06-29-2018, 05:54 PM
Coruscant FAQs (last updated 6-29-18)
Q: “How Star Wars-y is this place?”
A: Tier 1 is pretty much what you’ve seen in the movies, albeit with some extra buildings and whatnot. Also, remember our Palpatine is from like, the middle of Episode III (not deformed). There are ‘sith’ in Coruscant and its military (with a few serving as high-ranking officers), but they receive no preferential treatment because they are sith. ‘Jedi’ are just one of many weird cults outlawed in the Empire, along with Scientologists and a few others. Coruscant’s military uses primarily Star Wars tech and Star Wars armor/gear, from the Clone Wars and the Empire era. Most beat cops are Stormtroopers, for example. In the military, you’ll find that the ‘armor type’ varies by Legion and even within Legions (usually armor is modified to fit the purpose of the unit). Other examples of Star Wars tech are that tie fighters are used to patrol Tier 1 and Tier 2 from time-to-time and AT-ATs often serve as riot suppressants. While not the majority, a large percentage of stormtroopers are ‘tube grown’ (clone troopers).
Q: “What is life like in Coruscant? Are people happy?”
A: Let me answer this in two ways: On the top few tiers, most people are ‘content’ or even completely ignorant of any shady that might be going on in their verse (or the Omniverse, for that matter). That’s usually because they’re affluent and/or have enough influence or power to get away with the type of life they want to, whether they work directly for the Empire or for a corporation of some kind (most Tier 1 employees work directly for the Empire). These people don’t care so much for the ‘woes’ of the people on lower Tiers and often will respond to complaints about those matters with the whole ‘bootstrap’ ideology. I mean… you need to realize that most of these people were made (directly or indirectly) by Palpatine. They have zero reason to not be loyal.
On the lower tiers, people usually focus on simple survival. The lower tiers are prone to many migrant populations and outcasts from other verses. Some denizens manage this fairly well through legal means (not everyone on Tier 4/5/6 is some angry peasant). Many live down there mainly because, at the end of the day, it’s no worse or unpredictable than any other place in the Omniverse. The more ‘disgruntled’ and ‘desperate’ elements of society may become ‘rebels’ or criminals. Much like in the Kingdom, there is very much an upper-, middle-, and lower-class in Coruscant.
Q: “What does it mean to join the Empire? What’s the EPD?”
A: Those involved in serving the Glorious and Mighty Empire™ can complete one of the various faction quests (there are three different flavors). Completing them grants you status as a member of the Empire Peace Division (EPD), which essentially just means you’re a prime who works for the Empire. There is an unspoken pledge of allegiance in serving the EPD and violating that will cause you to be Blacklisted in Coruscant. As a member of the EPD, you can essentially serve in whatever capacity you (the writer) would like, whether that be military (be a solider or officer), law enforcement (be a cop), public service (fire fighter, first responder), a scientist/engineer (usually called R&D). While you can become a spec-ops type person, be aware that once you join the Empire, you have joined the Empire.
Q: “Can you give more information on like, police force and the military. Are they not the same thing?”
A: No, they’re not. There’s a military ‘branch’ with its own bigwigs, and there’s ‘local’ law enforcement. Yes, there is bleed over, and it has become more common for marines (the military) to be dispatched to deal with renegade primes. Further muddling the fact is that both the foot soldiers of the military and your beat cops are stormtroopers, although cops often forgo their full armor while in the precinct. At the top of the law enforcement hierarchy are ‘the Judges’, who are often assigned to oversee multiple precincts. The chief Judge (and the de facto head of Coruscant Law Enforcement) is Judge Dredd. It’s also worth mentioning that the police force in Coruscant is also the ‘judiciary’. There are no appeals courts and even the basic police officer is endowed to make binding judicial decisions in the field.
Q: “So cops are judges, jury, and executioner – what happens if I get in trouble with the law?”
A: High-profile nonsense will warrant a Storyteller intervention. But if you want to know for the sake of like, a plot you’re writing or even a secondary’s adventures, there are prisons. Tiers 2, 3, and 4 house various prisons. There’s also Impel Down in the Vasty Deep, where some of the worst or least ‘recondition-able’ offenders go. While the Empire will not shy away from public executions, it prefers to rehabilitate most secondaries. This may be done through jail-time followed by community service. Secondaries who can’t be rehabbed are executed.
