Lightsider (story)

According to Tom Veitch, in an interview given in July of 1995, he described the story as follows:

"It centers around the search for lost Jedi, based on what Luke says at the end of Dark Empire I - "the Jedi will rise again." The Jedi Holocron told him that there were Jedi to be found out there, and that's exactly what we show. He goes into seclusion with the Holocron to really explore the histories of the Jedi that the Holocron contains. So we show that also. We show him having some rather amazing experiences using the Holocron. At the beginning of Lightsider, we show Kam Solusar returning to the galaxy from outside the known galaxy. He was actually in another galaxy. [...]

In Lightsider you meet Executor Sedriss and the Darksiders, The Dark Jedi, or whatever you want to call them, and you learn a lot about them. We show what they are, and show in a number of battle sequences that they really are just whipping the Rebels' butts. They capture Solusar right away, and they essentially convert him into a Darksider, by exploiting the anger he feels toward Vader. They then go out on a mission to find and capture Luke. The Emperor, by the way, is off the scene. Nobody's sure if he's going to come back or not. So they go off to find Luke, and Luke meanwhile is on the Nespis space city. The Holocron told him to go there, and that he would find a Jedi there. So sure enough Luke goes to Nespis, and Solusar shows up with a bunch of his Darksider buddies, and they have a confrontation.

There are all sorts of old Jedi relics lying around the derelict space city. First of all, there are the remnants of a battle. Huge skeletons lying there from these enormous Jedi that were like ten or twelve feet tall - real big guys. Those skeletons are wearing armor from some old battle that happened centuries ago.

An old Jedi game -- Lightsider -- is found there amongst their belongings, and Luke's looking at it when Solusar shows up. Solusar says "I know how to play that game" and he challenges Luke to it. They go into it, and just playing this game is about half the book. It's quite an interesting game. As for the game, about half of it takes place in the Force. There's a board, and there are different pieces on it, but the greater part of the contest takes place in the Force. I can't explain how it works exactly, because I'm not letting out how the game works. But I can tell you Luke and Solusar are playing each other on some completely mental plane in the Force."

Following the success of Dark Empire, author Tom Veitch set to work on a continuation of the story. Unlike the graphic novel Dark Empire, this story would be written as a novella, with accompanying full-page illustrations by Dark Empire cover artist Dave Dorman. While working on the story, Veitch enlisted the help of author Rich Handley to serve as technical advisor for the project, with Mike Beidler serving as editor. Veitch finished writing a completed draft of the story sometime in late 1993.

The decision was made to continue the Dark Empire story with Star Wars: Dark Empire II as the next installment in the series, publishing the first issue of Dark Empire II in December 1994, though Veitch was assured Lightsider would still come out at some indeterminate point in the future. While completing the following issues of Dark Empire II, artist Cam Kennedy informed Veitch he would not be coming back for a further sequel to the series, citing creative boredom with the Dark Empire story and characters as the reason. Afterwards, Kennedy would go on to work on the Boba Fett comic book series with John Wagner, after telling Lucasfilm Director of Publishing Lucy Autrey Wilson he was more interested in that project. Kennedy would not be involved in the development of Lightsider.

Following the publication of the final issue of Dark Empire II in May 1995, Dark Horse looked to wrap up the Dark Empire saga with a short third installment. Speaking in June of 1995, Dark Horse editor Bob Cooper revealed how the final part, Star Wars: Empire's End, was being conceived, saying: "Dan Thorsland, who was the original editor of Dark Empire II, noticed that the plot of the sixth and final issue of that series left several minor and major plot threads untied. We decided to compromise between just wrapping everything up in issue six of Dark Empire II and launching a third whole miniseries: we decided to do a two-issue follow-up called Empire's End. This title was picked rather than, say, Dark Empire III, because one of the plot points involves the final and absolute death of Emperor Palpatine. He will not be revived again or brought back in any way. This is it. We won't be seeing him anymore." Veitch would reveal that he had wanted to do a full six-issue series, but Lucasfilm asked instead for a shorter follow-up, which Veitch agreed to.

