Describes Anakin's progress from pilot to pupil to Dark Lord. Anakin's impatience to take on the Dark Lords of the Sith leads him to delve into their own demonic powers in search of a means to defeat them. With Senator Palpatine's encouragement, he enters into their circle by defeating weaker Lords in successive battles. His own corruption progresses apace with destruction of each Dark Lord, parallelling the Senator's movement towards declaring himself Emperor. Tortured by despair and guilt, General Obi-Wan hides knowledge of Lleyna Skywalker's pregnacy from Anakin, and flees with mother and offspring even as Anakin enters into his final battle with Lord Deyrrl.

Jedi Crusade (Episode I)

As the Clone Wars come to their triumphant conclusion, Fleet General and Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi begins to train his youthful proteg‚ Anakin Skywalker in the ways of the Force. Already a pilot of astonishing skill, Anakin rapidly takes to the disciplines and powers of the Jedi Knights. Against the advice of his mentor, he also engages in courting the beautiful Lleyna Organa, daughter of Counselor Organa of Alderan. He is secretly aided in both pursuits by Senator Palpatine, who seeks discord within the Order of Jedi and the household of Counselor Organa, his principal adversary within the Senate. Palpatine seeks to have Lleyna killed but fails, and blames the assassination attempt on the half-legendary Dark Lords of the Sith. In turn (and in accordance with Palpatine's updated plans) Skywalker vows he will destroy the Dark Lords.

Pupil of Darkness (Episode II)

Palpatine has slowly poisoned the friendship between Kenobi and Skywalker by slipping lies and contrived evidence of betrayal to Anakin. In a rage, Anakin leaves his mentor to openly take up training with Palpatine, who is heavily engaged with discrediting Organa in the Senate. Palpatine begins to teach Anakin of the Dark Lords of the Sith, foul sorcerors who openly adhere to the dark side of the Force. In keeping with his vow, Anakin begins to seek out the weaker Sith Lords and destroy them, never noting the darkness that grows upon his soul with each murder he commits. At the same time, his relationship with Lleyna has come under tremendous strain, for she watches each new change come over her husband with dread and horror. Obi-Wan and Anakin's brother Owen have become her only confidents, but they are helpless to aid her grief.

Sable Rampant (Episode III)

Anakin declares war on the final enclave of the Sith Lords even as Palpatine induces revolt within the Senate. After Organa is forcibly expelled from the Senate Assembly by "Emperor" Palpatine, he, Owen, and Obi-Wan escape with the sobbing and pregnate Lleyna to their home on Alderan. Anakin defeats Lord Deyrrl, but has to resort to the foulest incantations he can invoke to win. Over the horribly broken body of the dead Dark Lord, Anakin acknowledges what he has become. Unable to forgive himself or face those who once honored him, he returns in despairing acceptance to his new master, the Emperor. However, he honors this much of his former self: he drops his old name, taking instead the name Darth Vader, meaning "Dark Child" (or "Lost One", in one translation) in the ancient tongue. He has fulfilled his vow of destroying the Order of the Sith, only to set himself in its place.

The Empire now holds unquestioned rule over the planets of the Old Republic. Various systems which had declined membership in the Republic have been forcibly annexed, and a doctrine of martial law is enforced by the Emperor who, with Darth Vader's help, has assembled a tremendous military mechanism of stellar and ground forces. However, a Rebel Alliance has formed to resist the increasingly tyrannical decrees of the Emperor. It is led in part by the powerful Organa family, which still holds ties in the Imperial Senate. When the Empire unveils its final instrument of suppression, the dreadnaught Death Star, the Alliance launches a desperate attack and manages to destroy the battlestation with the help of a young pilot named Luke Skywalker and a space pirate named Han Solo. In the wake of the Rebels' victory, the Empire moves to crush the Alliance before they can forment greater acts of rebellion throughout the Empire. The Empire's efforts to quench the Rebels are countered by the growing powers of Luke, a novice Jedi Knight who is discovered to be the offspring of Vader. Together with Han Solo and Leia Organa, his twin sister who was secretly fostered with the Organa family, he manages to defeat both Vader and the Emperor, thereby crippling the Empire at its heart.

A New Hope (Episode IV)

Introduced to Luke, Leia, and Han. Together with Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the last surviving Jedi, they enter and destroy the powerful Death Star. Obi-Wan is killed by Vader in a duel, but survives in spirit to aid Luke in moments of stress.

The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V)

Quickly recovering from the loss of its flagship battlestation, the Empire seeks out and harries the Rebel Alliance. Luke begins training with Yoda, an ancient Jedi master, and has his first confrontation with Darth Vader. Lando introduced.

Return of the Jedi (Episode VI)

Luke completes his training, and joins with the Alliance to make a final assult on the combined military forces of the Empire. While Han and Leia help destroy a new and more powerful Death Star, Luke defeats his father in combat, and convinces Vader to help Luke destroy the Emperor. Vader himself dies from wounds sustained in combat, but not before giving Luke his blessing.

(* Eight years pass *)

Overview: Second Republic (Episodes VII-IX)

The Alliance rebuilds the shreds of the Empire into a Second Republic. Leia, a powerful leader of the new government, fights against greed and corruption among her fellow officials. Han becomes involved with a war against the mysteriously alien Sedanti Empire. As Luke delves into his studies of the Force, he discovers a third danger to the new Republic. As Leia steadily loses ground in the Senate and Han is relentlessly pushed back by the intruding Sedanti, Luke embarks on a quest to discover the source of this strange magical danger. Tracing its roots back to the Sedanti Empire, he joins with Han on a jouney into the very heart of the Sedanti Empire to discover the means to withstand threats both military and mystical.