Primes who run afoul of the Empire are often treated harshly. Running from authority or resisting arrest will result in summary execution for primes. Serious crimes may result in Blacklisting, which means authorities are to banish the prime on sight. Repeat offenders may be imprisoned, but given the nature of primes, this can often be unideal. Imprisoned primes are often simply placed in a coma (in some manner) and then frozen in carbonite. They are then unfrozen for interrogation or rehabilitation and the process is often repeated until the Empire gets what they want or the prime finds a way to die/dies from the process.
Q: “You haven’t mentioned Bradley or Palpatine. How does this place even operate?”
A: …you didn’t ask? Did you even read those excellent NPC bios I wrote? Emperor Palpatine is the head of state and the head of the government (for you… British people, he’s the Queen and the Prime Minister). Even so, most of the day-to-day operations of Coruscant fall to King Bradley, who is the de facto head of government. Bradley is often the public face of the regime, given his wealth of charisma. While he has authority over all branches of Coruscant, he primarily focuses on the political/administrative aspects.
Oh you want more? Okay. Coruscant is broken up into hundreds of administrative ‘districts.’ These districts are in turn run by locally elected councils. These elections are often hotly disputed, and it’s not uncommon for foul play to be involved. A group of 4-8 districts is called a precinct (yes, the same precincts mentioned in the last question), and each precinct nominates one Senator. These Senators meet on Tier 1 as part of the Imperial Senate, which is essentially a rubber stamp organization with close to zero actual political influence. But Palpatine obviously remember how the plutocrats and aristocrats gobbled this stuff up in his galaxy far far away.
Q: “What are the ‘Rebels’ and ‘Criminal Agents’ that operate in the Lower Tiers?”
A: Let’s break this apart.
Q: “Rebels?”
A: A ‘rebel’ is a terrorist (or I guess a freedom fighter, depending on your angle) whose aims are loosely associated with the degradation or destruction of the Imperial state. They tend to be organized into ‘cells’ that function like military units. Many are militarized and some even manage to steal tech from the Empire. There is no single ‘unified’ rebel faction, because they often distrust one another (the Empire has slaughtered various rebel cells through espionage and subterfuge).
Success? – While there have been no high-profile assassinations or like, mass-scale rebel assaults on the upper tiers, it’s due to the ‘rebels’ that the Empire has more or less ‘backed off’ of Tiers 5 and 6. The cynic would argue that this has allowed the Empire to treat those two tiers as glorified ghettos.
Q: “Criminals/Gangs/Organized Crime and Vigilantes”
A: Organized crime is a big element in Coruscant, particularly Tiers 4 and 5. Unlike ‘rebels’, these criminals have no glorified objectives of ‘liberation’ from ‘tyranny’. They’re out for their own gain. Their gains often come through extortion, raquetering, smuggling, and selling various sorts of contraband. Most high-profile criminal sects operate out of Tier 5 and have storehouses and/or safehouses down on Tier 6. Crime syndicates come and go as often as the seasons, with turf wars often destroying entire swaths of the lower tiers.
Q: “What’s illegal in Coruscant? It’s a police state, isn’t it?”
A: Anything that’s normally illegal (murder, kidnapping, assault and battery, drug dealing etc) in a civilized society. The following “crimes” are also illegal in Coruscant and can result in a bounty or armed response – vagrancy, begging/panhandling, sedition (spreading anti-Imperial propaganda or thoughts), substance use, vandalism, vigilantism. These offenses are heavily enforced in the top three Tiers in the sake of preserving Coruscant’s glorious culture and society. Below Tier 4, you’re more likely to get away with illicit activity for a longer period of time.
Q: “How do people get their news? Is it censored?”
A: News is heavily monitored. There is a Coruscant News Network with anchors and talking head opinion pieces. Just think of North Korea’s news network or, like, Fox News or something. While Dataverse access is free in the top tiers, it’s censored, much like the internet in China. The HoloNet is another state propaganda piece. The Omniverse News Network (ONN) is often ‘pirated’ throughout Coruscant. Ron Burgundy isn’t flagrantly anti-Empire, so there isn’t a terrible amount of effort taken to suppress. Various rebels run radio networks (for real) in the lower Tiers.
[Q: “Imperial relations with other verses and factions?”
