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The catastrophic loss at the Battle of Endor in 39 rS in Return of the Jedi proved to be quite costly for the Galactic Empire. In the first place,
the Death Star was destroyed, representing in itself an astronomically large investment of capital, resources, and manpower, quite apart from
its psychological significance and central role in the Tarkin Doctrine of rule through fear of force rather than force itself. Aside from the Death
Star, HIMS Executor, said by Heir to the Empire to have included among her ship’s company some of the finest officers in the Imperial Navy,
was lost with all hands, and an additional six Imperial Star Destroyers were destroyed in firefights they ought to have won. The propaganda
value of the battle for the rebels was staggering: The Imperial fleet had ambushed the entire rebel starfleet with overwhelming force, and yet
had been handed an unequivocal and ignominious defeat. But the most devastating loss of all was the death of the Galactic Emperor, who was
in the words of the novelization of Return of the Jedi “the cohesive force to the Empire.” This is no mere figurative description; the Dark
Empire Sourcebook describes how he had deliberately designed the Empire so that it could not function without him, and the entire
organization depended to a very high degree on his personal prestige and authority in order to operate. The question now confronting the ruling
class of the Empire is how the Empire could work — assuming that it was even possible — without him.
The First Saga of the Journal of the Whills, quoted in the Prologue of Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, explains that the
Galactic Emperor had become reclusive and remote after his acclamation as Galactic Emperor in 16 rS in Revenge of the Sith, and he was “seen
only by those who needed to see him” (in the words of The Essential Guide to Characters); the First Saga explains that the popular perception
of his rule was that he was being manipulated by “the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office” and that “the Imperial
forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor” were being appropriated by his underlings for their own ambitions and self-
aggrandizement. Nevertheless, he was enormously popular, seen by the vast majority of the population as a “beloved old man” according to
“Who’s Who in Star Wars Galaxies,” with Coruscant and the Core Worlds adding that many Imperial citizens “regarded Palpatine as a
demigod.” In Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader reflects that when the Emperor died, “the galaxy would bend from the horror of that loss.” He
provided a unifying symbol and object of loyalty, unsullied by the day to day politics; he made it possible for there to be loyal opposition in
the Imperial State, and the population of the galaxy had a reflexive loyalty to him as an individual that quite probably converted quite easily to
loyalty to the Empire as an extension of his dignitas — so long as he was alive. Without him, it was questionable just how much loyalty to the
Empire as an institution there existed independent of the cult of personality surrounding the Galactic Emperor.
Even at the Battle of Endor itself, the death of the Galactic Emperor had an immediate disruptive effect on the coherence of the Imperial
system. In The Essential Chronology, the New Republic Historical Council explains that before the battle had even ended, one of the Imperial
task force commanders present, Admiral Harrsk, disregarded Captain Gilad Pellaeon’s unlawful order to retreat — it was mentioned in
Pellaeon’s first appearance in Heir to the Empire that he had been merely Executive Officer, HIMS Chimaera, and would not have succeeded
to command of the fleet until well after all flag officers were killed or incapacitated — and instead commandeered his forces and fled to the
border between the Deep Core and the Core Worlds Regions, where he quickly established for himself a miniature empire of his own, the first
of the Imperialist rogue warlords. He was quickly followed by others; the Historical Council lists among them in rapid succession task force
commander High Admiral Teradoc and then Admiral Gaen Drommel, who commanded his forces from the bridge of HIMS Guardian, a Super
Star Destroyer. The number of deserters — and the high ranks held by many of them — was scandalous; most shocking of all was the
desertion of Grand Moff Ardus Kaine, Governor of Oversector Outer, a vast domain in the Outer Rim Territories Region. As explained by
“The Pentastar Alignment,” this leading figure in COMPNOR (and presumably the New Order Party) carved an enormous warlord state for
himself out of Oversector Outer, allying with corporate interests and forming the Pentastar Alignment, one of the largest and most powerful of
all the warlord states. The Bacta War states however that the majority of the Armed Forces remained loyalists during this time.
The problem of the sudden and wholly unexpected regicide at Endor was complicated by the Byzantine power structure of the Empire. The
Galactic Emperor deliberately designed a system in which no one individual or group (aside from the Galactic Emperor himself) was able to
amass too much power. Hence, a plurality of competing authorities — both official and informal — existed in a complicating system of
separation of power but overlapping spheres of responsibility and authority. The most powerful groups in the Empire included the Ruling
Council, the Imperial Senate, the Privy Council (i.e., the corporate body of the Galactic Emperor’s formal advisors), the Imperial High
Command, the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR) and the New Order Party, the Grand Moff Governors (both
severally and collectively), and the million autonomous governments of the member states of the Galactic Empire. Above all these multifarious
authorities, in fact but not in law, was the Galactic Emperor’s Inner Circle, an informal club of those individuals closest to the Galactic
Emperor, known to have included Sate Pestage, Ars Dangor, Kren Blista-Vanee, Sim Aloo, and Janus Greejatus, according to “Who are the
gentlemen with the Emperor?” and Nefta and Sa-Di, according to Dark Empire II. One may presume that Lord Crueya Vandron, the blue-
blooded dictator of COMPNOR in the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition — and therefore one of the most powerful men in the Empire —
was probably also a member of the Inner Circle.
