev Kabir and Stax Mullawny

Rogue Nine: Stevan Makintay and Barlon Hightower

Rogue Ten: Tarrin Datch and Hosh Hune

Rogue Eleven: Tenk Lenso and Jek Pugilio

Rogue Twelve: Dash Rendar (flying solo)

The first two are organized pilot first and then gunner, but for the others I can’t be sure who took which position. If you need to know that, feel free to ask and I’ll search around some more.

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen

Hi! I’m trying to figure out some last names for a fic, and I can’t really find anything on Mandalorian naming conventions? I’m fine making stuff up if necessary, but I’d prefer to use existing framework if I can. So, do you have any info on the do’s, don’ts, and how/what/where/whys of Mando’a names?

It looks like Mando surnames follow a lot of the same conventions as common real-life ones. They can be based on Mando’a words (Fett comes from vhett, Vevut may come from ve’vut) and they can represent a clan’s traditional profession (Fett would mean farmer, and some early members of the Fett clan worked as farmers). So it would be fine to base your last names off of Mando’a words. On the other hand, plenty of other clan names seem not to have this affiliation, so it would also be okay to just make one up. If you’re going to make one up, keep in mind that Mando’a doesn’t have the letters ‘f’, ‘x’ or ‘z’. A name that contains those letters when translated into Basic (like Fett) would contain ‘vh’ instead of ‘f’ and ’s’ instead of ‘z’ in its original Mando’a form. There is no known substitute for ‘x’, but not a lot of words start with ‘x’ anyway. If you haven’t already found it, I would recommend this Mando’a dictionary to look for words and their meanings. The Wookieepedia article also has a bunch of grammar and convention stuff.

So yeah, you’ve got a lot of freedom here. Good luck!

~ Jacen

Quick psa

Hey guys. I thought I should let you know that I probably will not be able to answer asks all that frequently over the next few days. A family member is in the hospital and I’ve been rather busy between visiting and taking care of my sister. By all means, keep sending in your questions! I just may not get to them as quickly.

Thanks for your understanding.

~ Jacen

Hello, I wonder if you can help me out? I need two malfunctioning or dangerous pieces of equipment and I’m struggling to come up with anything. I have a character at the Imperial academy whose hand is crushed by a heavy piece of equipment, and a resistance mechanic whose hands are burned by some exploding component. (these are completely unrelated and happen ages apart, and I only just realized the similarity) Do you have any suggestions as to what these things could be?

One of the only things I’m coming up with for the heavy machinery bit would be binary load lifters, particularly the CLL-8 model because it was used by the Empire. It can lift tonnes upon tonnes, and is considered reliable and hardy, but lacks any significant artificial intelligence. It can’t really react to its surroundings, so your character could have had their hand crushed due to a fumble on its part. As well, the training regiments the Empire uses are so intense, often going so far as to drop cadets into live-fire situations or hostile environments, that they could have been injured during a training mission. That extends your options to things like falling rocks, failing repulsorlifts, being shot down and crushed by their own fighter, etc. As for actual, proper heavy machinery, there isn’t a whole lot of information available.

For the exploding thing, you’re probably going to want to do something related to the propulsion systems of a starfighter. If something went wrong with the coolant feed (e.g., it was damaged in a fight) and an engine was also damaged (or was faulty from the start), it could overheat and/or explode. This is really a hard one, because by the time of the Resistance there were very few technologies that could be considered dangerous or faulty, and none that were used by the actual organization. You would have to inflict some kind of damage on the part first, and any safeguards would have to be disabled. At least that means you don’t have to use any one specific component.

I think this is going to take a bit of creativity on your part. Try to come up with a plausible scenario that could result in the kind of damage you need, and run with that. I hope I could at least be some help!

~ Jacen

Hi Jacen, thanks a lot for doing this amazing blog :) My question is in the same vein as two previous ones. What would life be like as a TIE fighter pilot? As in do they have day-to-day duties beside flying, but also habits, organisation, hierarchy… Also, are there any good sources out there where I can read more extensively about that? Many thanks in advance!

