CONTENTS
Supernatural Encounters FAQ
©2020, Chris Cold; "Ooradryl"
What's
the 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.
Was Cult Encounters or
Supernatural Encounters cancelled?
No. 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.
Did you get in touch with Lucasfilm again?
Yes. I posted Cult Encounters on this site, followed by a beta version of Supernatural Encounters
the year after to gauge whether there was enough interest to resume work
on it. There was. Then, in late 2015, Abel, Rich, and I approached Lucasfilm
regarding our unpublished stories for the Star Wars Blog. Matt Martin (of the Lucasfilm Story
Group, who then ran the site) and Dan Brooks (who ran the Blog) approved
them for online publication, with the plan of putting them out in parts
due to the length of Supernatural Encounters.
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 to or embedded in
the Blog. They approved this plan, but I still needed 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, 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've since been in touch with Matt and Dan,
who thanked me but said they were unable to follow through on the
original arrangement, which confirms what I suspected about LFL's policy
towards Legends.
Was
Supernatural Encounters 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 the Expanded Universe. There isn't any Lucasfilm
licensing process beyond this.
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.
Did Lucasfilm see the complete version?
Of course. Since the plan
was for
me to continue developing SE until it was ready, I sent them
the completed version when it was finished. Unfortunately, LFL is
currently no longer permitted to do anything with Legends content
(Marvel #108 being the sole exception because the licensee pushed for
it). If and when that changes, we'll talk again.
I 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 (which was made even more explicit in Terry Austin's SOTME comics in 1995-6.) 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. But 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 third edition will be made available at
LegendsCon II in Arlington, Texas on March 15-16.
How did you become involved in Star Wars? What was your involvement
before SE?
My timeline was
solicited and submitted to Bill Smith of West End Games and Bob Cooper
of Dark Horse Comics. I first
wrote fiction for West End Games when Bill Smith invited
me to write an RPGA for them (my first credit
appeared in the Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised
Edition; 1996) initially for No Disintegrations. It was called
"The Temple of Shadows" (or The Temple of Ooradaal) and was being held
for the next RPGA (you can find that here). I went on to contribute to the Star Wars
Insider by Titan Magazines and Star Wars Gamer by Wizards of
the Coast (who gained the license for Star Wars role-playing material
after WEG went belly-up). 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. Other projects came and went. Abel G. Peña,
Rich Handley, and I began work on Star
Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion, which went to Pablo. You win
some, you lose some...
Most
recently, 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.
Who else
worked on the Encounters duology?
There were
several
amazing contributors to thank. Rich Handley co-wrote Cult Encounters with me.
Kyle Rawlings, my lead editor; Edward Dodds,
lead editor and go-to Sith historian, Ryan "Sinrebirth" Shepherd, editor and
former contributor to The Essential Atlas and The Essential
Guide to Warfare, Corey
Carter, editor and cartographer, as well as Harry Thornton, Robert Newnham, Greg Mitchell, Luke Van Horn,
Matt Wilkins, Derek Stevens, Abel G. Peña, Neil Farnum, Michael Steinberg,
Patrick Maes, Chayim Mescher, Stuart Bailey, Arthur Lowrey, and others.
What is
the future of Supernatural Encounters?
The Atlas
Appendix is out, but there is
more coming down the pike, including a full-cast audio-drama and soundtrack,
by Kyle Rawlings, The Supernatural Encounters Alien Guide, by Kevin Beentjes,
and Otherworldly Encounters, which will include SE-related short
stories by fans! There are also numerous analysis videos on Youtube,
essays on Wordpress, and an immersive visual audiobook that is adapting
chapters of SE. You can find all of the videos on my playlist
here and links to all of the 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.
Is
Supernatural Encounters canon?
It
was written and intended to be an Expanded Universe work, and would have
been categorized as C-canon in the old classification system. Of course, "Canon" means something quite different now
than when I wrote the work. 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, thus providing room
for all fans under the larger Star Wars umbrella.
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