- "When a person depends upon their neighbor for assistance during the harvest—when strangers are few and familial ties bind the farmer to the freighter captain—the greatest danger is shunning or exile. Mollifying your peers becomes a matter of survival. You have an incentive to iron out differences, or if necessary to bury any radical beliefs that would put you at odds with your community."
- ―Barouth Regorab
Barouth Regorab was a political historian who, by the first year of the Empire's reign after its formation in 19 BBY, had compared the difference in scale between the Galactic Senate and a planetary government to the difference between a rural community and a metropolis.
Biography
- "In a city of millions, however, a person may build a tailor-made community inside the larger organism. Anger your neighbor and you may move in with a friend. Become an outcast among your co-workers and you may take a job with a competitor. Diverse arts and philosophies may flourish without the flattening effect of more tight-knit communities, and differences may be celebrated."
- ―Barouth Regorab
Barouth Regorab was a political historian who compared the difference in scale between a planetary government and the Galactic Senate of the Galactic Republic to the difference between a rural community and a metropolis. Senator Mon Mothma of the Galactic Empire's Imperial Senate was aware of Regorab's comparison by the first year of the Empire's reign after its formation[1] in 19 BBY.[2]
Personality and traits
- "Yet a lack of common ties can also cause neighbors to see one another as rivals. Ideological opponents can be dismissed without need for engagement. And good people may slip through the cracks, lost in the chaos and written off as someone else's problem."
- ―Barouth Regorab
Regorab claimed that in smaller communities where neighbours needed to rely on one another for aid or were mostly tied by familial bonds, exile and shunning were the greatest danger, meainng that people prioritised mollifying those around them and working out their differences, burying more radical views if necesary.[1]
However, Regorab argued that in a metropolis inhabited by millions, any individual could build a community around them that fit their views, simply moving on to new neighbours or colleagues if shunned by those around them and not needing to engage with ideological opponents at all. This could result in more diverse philosophies and arts flourshing rather than being homogenized and differences being celebrated, but also led to neighbours viewing each other as rivals and good people being written off as "someone else's problem" and so slipping through the cracks in society.[1]
These concepts applied to the Senate in that both permanent and transitory groupings such as coalitions, committiees, task forces, caucuses, or other cliques kept each other at arms-length and abandoned well-meaning debate. Newcomers faced esoteric rituals, power plays, unofficial hierarchies, and centuries of accumulated ruels and traditions that made it impossible to understand the system or tackle the galaxy's problems with any speed.[1]
Behind the scenes
Barouth Regorab was mentioned in the 2025 novel Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear, which was written by Alexander Freed as the first installment of the Star Wars: Reign of the Empire trilogy.[1]
Appearances
- Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear (and audiobook) (First mentioned)