CONTENTS

Supernatural Encounters FAQ

©2020, Chris Cold; "Ooradryl"
What is Star Wars: Supernatural Encounters?
Called by some "The Silmarillion of Star Wars," Supernatural
Encounters (and the shorter "Cult Encounters," which is included) is
a Star Wars book written in an annalistic style with short stories,
vignettes, a frame story set in 38 ABY, and a flashback saga spanning
thousands of years, tying together continuity from across the EU and
beyond. The plot synopsis reads as follows:
An uncertain time. A fragile peace. A mystery
that could shake the foundations of a galaxy...
Historian Arhul Hextrophon and his faithful droid companion, Cuenyne,
seek the answers to mysteries as ancient as civilization itself in the
one place no mortal dare tread—Otherspace!
It is a realm of dark suns and
darker entities who prowl the strange expanse. On one hidden world lies
the remnant of a Precursor race vanished for long millennia—a people who
survived the Cosmic Wars, and may even have borne witness to the dawning
of the galaxy... a time when the Architects, the Old Ones, and
horrifying Immortal Gods of the Sith vied to cast down the benevolent
Celestials and claim dominion over the ocean of stars.
But such secrets are not merely
heretical—they are jealously guarded. And the shadows ever watch and
wait…
What's
the publication history of Cult Encounters and Supernatural Encounters?
"Cult
Encounters" (CE) and Supernatural Encounters (SE) were originally intended to be published as articles
in Star Wars Gamer magazine, as follow-ups to the in-universe
article Rich Handley and I
wrote for the first issue of the magazine, "The
University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life: The Marvel Series," in Star
Wars Gamer (2000), with illustrations by Joe Corroney. Although
we had the green-light from Lucasfilm, only “Cult Encounters” was far enough along when
events beyond his control happened that prevented Rich from continuing
to write for the license.
Star Wars
Gamer then ended in 2002. Five years later, I approached Pablo
Hidalgo, an old colleague from my West End Games (and SWFA) days, who
was then in charge of the official Star Wars site about publishing CE and
developing SE for publication on the Star Wars Hyperspace service, a Lucasfilm
exclusive content initiative. The
framework of Supernatural Encounters was first written at the end
of 2007. Pablo agreed to the idea, which coincided with his plans to have
Hyperspace feature exclusive articles and stories. So CE was conceptually reworked as
"Cult Encounters: Excerpts from the Last Days of Arhul Hextrophon" and
submitted.
Supernatural Encounters: The Trial and Transformation of Arhul Hextrophon,
novella was then developed in its first draft and submitted. Pablo liked it
and said it would have to be published in installments. I told him it
needed a lot more work and continued to send updated drafts over the
course of the next few years. He noted that I could continue to
develop it until it was put on the publication schedule. I
signed a licensing agreement and a tax form and proceeded.
A
work of this nature--involving the ancient past--required a lot of work, research, and editing to
make sure everything was right, but since I had been given the time time
to continue working on the manuscript until it was put on the schedule,
work on Supernatural Encounters
was yet ongoing when, in 2010, it was
abruptly announced that the new management at LFL were discontinuing
Hyperspace.
Were these
stories licensed?
Yes; I
filled out the requisite legal documents
(a
CA-587 form, which is called a Non-Resident Withholding Allocation
Worksheet and
W-9 tax form) when the stories were first approved for publication
by Pablo Hidalgo, the same licensing process I went through for my
previous contributions to Star Wars. There isn't any Lucasfilm
licensing process beyond this.
Were these stories cancelled and
how did some elements make their way into continuity?
As with Abel Pena's Skyewalkers, we were never given notification of cancellation in any
form, and it was hoped that the stories would find a new home elsewhere,
so I continued working on the manuscript. In the interim, concepts from
CE and SE were incorporated into other works
by my colleagues. Ampotem Za was added in the 2007 Hyperspace article
“Aliens of the Empire,” by Abel G. Peña and Rich Handley. The Rozzum and Typhojem
found their way into the
Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
and Book of Sith:
Secrets from the Dark Side, by Dan Wallace.
I then posted Cult Encounters on this site, followed by a beta version of Supernatural Encounters
the year after to gage whether there was enough interest to resume work
on it. There was.
Did you get in touch with Lucasfilm again and did they
see the completed version?
Yes. In late 2015, Abel, Rich, and I approached Lucasfilm
regarding our unpublished stories for the Star Wars Blog. Matt Martin (then of the Lucasfilm Story
Group) and Dan Brooks (who then ran the Blog) approved
them for online publication with the plan of putting
Supernatural Encounters out in parts
due to the length.
I suggested an
alternative means: posting them on my personal website
as Abel G. Peña had just done with his SkyeWalkers. They could then be linked or embedded in
the Blog. They approved this plan, but I requested time to bring the
story to where it needed to be, and they approved this plan, allowing me to continue
working on it until it was ready, requiring only
that I write an introduction for the Blog and a clear indication that
this
was Legends material.
