This article will appear in the next issue of the Star Wars Insider Magazine.

T he Genesis of the Alien Chronicles Trilogy

By Athena Portillo

M ost fans of Lucasfilm know that Star Wars isn't the only imaginative universe to emerge from Skywalker Ranch; there's Indiana Jones, Willow, and now the Alien Chronicles.

Lucasfilm's Alien Chronicles possesses not only the texture of a generational saga, but the richness of imaginary worlds and cultures created by writer and University of Oklahoma Writing School Professor Deborah Chester.

The inspiration for Alien Chronicles came from Lucasfilm's rich legacy of creating strange and wondrous creatures.

It began around the time that Lucy Autrey Wilson, Director of Publishing at Lucas Licensing was working on Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas, an art book featuring the creature designs of a variety of artists employed or commissioned by Lucasfilm with text by Bob Carrau.

Lucy thought it would be a good idea to create novels about some of these creatures, many of which were concepts that never made it into the Star Wars films. It became important, however, to construct a new universe rather than attempting to work with the constraints of the Star Wars universe.

From there, Lucy and Howard Roffman, Vice-President of Lucas Licensing, worked with the editorial team at Ace Science Fiction to develop a storyline that would be sweeping in its historical scope but also heartfelt and deeply personal. The biggest challenge would be to work with an all alien cast.

"In Alien Chronicles, we have a universe without human beings," states Ace Senior Executive Editor Ginjer Buchanan, "where an old empire of reptilian aliens, the Viis Empire, has basically conquered and enslaved all the other species they encountered in the course of their exploration of their part of the galaxy. After generations of absolute supremacy, this empire is beginning to fall apart. Viis society has become decadent and is almost totally dependent on the various species it has conquered. That's when the story of Alien Chronicles begins."

Three of the dominant races in this book are the Kelth, the Viis, and the Aaroun. To make things easier, furry is associated with good and scaly is associated with evil, says Concept Artist for The Golden One and the new Star Wars: Episode I Terryl Whitlatch.

On one hand we have a short-snouted, wolf-like creature of the Aaroun race named Ampris who adorns herself with an earring of ownership, and a furry, coyote-like creature of the Kelth species named Elrabin. Both are mammilian and both are essentially good. On the other hand, we have the Viis princess Israi, a reptilian-like creature with blue and green frills that are - you guessed it - scaly indeed. Israi comes to represent the evil of which the Viis are capable.

"If you think back to Aesop's Fables and, more currently, Bugs Bunny, animals have always been utilized as a vehicle for symbolism," says Whitlatch, "I mean, who's to say that an animal is being politically correct or incorrect when their creators have given them the ability to have feelings, ambitions and opinions? "

Another artist involved in this project is multiple Hugo Award-winner for Best Artist Bob Eggleton. He has created a very dramatic painting featuring three views of alien landscapes of which we will see in each of the trilogy's front covers. Alien portraits will be featured on the back covers. The first cover, that of The Golden One, will feature an Aaroun, the protagonist of the trilogy.

The Golden One is now available at book stores. Highbridge Audio will be putting out an audio dramatization of The Golden One soon. Tom Voegeli, Producer of the Star Wars Radio Dramas, will be producing this project with his keen imagination in making visual books acoustically come to life.

"We've all had fun bringing Lucasfilm's Alien Chronicles to life with Deborah Chester as a fine fantasy writer," says Buchanan. "Now it s time for readers to get the chance to explore and enjoy a whole new universe."

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