Brass Soldiers of Axum

OnALegendsArticle

The Brass Soldiers of Axum were a[1] mysterious[2] collection of thirty-five thousand statues of soldiers. They were cast in solid brass and depicted the soldiers with expressions of pain and terror. The Brass Soldiers of Axum shared their name with Axum, a Core Worlds planet and once-capital of the Azure Imperium state that predated the formation of the Galactic Republic.[1]

According to legend, the statues originated as an actual pre-Republic army that was transmuted into brass via magic.[1] Eventually, the Brass Soldiers of Axum were included in the Twenty Wonders of the Galaxy—a list of spectactular, antique artificial objects that the historian Vicendi compiled in 10,000 BBY for the publication Arturum Galactinum.[1] At some point between 1 ABY and 3 ABY,[3] a pair of life-size replicas of the brass statues flanked the entrance of "Wonders of the Galaxy," an exhibit of the Figg & Associates Art Museum in the Cloud City settlement of the[4] Outer Rim Territories planet Bespin.[1]

Behind the scenes

"Clearly a gloss on the famous Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang. I rather like the idea that these are actual soldiers transformed into brass statues through magic, but I left it vague."
―Daniel Wallace[5]
The Brass Soldiers of Axum were created for The Essential Atlas.

The Brass Soldiers of Axum were created for The Essential Atlas.

The Brass Soldiers of Axum were introduced in the 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas by Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry.[1] Wallace noted in his personal blog that he particularly enjoyed creating names for those of the Twenty Wonders of the Galaxy that were original to the book, which included the brass soldiers.[5]

The author remarked that the Brass Soldiers of Axum were based on the famous real-world Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang. In addition, Wallace noted that he enjoyed the idea of the Brass Soldiers having originally been living beings that were magically transformed into statues, but he opted to leave their origin uncertain[5] by presenting it as an in-universe legend.[1] The Brass Soldiers of Axum made their first appearance in the form of replicas in The Jewel of Yavin, a 2014 adventure supplement for Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars: Edge of the Empire roleplaying game system.[4]

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 The Essential Atlas
  2. ↑ StarWars.com Galactic Architecture 101 and the History of Centerpoint Station on StarWars.com (backup link) (original link is obsolete)
  3. ↑ The Jewel of Yavin is set during Lando Calrissian's tenure as Baron Administrator of Cloud City and before the Galactic Empire's occupation of that settlement. StarWarsTales-Icon "Lady Luck" — Star Wars Tales 3, which depicts Calrissian winning the title of Baron Administrator in a game of sabacc, is set a year after the Battle of Yavin, which corresponds to 1 ABY, according to The New Essential Chronology. Since the latter source also dates the occupation of Cloud City to 3 ABY, the events of The Jewel of Yavin must be set at some point between those two dates.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Jewel of Yavin
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Blogger-Logo Daniel Wallace's Geekosity — Endnotes for Star Wars: The Essential Atlas (part 2 of 5) on Blogspot (backup link)

External links