Aldera.net was created by an aspiring Candian actor named Charles Taylor, a Star Wars fan and self-styled ‘Prince of Aldera’. The site was comprised of a front page with news articles and a message board known as the University of Aldera.

The membership of the University of Aldera were split into two teams: The Reject Alliance and The Hempire (led by Blood who would later found Opsom). A private Reject Alliance forum without word censorship was provided for selected members.

Members of the Aldera message board moderating team during its existence included:

• Jester, who was moderator for the Episodes II & III, The Phantom Menace, General Discussion & Star Wars: A New Hope forums. Jester is currently a member of the Operation Sombrero forums.
• GunsBlazing (originally Koreynl), who was moderator of the Prequel Theories forum. GunsBlazing was the resident photoshop guru, making signature images for the membership and customising the weekly Episode II Select photos with Wile E. Coyote to humorous effect. After his involvement he would go on to form Operation Sombrero with Blood from the ashes of Aldera. After helping to develop Opsom for a while GunsBlazing began to become an avid supporter of the controversial far right Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn which led him to leave and found his own site called www.gunzilla.net.
• Deputy Barney Fett, who moderated the Episode II Selects & Fan Fiction forums.
• JeremyTheRedEyeJedi, an avid toy collector who overlooked The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi & Collector’s forums. JeremyTheRedEyeJedi, who was famous for his drinking exploits and subsequent posting was banned by Charles Taylor during one particularly destructive rampage. After a long absence from the scene he resurfaced on the X-Boards in July 2006 as SafaTheRedEyeJedi.
• Harmy was a moderator for a while until she deleted one of Charles Taylor’s posts about weed and resigned. With a fondness for eating raw eggs mixed with powdered chocolate, she was a Star Wars fan of the hardcore variety, even going so far as having a giant Princess Leia tattoo on her upper arm.

Towards the end of Aldera’s existence, Fatboy Roberts and GunsBlazing both assumed administrator duties as Charles Taylor’s input decreased.

The site was famous for engaging in an argument with TheForce.net over stolen storyboards which resulted in the threat of legal action. Aldera.net responded by posting a link to a TFN parody site called TheFarce.net on their front page. The action by TFN caused widespread consternation amongst many Star Wars fansites with SithAvenger of Jedinet coming to the defense of Aldera.net, calling Scott Chitwood and Joshua Griffin ’self-serving, self-important idiots who have no concept of what Fandom truly is’. Lucasfilm themselves were involved, sending a legal letter to both Aldera.net and Naboonline stating that they were possibly in possesion of stolen Lucasfilms property. Charles Taylor, ‘The Prince of Aldera’ published this letter on his homespage but was asked by LFL to remove it.

Charles Taylor would later go on to have a fateful meeting with Hayden Christensen on the set of a TV show called Higher Ground, the details of which are as follows:

Hayden and The Prince of Aldera
By - Charles Taylor a.k.a. The Prince of Aldera

Last July, after being turned down for the recurring role of “Henry” on Dawson’s Creek, I auditioned for some small day-playing part on a show being filmed in North Vancouver called Cliffhangers. I got that part, and two weeks later I was on my way out to the set. That morning I drove across the city and, as a small site note, I rear-ended some lady and spilled my coffee all over my clothes. Luckily, the now coffee-stained clothes weren’t the ones I was wearing on set that day - thecostume department of Cliffhangers had my wardrobe ready for me when I got there.

Anyhow, I arrived on set up in the mountains outside North Vancouver and went in my trailer. After putting on my outfit I strolled on over to the make-up trailer and sat in a make-up chair next to a man (Joe Lando) and one of the younger female cast members. I spoke with them for a bit while the make-up artists groped our heads and faces, and when Lando walked out, in came some young blond guy who looked about 17.

As this was soon after Episode I was released and being the avid Star Wars fan that I am, I was always checking out other actors who would be suitable to play Anakin Skywalker in Episode II. I studied this guy next to me and noticed that he fit the bill quite well. Oh well, it was time to head up to the set. I got there and met some of the guys who I’d be working with. I also was told that I’d be doing my scene with that guy who sat next to me inthe makeup trailer and one of the extras. A few minutes later I get atap on the shoulder and I turn around to see a hand extended in my direction, and I hear a voice saying “Hi, I’m Hayden.” We chatted for a bit about this and that, and minutes it was time for him to do a scene.

I watched him block the scene a few times and then shoot it a few times. I was amazed! The guy was an incredibly actor and had the entire crew’s hanging on his every word! It was really quite incredible. As soon as the director said cut, everyone would breathe again and turn to one another and say, “Wow, he’s good.” A few moments later, I shot my two-minute scene with Hayden.

After we were done, I headed back down to my dressing room and changed only my shoes, as the clothes I arrived in had coffee all over them. It didn’t matter that I was wearing the clothes from the shoot, because they were mine anyway. So the 3rd AD signed me out and I asked if I could stick around and watch the next scene. He said fine. I watched the next scene and chatted for a long time with the cast of Cliffhangers. I shook hands with Joe Lando and blah blah blah… So, after watching some of the takes I went up to Hayden who was sittingon an upside-down milk carton. He pulled up another milk carton andinvited me to sit down. So, we talked for a bit about where he wasfrom and how long he had been in Vancouver (only 3 days). It alsoturns out that we both were good friends with Carly Pope, who he starred in Purple Haze with and who I went to High School with. (See a picture of Carly over at IGN’s Reader’s Babe of the Day. She now stars as Sam in the WB’s hit show Popular.) So after talking about this and that for a while, I asked him if he’d seen the newly released Star Wars, The Phantom Menace. He said he’d seen it only once, and that hethought it wasn’t half as good as the old trilogy. One line I rememberfrom his review of Episode I was “But oh man… Natalie Portman is HOT!” Although we were agreed on that aspect, Hayden then suffered the inevitable perils of getting in a Star Wars argument with me – The Prince of Aldera. I basically held the conversation for about ten minutes as I blabbed on about how Star Wars is so cool and so much fun to be a fan of. He sat there attentively, hanging on my every word while smoking his cigarette. When I finally stopped, he said “Geez, I have to see it again. I think I missed the whole point of the movie.”