Daughter of Empire (Episode VII)

The Alliance has reinstated the Senate; Leia and a handfull of leftovers from the First Republic lead the fledgling Assembly. In the first five years, awe of the Princess and her band of Heros was enough to maintain order and respect, but inevitably the politics of greed and power became effusive. Han has refused to accept any sort of public post; he spent a while accepting dozens of honorary medals and "all the wealth he could imagine," but is itchy to return to space. He is baffled both by Leia's reluctance to leave office and her refusal to start a family. For her part, she has grown obsessed with maintaining law and order within the Republic, especially with the new polititians (young greasy scum, many former officers of the Empire) and fears that should she leave office, they will assume control and destroy all her father's (Organa) dreams of a true interstellar, egalitarian Republic. Torn between love for Han and her sense of responsibility to the Republic, she cannot commit to either. The young 2nd Republic is near to tearing itself apart if a strong, central government cannot be formed. {Lead in to Book 2.} After a particularily bitter squabble, Han takes off with Chewbacca (unchanged--they do live 400 years) to lead an exploratory team which is charged with securing/defining the boarders of the old Empire. Han, being a Hero of the Rebellion, makes a perfect diplomatic representative. While touring the Outer Systems, he discovers rumors of the Sedanti along nearly all of the Republic's boarders. {Lead in to Book 2.} Meanwhile, Luke has spent the first five years in intent study of the Force, in preparation for establishing an Academy for the training of future Jedi. A study of the Dark Lords of the Sith revealed much hidden lore about the Force, but Luke, unlike Anakin, does not seek to master their powers, merely record their existence. Leia has avoided or refused all of his requests for her to take the time out from office to train her own awakening powers. As Luke delves ever deeper into a study of the Force, preparing for the day when he can reinstate the Order of Jedi Knights, he slowly comes to discover a lurking danger which threatens the entire Republic. {Lead in to Book 2.}

Herald of Invasion (Episode VIII)

Basically, Leia continues to fight against treason and greed in the shaky new Republic; Han leads the fight against the strangely alien Sendanti; Luke leaves on his own journey to confirm his suspicions about some encroaching darkness tied into the Force, and is maybe captured? Last chapter takes us onto the Sedanti homeworld, and describes social/military life there from a society-as-first-person viewpoint.

Knight of Prophesy (Episode IV)

Luke joins up with Han in a journey into the very center of the Sedanti Empire: Han in search of a means to defeat the Sedanti Armadas, and Luke following a trail that leads from the Sedanti Highslaej (Sedanti equivalent of Dark Lords) back to the Emperor Palpatine. Leia combats the Sedanti traitors, stalling for time for Luke and Han. After Han miraculously defeats the Sendanti invasionary force and Luke comes to some settlement with the Highslaej, she drafts the Organa Convention, which forms the basis of the new, combined Confederation.

Miscellany:

First Republic

Anakin's basic theme is "Some questions ought not be asked." It is his obsessive delving into the nature of darkness that results in his own fall. If there is a moral to this portion, it is that evil is best left alone, lest an understanding of its nature lead to unintentional empathy. Also, was Vader's scarring definitely the result of a scrap with Kenobi? I'd rather use a Dark Lord for that purpose...it better relates to the idea that it was the dark side that truly defeated him, not an honest Jedi. Also, all that shit with the Dark Lords came up because George Lucas so rudely described Vader as "one of the Dark Lords of the Sith" in A New Hope, then called him "the Dark Lord of the Sith" in Return of the Jedi. I think it works nicely, though.

Second Republic

C3-PO sticks with Leia: his etiquite/protocol and translation functions aid her immensely in her dealings with alien dignitaries. R2-D2 sticks with Luke, who uses the droid's computational, storage, and analysis abilities in his studies into the lore of the Jedi. Chewie as noted remains with General Solo, probably with some high rank of his own (Colonel). (Should Leia subconsciously employ the Force in her public speeches, much as Luke did in Jabba's palace? CAN Jedi read minds?)

The Sedanti, as revealed in the last chapter of Herald, originated on gas planets such as Jupiter and Saturn. Thus they breathe hydrogen, and use flight as their natural form of transportation. As a result, their technologies make efficient use of scant solar power and never had to face the problems involved in artificial gravity, following a different path entirely. Also, as they evolved in a relatively zero-G environment, they adapted to space travel much quicker than gravity-bound humanoids, and are entirely comfortable with three dimensional battle plans, unlike humans, who persist in applying two-dimensional thinking to their wars. This is part of the "strange unpredictablility" Han notes when he first comes up against their fleets. The proper identification of their homeworlds is vital in his final conception of their defeat. Likewise, Luke must come to understand their alien psychology before he can understand how they understand the Force (for they approach the Force much differently than do we...).

Leia leads the Conservative Alliance, the party who seeks to reinstate a democratic Republic against the Imperial Militarist League, who uses the Sedanti invasion as an excuse to reform a militant Empire and which is affiliated with the Social Democratic Revolutionaries, who are actually Sedanti loyalists seeking to break apart the Republic from within and are using the Imperials.