It was a foregone conclusion that someone must take the Galactic Emperor’s place as the supreme head of the Empire. But this conclusion
introduced an entirely new set of complications to the problem: Who would accede to the Throne, and how would he or she be selected?
Although the Galactic Emperor’s first Speech from the Throne in 16 rS in the novelization of Revenge of the Sith mentions a claim that the
Empire would be “directed by a single sovereign, chosen for life” (his emphasis), the Dark Empire Sourcebook explicitly states that the
Galactic Emperor had left no final orders, no last will and testament, and no constitutional mechanism for designating an heir; apparently this
part of his Speech was quietly buried. Legitimists saw a simple solution to this: Why not simply elevate the next dynast of the House of
Palpatine? Unfortunately, as explained by the Dark Empire Sourcebook, “nearly all of Palpatine’s personal records had been deleted from the
known libraries” (presumably this refers to his private life and family details only, and public records of his official acts as Supreme Chancellor
of the Republic and Galactic Emperor would remain on file, as demonstrated by Luke Skywalker’s discovery that Jorus C’baoth had been
“Jedi advisor” to Senator Palpatine, but inability to locate any further details in Dark Force Rising); Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary
mentions that “records of Palpatine’s ancestry, immediate family members, and upbringing on Naboo have mysteriously vanished” already
during his term as Supreme Chancellor. The Glove of Darth Vader reveals that there were well-known rumors — so common that even
stormtroopers knew of them — that the Galactic Emperor had a three-eyed son, but that “the Emperor and the Central Committee of Grand
Moffs always denied those rumors.” The answer, then, might perhaps be found in the Imperial Personal Archives, “Palpatine’s most secret
holo-communications and recordings,” but all access to those records was steadfastly denied by Sate Pestage, Grand Vizier of the Galactic
Empire — also rumored by some to be a son or perhaps even a clone of the Galactic Emperor — , who numbered Steward of the Imperial
Personal Archives as but one of his many, many offices; among his responsibilities the Dark Empire Sourcebook lists “preparation and tasting
of the Emperor’s meals, manager of his household, holder of the Imperial Seal, and chief scheduler of all functions,” the gatekeeper who
“determines who, of all those who request his master’s attention, finally gains access.” Although no sources explicitly use the terms, the Grand
Vizier was quite clearly HIM Privy Secretary, Master of the Household, and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of the Galactic Empire (Lord
Privy Seal).
Of all the members of the ruling class in general and the Inner Circle in particular, the Grand Vizier had perhaps the greatest personal power at
the time of the Galactic Emperor’s death in early 39 rS. Both the Dark Empire Sourcebook and the scribe’s biography of him in The New
Essential Guide to Characters emphasize that he had day-to-day control of the Empire by 38 rS (specifically, around the time of the Battle of
Hoth VI in The Empire Strikes Back), making him the de facto regent; the fact that this power and influence is exactly equivalent to that of Ars
Dangor prior to the Battle of Yavin as described by the Death Star Technical Companion suggests that it is possibly derived from a particular
office (aside from Dangor’s status as the Galactic Emperor’s public spokesman and messenger to the Senate — which strongly suggests he was
both an Assistant Privy Secretary and the Lord Chamberlain of HIM Household), perhaps the Presidency of the Ruling Council. In any case,
the Grand Vizier, despite being not particularly well-liked by anyone in the ruling class, was essentially Galactic Emperor in all but name after
the Battle of Endor, which — fully consistent with the Galactic Emperor’s political science theories about the nature of power — made him
the single most visible target in the entire Galactic Empire. His rule was to last approximately six months before being brought down not by
the rebel Alliance or secessionist member states, but by intrigue and backstabbing in his own camp and among the ‘loyal opposition’ of the so-
called Emperor’s Ruling Circle.