So then comes the topic of casting for Episode II. I knew he was anestablished actor with the looks to fit the role, so I asked him if he was interested in auditioning for Anakin Skywalker. He said something along the lines of, “I’m not really sure that I would. I act because Ilove acting and I don’t want to be seen as a teen heart throb.” Poor Hayden. Say a comment like that to a guy like me and you’re bound for a lecture. So, he suffered The Prince of Aldera’s “But this is Star Wars” speech and eventually changed his mind. “Yeah, it would be awesome to play Darth Vader now that I think about it,” he says, or something like that.

So anyway, we chatted for a while longer but nothing of too muchimportance. He was interested in buying my car, and he invited me togo to the beach with him and the cast on the following Saturday. I spoke with him a few times after that but we eventually lost contactwith one another. So now I proudly pretend that I was the one whointerested Hayden in the prequels.

When I got the official word that he had been cast, I was stunned. Icouldn’t believe his picture was on the official site and splashedthroughout magazines next to Darth Vader’s helmet. I’ve tried to get ahold of him again, but he’s understandably hard to contact these days.

I also hear that that episode we shot of Cliffhangers (which later changed its name to Higher Ground) was the one that was sent to Robin Gurland by Hayden’s agent. Hayden’s performance in that show was the one that caught Gurland’s eye - obviously due to my amazing chemistry with him, which no doubt brought out the best of his acting abilities. ) So as far as I’m concerned, Hayden, Gurland, and essentially the world owes me big time. Haha j/k

But Hayden, if you’re listening, hear this now:

YOU OWE ME AND MYSITE AN INTERVIEW! Rock the prequels, my man!

Another infamous event that took place at Aldera.net was when a member called Lord Helmet (later simply Helmet on the X-Boards) managed to get hold of the children’s novelization of AOTC prior to its release.

Lord Helmet wrote, “I am trying to get $100 for the whole script. I will give copies out for this price. I payed a whole lot for it and am trying to get my money back. If you don’t want to pay for it I understand, I will of course answer any question you have for free.” (Lord Helmet)

As Charles Taylor lost interest in his site and Star Wars in general he toyed with the idea of turning Aldera into a gay porn site on the day that Star Wars Episode III was released. Although this never happened and Aldera.net did die, the spirit of the site lives on through the membership who have gone on to populate sites like Episode-X and Operation Sombrero.

Credits:
Thank you to the members of Opsom and Kor-Tyne in particular for their assistance in compiling this information.

 The following list is not exhaustive:

• Almighty Bib - Crashed the boards by making up the name BIood and flooded the boards. Then got banned years later by Fatboy Roberts.
• Blood - Founder of Opsom
• Boogieman
• Boomerang Rapido
• Chief Chirpa
• Chrissmith
• Darth Ackbar - Later Darth Acks and then Dacks. Currently active at Opsom.Â
• Darth Cornholio - Later became Twatlicker and is now General Apathy. Currently active at Opsom.Â
• Darth Daddy
• Darth Exhibitionist - Camiel Toe. Currently active on the X-Boards and Opsom.
• Darth Kimbal - Later became just Kimbal and is now Jimmy Kisses. Currently active at Opsom.Â
• Darth Kor-Tyne - Later Kor-Tyne. Currently active at Opsom.Â
• Darth Psychotic - Now running the MF site and boards
• Darth Toad
• Deputy Barney Fett
• Fatboy Roberts - One time staff member at Aldera, Opsom and the X-Boards. Now admininstrator at the Walking Carpet forums.
• Grendel - Briefly resurfaced on the X-Boards and at Opsom in 2006
• Gunsblazing - Friendly with Charles at Aldera who made him moderator of the general discussion forum. Later became admin, also admin at Episode-X and co-founder of Opsom. Now runs Gunzilla.net.
• Harmy - Moderator
• Jester - Ex Aldera moderator. Currently active at Opsom.Â
• Lord Helmet - Later Helmet at Episode-X
• Lord Ishmael
• Lord Tantulus
• Max Renn - Current admininstrator of Operation Sombrero
• Pridebowler
• Princess Cassandra
• Taylor Tosses Salad - Later became Imperator Iconoclast and is now Imp. Currently active at Opsom.Â
• TFNDarthMaul13 - Later Tony Montana at the MF and now Tony at the Walking Carpet forums.
• The Prince of Aldera - Webmaster Charles Taylor
• TheRedEyeJedi - Leader of the hempire along with Blood. Resumed posting as SafaTheRedEyeJedi on the X-Boards in 2006.
• Tobi1KenobiX - Later Tobi1Kenobi. Currently active on the X-Boards, Opsom and the Walking Carpet forums.Â
• Whilljournalist
• Yub Yub

Credits:
Thank you to Kor-Tyne and Tobi1kenobi for helping to compile this list.