Archive of Our Own ^beta

Summary:

After an atrocity is committed on the planet Ilum, the Empire assigns a new unit to oversee mining operations on the frozen world. This occupation may not be as routine as it appears, however. As ethnic tensions threaten to boil over, a specter of war looms over the inhospitable lands, threatening everything in its path.

I primarily wrote ILUM as a deconstruction of Disney-era storytelling. Realism is emphasized over spectacle; drama over comedy; moral ambiguity over platitude. Using the politics of the 1960s as an inspiration, I've reimagined the early years of the Galactic Empire to better fit its roots in the Republic. My hope is that there are enough moving parts in this world that readers will be able to discern their own thematic interpretations of the story, and not just the themes I've been more explicit about.