Charles Boyd: It’s very much a classic Star Wars character. You come from a background of one of the eight different classes: a Jedi, or a Sith, a bounty hunter, a smuggler, all of these very classic Star Wars archetypes. That character is a veteran of this galactic war that has been going on for years between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire.

So all of the plot elements are very reminiscent of Star Wars stuff, but also more to the point, it is a character who has faced challenges and moral decisions and temptations between the light side and the dark side, deciding who they’re going to be and what they’re willing to do to win the war for their side. They’ve formed relationships, even romances with characters around them, gathered allies, made enemies, all of these great things that we love from the movies.

This is a world in which the Empire of Zakuul has taken the fight to both the Jedi and the Sith. What does this third faction allow when it comes to storytelling?

CB: I think it gives us the chance to really shake up the status quo of the galaxy as we’ve established it. Since we’ve been around for a few years, we’ve had this Republic vs. Sith conflict for a while, and bringing in this new faction, this overwhelming power, really lets us challenge the players’ characters in ways they hadn’t been before, and also explore relationships that they might not have made before. There’s the potential of a Jedi and a Sith teaming up against this dangerous new enemy. There’s all sorts of really interesting storytelling options that creates for us, and a lot of really interesting moral quandaries that we can face the player with as they’re making their decisions throughout the storyline.

One of the new characters is the Emperor Valkorion himself. What can you tell me about his development?