Thread by @JoinTheSchwarz

Let’s begiiiiiinnnnn

Same rules are usual: I will try to do a deep analysis of the book and I will post a few pics here and there, but nothing major (because fuck you, buy the book, it's relatively cheap now.) Feel free to reply with anything I might have missed!

So what is the Smuggler’s Guide?

As usual with these Chronicle books, it’s an in-universe book. This time it’s a journal that has gone through the hands of a few notorious scoundrels.

We will be looking at one or two of these owners every day.

PS.: See that Dryden Vos typo?

SCOUNDREL #1: MAZ KANATA

And who else would have authored the guide but Maz?

In this intro she apparently ended up disliking, she paints herself as the mother of the Underworld. Ruusan reference, famous battlefield in Legends also seen in TCW.

The Five Syndicates!

Black Sun from Shadows of the Empire. Pykes from TCW and Solo. Crimson Dawn from Solo. The Son-Tuul from the Vader comic. Crymorah from... so, so, so many sources (seriously, what’s up with that?)

The Five Syndicates themselves are from Solo and more than likely a reference to the Five Families.

And the Hutts... oh come on.

The Spice Triangle mentioned in the Pyke paragraph is probably a reference to the Golden Triangle, and as far as I can tell was first named in The Essential Atlas.

A Cmorra reference for sure. It's usually stylized as "the Crymorah families" in case there was any doubt.

This generalization of Underworld ranks includes “vigos”, the name given in Legends to the nine lieutenants under the leader of Black Sun. It meant “nephew” in Old Tionese: I guess “cousin” was too in the face.

The jewel of this chapter? THE GALACTIC MAP. As expected from Dan Wallace! I will give it an in-depth look in the future (it deserves it!) but let’s look at some of the other stuff in that section.

A shadowport is, of course, the SW version of a pirate haven as named by WEG. Outlaw garages and techs are a concept from Han Solo at Stars’ End.

And the caches? Maz’s mythical eight treasures, the guiding plot through the whole book.

Let’s look at Maz’s suggestion.

Coaxium is, of course, the hyperfuel from Solo. Kajidics are Hutt clans, first seen in WEG’s Galaxy Guide 11 (where they were most emphatically NOT family clans but that’s a rant for another day.) Quarren are squid-men, thus ink, tee-hee.

The Harch were the species of Admiral Trench, so I'm going to assume the adhesive comes out of their butt. Sorry.

Gaberwool is a wool first mentioned in The New Rebellion but very popular since then.

Kibnon are insectoids from WEG, and their pollen is indeed a well-known stimulant.

The Nevoota are......... one of the oldest in-jokes in Star Wars publishing, that started as an April's Fools joke on rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc and... well, still endures! Look it up!

And finally Megonite moss is an explosive moss from the 1979 Russ Manning comic strips. Everyone loves ancient and obscure references!

And that's it for Maz's (first) section in the book. Tomorrow, a special interlude looking at the VERY DENSELY PACKED map. It... might take a while to go through it. Sorry!

MAP TIME!

I hope I have the stamina to finish this section in one day. Wish me luck!

Did you expect a lot of WEG pulls?

Well, duh. WEG was full of shadowports and shady locations.

Let's start with Tanquilla Beach, asteroid shadowport in Kathol sector, from my beloved DarkStryder campaign.

More WEG: swampy shadowport Gelgelar (not related to @ericgeller), that I first met through Platt's Starport Guide but that first appeared in the venerable Adventure Journal. And keep an eye on this Platt, for she shall reappear!

@ericgeller Speaking of the Journal, Zirtran's Anchor first appeared in it. A weird conglomerate of ships only the very optimistic would call a "space station", and a really interesting setting.

LITERALLY just getting started!

Moving clockwise we find a couple of worlds from the excellent Crimson Corsair novella, like Ponemah or Adratharpe (most likely a misspelling of Adrathorpe)

We keep going around the rim, and we run into Pashvi, from Zahn's underrated Outbloud Flight, the asteroid base of Borgo Prime (from the Young Jedi Knights YA books) and Te Hasa, one of the Gree worlds. Remember the Gree, from that beloved last EU novel?!

Getting closer to the Corporate Sector, we run into Florrum, where I, Hondo Ohnaka, once lived! Ha-ha! Then Urdur, where Doc from Han Solo at Stars' End had his infamous garage and (trivia) where we first saw Headhunters.

We keep going spinward, and we see... Panna! Of course the Holiday Special would make an appearance. This is where we first saw Boba Fett, and it's a pretty cool looking world.

The asteroid belt of Oseon and its casinos are from the Lando Calrissian trilogy... and now also from Solo!

Klatooine is, of course, where Klatooinians are from. Also the Klatooinian Trade Guild, a Hutt front and probably the reason it's in the map.

The Hutt Space worlds are all known properties: Nal Hutta and Nar Shadaa, of course, but also Ylesia, from A. C. Crispin's Han Solo trilogy. Keldooine and Nar Haaska were, as far as I can tell, created for the Essential Atlas by @danwall88 and/or @jasoncfry

@danwall88 @jasoncfry We keep going south and we run into Roon, from the last arc of my dear Droids series. I already devoted a long thread to the series two years ago, so suffice to say: I love Roon, the Cloak of the Sith, the Roonstones, and Roon's weird soldiers dressed like 80s Lybians.

@danwall88 @jasoncfry Iskalon is from the classic Marvels... and according to an old Lit thread it's also a stage in the Japanese NES Star Wars videogame. Mindboggling, let me tell you.

@danwall88 @jasoncfry Aaaaaand I forgot that you can't untag people from your own threads. Goddammit. My bad, guys. I'll do the old "quote and restart" to avoid losing track when I eventually add all these into a Moment.

@danwall88 @jasoncfry Continues here: