Historical Pallo Soacul

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PALLO

SITE LORE


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"Appear to be hungry when you are full. Display the blunt weapon, conceal the sharp. Pretend to be few when you are many. Surprise is the only advantage worth having."
-General Pallo Soacul, Meditations.​

The Old Republic had many heroes in its long history and many great captains and generals whose victories inspired future generations to action and whose wisdom was preserved to train future leaders for centuries.

One of these great generals of the Old Republic was Pallo Soacul, a Miraluka of Alpheridies whose Meditations on the art of war and the maintenance of civil society became a widely read military classic. A winner of many legendary battles in the great campaigns against both Mandalorians and Sith, General Soacul also lived in periods of peace towards the end of his life and career which were just as tumultuous as wartime. He noted the disparity between the civil society of the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic and it was his firm belief that a lack of virtue and benevolence, when combined with a distinct lack of unity, would be the Sith's ultimate downfall. This conviction is the central thesis of his Meditations and has been widely debated for centuries since his death.

While he lived many centuries before the Fall of the Old Republic and the downfall of the Sith Empire and the Mandalorian Crusades, his wisdom has echoed across the ages and helped bring about his enemy's' final defeat. During the age of the Galactic Republic his treatises on the the ordering of the state were more prominently studied than his writings on war, though his famous autobiography captured the imaginations of many scholars and history buffs. During the time of the Galactic Empire his works were re-appropriated by the New Order and their traditional interpretation radically changed to suit the Empire's ideology and propaganda.

Since the fall of the Galactic Empire Pallo's works have returned to their vaunted place in the hierarchy of military classics and political discourse and are taught in every War College and military academy across the galaxy.

Early Life
EARLY LIFE

"History does not repeat. But it does endure cycles like those of the seasons. All ends before beginning again."
-Pallo Soacul, Five Secret Teachings.​

Pallo Soacul's birthplace is traditionally recorded as the Bumera Township in the Shoaneb Province on Alpheridies but this is disputed by the nearby Junuir Township. His own Autobiography is silent on the subject, naming only his family farm (the location of which has been lost to history) and the nearby cities of Tschuesca and Shanli. Otherwise, his early childhood is well documented, in particular his family lineage which is exhaustively recorded in the opening pages of his Autobiography, tying him to several prominent Miraluka oligarchs on both sides of his family, with recent historical work confirming that the Soacul family (and therefor Pallo's descendants the Pallodrins) descend from the powerful Culu clan, as Pallo himself asserted.

The oldest of seven children, Pallo's upbringing as described in his Autobiography is standard for the period in which he grew up in, and the relatively privileged position he was born into. Despite their lofty relations the Soacul's stuck largely to local affairs and Pallo describes an idyll of ancient Alpheridies rural feudalism in his writings dealing with his childhood. The poetry of his youngest sister, Thoana Soacul (later Baellius) relays that even in childhood Pallo had already cultivated a commanding personality and a reputation for wisdom and gallantry.

During this time Alpheridies was less isolated from the galaxy at large and the Miraluka had contributed legions to the ranks of the Jedi Order, with many coming back to recruit even more of their people to the cause. When the Mandalorians launched a new Crusade against the Republic, Jedi recruiters scoured Alpheridies for recruits and one of them came to the Soacul homestead. While only a boy of 16, Pallo was already in charge of the local militia, such as it was, and his strength in the Force was such that he showed the beginnings of Battle Meditation. Eager to recruit such a talented young man, the Jedi recruiter, the famous Jedi Battlemaster Argen Kallor, found that the young man was eager to join the fight, but defied expectations on how he would do so.

Instead of joining the Jedi, Pallo would sign up for the Republic's training program for young military prodigies, spurning Master Kallor's offer to be her apprentice.

While his Autobiography does not elaborate much on his initial rationale for not joining the Jedi Order, an incipient ambivalence to the Jedi seems to have developed early in Pallo's life, one that would continue throughout his life despite his personal admiration for them as warriors and for their moral rigor.
Early Service
EARLY SERVICE

"A man is never so invincible as when he is young."
-Pallo Soacul, Autobiography.​

Pallo's initial training and education with some of the other future legends of the Old Republic like Vars-Sool of Duro and Adenamar Organa of Alderaan is recounted in his Autobiography and it appears that like on his home of Alpheridies, he cultivated a position of leadership amongst his peers as well as a reputation for benevolence and strict moral uprightness.

One trait not often recorded as being part of Pallo's personality was his naked ambition, and in this light perhaps makes the choice to join the Grand Army of the Republic instead of the monastic Jedi an easier one to understand. At the Corulag Academy he took every opportunity to ingratiate himself with his superiors, signed up for every elective course, always took advantage of office-hours and other chances to socialize with the instructors. Combined with his obvious intelligence and ability, Pallo was quickly recognized as one of the Republic's most promising young cadets.

Pallo would spend barely two years on Corulag before being given his first field assignment as a Lieutenant on Admiral Relleniel's staff. Close enough to observe both the front lines and the decisions that effected the course of the War, Pallo was in a unique position to be both soldier and officer, able to advance his understanding of both ends of the chain of command. His assignment also gave him the opportunity to observe the enemy at multiple angels as well, allowing a much deeper understanding of the Mandalorians than most of his contemporaries.

It is often debated how much Pallo's Force Sensitivity impacted his philosophy, strategies or even his meteoric rise. Both his Autobiography and the Meditations sometimes slip into Force-related matters or things Pallo could not have known without his people's natural Force-Sight but in most regards he speaks to a non-Force-Sensitive audience in his writings. Even the Five Secret Teachings, while sounding more esoteric and metaphysical, still confine themselves to mostly mundane matters unless one takes the metaphors and word choices Pallo uses literally such as when he describes the morale or 'spirit' of the enemy.

By the time he was 22, Pallo had been promoted to Commander in the Grand Army of the Republic and personally led troops to victory over the Mandalorians in the last battles of the Crusade. While it would not be the last time in his life he would face the Mandalorians, their latest Crusade had been crushed and Pallo gradually settled into a peacetime life

Pax Politica
PAX POLITICA

"When times are bad, work towards better times. When times are good, prepare for worse times ahead."
-Pallo Soacul Meditations.​

Not content to return to Alpheridies, Pallo secured for himself a position as one of many military aides to the Supreme Chancellor on the virtue of his war-hero's reputation.

From this vantage point Pallo learned much about the Republic's political process and over time came to view the Republic itself as being almost a divine institution, a singularly extraordinary accomplishment in the course of galactic history and one that would ultimately triumph over any foe. He exalted representative democracy for the spirit it engendered in its people, which he believed was ultimately stronger than apathy in the sometimes convoluted political process.

It was during this time that Pallo first began his work on the Meditations but scholars dispute how much of these early drafts made it into his mature, published writings.

Pallo also secured several rare chances for an outsider to observe the internal workings of the Sith Empire when he was assigned to several half-serious attempts at diplomacy with the Sith over the years. He found that a society based on cruelty could not stand for long and that in the long run the Sith were unable to form a dominant minority because they lacked unity among themselves. If they could not hold off the ruinous ambitions of their fellows, they would always be vulnerable both from without and within to dissension, sedition and rebellion. As Pallo explains in the Meditations while the Republic has a built in mechanism for discussion and debate on policy, the Sith Empire had no such parliamentary outlet, even among the Sith themselves, so this meant that disputes were always destined to be decided (ruinously) on the field of battle, which would always be to the detriment of the Empire.

It was also during this time that Pallo would begin his family with noted Luka Sene scholar Aisinval Illuen and see the birth of the first three of their five children.

A Galaxy at War
A GALAXY AT WAR

"War is the continuation of politics by less hostile means."
-Pallo Soacul, Meditations.​

Peace between the Republic, its Jedi protectors and the Sith Empire was ultimately untenable however, and war once again broke out between the two powers.