For now, the Grand Vizier’s refusal to allow any search of the Imperial Personal Archives — which the Dark Empire Sourcebook explains to
have been done at the explicit orders of the Galactic Emperor himself, although he had not yet reincarnated — served as the desired cause
célèbre, and the Dark Empire Sourcebook explains that “the ranks of Imperial Advisors” closed around him “within weeks” and impeached
and censured him, formally stripping him of all his properties, titles, and privileges, with the only thing saving him from the disintegration
booth being his offer to retire permanently to Byss, the Galactic Emperor’s private retreat world deep in the Deep Core Region. Yet “In the
Empire’s Service” depicts the Grand Vizier still in power six months after the Battle of Endor, well beyond the reasonable limits of “within
weeks,” and the depiction of his fall from power in “Masquerade” and “Mandatory Retirement” is an event quite different from the preceding
version of events. Although the two versions are inconsistent, they are not necessarily contradictory; in the Star Wars Encyclopedia, the
scholars write that the Inner Circle had attempted (unsuccessfully) to seize power after the Galactic Emperor’s death, while “The Emperor’s
Pawns” adds that the Grand Vizier’s agent in the Ruling Council, Sarcev Quest, “sabotaged the Ruling Council’s attempts to wrest control
from the Imperial vizier, Sate Pestage.” These two claims, otherwise unexplained, may be identified with the impeachment and censure of the
Grand Vizier. One may therefore conjecture that the members of the Inner Circle, acting through the Ruling Council, attempted to oust the
Grand Vizier, but were prevented by Quest. The Grand Vizier must have then recovered from this early strike at his power, but must surely
have alienated much of the ruling class even further by what would seem capricious and inconsistent behavior.
At the same time that the Inner Circle was making this power grab, it seems that Ars Dangor, the Galactic Emperor’s official spokesman and a
member of the Inner Circle, was busy with plans of his own. It is around this time that the Emperor’s Ruling Circle was formed, a coalition of
disparate interests including not only other Privy Counsellors but also Government ministers, political leaders, flag and general officers,
capitalists and business tycoons, noblemen and noblewomen, and even no doubt some Moff Governors and Grand Moff Governors. Despite
its importance in the transitional period of post-Endor Imperial politics, the Emperor’s Ruling Circle is not well described in the Expanded
Universe; it is said to be a group of Privy Counsellors by the scholars in the Star Wars Encyclopedia, Wedge’s Gamble, The Bacta War, and
Cracken’s Threat Dossier. But in The Essential Chronology, the New Republic Historical Council adds “moffs, governors, and other political
leaders,” while the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions “ministers, munitions tycoons and functionaries.” The fact that it represented the
‘loyal opposition’ to the Grand Vizier’s rule in “In the Empire’s Service,” “Masquerade,” and “Mandatory Retirement” indicates that one
may add certain elements of the Armed Forces to the aristocrats, bureaucrats, and plutocrats of the coalition. Dangor’s role as the leader of the
Ruling Circle is unambiguously stated by Cracken’s Threat Dossier, which also states that the coalition began issuing orders throughout the
Empire, and that Admiral Zsinj refused to obey their order to withdraw from Quelii Sector and deserted, establishing himself as the self-styled
Imperial Warlord, the most powerful and formidable of the rogue warlords; interestingly, in The Essential Chronology, the Historical Council
dates Zsinj’s desertion well within the Grand Vizier’s six months of rule, which indicates that the Ruling Circle had been carrying on as though
its assumption of power were a fait accompli, while Zsinj’s reaction indicates that the situation was sufficiently confused that some in the
Empire mistakenly thought this to be the case.
Both “The Emperor’s Pawns” and the scribe’s biography of him in The New Essential Guide to Characters claim that at some point the Grand
Vizier secretly abandoned the Empire and left a clone to administer in his place, while he set out to find Jeng Droga and recover the Galactic
Emperor’s spirit from his body. His agent-in-place among the opponents of his regime, Quest, is further said to have deserted him after this
rapidly-gestated clone began to show signs of instability. It is convenient to place this switch shortly after the attempted coup d’état of the
Inner Circle/Ruling Council, and that the clone of the Grand Vizier immediately recognized that his hold on power was not as firm as it could
be. Therefore, one conjectures, he did not dare risk striking directly at the Emperor’s Ruling Circle despite its treasonable behavior, and instead
sought some sort of cohabitation accommodation. In any case, both the Grand Vizier and the Emperor’s Ruling Circle turned to Ysanne Isard,
the Director of Imperial Intelligence, to act as their interlocutor, a role she is seen to perform in “In the Empire’s Service” and “Masquerade.”
One finds, furthermore, that the emerging alliance between the Emperor’s Ruling Circle and the Grand Moff Governors, who controlled the
Oversectors and the vast military and naval resources assigned to them, presented a very real threat to the Grand Vizier’s already tenuous grip
on the Imperial State. It is quite likely that this is the reason that prompted the Grand Vizier to use Isard to establish an official State religion,
the Church of the Dark Side, governed hierarchically by the “Prophets of the Dark Side,” according to “Who’s Who: Imperial Grand Admirals.”