A: The Empire is in a state of proxy war with the Kingdom. There are covert clashes and proxy wars fought between the two factions across the Omniverse. The Empire has spies in various factions and performs espionage outside of Coruscant. This isn’t saying they’re actively seeking to undermine other factions, but they do like to keep tabs on what goes on at large. Beyond Coruscant, the Empire’s focus is mainly in the Vasty Deep, where it operates the Imperial Navy. Costa del Sol and many of the outer lying islands are popular tourist and vacation spot for the citizens of Coruscant. Every now and again, elements from other factions may wind up in Coruscant and whip up trouble, but more often than not, these are rogue elements.
Q: “Diablo?”
A: The Empire is well-aware of the pervasive influence of Diablo in the Omniverse. While they won’t go out of their way to exterminate an individual (they’re likely to try and manipulate them more than anything), they have been known to covertly eradicate ‘Diablo cells’ even as far down as Tier 6. Whether these various cults are actually in touch with Diablo can be left to speculation.
Q: “Pepsi? Syntech? What are these proper nouns that pop up?”
A: Those are two beloved examples of the various corporations that operate within the second Tier of Coruscant. Syntech has a branch office, while Pepsi-Co has its headquarters on Tier 2. There are various other corporate entities that exist in Coruscant, but those are the two that frequently pop up, but I wouldn’t bat an eye if someone wanted to say that the Weyland Corporation had offices in Coruscant, for instance. The Gold Cross – an inter-verse aide organization – has a building in Tier 2 as well as a field office in Tier 5.
Q: “Are there frequent ‘incidents’ on Tier 1 involving fresh primes? I read a few.“
A: Oh snap, you read old threads? Good on you. In the past, there have been various incidents on the top two tiers relating to primes (new or otherwise) trying to skirt Imperial authority. Most have ended poorly. Canonically, there are likely a few of these incidents each month. Maybe some of those primes that joined the site and then vanished did naughty stuff in Coruscant or to the troopers stationed near the Fountain. We’ll never know, but assume it’s one of those things that happens behind the scenes, like the hordes of middle-management throughout Coruscant.
Q: “Empire stances on diversity? ‘Xenos’?
A: While the core leadership of the Empire is not as much, the Empire as a whole is a very diverse institution – far more than the Kingdom or any of the homogenous factions that exist in the Greens, Fields, or Steppes. Just because the Empire is a police state doesn’t mean they round up all the purple-skinned people and place them in camps or ghettos. The Imperial bureaucracy as a whole is going to be multi-species, and they don’t really discriminate any races or species any harsher than others. You a criminal with blue skin, you gonna get just as many bullets as a criminal with red skin or white skin.
Q: “I read about Space Marines? So like, 40k stuff?”
A: Space marines are any Imperial soldier outfitted in ‘power armor’ (whether that’s Fallout, 40k, or some other science fiction franchise). Regardless of similarities to 40k or other scifi franchises, all the marines you find in Coruscant, who work for the Empire, are native to the Omniverse (ie – designed and created by Palpatine) – it’s the Omniverse, you’ll get used to it.
Q: “What do they do?”
A: The oldest of these is the Imperial Royal Guard. Clad in red power armor, Palpatine is rarely seen without two of these silent, foreboding sentinels. Just imagine if you took Palpatines Royal Guard from Episode III and fused them with a 40k-style marine. A second sect of space marines, dubbed ‘ultra-marines’, also resemble something from 40k and are used in high-profile policing activity, especially when a marine or a squad of them can get a job done quicker and more efficiently than a squad of storm troopers.
Q: “What’s the infrastructure like? (lighting, pollution, etc)”
A: The first three tiers are pretty much flawless, although people sometimes complain about ‘noise pollution’ in the more centralized parts of Tiers 1, 2, and 3. Pollution of all sorts starts to become an issue starting in Tier 5, as many places operating down there are able to get away with shoddy standards for disposal and waste filtration. Tier 7 (the small portion that is ‘habitable’) is one large industrial park. Smog, chemical waste, and radiation make it nearly impossible for secondaries or even primes to stay down there for long (outside of the insulated structures). Starting with Tier 5 and worsening in Tier 6, you have issues with under-quality roads, plumbing, and lights.
Q: “Food? Water? Public Works? Entitlements”
A: The first four tiers have state-sponsored hydroponics farms and water generation and purification facilities. Tier 5 and Tier 6 have to either purchase from facilities on other Tiers or ‘fend for themselves’. The Tiers have various parks and public institutions (public houses, orphanages, etc). Since being a vagrant is criminalized on the upper tiers, most people who wind up in those institutions are transferred down to a lower tier after a period of time. Coruscant also has various social security-style programs and unemployment programs.
Q: “Does Coruscant have Zoos?”
A: Yes! They also have museums and most other things you’d find in a big city. There are zoos to be found throughout the first three Tiers. The most famous of these if the Coruscant Metropolitan Zoo on Tier 1, which covers over a hundred acres and features wildlife from across the multi-verse. The zoos on Tier 2 and 3 are humbler, and there are various ones that double as zoological, biological, and xenological research facilities. Most of these zoos are free to the public, even if you have to pay for parking.
Q: “Native Wildlife?”
A: On the first three Tiers, you’re likely to find very little outside of birds, and even then, avian wildlife only flourishes outside the massive ‘downtown’ areas of those two Tiers. Mice and other ‘vermin’ species are actively exterminated on the first three tiers. Once you reach Tier 4, there’s less institutionalized effort but obviously private businesses exist (you know, exterminators). Starting on Tier 4, you can find rabbits, mice, and squirrels, cats, dogs, as well as more varied bird species, like pigeons and crows. Tier 5 is home to coyotes and other small feral predators. Tier 6 barely supports humanoid life, let alone animals other than roaches and rats. Tier 7 has very little life, given the activities that go on down there, although there is a ‘xenomorph’ infestation.
Q: “What was Coruscant like before?”
A: I would have thought you’d have gone and read and devoured all that lovely information in the NPC bios by now. Shake my head. Anyway, Coruscant was a pretty lush and beautiful place long, long ago. Not Tangled Greens-level lush but comparable to Camelot or the pre-Fouling Pale Moors. The city that was to become Coruscant grew quickly—explosively, even. There are secondaries who may remember the growth of the city, but it had consumed the whole verse before the arrival of any additional primes. Nowadays, even what can be seen beyond the edges of Tier 1 is mostly just bare earth. Elements of the ‘original Coruscant’ can be viewed in museums, and there are many parks and gardens on the first three Tiers that are decorated/designed to be homages to Coruscant's past.
Q: “How Star Wars-y is this place?”
A: Tier 1 is pretty much what you’ve seen in the movies, albeit with some extra buildings and whatnot. Also, remember our Palpatine is from like, the middle of Episode III (not deformed). There are ‘sith’ in Coruscant and its military (with a few serving as high-ranking officers), but they receive no preferential treatment because they are sith. ‘Jedi’ are just one of many weird cults outlawed in the Empire, along with Scientologists and a few others. Coruscant’s military uses primarily Star Wars tech and Star Wars armor/gear, from the Clone Wars and the Empire era. Most beat cops are Stormtroopers, for example. In the military, you’ll find that the ‘armor type’ varies by Legion and even within Legions (usually armor is modified to fit the purpose of the unit). Other examples of Star Wars tech are that tie fighters are used to patrol Tier 1 and Tier 2 from time-to-time and AT-ATs often serve as riot suppressants. While not the majority, a large percentage of stormtroopers are ‘tube grown’ (clone troopers).
Q: “What is life like in Coruscant? Are people happy?”
A: Let me answer this in two ways: On the top few tiers, most people are ‘content’ or even completely ignorant of any shady that might be going on in their verse (or the Omniverse, for that matter). That’s usually because they’re affluent and/or have enough influence or power to get away with the type of life they want to, whether they work directly for the Empire or for a corporation of some kind (most Tier 1 employees work directly for the Empire). These people don’t care so much for the ‘woes’ of the people on lower Tiers and often will respond to complaints about those matters with the whole ‘bootstrap’ ideology. I mean… you need to realize that most of these people were made (directly or indirectly) by Palpatine. They have zero reason to not be loyal.
On the lower tiers, people usually focus on simple survival. The lower tiers are prone to many migrant populations and outcasts from other verses. Some denizens manage this fairly well through legal means (not everyone on Tier 4/5/6 is some angry peasant). Many live down there mainly because, at the end of the day, it’s no worse or unpredictable than any other place in the Omniverse. The more ‘disgruntled’ and ‘desperate’ elements of society may become ‘rebels’ or criminals. Much like in the Kingdom, there is very much an upper-, middle-, and lower-class in Coruscant.
Q: “What does it mean to join the Empire? What’s the EPD?”
A: Those involved in serving the Glorious and Mighty Empire™ can complete one of the various faction quests (there are three different flavors). Completing them grants you status as a member of the Empire Peace Division (EPD), which essentially just means you’re a prime who works for the Empire. There is an unspoken pledge of allegiance in serving the EPD and violating that will cause you to be Blacklisted in Coruscant. As a member of the EPD, you can essentially serve in whatever capacity you (the writer) would like, whether that be military (be a solider or officer), law enforcement (be a cop), public service (fire fighter, first responder), a scientist/engineer (usually called R&D). While you can become a spec-ops type person, be aware that once you join the Empire, you have joined the Empire.
Q: “Can you give more information on like, police force and the military. Are they not the same thing?”
A: No, they’re not. There’s a military ‘branch’ with its own bigwigs, and there’s ‘local’ law enforcement. Yes, there is bleed over, and it has become more common for marines (the military) to be dispatched to deal with renegade primes. Further muddling the fact is that both the foot soldiers of the military and your beat cops are stormtroopers, although cops often forgo their full armor while in the precinct. At the top of the law enforcement hierarchy are ‘the Judges’, who are often assigned to oversee multiple precincts. The chief Judge (and the de facto head of Coruscant Law Enforcement) is Judge Dredd. It’s also worth mentioning that the police force in Coruscant is also the ‘judiciary’. There are no appeals courts and even the basic police officer is endowed to make binding judicial decisions in the field.
Q: “So cops are judges, jury, and executioner – what happens if I get in trouble with the law?”
A: High-profile nonsense will warrant a Storyteller intervention. But if you want to know for the sake of like, a plot you’re writing or even a secondary’s adventures, there are prisons. Tiers 2, 3, and 4 house various prisons. There’s also Impel Down in the Vasty Deep, where some of the worst or least ‘recondition-able’ offenders go. While the Empire will not shy away from public executions, it prefers to rehabilitate most secondaries. This may be done through jail-time followed by community service. Secondaries who can’t be rehabbed are executed.
Primes who run afoul of the Empire are often treated harshly. Running from authority or resisting arrest will result in summary execution for primes. Serious crimes may result in Blacklisting, which means authorities are to banish the prime on sight. Repeat offenders may be imprisoned, but given the nature of primes, this can often be unideal. Imprisoned primes are often simply placed in a coma (in some manner) and then frozen in carbonite. They are then unfrozen for interrogation or rehabilitation and the process is often repeated until the Empire gets what they want or the prime finds a way to die/dies from the process.
Q: “You haven’t mentioned Bradley or Palpatine. How does this place even operate?”
A: …you didn’t ask? Did you even read those excellent NPC bios I wrote? Emperor Palpatine is the head of state and the head of the government (for you… British people, he’s the Queen and the Prime Minister). Even so, most of the day-to-day operations of Coruscant fall to King Bradley, who is the de facto head of government. Bradley is often the public face of the regime, given his wealth of charisma. While he has authority over all branches of Coruscant, he primarily focuses on the political/administrative aspects.
Oh you want more? Okay. Coruscant is broken up into hundreds of administrative ‘districts.’ These districts are in turn run by locally elected councils. These elections are often hotly disputed, and it’s not uncommon for foul play to be involved. A group of 4-8 districts is called a precinct (yes, the same precincts mentioned in the last question), and each precinct nominates one Senator. These Senators meet on Tier 1 as part of the Imperial Senate, which is essentially a rubber stamp organization with close to zero actual political influence. But Palpatine obviously remember how the plutocrats and aristocrats gobbled this stuff up in his galaxy far far away.
Q: “What are the ‘Rebels’ and ‘Criminal Agents’ that operate in the Lower Tiers?”
A: Let’s break this apart.
Q: “Rebels?”
A: A ‘rebel’ is a terrorist (or I guess a freedom fighter, depending on your angle) whose aims are loosely associated with the degradation or destruction of the Imperial state. They tend to be organized into ‘cells’ that function like military units. Many are militarized and some even manage to steal tech from the Empire. There is no single ‘unified’ rebel faction, because they often distrust one another (the Empire has slaughtered various rebel cells through espionage and subterfuge).