Now in his early thirties and a full General, Pallo was assigned command of the 18th Army, a post he would hold for the duration of the war and one which would become synonymous with his legend. Leading the 18th Army at the dramatic Invasion of Ziost in the early days of the war, Pallo's account of the battle as described in his Autobiography is legendary and he devotes whole chapters of the book to just this battle and the lessons that could be learned. While just one among many captains and heroes of this particular battle, Pallo's leading of the Republic vanguard brought him particular distinction and acclaim among both his contemporaries and military historians for his use of deception against the Sith.

Pallo would see further victory and earn other accolades at the Battles of Ruuria, Hoth and Nimban, in which he served alongside his old classmate Vars-Sool of Duro. Uniquely among his peers though, Pallo saw the war with the Sith, not as a life or death struggle (he was confident in an eventual Republic victory but not in the total elimination of the Sith at this time) but a chance to expand the Republic and convert the Sith citizenry to their cause at the expense of their dark-sider overlords.

Pallo's crowning achievement was the the Axxila Campaign in which he led only elements of the 18th Army against a much larger Sith force. Through the use of varying plans of attack and a great amount of deception and misdirection, Pallo kept the Sith off-balance for weeks, quickly sapping their already low morale. At the final Battle of the Ixalan Plains he encouraged a general mutiny amongst the Sith forces (this particular army made up largely of slave infantry) against their commanders and rode victoriously through the enemy encampment to deliver perhaps his second most famous speech, in which he outlined what would be later recognized as the central thesis of his Meditations on how the Republic, built on virtue, was destined to win, while the Sith, based on malfeasance, were doomed to failure.

Philosopher-General
PHILOSOPHER-GENERAL

"There is only one way to lead: from the front."
-Pallo Soacul, Five Secret Teachings.​

By the time Pallo returned to the Core, he was a legend, a hero of the Republic and was decorated before a special session of the Senate by the Supreme Chancellor for conspicuous acts of valor.

Rather than rest on his laurels, and well-aware that the War had not yet been won, Pallo returned to the Rim to battle the Sith Empire once more, this time as Supreme Commander of the Rimward Forces. From Serpindal to Mandalore, from Dathomir to Telos, all up and down the Hydian Way Pallo engineered a general rout of the Sith Empire.

Just how much of these victories can be squarely laid on Pallo's shoulders is contested. In his own Autobiography he admits that he planned few of these battles personally and rarely alone but his recognition of talented individuals in his ranks and helping to foster an overall brilliant strategy from a wide variety of tactics has been praised. By refusing to limit himself to a single or a few tried and true plans of attack, Pallo was able to effectively counter the dynamic Sith war machine that while undisciplined, was inherently unpredictable. By mirroring their unpredictability, Pallo turned their own strength into their greatest weakness, one of the central dictums of his writings.

While reluctant to reveal the logic behind his strategic philosophy, officers began to approach Pallo with offers to train and mentor them in his ways. Through what must have been a mixture of flattery and genuine supplication, Pallo was persuaded to turn over his by then mature, but still incomplete Meditations to his junior officers.

Already a legendary warrior, Pallo's reputation as a sage likewise grew exponentially among the Republic officer corps. When the War against the Sith finally ended after some fourteen years, Pallo, by then approaching his fifties, once again forsook true retirement and instead took up a teaching position at the Republic Military Academy on Anaxes. It was there that he would finish his Meditations, publishing them a few years later and begin work on his Autobiography.

Old War-Horse
OLD WAR-HORSE

"Politics is Power. Power is Prestige. Prestige is Perception."
-Pallo Soacul, Five Secret Teachings.​

When Pallo finally retired as he approached his sixty-fifth year, he had become an icon to the masses of the Republic citizenry, respected for all his sagacious qualities and his effectiveness as a captain-in-arms. The Meditations were a galactic best-seller for years and given his fame, war-record and keen interest in politics expressed through his writings, it was widely expected that at some point Pallo would enter public service as a civilian. This did not come to pass.

Some say his ambition had abated in old-age while others think Pallo's personal enthusiasm for the political process had cooled but in any case his desire not to personally enter politics seems to have been sincere and would later be elaborated upon in his Autobiography. Rather than pursue an overtly political life, Pallo instead lived his as a war-hero and intellectual celebrity, also focusing on raising the family he had to some degree neglected during his war-time service.

