The Empire, as George Lucas *originally* had envisioned in "Star Wars", is / was an faschist system. You can see it by so many things, uniforms modelled after Nazi uniforms, for example, only humans at work within the Empire in Star Wars, and the letters of the words "Star Wars" themselves (there's an interesting article on their typography out there).

 

The SWTOR Empire is not that strictly an fascist system, but still full of hatred and bias against non-humans, even although non-humans are able to get their rank there.

 

What might attract a lot of people to that Empire is its order. Yes, it's an very orderly state, from the sheer look of it. Garbage and junk lying on the streets like on Coruscant is impossible there. Some people simply like "law and order". everything is very strict, very orderly - and it has a so much better overall design compared to he Republic.

Or, as I once put it : "The Empire has style - the Republic has Advertisements." I'm speaking of the Fleet decorations. They really should have used a different kind of colouring for the Republic, because that brown colour they used for the Republic's style-theme looks imho too much like mud. The Empire, on the other hand, has a so much better styling on the Fleet and elsewhere ( Black Hole ! ), compared to that. The "artist's eye" within us might get much more attracted by the Empire faction for stylistic reasons.

I actually prefer the garbage infested places of Coruscant compared to the order and cleanliness of the Empire. I do like the Empire but when I pick my characters I look at which society I would support if I actually did live in SWTOR. As much as I like the Empire I'd be terrified of living in a society where the people I'm supposed to follow with unquestionable loyalty can end my life on a whim, even if I make the smallest mistake. I prefer the Republic because it's so flawed and sometimes ugly but it was really built on democracy, freedom and equality for all life within the Galaxy. That's why the Jedi originally jumped on board. It's changed a lot of course, and corruption/crime will always be around in a non fashistic state but there are people out there that dedicate their life to cleaning the streets and protecting the Republic. I agree that the Republic stories are not as good as the Imperial ones, but still I feel so drawn to classes like the Trooper and the Smuggler because they really show what the Republic is like without the Jedi.

The Empire is more like a nation state, not an idea. An Imperial fights for his country, a Republic guy fights for abstract ideas/ideals.

 

There is no ''Republic'' civilization. The Republic is comprised of many civilizations, like the UN or the EU. Coruscant is Brussels or the UN HQ. Dromund Kaas is pick the capital of any Empire from history.

 

Ofc there are some ideas into it too. For example people on the real world authoritarian, fascist + others ends of political spectrum will like the Empire.

 

Obviously the Sith Empire is not just 1 people , but the rest are are subjugated and absorbed into the SIth Imperial culture.

 

It's not only ''good'' vs ''evil'', most of the time it's them vs us.

 

So yea, that's why people in-universe support the Empire.

As far as the players go, there are many reasons , many of which are already mentioned in the thread. Some of the reasons include : that side of the fence is not explored enough in other Star Wars games + the Empire has better fashion sense and animations + morally gray, approaching evil or outright evil characters make for great stories and entertainment.

Imperials fight for their "country" as much as Republic does. The only difference is that Imperials are also like Roman Legions, the soldiers often end up killing each other because they belong to power bases (Sith infighting) which is no small part of the Empire. The Empire is the same as the Republic and Brussels except the Republic let's it's members exist while the Empire like the Soviet Union swallows them and sends the "slaves" to go mine ore or maybe build statues. If anything the Empire is much closer to the EU and Brussels because the "politicians" at Brussels are not elected. The Imperial soldier dies for the same reasons the Imperial Japanese did. For the emperor and for conquest. The Republic is most definitely a civilization, it doesn't have to be one nation to qualify for that.

It's simple really SWTOR is 2 Galactic civilizations going against each other.

1. One is a Republic, the other an Empire. So you have democracy vs tyranny.

2. One gets it's members through trade, protection etc, the other through conquest and enslavement with the exception of the chiss.

3. Republic soldiers fight for the Republic and it's ideas/democracy, Imperial soldiers fight for the Empire, for revenge (Because of the great war before) and for their emperor. The Sith just tend to use them for their own good gains, throwing bodies at their enemies.

What else should we compare? I love the Empire don't get me wrong, but it's in no means a "country" that patriotic soldiers fight for because they love it lol.... Maybe that would be the case without the Sith. I'm sure North Korean soldiers are are very proud and patriotic but that comes with indoctrination. When you grow up as a child forced to believe a certain idea or to serve a certain man, you'll love it, just not the same way a young American might love their constitution.

I made a post about this on another forum, and I think it's relevant here.

In general, starwars tends to portray force users being in charge by virtue of being force users to be a bad thing. While a force user is capable of the same things as a non-force user, plus having the force on top of that, it opens up it's own problems, as the Voss example shows.