Thank you so much! I should first mention that duties vary depending on what branch of the Army or Navy they serve with. The Imperial Army is concerned with ground operations, and the Navy operates in space. Pilots in the Navy are considered part of the Starfighter Corps, which is a division of the Flight Branch (which is responsible for all of the flight operations of starfighters and warships within the Empire). The Starfighter Corps are broken down as follows:

  • Element: 2 starfighters, a leader and a wingmate.
  • Flight: 4 fighters, broken up into 2 elements
  • Squadron: 12 fighters in 3 flights (6 elements)
  • Group: 36 fighters in 3 squadrons (9 flights, 18 elements)
  • Wing: 72 fighters in 2 groups (6 squads, 18 flights, 36 elements)

(One wing of various models of TIE fighters is the usual compliment of an Imperial Star Destroyer.)

The rank titles within the Flight Branch from highest-ranking to lowest-ranking are:

  • General
  • Colonel
  • Major
  • Commander
  • Captain
  • Lieutenant
  • Officer

The pilots in the Army, used for ground support, operate under a ground support wing. This is a result of the Army wanting dedicated starfighters, and the Navy wanting to retain control over them. A ground support wing is a unit of 40 fighters (10 flights of 4 fighters each), and they technically originated from the Starfighter Corps, although the Navy has no control over these pilots.

TIE pilots in both the Navy and Army are usually stationed on board starships, usually Star Destroyers or Super Star Destroyers. The majority of a TIE pilot’s time while on duty is spent in a cockpit, on patrol. While off duty, they have access to recreation areas (on most ships) and possibly (this is my speculation) flight simulators to practice with. Some units are on constant patrols, others are not, and most have regular meetings to discuss missions, schedules, problems, etc. Other pastimes would include eating/socializing in the mess halls, possibly working out, and sleeping. Imperial pilots are not independent and have little freedom to take up hobbies or do what they want, and their flight schedules are probably very full in order to keep them busy, tired and obedient.

As for the general culture within these organizations, a dominant attitude is extreme arrogance and pride at the fact that they flew for the Empire. Only about 10% of pilots training in the Imperial Academy graduate – the rest become gunners or support staff – so, for those who do, it becomes a very central piece of their identity. All pilots under the Empire were considered elite, but those in the Navy (called vac-heads) are often considered superior to those in the Army (ground-hogs) because they are better recognized and a symbol of the Empire’s power. Thus, there is a vicious rivalry between the two groups.

Another peculiarity is that the pilots are very proud to be flying in craft with no shields, no hyperdrive and no life support system. Within the Empire, these things are seen as cowardly to use, and so the pilots are happy to die in the underequipped fighters rather than use better protected ones. In the earlier years of the Empire, before supplies started getting depleted, it was very common for a pilot to never fly the same fighter twice (except in the extremely elite squadrons, who were allowed to customize their armour and fighters). Pilots never develop attachments to their craft, and that is viewed as a strength, along with the fact that they are viewed and view themselves as completely expendable. Everything the pilots are taught really serves to keep the troops subservient, and they usually have very strained social lives, relationships and senses of self as a result.

There isn’t a whole lot of information available on the day-to-day life of an Imperial pilot, hence why I can only speculate about their practice routines. I would reccomend the Legends articles on TIE pilots, the Starfighter Corps and the Flight Branch. You might also want to look at the (more lengthy) articles on the Imperial Army and Navy. Wookieepedia is probably the most in-depth source on this stuff you’re going to find.

Alright, that got long. I hope it’s useful!

~ Jacen

What is the Star Wars equivalent of email/is there such a thing?

In some of the older EU books, like the X-Wing series, it is just called e-mail or mail. There is such a thing as a hololetter, but that uses holographic images so it’s probably not quite what you’re looking for. By and large, communications aren’t really done by text, although plenty of people refer to sending messages without showing us how. The various rebellions throughout the timelines are particularly known for sending messages by word of mouth or by personally delivering datacards with information on them, and never sending transmissions. If you really need a text-based message, your best bet might be to just refer to it as a message and keep it vague.

I hope something here works for you!

~ Jacen

I’m going to hop on that last ask’s bandwagon – what do you think an Imperial Major General, specifically Veers, actually do all day when there’s no Rebels to crush? Mostly paperwork, training and AT-AT maintenance, right?

Yep, that sounds right. He did command Death Squadron’s ground forces as a major general, so he was probably also involved in strategy meetings and the like. In real life, major generals can be training center commanders; while I’m not sure what the onboard-a-ship equivalent to that might be (it seems likely that the officers/troops there aren’t really getting trained), he could be involved in that while stationed at an Imperial base. So yeah, you’ve pretty much got it right there!

~ Jacen