While still interested in politics he was careful to be seen as distant from the mundane political concerns of the Republic and instead adopted the role of 'Grandfather of the Nation', regularly appearing in his dress uniform in public and giving speeches and lectures on the Republic and the Galactic Constitution. Pallo would inspect the troops, march in parades and regularly appear at important state events but otherwise his direct involvement in politics was minimal. He was prominently used by several succeeding administrations as a morale-boosting figure and his endorsement, while highly sought, was never openly given to any political candidate or faction in the Senate and he was careful to avoid becoming entangled in the vagaries of politics, instead confining himself to the political ideal. In his seventy-second year he would be promoted to Field Marshal of the Republic, the Grand Army's highest honor.

Pallo's next set of writings, Five Secret Teachings, while popular, was not written for the masses and did not capture the success of the Meditations though scholars both contemporary and modern scholars recognize it as being a superior intellectual work and treatise on the Art of War.
Final War & Last Years
FINAL WAR & LAST YEARS

"Peace is like War. It will not last. It never lasts."
-Pallo Soacul, [i[Autobiography[/i].​

When Pallo was in his late seventies, trouble once again brewed on the Outer Rim. The Mandalorians would launch another one of their Crusades against the Republic and the Jedi. Appreciating his prior experience fighting the Mandalorians and the power of morale (as he himself had written about) Field Marshal Pallo was returned to active service as one of the generals at the head of the Republic High Command. Establishing his bunker on the front lines, Pallo defied expectations by taking a more active role in the engineering of the campaign than was expected. Commanding an officer corps which had grown up admiring him and then being trained either under him or reading his writings, Pallo was able to masterfully direct the Republic's forces against the Mandalorians, delivering, in his old age, what he had sought all his life for the Republic: a short, victorious war.

History assigns this Mandalorian Crusade to secondary importance, with scholars debating if it even counts as a true Crusade given its lack of support among the majority of Mandalorian Clans and its short duration: less than a year. Whatever its significance to wider history, this final conflict was essential to Republic morale at the time and to Pallo's personal legend. Hailed as a master strategist and tactician who had turned philosophy into actuality, Pallo reached the apex of his already great fame and fortune.

Unlike previously, Pallo did not plan an active peacetime career, instead retiring from both the military and public life to return to Alpheridies to spend time with his family and focus, in his twilight years, on his writing.

While he was no longer seen regularly in public and only once returned to Coruscant before his death, Pallo maintained an active correspondence and devoted himself wholeheartedly to writing his now famous Autobiography. It was during this period, the last decade or so of his life, that he was estimated to write some several thousand words a day from his home on Alpheridies, in a mix of letters, papers, journals and manuscripts, all of which would be compiled and published after his death. He also worked as a farmer for the first time since he was a teenager and was active in the running of his homestead.

Pallo would pass away surrounded by his family on Alpheridies at the age of eighty-nine. His body would be transported to Coruscant for a lying-in-state before being returned to Alpheridies for burial in the city of Tschuesca, where a grand monument is erected in his honor. Remembered as one of the greatest sons of both Alpheridies and the Republic, many other posthumous honors were laden on Pallo for his great accomplishments in life. Through his children he began a distinguished noble line, though none would amass the fame their ancestor had in his lifetime. Enshrined by history as the archetypal Philosopher-King, Pallo's fame continues to this day, where his writings and the accounts of his victories are widely known and read throughout the Galaxy, standing tall among the many heroes of the Old Republic both for the love he displayed for his homeland, and for the virtues he embodied on and off the battlefield.




INTENT
Pallo started as just a personal lore project to explain Dreys Pallodrin's eponymous ancestor but grew into a very large lore article combining the lives, times and writings of several real world historical figures like Cato, Julius Caesar, Jiang Ziya, Zhuge Liang, Arthur Wellington and August von Mackensen to help flesh out the military history of the galaxy. Special thanks goes to @AutoFox for the raw code used in this article.
 

Exhilian

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Love Miralukas! Looking good.
 

AutoFox

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Very, very nice work!! Would love to collaborate with you on future stuff!
 

Logan

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Pretty neat.

Approved.
 
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