...I'm communing...with The Force...
I'd like to back up a bit. Cover some more of the backstory (such as there is) before diving into ROTJ.
There were three periods: The Game- '77 to '83 release. The Project-'83 to '85. The PT revisions- '97 to present. The revisions were to integrate what I've learned of the PT with with the game and project notions.
The only background I developed was for Luke's dad. It became DV's history. I had to make it up almost entirely from my own understanding to orient myself with the story. I'd hoped that it would at least be consistent with GL's style.
In this backstory, Ani is from a remote world. It is a world entirely of grasslands, steppe. The grasses are so agressive there that they croud out trees and brush. This world is based upon an amalgm of the US midwestern plains and the Ukrainian-Siberian steppes. The inhabitants are, socially, an amalgm of Cossoks, Mongols, Plains Indians, and European American ranchers and homesteaders. They are an agressive, independent and proud people with a strong warrior ethic born from thousands of years of fighting each other and alien invaders. Ani comes from the tribe of The Red Hills and the clan of The Skywalkers.
Ani was born with Force powers, as are all Force wielders. Obi-wan and Yoda were simply from The Force Brotherhood, "Padme" was from The Force Sisterhood. The Jedi and the Sisterhood used The Force in different ways. The Jedi believed in "Active Defense". The Sisterhood believed in benign influence. The Jedi were scattered in small groups led by a master with the knights he trained and or one or two apprentices he was training (though I like the central temple idea more.) They had standing authorization from the Senate to stop major threats to peace and justice in the galaxy. This became the practice of pouncing on any power that tried to develope hyperdrive warships. After ESB, if they needed help, they could call through the force for other Jedi. I didn't know much more about them before '83.
After the ROTJ release, I began developing an idea of the fall of the Republic and Ani. Post- ESB, my conception of Ani developed out of pre-ESB Luke's father and not from Vader. It was not consistent with everything in GL's conception, but it was with everything stated in the OT. Ani was a good and noble person who somehow developed a driving fear of disorder and defiance and this led to the break with the Jedi. Also, an explanation for a relatively sudden eradication of the Jedi and establishment of the empire was needed.
I'd considered TBFB and the metaphor for the mass conscript armies of Europe very briefly in passing. I had a very vague impression that I had seen the STs unmasked. In retrospect, I believe this came from the several times that Luke and Han pulled off their masks and from the STs being surrounded by unmasked technicians and impoffs. Also, I'd formed the notion that cloning implied a certain politico-socio-economic order. It was an order where a few non-clone original elite survived and lorded over an entirely regimented system with specialized clones for technical, combat, and production activities. Second and Third Reich Germany didn't quite fit that idea. Stalinist Russia and Maoist China did. I don't like to abandon my original impressions without a good reason.
In this conception, there was a loose confederation of systems in a sector of the galaxy. They would squable with each other and band together when attacked from without. They became more and more militaristic. Eventually they formed a strong military based regime to defend against alien incursion. Let's call them 'The Pruufasho'. The Pru were surrounded by powers that were developing clone based regimes while eyeing Pru controlled systems. The cloning powers, let's call them The Stolinoi, The Jaacofron, and The Mochi, gained strength and built hyperdrive warships and started spreading themselves through the galaxy. It became too much for the Jedi and the Republic (UN/LON) to contain. The strongest non-clone power was the Pru.
Next time, on as the galaxy turns... :)