Success? – While there have been no high-profile assassinations or like, mass-scale rebel assaults on the upper tiers, it’s due to the ‘rebels’ that the Empire has more or less ‘backed off’ of Tiers 5 and 6. The cynic would argue that this has allowed the Empire to treat those two tiers as glorified ghettos.
Q: “Criminals/Gangs/Organized Crime and Vigilantes”
A: Organized crime is a big element in Coruscant, particularly Tiers 4 and 5. Unlike ‘rebels’, these criminals have no glorified objectives of ‘liberation’ from ‘tyranny’. They’re out for their own gain. Their gains often come through extortion, raquetering, smuggling, and selling various sorts of contraband. Most high-profile criminal sects operate out of Tier 5 and have storehouses and/or safehouses down on Tier 6. Crime syndicates come and go as often as the seasons, with turf wars often destroying entire swaths of the lower tiers.
Q: “What’s illegal in Coruscant? It’s a police state, isn’t it?”
A: Anything that’s normally illegal (murder, kidnapping, assault and battery, drug dealing etc) in a civilized society. The following “crimes” are also illegal in Coruscant and can result in a bounty or armed response – vagrancy, begging/panhandling, sedition (spreading anti-Imperial propaganda or thoughts), substance use, vandalism, vigilantism. These offenses are heavily enforced in the top three Tiers in the sake of preserving Coruscant’s glorious culture and society. Below Tier 4, you’re more likely to get away with illicit activity for a longer period of time.
Q: “How do people get their news? Is it censored?”
A: News is heavily monitored. There is a Coruscant News Network with anchors and talking head opinion pieces. Just think of North Korea’s news network or, like, Fox News or something. While Dataverse access is free in the top tiers, it’s censored, much like the internet in China. The HoloNet is another state propaganda piece. The Omniverse News Network (ONN) is often ‘pirated’ throughout Coruscant. Ron Burgundy isn’t flagrantly anti-Empire, so there isn’t a terrible amount of effort taken to suppress. Various rebels run radio networks (for real) in the lower Tiers.
[Q: “Imperial relations with other verses and factions?”
A: The Empire is in a state of proxy war with the Kingdom. There are covert clashes and proxy wars fought between the two factions across the Omniverse. The Empire has spies in various factions and performs espionage outside of Coruscant. This isn’t saying they’re actively seeking to undermine other factions, but they do like to keep tabs on what goes on at large. Beyond Coruscant, the Empire’s focus is mainly in the Vasty Deep, where it operates the Imperial Navy. Costa del Sol and many of the outer lying islands are popular tourist and vacation spot for the citizens of Coruscant. Every now and again, elements from other factions may wind up in Coruscant and whip up trouble, but more often than not, these are rogue elements.
Q: “Diablo?”
A: The Empire is well-aware of the pervasive influence of Diablo in the Omniverse. While they won’t go out of their way to exterminate an individual (they’re likely to try and manipulate them more than anything), they have been known to covertly eradicate ‘Diablo cells’ even as far down as Tier 6. Whether these various cults are actually in touch with Diablo can be left to speculation.
Q: “Pepsi? Syntech? What are these proper nouns that pop up?”
A: Those are two beloved examples of the various corporations that operate within the second Tier of Coruscant. Syntech has a branch office, while Pepsi-Co has its headquarters on Tier 2. There are various other corporate entities that exist in Coruscant, but those are the two that frequently pop up, but I wouldn’t bat an eye if someone wanted to say that the Weyland Corporation had offices in Coruscant, for instance. The Gold Cross – an inter-verse aide organization – has a building in Tier 2 as well as a field office in Tier 5.
Q: “Are there frequent ‘incidents’ on Tier 1 involving fresh primes? I read a few.“
A: Oh snap, you read old threads? Good on you. In the past, there have been various incidents on the top two tiers relating to primes (new or otherwise) trying to skirt Imperial authority. Most have ended poorly. Canonically, there are likely a few of these incidents each month. Maybe some of those primes that joined the site and then vanished did naughty stuff in Coruscant or to the troopers stationed near the Fountain. We’ll never know, but assume it’s one of those things that happens behind the scenes, like the hordes of middle-management throughout Coruscant.
Q: “Empire stances on diversity? ‘Xenos’?