The Rebellion Era Sourcebook and The Dark Side Sourcebook are both quite clear that these “Prophets” were in fact a group of charlatans
sponsored by Imperial Intelligence, and were impersonating the Galactic Emperor’s genuine Prophets of the Dark Side, a schismatic sect of the
Sith Order. The Church was established as “a last ditch effort to keep the Empire together” and “to help certain moffs retain power in the face
of the Emperor’s demise.” One may use this information to conjecture that the Church was also a political maneuver intended to woo Moff
Governors and Grand Moff Governors who might otherwise have joined the Emperor’s Ruling Circle or the later Central Committee of Grand
Moffs in opposition to the Grand Vizier’s regency. The Church confessed a “necromantic” faith which proclaimed the ultimate triumph of the
Empire and the resurrection of the Galactic Emperor Palpatine (the Dark Empire Sourcebook says that this belief was never taken seriously
by anyone in power). The Church appears to have been quite popular among Imperials, which gave the pseudo-Prophets a substantial power
bloc, including the ultimate loyalty of Grand Admiral Peccati Syn, on whose staff “Who’s Who: Imperial Grand Admirals” says that the
Prophetess Merilli served as chaplain. Their headquarters was found on Space Station Scardia, and Lost City of the Jedi explains that the
Church functioned as “a sort of Imperial Bureau of Investigations” and used murder, espionage, and other covert tactics to realize their
‘prophecies.’
Fortunately for the Empire, the rebel Alliance to Restore the Republic — the New Republic Historical Council says in The Essential
Chronology that it was officially renamed the Alliance of Free Planets “within days” of the Battle of Endor, as first mentioned in “Diplomacy”
— had not yet begun to press the tremendous advantage the Galactic Emperor’s death had given them. The very day after the Battle of Endor,
the Alliance committed itself to the defense of the Imperial world Bakura on the very edges of civilized space in the Outer Rim Territories
Region from the extragalactic invasion of the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, as seen in The Truce at Bakura. Immediately after that campaign’s
successful conclusion (which included the secession of Bakura from the Empire), the Historical Council states that the Alliance moved to assist
the rebellion of Clak’dor VII (Mayagil Sector), whose loyalist Governmental Assembly had “worked steadfastly to advance the ideals and
goals of the Empire, providing support for the computer programming needs of the military and assisting in the review of the designs of all
new Imperial equipment,” according to sentientologist Obo Rin’s Catalog of Intelligent Life in the Galaxy, Revised Edition (the notional ‘in
universe’ document corresponding to Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races). That loss, tied with the proliferation of warlordism and the creation of the
Pentastar Alignment, apparently caused a rapid collapse of loyalist governments throughout the Outer Rim, to the point that Admiral Ackbar
could talk of the Empire’s holdings as “nothing but the remnants” as early as “Diplomacy,” when the Alliance was still headquartered on the
Sanctuary Moon of Endor (the Alliance departed its base on the Sanctuary Moon one month after the Battle of Endor, in “First Strike,” whose
date was fixed by the Rebellion Era Sourcebook).
“First Strike” reveals that the apparent leader of the remaining loyalist forces in the Outer Rim, Lady Lumiya, had allied with the Nagai,
extragalactic invaders from beyond the Outer Rim. When speaking to the Nagai leader Lieutenant Den Siva in “Duel with a Dark Lady!”
Lumiya makes reference to “our masters,” which is obviously a reference to Commander Knife, the overall leader of the Nagai, and her own
superior, who is never named in the story but is clearly the Grand Vizier, as indicated by the timing of the story. However, “The Party’s
Over” shows that the Nagai were followed into the galaxy by the aggressive and expansionist Tof, their historical oppressors, and the loyalist
Imperial forces formed a temporary coalition with the Mandalorian Protectors, the Nagai, the Zeltrons, and the Alliance against the Tof; as for
Lumiya herself, “All Together Now!” shows that her lust to avenge her teacher, Darth Vader, drove her to abandon the Empire and to ally
herself with the Tof at Saijo, formerly a major spaceport and trading post among the Outer Rim worlds before its sack by the decadent Tof
invaders. The temporary multilateral coalition attacked the Tof headquarters even as Lumiya negotiated with the Tof supreme commander, the
Prince Sereno, Crown Prince of Tof; the coalition succeeded in capturing the Crown Prince and left Lumiya for dead. The Alliance appears to
have commemorated their successful conclusion of the Nagai-Tof invasions by releasing the Declaration of a New Republic one month after the
Battle of Endor according to The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook; the actual change from the Alliance of Free Planets to the New Republic
appears to have been delayed until the fall of Imperial Center in late 41 rS, seen in Wedge’s Gamble, possibly because of the “months” of
politicking at the Constitutional Convention called to frame the new government, as mentioned by The Essential Guide to Characters.