When it
was getting close to being ready, I reached out again to Matt and Dan
and sent them the introduction, but it was clear that the word on
high was that they were to focus exclusively on the new canon. While
this didn't come as a surprise, it was disappointing, so I posted the
completed story here free to the public, which this site has done with
other
unpublished Star Wars works. I later got in touch with Matt and Dan and sent them
the completed version. They thanked me but said they were unable to follow through on the
original arrangement at this time, which confirms what everyone knows about
management's policy
towards Legends content, which is that they are no longer permitted to do anything with
it (Marvel #108 being the sole exception because the licensee pushed for
it).
Hopefully, that will one day change.
What evidence do you have for all of this?
The 2007 to 2015 emails between me
and Lucasfilm attest to the veracity of this. I first sent this privately
to Wookieepedia, but they ignored it. Given the controversy that arose,
I've since provided the emails to the public
here, redacting only emails that were of a personal nature or which
were exchanged on personal emails, which is appropriate (as I noted earlier, Pablo and I were
friends before he was hired by Lucasfilm).
What material was added or restored to the "extended edition?" Why was it cut?
For the
beta version released online, I had cut out swathes of material that needed more time, development, and which might
have conflicted with Star Wars:
The Old Republic. The complete edition added or restored numerous
vignettes, historical details of the ancient world, dialogue, and continuity pertaining to the Sith, the Mecrosa,
the Sorcerers of Tund, the Sorcerers of Rhand,
forgotten wars such as the Qaldyon Reckoning, and lore cut from the
Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide and
Abel's unpublished “Vader's Legacy.” There is a
lot of additional revisions and improvements to dialogue and
characterization, as well as things normal for
the editing process and to ensure continuity with pre-existing works. In addition, full-color illustrations by the amazing
Chris Cold and Guillaume Ducos were provided thanks to the contributions
of fans.
I've heard there are a lot of crossovers. What is that
about?
The Star Wars expanded universe
has always had crossovers with other IPs since the very first EU book
was released, when Alan Dean Foster included a statue of Cthulhu (called
Pomojema by the tribe that lived nearby) in Splinter of the Mind's
Eye in 1978. This was made explicit in Terry Austin's SOTME comics in 1995-6
and by
Foster who told me that this was intended to be an
image of Cthulhu--and not a mere simulacrum.
But that was just the tip of a much larger
iceberg.
The Marvel Star Wars comics had
several crossovers, the
first in issue #79, when Lando Calrissian disguised himself as Captain
Harlock from the 1977-79 manga-anime series Space Pirate Captain
Harlock; the second in issue #89, when Braxas, a member of E.T.'s
race (from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial) appears, which, of course, Lucas
later made explicit in TPM; and the third in Alan Moore's "The Pandora
Effect," which featured the Lovecraft entity Yog-Sothoth (called Wutzek).
Additionally, Robert Sawyer's cancelled Alien
Exodus series introduced THX-1138 and other films by Lucas,
including Indiana Jones, into ancient Star Wars continuity. In
the Dark Horse Comics, West End Games, and Del Rey books, there are
countless examples: The Firefly-class ship from
Firefly-Serenity
appears in both Evasive Action: Prey and in 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries; the
xenomorph from the Alien/Predator series appears in X-Wing
Rogue Squadron: The Phantom Affair and in Coruscant Nights II:
Street of Shadows;
Michael Reaves
name-dropped Barsoom in
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter; Barsoom was already visited (then called
Shiva IV) in issues #53 and #54 of the Marvel Star Wars series,
which were leftover issues of John Carter: Warlord of Mars,
by Chris Claremont and Carmine Infantino; in
MedStar II: Jedi Healer,
Michael Reaves and Steve Perry reference the Oni of Uru, which come from
the 1980s anime-manga series, Urusei Yatsura, which itself
referenced Star Wars.
In
Dark Force Rising
#3, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, and Mr. Spock from Star
Trek appear
on the planet Jomark along with the U.S.S. Enterprise
and
a Star
Trek communicator.
Kevin J. Anderson-Rebecca Moesta's Titan AE novel includes Rybets.
The Disney canon and EU have also been crossed over in Fantasy Flight
Games, The Old Republic MMORPG, and much more.
To help make sense of all of this, I
developed the Grand
Unification Theory to provide an in-universe explanations,
while also allowing different interpretations for fans who object to
crossovers. In SE's endnotes, I explained:
The presence of crossovers
should not be seen as a dogmatic declaration that these universes exist
in the Star Wars galaxy. As with anything associated with new or
controversial ideas, how far one is willing to go and what one finds
palatable is ultimately dependent on the individual reader. For this
reason, I came up with a multi-pronged methodology for interpreting
crossovers; four different approaches for understanding and interpreting
crossovers that allow fans to make their own determination as to what
works best for them:
1. Coincidental:
The events bear similarities, but are not the same.
2. Relational: The
events represent a version of that universe, but are not exactly
as depicted in the original source, which might represent in-universe
works such as holodramas.