This short, two-issue Dark Empire II follow-up would occupy Veitch's attention in the following months. as he worked to resolve the Dark Empire story with Empire's End artist Jim Baikie, a mentor of Cam Kennedy's who Veitch asked to work on Empire's End. In July of 1995, Tom Veitch was interviewed for the Out of the Maw newsletter distributed on the FidoNet Star Wars Echo network, where he discussed his current and future projects, remarking, "I'm finishing what's called Empire's End. It's actually a sequel to Dark Empire II, in which we kill off the Emperor once and for all," before adding, "The Lightsider thing is still very much alive."

Veitch would expand on Lightsider in this interview further, commenting on its lack of publication, "They've been having some problems on their end that I don't really know much about. It doesn't have anything to do with me or Dave. I've already written the text." When asked if the novella was lengthy, Veitch responded, "Yeah, as written it was, and I was supposed to cut it down, and then the last thing they told me was, no, we're going to make it longer and actually add to it, because they were thinking about doing a larger version."

Also mentioned in this interview was an extragalactic plot point Veitch discussed with Lucasfilm, with Veitch commenting, "At the beginning of Lightsider, we show Kam Solusar returning to the galaxy from outside the known galaxy. He was actually in another galaxy, and there was a whole discussion with Lucasfilm on how that would be done. You know, whether you could go through hyperspace to another galaxy -- stuff like that. That was approved. Apparently, Zahn did it in one of his books. He had some exploration outside the known galaxy." Veitch also spoke of Lightsider's continuity with Dark Empire II, mentioning, "The plot of Lightsider happened before Dark Empire II. People were supposed to have read Lightsider by the time we get to Dark Empire II. So there's all these references to characters and things we introduced in Lightsider."

The fall of 1995 would see the publication of Empire's End in October and November of 1995. By December, plans for Lightsider had transitioned from publication as an illustrated novella to a four-issue comic series. Veitch would give an update on the project that month, remarking, "It's currently a completed manuscript, not yet scheduled for publication. Dark Horse has asked me to do a four issue comic series based on it. The prose version was finished two years ago. Dave Dorman agreed to illustrate it with full page paintings. However, I believe he may have made other commitments now which will prevent his participation." When asked who the new artist would be on the project if Dorman couldn't participate, Veitch responded, "I believe they have asked Jim Baikie to do it. The comics that is -- not the novel."

In April of 1996, it was announced that Lightsider was cancelled. Veitch gave an interview that month for the Out of the Maw newsletter, explaining that, ultimately, the cancellation of the project came down to issues in the contract negotiation phase where Veitch and Lucasfilm could not agree on terms. This ultimately led to Lucasfilm's disinterest in the project, and it resulted in Veitch deciding not to publish Lightsider, choosing instead to keep the story and game concept to himself.

In his own words, Veitch explained the situation:

"Lightsider is a short novel I wrote, that was originally supposed to be a Star Wars novel illustrated by Dave Dorman. In the process of writing this book I invented a game that Jedi play, using the Force, called "Lightsider". The game turned out to be quite good, I think. After I had finished creating it, I realized that it would make an excellent computer game, sort of like Myst, but different in many significant ways. In fact I may have invented a new genre of computer games. So as we were negotiating a contract I asked Lucasfilm if they could put in a clause which would allow me a royalty of some kind if they ever decided to make a computer game out of Lightsider.

Well... it turned out I pushed their button on that one. They told me it would be impossible to agree to such a royalty, and that I was way out of line asking for one! They said they don't do business that way -- they acquire all rights when you do a project for them, and you are paid only for the original project.

So I elected not to sell them Lightsider, because the gaming concept was just too strong. I am in the process of marketing it elsewhere right now. The curious thing, from my point of view, was the vehemence of their reaction to my request. They could have just said "no", and that's that. But it was as if I had poked a scorpion with a stick or something."