The Alliance was riding high. The President of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Mon Mothma, became first Leader and then Chief
Councilor of the Provisional Government of the Alliance of Free Planets, a fact symbolically obnoxious to the Empire; she had been the
Imperial Senator for Chandrila, and had led the opposition to the Galactic Empire in the Senate until the Imperial Security Bureau decided to
silence her, as mentioned in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition. A former radical — she had once advocated “visionary new plans
for social change” — , Mothma was in many ways the charismatic ‘Great Leader’ for her Alliance that the Galactic Emperor had been for his
Empire. But now the Empire had lost its source of unity, and there was little left to hold the loyalty of many of the galaxy’s citizens. In The
Essential Chronology, the New Republic Historical Council states that “countless worlds” in the Rim left the Empire after receiving word of
the Galactic Emperor’s death, and that in the months following the Alliance won over “hundreds of planets through diplomacy” while
undertaking “no large-scale military incursions into Imperial territory.” The result was that within months, the Imperial presence in the Outer
Rim was reduced to virtually nothing without battle or serious engagement. Although it had been long a source of support for the Rebellion
(according to the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition), the scholars write in the Star Wars Encyclopedia that the Outer Rim was a major
source of the Empire’s resources and slaves; the loss of such a well-known (if backwater) Region of the galaxy must have been quite a blow to
Imperial morale. The Empire had unambiguously lost this Phoney War in the Outer Rim.
The loss of so large an amount of territory (and the resources that went with it) must have been simultaneously inconvenient and embarrassing
for the Grand Vizier’s regime. In the first place, it seems a potent argument that he was incompetent and could not rule, and public confidence
in his regime must have plummeted, a concept which must surely have been unknown in Imperial politics, where the Galactic Emperor had
always enjoyed overwhelming popular support. In the second place, it meant that the Empire had lost a large and valuable source of
manpower, matériel, and manpower; every world that left the Empire was a world that stopped paying taxes to the seemingly infinite HIM
Treasury. In some ways, the situation resembles the crisis of the Count of Serenno’s Separatist movement that had caused the Clone War in 13
rS in Attack of the Clones; the secession of the worlds of the Outer Rim represents an outright attack on the credibility of the Imperial State, as
well as causing disproportionate damage to the interconnected economic network of the galaxy (hence the Lord Serenno’s confidence that the
secession of ten thousands of worlds from the Galactic Republic could represent a significant blow to that state’s integrity in Attack of the
Clones, despite being a mere 1% of the galactic union’s total membership). The increase of industrial mechanization tends to increase demand
for raw materials, and the Imperial socio-economic order is known to be highly industrialized and urbanized, especially in the Core Worlds
Region; the loss of the Outer Rim may not have represented a serious blow to the Imperial economy, but when combined with the heavy
taxation of the wartime economy mentioned by the Dark Empire Sourcebook, may have nevertheless caused inconvenient and annoying
shortages and inflation throughout the Empire, a constant, everyday reminder of the Grand Vizier’s conspicuous failure to stop the Alliance’s
expansion and his embarrassing loss in the Phoney War. The loss of the Outer Rim, in short, would be not only a blow to the Grand Vizier’s
public standing, but also to the average Imperial citizen’s pocket.
But there was another factor to be considered. The growth of the Alliance, its more or less bloodless triumph over the Empire in the Phoney
War, and its string of diplomatic coups, gave the Alliance a pool of resources that had increased almost as much as the Empire’s had shrunk.
The Alliance now had rather more logistical and economical basis than it ever had during the Civil War; most importantly of all, the Alliance
had gained a measure of respectability that had always eluded them during the Rebellion. Although still viewed as something less than a fully
functioning government — after all, they did not control Imperial Center or the Core Worlds, and most of their territorial holdings were in the
Outer Rim — the Alliance was now something very much more than a ragtag band of pirates and guerrilleros. The Mid-Rim seemed to be next,
especially in the wake of the Alliance’s decisive victory over the Imperial forces at Kashyyyk (Sumitra Sector, Mid-Rim), during which Grand
Admiral Syn was killed and his flagship, HIMS Fi, was vaporized, either “in a one-on-one test of tactics” with Ackbar (the scribe’s version in
The New Essential Guide to Characters) or against “overwhelming force” (the version contained in “Who’s Who: Imperial Grand Admirals”);
the Kashyyyk campaign is dated simply before the Imperial Center campaign in late 41 rS by the New Republic Historical Council, but the
fact that Syn’s chaplain was an agent of the Church of the Dark Side (and Syn’s own status as a devout Dark Sider and a nominal supporter of
the Grand Vizier’s regime) requires that the campaign have taken place after the establishment of the Church but before the fall of the Grand
Vizier, in mid-39 rS.