3. Congruity: The
events represent the very same events as depicted in the original
source. This doesn’t mean that the characters or narrator are correct
about everything they conclude.
4. Some-or-All of the
Above: You determine what works best in each given scenario. This
allows you to take each on a case-by-case basis.
The Grand Unification Theory is meant to provide potentialities
for fans to have fun with, whether in their own imaginations, RPG
adventures, stories, artwork, etc. The Skyriver galaxy is mammoth and
its history is long and old; and as much as is revealed in SE, there’s
room to spare for much more.
Was Supernatural Encounters printed?
Supernatural
Encounters exists as a free PDF to the public, and until LFL says
otherwise, it cannot be sold commercially, though contributors at a
certain level have received physical copies as a perk; second editions
were made available at cost by a third party on Amazon who did not
profit from the endeavor. A 3rd ed. deluxe version was recently made available
with a standard edition to come for those who missed out on the prior
versions.
How did you become involved in Star Wars? What was your involvement
before this?
My timeline was
first solicited and submitted to Bill Smith of West End Games and Bob Cooper
of Dark Horse Comics in the early '90s.
While my first credit
appeared in the Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised
Edition; 1996, I was invited to
write fiction for West End Games when Bill Smith was prepping
No Disintegrations.
The RPGA was called
"The Temple of Shadows" (or "The Temple of Ooradaal") and has
since been released here. I went on to contribute to the Star Wars
Insider under Titan Magazines and Star Wars Gamer published by
Wizards of the Coast. Rich and I wrote introductions for the
reprinted Marvel series (with an illustration by Robin Pronovost), and
I provided Dark Horse with all the rare material published in the Wild
Space omnibus. I've written non-fiction Star Wars essays for various
publications,
including Secrets of the Force, edited by Edward Gross (St.
Martin's Press, 2021), A More Civilized Age: Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe, A
Galaxy Far, Far Away: Exploring Star Wars Comics and A Long Time
Ago: Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe for Sequart Books. Other projects came and went. Abel G. Peña,
Rich Handley, and I began work on Star
Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion, which ended up going to Pablo. You win
some, you lose some...
How
did you conceive this story?
Supernatural Encounters
was always intended to bridge the lore of the Marvel series, the Ewoks
and Droids animated series, the RPG material, and other weird and
obscure bits of Star Wars lore with modern EU continuity. It was also
intended to delve into the ancient past that Alan Dean Foster, Archie
Goodwin, Roy Thomas, and Alan Moore had hinted at, as well as to
make sense of the many seemingly strange crossovers.
After
considerable research, the story
came to me almost fully formed in November 2007, when it poured out over the
course of a few days as a dense, lengthy dissertation on metaphysical
subjects, esoteric races, and obscure histories, with subjects ranging
from time dilations and realm distinction to ontology, cosmogony, and
theology, all embedded in the tale of Arhul Hextrophon and his droid’s
search for the origin of life in the Star Wars galaxy. Their quest into
the ancient world ended up matching
my own journey, as I too set out to find the truth amongst the many myths and
fables that have been revealed over the long years of the Expanded
Universe's existence.
Who else
worked on the Encounters duology?
There were numerous
amazing proofreaders, editors, and backers. Rich Handley, Kyle Rawlings, Edward Dodds,
Corey
Carter, Ryan "Sinrebirth"
Shepherd, Harry Thornton, Robert Newnham, Greg Mitchell, Luke Van Horn,
Matt Wilkins, Derek Stevens, Abel G. Peña, Neil Farnum, Michael Steinberg,
Logan Andrews, Chayim Mescher, Stuart Bailey, David Canavese,
Patrick Maes,
David Beck, and Arthur Lowrey!
What is
the future of Supernatural Encounters?
There are new stories expanding
from SE (called the ESE Initiative), an animated adaptation, music, artwork, guides,
games, a full-cast audio-drama and soundtrack, as well as numerous analysis
videos, essays, and much more. You can find all of the videos on my playlist
here and links to all of this content right here on this page!
Will
Supernatural Encounters lore appear on Wookieepedia?
That's
for the fans to decide. As far as I'm aware, many had already begun
chronicling lore on Wookieepedia when it's current leadership
took the stance that the work was "cancelled" (which it never was) or
"unlicensed" (which is also untrue) and have labeled it as such. I'm
not involved with any of that, though I did forward my emails with Lucasfilm to the
administrators so as to help the folks at Wookieepedia properly categorize
the work; they appear to have disregarded it.
So, is
Supernatural Encounters canon?
Of course, "canon"
refers to something quite different now than when I wrote the work. But
it
was written and intended to be an Expanded Universe work, and would have
been categorized as C-canon in the old classification system. Many
consider it the last EU book. Matt Martin understood it to be "Legends" and approved it for publication as such;
I did incorporate some elements of lore from the newer material since
SE puts forth what I call a "One Canon: Three Universes" approach, which
allows the EU, DU, and even Infinities to coexist as separate but
adjoining universes, thus providing room
for all fans under the larger Star Wars umbrella.
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