 

Also, there's the sith empire from The Old Republic. One notable thing, is that when you flirt with non-sith as a sith, they often become nervous or afraid. This is revealed to be because non-force-sensitives have no rights in relation to force users in the Sith Empire. Even the lowest, weakest sith, still outranks the highest ranking non-force-sensitive person. As a sith you can (and often have the option to) harm or kill non-force-sensitives, and face no official repercussions from the act.

 

The sith empire is ruled by the Sith Emporor Darth Vitiate, though he interacts rarely, and most of the day to day running of things is handled by the Dark Council (all sith). As the sith are institutionally considered superior to non sith, they have no obligation to be fair or even kind to their subordinates.

 

Also, the sith empire is racist, with sith purebloods first, humans second, and everyone else a distant tenth. (Though not all sith subscibe to this. Your sith can be any of the playable species, and notably Darth Malgus consideres the empires racism to be a weakness, and is more egalitarian in his chain of command).

 

TV Tropes has a good desciption of it:

 

When playing as a Sith, regardless of gender, every time you choose the flirt dialog option with non-Sith Imperial NPCs, there is a good chance that they will, at best, politely say thanks then quickly change the topic, get nervous and start stuttering, or totally freak out. While this might seem funny from your perspective, the deeper implication of why they act this way is highly disturbing. Remember that in Imperial society, all non-Force sensitives are institutionally subservient to what basically amounts to a hereditary caste of super-powered sociopaths who have a legal right to abuse and kill citizens for whatever reason they can think of. Then remember that Sith are encouraged to fully embrace their emotions without self-limit.... If your dark sided Sith decided that he/she takes a liking to a non-Force-sensitive Imperial, you can force yourself onto them regardless of their say on the matter, then cut them in half after you're done just because you feel like it. And there is ABSOLUTELY nothing that they or their families can do about it!

).

 

EDIT: Additionally, there's the Eternal Empire from the Knights of a Fallen Empire expansion, where it's people essentially worship the (force-sensitive) royal family, and are led to believe that force-sensitivity means your the Emperor's chosen and your powers come from worship of them.

Original Thread Link: http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=56623&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Imperials fight for their "country" as much as Republic does. The only difference is that Imperials are also like Roman Legions, the soldiers often end up killing each other because they belong to power bases (Sith infighting) which is no small part of the Empire. The Empire is the same as the Republic and Brussels except the Republic let's it's members exist while the Empire like the Soviet Union swallows them and sends the "slaves" to go mine ore or maybe build statues. If anything the Empire is much closer to the EU and Brussels because the "politicians" at Brussels are not elected. The Imperial soldier dies for the same reasons the Imperial Japanese did. For the emperor and for conquest. The Republic is most definitely a civilization, it doesn't have to be one nation to qualify for that.

It's simple really SWTOR is 2 Galactic civilizations going against each other.

 

1. One is a Republic, the other an Empire. So you have democracy vs tyranny.

2. One gets it's members through trade, protection etc, the other through conquest and enslavement with the exception of the chiss.

3. Republic soldiers fight for the Republic and it's ideas/democracy, Imperial soldiers fight for the Empire, for revenge (Because of the great war before) and for their emperor. The Sith just tend to use them for their own good gains, throwing bodies at their enemies.

 

What else should we compare? I love the Empire don't get me wrong, but it's in no means a "country" that patriotic soldiers fight for because they love it lol.... Maybe that would be the case without the Sith. I'm sure North Korean soldiers are are very proud and patriotic but that comes with indoctrination. When you grow up as a child forced to believe a certain idea or to serve a certain man, you'll love it, just not the same way a young American might love their constitution.

The difference is that the Empire is a homogeneous entity which dominates and absorbs the foreign element. That makes it being close to a modern day nation state. Sure a theocratic fascist one but nonetheless. 1 language, 1 culture, 1 main people, 1 religion.

The Republic is nothing like that. Like at all. It's more or less exactly like the UN. Democracy vs ''Tyranny'' is not part of the equation. What matters in my previous post is the nature of the entity.

An Imperial soldier has a more personal relation to the Empire than a Republic soldier.

A twi'lek trooper's identity is that he is from Ryloth first and from the Republic second (or the other way around, doesn't matter. This trooper has nothing in common with another trooper which is different species and is part of the Republic. They are not part of the same people or nation. They are part of the Republic the same way a german and a south korean can be part of the UN peace corps.

Obviously the Republic has more authority,etc,etc, #differences, than the real world UN but the principle is the same.

That's not the case for the Sith Empire and an imperial soldier, cus of the already mentioned reasons.

Who is evil or good, or what is the form of government and the way they govern themselves is an entirely different matter in this context.