The fall of the Outer Rim and the evident intention of the Alliance to begin further expansion Coreward must have encouraged the Emperor’s
Ruling Circle. By this time, the Grand Vizier’s agent-in-place, Quest, must surely have abandoned him, and the Grand Vizier’s clone was
desperate for a decisive victory of his own to bolster his standing. By six months after the Battle of Endor, the Alliance seemed secure enough
in its position (presumably with holdings throughout the Outer, Mid, and Inner Rim) to begin scouting worlds in the Core Worlds Region
itself, prompting Isard to recommend using Brentaal IV, which Coruscant and the Core Worlds explains to be a major trade center for the
entire Empire and one of the foremost worlds in Bormea Sector (which also included Chandrila and Corulag, the Sector capital, home to the
Imperial Academy at Corulag and the Sienar Fleet Systems Advanced Research Division); in addition to its status as a primary trade world,
starport, and jump point for traffic from the Core to the Corporate Sector and to the Colonies — it is located at the intersection of the
Perlemian Trade Route and the Hydian Way, two major hyperlanes — Brentaal was the location of the Sector’s primary HoloNet relay
station, a vital link between Imperial Center and military/naval outposts and ships operating along the Perlemian Trade Route. If this were not
enough to make Brentaal an attractive target, there was the fact that half of the Emperor’s Ruling Circled owned property there, and the entire
coalition had sizeable interests in its booming businesses, according to “In the Empire’s Service.” Because of this, Isard recommended that the
Grand Vizier make his stand at Brentaal; she argued that it would demonstrate to the public that he was capable of decisive action and that the
defeat at Endor and the Phoney War had been freak occurrences, as well as leaving the Emperor’s Ruling Circle — “the Cabal,” as the Grand
Vizier’s clone an his prime minister referred to it — no choice but to support him, or risk losing substantial amounts of money and property
by opposing him.
The Grand Vizier’s clone was dubious of the plan, but consented to its execution. Isard ordered to Brentaal elements of the 181st Imperial
Fighter Group, commanded by ‘Colonel’ (i.e., Captain) Soontir, Baron Fel (who rivaled Tan Maarek Stele as the Empire’s ace of aces), but
arranged to leave the command of Brentaal’s defense to Admiral Lon Isoto, an unsavory character addicted to glitterstim and disreputable
liaisons, perhaps in imitation of Grand Admiral Miltin Takel, a man of undeniable tactical genius; for his part, Isoto’s great genius was limited
strictly to degenerate hedonism, indulging in glitterstim spice and wanton adultery (Isoto casually remarked to the Lord Fel that his wife
wouldn’t approve of his willingness to partake of Brentaalian hospitality, “which is why she is on Coruscant”). The Grand Vizier — who
privately commented that he’d gladly cede a Super Star Destroyer to the Alliance if they would accept “Isoto the Indecisive” in the bargain —
only agreed to leave Isoto in command because he believed that the incompetent commander was favored by the Emperor’s Ruling Circle, and
accepted Isard’s argument that if he left Isoto in command until the Ruling Circle begged for his replacement, it would reinforce his position as
the supreme authority in the Empire while at the same time disgracing one of their favorites. Although the plan was risky, the Lord Fel’s
presence was anticipated to provide a stabilizing influence on Isoto’s incompetence, and the Grand Vizier trusted his prime minister Isard to
monitor the situation carefully for signs of potential failure. He publicly vowed that Brentaal would not fall.
Unfortunately, the Grand Vizier failed to realize until it was too late that Isard was using him. Isoto was in fact not favored by the Ruling
Circle; they knew as well as the Grand Vizier did that the man was criminally incompetent, and had been told by Isard that Isoto was the
Grand Vizier’s favorite, and that he refused to remove him out of caprice. In fact, the Ruling Circle had already asked that Isoto be removed,
via their interlocutor... Isard. The truth was that Isard had no intention of successfully defending Brentaal, and had planned to lose it from the
very beginning of the whole sordid affair. Her actual plan was to simultaneously break any confidence remaining in the Grand Vizier’s regency
and cripple the power base of the Ruling Circle, in the process elevating her own standing due to the fact that the 181st — which would defend
the world long enough to allow its evacuation and looting — would have been present on Brentaal at her orders and no one else’s. The Grand
Vizier, not yet aware at the enormity of her betrayal, discovered that she had issued orders in his name to mobilize an evacuation force, but
agreed to allow it to proceed when she explained that she had intended to damage the Ruling Circle and to allow them to return to Brentaal only
by his good graces, and at the same time to ingratiate himself with the Brentaalian expatriates, whom he would have had rescued. Although he
allowed her to carry on with her plan, the Grand Vizier’s clone realized that he was in mortal danger if he remained in the Empire, and began
making new plans for his survival.
