I have the idea that there would be a timeskip depending on how catastrophic the ending is where you start out as a grunt in a small Abyss Watchers cell (Guardian or Seeker) and then rise up the ranks because of the chaos as either a) the galaxy is pulled back together or b) having to juggle the threat of the Abyss Watchers' exposure based on [DATA REDACTED].
...I'd love to see that as a IH-
inspired quest (like a fanfic of a fanfic, similar to the stories based on Saphirith's
Fate Denied story). However, I'd be
really disappointed if that were the future of the main story, since I'd hate to lose Ciaran's POV, and it'd really suck for our galaxy-spanning organization to lose as much ground as you seem to imply (if we rely on a leader of a small cell to rise up and save the organization from the brink of destruction). Sure, stories require stakes, but we're operating at a much higher level already.
For the future of the story, there are a lot of possibilities already present.
- Thanks to our work with the CNS, we've essentially legitimized the
idea of a Separatist polity, largely autonomous even if officially loyal to the Republic. It'd be fascinating to chart how the Republic gets reorganized after Palpatine, especially since the revelation that a lot of the centralization of power during the war and the centuries that preceded it were due to the machinations of various Sith Lords.... I could easily see another tri-lateral 'cold war' emerge, between Coruscant (representing the Core, Loyalists, and 'centralized power' factions), Corellia (representing the Inner Rim and 'isolationist' factions), and Taris (representing the Outer Rim, Separtists, and 'decentralized power' factions). This would resemble the early state of the Republic, where Coruscant was opposed by Corellia and Alsakan over how galactic government should be organized.
- Likewise, thanks to the Sith and to our own efforts, the Jedi Order has basically split in half, which means there's a really interesting opportunity for multiple Force Sects (including our own) to come to public attention and undercut the Jedi monopoly on what the Force means and how it should be used. Charting that debate and the fallout should be
fascinating.
- If you want the 'high stakes' to involve villains, there's still The Mother to worry about, plus a whole bunch of unknowable threats out of the Unknown Regions. The Yuuzhan Vong aren't the only monsters that go bump in the night -- we could potentially join the Chiss to put an end to the Killik threat, or explore some of the 'dwarf galaxies' in the region around us.
- Heck, if you want a target of opportunity, look no further than our own neighborhood, where we've been forced to ally with the Hutts to ensure we have a solid diplomatic position with the rest of the galaxy. Once the war ends, and especially if we have Anakin on our side, I could easily see us turning our attention on Hutt Space and wage a crusade against slavery in the galaxy. Sure, we may be criminals, but we've
never condoned slavery.
There's another half-dozen plot strands that could turn into full-fledged story pitches if we wanted to, but that's a pretty good overview of plot potential even after Palpatine is removed from the picture.