A: While the core leadership of the Empire is not as much, the Empire as a whole is a very diverse institution – far more than the Kingdom or any of the homogenous factions that exist in the Greens, Fields, or Steppes. Just because the Empire is a police state doesn’t mean they round up all the purple-skinned people and place them in camps or ghettos. The Imperial bureaucracy as a whole is going to be multi-species, and they don’t really discriminate any races or species any harsher than others. You a criminal with blue skin, you gonna get just as many bullets as a criminal with red skin or white skin.
Q: “I read about Space Marines? So like, 40k stuff?”
A: Space marines are any Imperial soldier outfitted in ‘power armor’ (whether that’s Fallout, 40k, or some other science fiction franchise). Regardless of similarities to 40k or other scifi franchises, all the marines you find in Coruscant, who work for the Empire, are native to the Omniverse (ie – designed and created by Palpatine) – it’s the Omniverse, you’ll get used to it.
Q: “What do they do?”
A: The oldest of these is the Imperial Royal Guard. Clad in red power armor, Palpatine is rarely seen without two of these silent, foreboding sentinels. Just imagine if you took Palpatines Royal Guard from Episode III and fused them with a 40k-style marine. A second sect of space marines, dubbed ‘ultra-marines’, also resemble something from 40k and are used in high-profile policing activity, especially when a marine or a squad of them can get a job done quicker and more efficiently than a squad of storm troopers.
Q: “What’s the infrastructure like? (lighting, pollution, etc)”
A: The first three tiers are pretty much flawless, although people sometimes complain about ‘noise pollution’ in the more centralized parts of Tiers 1, 2, and 3. Pollution of all sorts starts to become an issue starting in Tier 5, as many places operating down there are able to get away with shoddy standards for disposal and waste filtration. Tier 7 (the small portion that is ‘habitable’) is one large industrial park. Smog, chemical waste, and radiation make it nearly impossible for secondaries or even primes to stay down there for long (outside of the insulated structures). Starting with Tier 5 and worsening in Tier 6, you have issues with under-quality roads, plumbing, and lights.
Q: “Food? Water? Public Works? Entitlements”
A: The first four tiers have state-sponsored hydroponics farms and water generation and purification facilities. Tier 5 and Tier 6 have to either purchase from facilities on other Tiers or ‘fend for themselves’. The Tiers have various parks and public institutions (public houses, orphanages, etc). Since being a vagrant is criminalized on the upper tiers, most people who wind up in those institutions are transferred down to a lower tier after a period of time. Coruscant also has various social security-style programs and unemployment programs.
Q: “Does Coruscant have Zoos?”
A: Yes! They also have museums and most other things you’d find in a big city. There are zoos to be found throughout the first three Tiers. The most famous of these if the Coruscant Metropolitan Zoo on Tier 1, which covers over a hundred acres and features wildlife from across the multi-verse. The zoos on Tier 2 and 3 are humbler, and there are various ones that double as zoological, biological, and xenological research facilities. Most of these zoos are free to the public, even if you have to pay for parking.
Q: “Native Wildlife?”
A: On the first three Tiers, you’re likely to find very little outside of birds, and even then, avian wildlife only flourishes outside the massive ‘downtown’ areas of those two Tiers. Mice and other ‘vermin’ species are actively exterminated on the first three tiers. Once you reach Tier 4, there’s less institutionalized effort but obviously private businesses exist (you know, exterminators). Starting on Tier 4, you can find rabbits, mice, and squirrels, cats, dogs, as well as more varied bird species, like pigeons and crows. Tier 5 is home to coyotes and other small feral predators. Tier 6 barely supports humanoid life, let alone animals other than roaches and rats. Tier 7 has very little life, given the activities that go on down there, although there is a ‘xenomorph’ infestation.
Q: “What was Coruscant like before?”
A: I would have thought you’d have gone and read and devoured all that lovely information in the NPC bios by now. Shake my head. Anyway, Coruscant was a pretty lush and beautiful place long, long ago. Not Tangled Greens-level lush but comparable to Camelot or the pre-Fouling Pale Moors. The city that was to become Coruscant grew quickly—explosively, even. There are secondaries who may remember the growth of the city, but it had consumed the whole verse before the arrival of any additional primes. Nowadays, even what can be seen beyond the edges of Tier 1 is mostly just bare earth. Elements of the ‘original Coruscant’ can be viewed in museums, and there are many parks and gardens on the first three Tiers that are decorated/designed to be homages to Coruscant's past.