The fall of Brentaal IV in “In the Empire’s Service” represents a significant blow to the Galactic Empire whose importance is not much
commented upon by the Expanded Universe except in terms of the role it played in the fall of the Grand Vizier and the rise of Isard.
Nevertheless, the evidence is clear: Coruscant and the Core Worlds is quite unambiguous in its description of Brentaal’s economic status, not
to mention its strategic importance as a major HoloNet and hyperspace traffic node. The loss of such a major port could be only slightly
ameliorated by the fact that most of the physical wealth on-planet had been looted and that the Alliance could not benefit in turn from
Brentaal’s robust trade, because Coruscant and the Core Worlds explains that the battle had wiped out most of the orbital stations, crippling
Brentaal’s economy and sending it spinning into recession from which it would not recover for years. Furthermore, quite apart from the
inconvenience of the shortages and inflation signified by the loss of the Outer Rim, the fall of Brentaal would cause direct, substantial financial
damage to the Galactic Empire as a whole, something which the entire Imperial elite would feel — and be quite unaccustomed to feeling. Isard
was virtually the only person in the Empire to have benefited from the affair, and the fall of Brentaal IV can be safely categorized as an
unmitigated disaster for the Imperial State. It serves to demonstrate the ruthlessness that Isard was capable of showing in the pursuit of her
goals, to the point that she was willing to cause considerable damage to the Empire to gain political advantage.
The Grand Vizier’s regime had all but fallen. The disastrous loss of Brentaal must surely have destroyed any support he may have yet retained
among the ruling class, and he rapidly reached the conclusion that the only means of survival available to him was the Alliance. Although not
excited to be negotiating with the Galactic Emperor’s first lieutenant and personal deputy, the secret negotiations on Axxila between them in
“Masquerade” produced an agreement that the Grand Vizier would leave Imperial Center open to the Alliance, in exchange for control of 25
worlds of his choice and the right to join the New Republic as a full member. The Provisional Council agreed to the terms, hoping that the
Grand Vizier’s defection might encourage others to abandon the Empire for the Alliance. Unfortunately for the Grand Vizier and the Alliance,
his prime minister Isard’s office as Director of Imperial Intelligence was not for show, and Imperial Intelligence’s eyes were always watching.
She discovered the Axxila talks and immediately informed the Ruling Circle. The three-member Tribunal — presumably a sort of presidium for
the entire Emperor’s Ruling Circle, although its nature has never been clarified by any source — immediately took the extraordinary step of
formally deposing the Grand Vizier and installing itself in his place as collegial imperator pro tempore; with a warrant posted for his immediate
arrest and extradition to Imperial Center, the Grand Vizier fled to Ciutric, where he hoped to find a sympathetic Governor. Instead,
“Mandatory Retirement” shows that he found himself arrested by the very Governor he had installed there, and the Alliance dispatched a
rescue mission, trying to keep good faith with the fallen Imperial regent. The Tribunal ordered Admiral Delak Krennel to proceed to Ciutric
with HIMS Reckoning and effect the extradition of the deposed Grand Vizier.
As with the Brentaal fiasco, the affair on Ciutric ended badly for almost everyone involved. “Mandatory Retirement” recounts the ultimate
failure of the Alliance’s rescue attempt, Krennel’s murder of the Grand Vizier’s clone and self-installation as “Prince-Admiral of the Ciutric
Hegemony,” severing his connections to the Empire. On Imperial Center, the Tribunal was liquidated by Isard, who had Tribune Challer
poisoned by a prostitute and Tribune Plumba murdered by an antiquities dealer wielding a Sith lanvarok; the Tribunal Leader, General Paltr
Carvin, was arrested and sent to Imperial Intelligence’s Lusankya penitentiary. Both the New Republic Historical Council in The Essential
Chronology and the scribe in The New Essential Guide to Characters claim that Isard liquidated the entire Emperor’s Ruling Circle, but this is
impossible, because Dangor was identified as the leader in Cracken’s Threat Dossier and he still figured as a major player in Imperial politics
in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, nearly five years after “Mandatory Retirement” (in 45 rS) and taking place even after Isard’s own death.