Dark Horse editor Bob Cooper also spoke on the cancellation of Lightsider, remarking, "Tom Veitch did indeed write a preliminary Lightsider script (about two years ago), with the intention of publishing it at Dark Horse as a graphic story album (i.e., similar in format to the Aliens: Tribes GSA of a few years back). Dave Dorman was considered as the artist on the project, but, to the best of my knowledge, never completed any paintings for it. The reason the project never happened can be classified as "contractual differences." For a short period of time, there were plans afoot to release Lightsider as a comics series, with Tom revising his GSA script into a comics script, but again "contractual differences" reared its ugly head. At this time, it looks like Lightsider won't be seeing the light of day, at least at Dark Horse."

As a result of the collapse of contract negotiations between Veitch and Lucasfilm, which itself was at the end of an increasingly acrimonious relationship between the two, Veitch would no longer do any more work for Star Wars with Lucasfilm. Lightsider would be his last project for the company.

The fracturing of this working relationship would also result in the cancellation of a proposed Veitch-written sequel to Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - The Sith War. Bob Cooper would remark in April of 1996, "While there were, at one point, tentative plans for a sequel to The Sith War by Veitch, those same contractual differences have spelled the end of that particular project as well, it looks like." The conclusion of Ulic Qel-Droma's story would eventually be told in Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - Redemption by Kevin J. Anderson.

Veitch would reflect on his experience writing the original story of Lightsider, saying, "I had a lot of fun doing it. I was just reading it the other day, and I think it's pretty good stuff, in terms of the way it allowed me to put more into the action. In the comics you're limited to breaking everything down into a few panels. You have a whole battle in like, two pages or something. With text writing, like Lightsider, or "Greedo's Tale" in the new Cantina Anthology, you can put in a lot more detail, and a lot of different and bigger things happen. I really enjoyed it."

The difficult ending situation between Veitch and Lucasfilm was a delicate subject for both, partly due to the legal ramifications of Lightsider not being officially contracted by Lucasfilm. Rich Handley, when writing a retrospective piece for Star Wars Galaxy Collector 4 in 1998, had originally written a longer piece focused on Lightsider, but eventually removed many details of it, in part due to legal considerations. Later that year, he spoke on it, saying, "The Lightsider incident is a sensitive issue for all involved. I had interviewed Tom Veitch for the article and went into the legal history of his split with Lucasfilm, but they decided "not to go there" so as not to step on anyone's toes."

In his later years, Veitch would sometimes tell an account of Lightsider's development and cancellation that involved the participation of George Lucas in reading and approving the novella's outline, as well as his participation in its cancellation. He would also tell of Lightsider's cancellation causing Cam Kennedy to depart Empire's End as a result and Empire's End being shrunk to two issues. These later claims are contradicted by the timeline of events and detailed comments given by Bob Cooper, Cam Kennedy, and Veitch himself from the time of Lightsider's development and cancellation.

Star Wars fan and author Joseph Bongiorno of the website starwarstimeline.net obtained from Mr. Veitch, before his passing a copy of the manuscript of Lightsider. Both the original 1996 manuscript, and a revised and edited manuscript from 2009. Both manuscripts were released as a PDF in their entirety to his website starwarstimeline.net, as of October of 2023. The document included a logo for an unauthorized publishing house called , which was also featured in the 2021 Amazon printings of another lost and found EU novel, Heart of the Jedi, by Kenneth C. Flint.

The game "Lightsider," the focus of the cancelled novella, was first referred to in Kevin J. Anderson's novel Dark Apprentice.

An encounter between Luke Skywalker and Kam Solusar appears in the opening of the audio drama adaptation of Dark Empire II. While this canonically is the backstory of their encounter, when asked about it potentially conflicting with Lightsider, Veitch expressed dissatisfaction with the radio drama adaptations of his works, remarking that, "The audiotapes contain a lot of errors. I have no say over Dark Empire except in its original form, as a Dark Horse comic book. What others have done to my story I find personally embarrassing."

• "ComicScan: Comics That Almost Were" — Star Wars Galaxy Collector 4