Author Jason Fry released the ninth set of endnotes from Essential Guide to Warfare this morning. This week he discusses being in the Empire’s Service and dives into the War Portrait of Baron Fel as well as what went into the Han Solo section of the book.

Fel’s one of the more interesting EU characters, and I struggled with how to do justice to him, worried that a recitation of his career would be flat and dull compared to Dark Horse’s X-Wing #25, which I think is one of the greatest tales of the EU. I cracked the puzzle – or at least I hope I did — with the by-now-familiar tactic of taking a step back and seeing him through other eyes. Wedge was the logical choice to tell Fel’s story, as he’s not only a fellow pilot but also a fellow Corellian.

For more, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.

In this week’s batch of endnotes, author Jason Fry talks stormtroopers and women among their ranks.

A Female Stormtrooper Remembers: The femtroopers you see at cons are serious fans and work as hard on their costumes as anyone else does. Check out the work of Sith Vixen: Yes, she looks amazing in femtrooper gear, but she also looks great as Maul or a Kaleesh warrior, costumes that demanded an enormous amount of work.

That said, midriff-baring stormtrooper armor always struck me as a bit unlikely in-universe — I figured the Empire had female troopers, but I was pretty sure they weren’t wearing armor that looked like that. With this in mind, “female stormtroopers” was one of the first things I wrote down when beginning to work on the outline for Warfare.

This batch of notes has a lot of great material about stormtroopers in general. For more, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.

Another Monday, another set of notes from Jason Fry’s brilliant Essential Guide to Warfare.

The Academy System: Another fun section to tear into, and a place where I definitely wanted to roll up my sleeves and get dirty in hopes of straightening out some continuity snarls. I hope that the account of the Academy system here amounts to a “good” retcon. Yes, the nebulous nature of the intake system and repeated transfers is designed to paper over various contradictions. But it’s also meant to be interesting in its own right – you can imagine cadets lying awake agonizing over where they’ll be sent next, exchanging baroque conspiracy theories that purport to explain everything, and grumbling about undeserving recipients of direct appointments. The Imperial Exploration Academy is new, as is the Merchant Galactic. (Though the latter has real-world antecedents.)

We’ll get another look into the Academy system when we come to Han Solo’s career.

There’s a whole bunch of early Empire notes in this latest batch, so if that’s your thing, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.

Rejoice, fans of Mandalorian culture. Jason Fry’s fourth batch of Essential Guide to Warfare endnotes dishes the Mando love.

War and the Mandalorians:Dan Wallace and I were almost finished with the Essential Atlas when we learned the Clone Wars TV show would shake up everything we thought we’d known about the spur-jangling warriors and nomads of the galaxy far, far away. Working quickly, I consulted with Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee at LFL to adapt the existing backstory to accommodate Satine and the New Mandalorians, and explain (at least for the most part) how swathes of the planet were turned into wastelands of fine white sand.

Dan and I wanted to do more: Originally, the Atlas was going to include a “Closer Look” at Mandalorian Space, with a local map and write-ups for its major systems. With Mandalorians taking center stage for a number of Lucasfilm projects, that idea was discarded — until Warfare gave me a chance to fill in a gap or two.

It’s understandable that with the uncertainty caused by The Clone Wars, Fry would want to avoid going into too much depth about Mandalorian culture and space. Now that things appear to be more settled, it’s quite a bit safer to flesh out more about them.

For more, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.