Red Sky, Blue Flame

"Red Sky, Blue Flame" is a short story by Elaine Cunningham, published in "Star Wars Gamer" #7. It is set in a Chiss military training outpost in the Rata Nebula, a few years before the events of the Yuuzhan Vong War.

"Red Sky, Blue Flame" tells the story of how Jagged Fel proved his command abilities to Shawnkyr Nuruodo and his other Chiss comrades, how he came to acquire the distinctive scar across his forehead, and also how the Chiss came to trust the Fel family.

Behind the scenes

The place of "Red Sky, Blue Flame" in "Star Wars" chronology is problematic. Several internal references strongly imply that it occurs very soon after "Vision of the Future" in 19 ABY, and that was almost certainly the placing that the author intended it to have; but the story apparently describes the death of Stent, who appears alive in Timothy Zahn's subsequent novel "Survivor's Quest", set in 22 ABY, and Jag's stated age of fourteen might likewise fit better at this later date.

When the discrepancy became apparent, LucasBooks editor Sue Rostoni initially suggested that the story ought to be relocated to occur after "Survivor's Quest"; but the recent novel "The Joiner King" appears to abandon an important part of Rostoni's fix, the proposed equation of Jag's brothers Davin and Chak, and some fans feel that it is easier to explain Stent's survival and Jag's age than to force the backstory of "Red Sky, Blue Flame" to fit around the events of "Survivor's Quest".