This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments or questions on this topic should be made in a new Senate Hall page rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record. —MJ— _Comlink 19:03, November 13, 2012 (UTC)

For years now, Star Wars has lacked a publishing era which covers the time before 25,000 BBY, the earliest being the Old Republic era. Since there's a lot of subjects which appear before 25,000 BBY (such as Rakata and Infinite Empire), we've been using the in-universe Pre-Republic era as an unofficial fix for this, both in infoboxes and the {{Eras}} template. With the recent publication of Dawn of the Jedi, the Before the Republic era was introduced. However, this only covers from 36,000 BBY to 25,000 BBY. Since there's still subjects which appear before 36,000 BBY (such as Big Bang and Celestial), the Pre-Republic era is still required to cover these. There are also articles with vague references to being pre-Republic (such as Old Galactic Standard and nuclear power) which are presumably covered by the Pre-Republic era. I suggest we categorise the 36-25,000 BBY stuff under the Before the Republic era. Anything pre-36,000 BBY or with only a vague mention of being pre-Republic can go under the Pre-Republic era, which will require a new icon, since the Star Forge one falls under the Before the Republic era now. -- I need a name (Complain here) 16:32, March 2, 2012 (UTC)

If we're sticking with unofficial fixes, maybe a more general name would be in order to avoid running into this problem again down the line? Of course pre-36k is still pre-Republic, but now so is "Before the Republic", and the two in name appear to be redundant. I don't know, "Ancient history era"? – DigiFluid 16:47, March 2, 2012 (UTC)

AFAIK, "Pre-Republic era" is an official term, just its use here in lieu of an official publishing era is what's unofficial. -- I need a name (Complain here) 17:00, March 2, 2012 (UTC)

Right, but its meaning is anything before the Republic, including the entire Before the Republic era. Since eras are OOU anyway, we probably ought to just have a "Before the other eras" with an icon that's just a big ">36k BBY" or something. That way, people won't get confused that the era is a real publishing era, like people oft did with our Star Forge-iconed Pre-Republic era. jSarek 00:59, March 3, 2012 (UTC)

Bumping since we don't yet have a solution for this. -- I need a name (Complain here) 13:51, May 26, 2012 (UTC)

How about instead of saying "Before X", we say "After X", like the "After Dawn era" or "After Hyperdrive era". NaruHina ^Talk 19:15, May 26, 2012 (UTC)

• "Beginning(s) of Galactic History" or similar? That way, the name is pegged to the starting point of the "era", which will never move barring LFL creating Star Wars: Big Bang - The Wutzek Chronicles. DD97^{Which bear is best?} 04:49, May 27, 2012 (UTC)
  • Oh, whoops. I thought we were fixing a gap between the Before the Republic era and the Old Republic era for some reason. I'd support something along the lines of Riff's idea. "Beginnings era," "First era," "Epoch era," "Antediluvian era," "Galactic Formation era." NaruHina ^Talk 03:32, May 28, 2012 (UTC)
    • Wait, I said something pertaining to this? I would be all for giving the official timespan as given in Dawn of the Jedi as "Before the Republic era" which would go to 36,000 BBY. Before that I wouldn't mind seeing a Pre-Rakata "era". -- Riffsyphon1024 06:18, May 28, 2012 (UTC)
      • Whoops again, I meant DD and am blind. XP NaruHina ^Talk 06:44, May 28, 2012 (UTC)
        • It's okay. You wanted me to comment. ;) -- Riffsyphon1024 10:50, May 28, 2012 (UTC)
          • I'm thinking the best idea might be to link to List of publishing eras and have the tooltip be something like "The subject of this article has not appeared in any known publishing era". Conveniently, we already have a question mark icon that we could use. This should also be future proof, in case LucasLicensing create any more eras before or after the currently existing ones. -- I need a name (Complain here) 12:46, June 13, 2012 (UTC)

You can't use Pre-Republic and Before the Republic! These mean the same thing. What if we used Pre-Republic Era for before 36,000 BBY and use the Infinite Era as the 36,000-25,000 since the Infinite Empire was the primary galactic government of the era. I realize there are other events, but I think this would suffice. I'm correcting myself here. What about before 36,000 BBY be the Pre-Force Era. Since the Force was discovered AND RECOGNIZED after this it makes some sense. This does not take into consideration the fact that the Celestials may have been Force sensitives. —Unsigned comment by 71.61.43.18 (talk • contribs).

• Before the Republic era is correct for 36,000 - 25,000 BBY. It's the official name given in the Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi comics. Menkooroo (talk) 21:29, July 14, 2012 (UTC)
  • As Menk says, we're stuck with "Before the Republic era" because that's an official name. "Pre-Republic era", on the other hand, is not official, and we can change that. 71.61.43.18 does make a good suggestion of using "Pre-Force era" instead to avoid the redundancy, and I would support that. —MJ— _Comlink Sunday, July 15, 2012, 00:18 UTC
    • I still think something as workmanlike as possible would be best, so as to avoid people confusing it with a real publishing era. jSarek (talk) 01:48, July 15, 2012 (UTC)
      • The problem with a "Pre-Force era" or some such is that we'll have to do it again if LucasLicensing makes an era prior to the Before the Republic one which covers, say, 50-36,000 BBY. Categorising articles as not having a known era should avoid that problem, especially if we ever get an end date for the Legacy era. -- I need a name (Complain here) 14:19, July 15, 2012 (UTC)