Presumably, the Historical Council and the scribe were careless with their details and Isard only liquidated the Tribunal and whatever other
elements of the Ruling Circle may have held specific high offices that she perceived to be threatening. Unfortunately there is no official
clarification of this matter, or of the relationship between the Tribunal and the Ruling Circle; the fact that Krennel expected Carvin to be
Tribunal Leader for life, combined with Dangor’s subsequent machinations, suggests that perhaps Dangor intended to be éminence grise to the
Tribunal’s public face. In any case, the Grand Vizier’s clone was dead, the real Grand Vizier was long gone, and the Ruling Circle was cowed.
Ysanne Isard, who had deliberately engineered the Brentaal debacle and the Ciutric affair to her own advantage, assumed absolute power within
the Imperial State, but cast her rule as mere stewardship of the Throne, according to Wedge’s Gamble.
The transitional period was over. Nicknamed “Iceheart” for good reason, Isard had possessed a reputation for remarkable ruthlessness even
before masterminding her own rise to power; indeed, she had denounced her own father to the Galactic Emperor as a traitor to the Empire in 35
rS, in the process replacing him as Director of Imperial Intelligence, as seen in “Interlude at Darkknell”; Alliance intelligence believed the
denunciation to have been an entirely false fabrication. She had already demonstrated her willingness to use Imperial Intelligence’s
Assassination Branch to neutralize dissent and bring the ‘loyal opposition’ into line. Because Imperial Intelligence was a branch of the Imperial
Armed Forces (as stated by the Death Star Technical Companion), the installation of Ysanne Isard as regent in place of the civilian Grand
Vizier marked an entirely new development in Imperial politics: the stratocratization of the Empire. Whereas before the Imperial State had
been militaristic, the civilian organs of government had always maintained strict control of the military/naval complex; now, for the first time, a
military officer was in control of the Imperial State, and she held a reactionary philosophy quite different from the conservative
authoritarianism of men like Ars Dangor and the Grand Vizier. Dangor and the Emperor’s Ruling Circle apparently decided discretion was the
better part of valor and toed the line. By mid-39 rS, six months after the Battle of Endor, in the absence of any organized opposition and at the
cost of much of the Rim and the loss of Brentaal, Ysanne Isard — Iceheart — was Galactic Empress in all but name.
See also:
the Death Star was destroyed, representing in itself an astronomically large investment of capital, resources, and manpower, quite apart from
its psychological significance and central role in the Tarkin Doctrine of rule through fear of force rather than force itself. Aside from the Death
Star, HIMS Executor, said by Heir to the Empire to have included among her ship’s company some of the finest officers in the Imperial Navy,
was lost with all hands, and an additional six Imperial Star Destroyers were destroyed in firefights they ought to have won. The propaganda
value of the battle for the rebels was staggering: The Imperial fleet had ambushed the entire rebel starfleet with overwhelming force, and yet
had been handed an unequivocal and ignominious defeat. But the most devastating loss of all was the death of the Galactic Emperor, who was
in the words of the novelization of Return of the Jedi “the cohesive force to the Empire.” This is no mere figurative description; the Dark
Empire Sourcebook describes how he had deliberately designed the Empire so that it could not function without him, and the entire
organization depended to a very high degree on his personal prestige and authority in order to operate. The question now confronting the ruling
class of the Empire is how the Empire could work — assuming that it was even possible — without him.
The First Saga of the Journal of the Whills, quoted in the Prologue of Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, explains that the
Galactic Emperor had become reclusive and remote after his acclamation as Galactic Emperor in 16 rS in Revenge of the Sith, and he was “seen
only by those who needed to see him” (in the words of The Essential Guide to Characters); the First Saga explains that the popular perception
of his rule was that he was being manipulated by “the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office” and that “the Imperial
forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor” were being appropriated by his underlings for their own ambitions and self-
aggrandizement. Nevertheless, he was enormously popular, seen by the vast majority of the population as a “beloved old man” according to
“Who’s Who in Star Wars Galaxies,” with Coruscant and the Core Worlds adding that many Imperial citizens “regarded Palpatine as a
demigod.” In Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader reflects that when the Emperor died, “the galaxy would bend from the horror of that loss.” He
provided a unifying symbol and object of loyalty, unsullied by the day to day politics; he made it possible for there to be loyal opposition in
the Imperial State, and the population of the galaxy had a reflexive loyalty to him as an individual that quite probably converted quite easily to
loyalty to the Empire as an extension of his dignitas — so long as he was alive. Without him, it was questionable just how much loyalty to the
Empire as an institution there existed independent of the cult of personality surrounding the Galactic Emperor.
Even at the Battle of Endor itself, the death of the Galactic Emperor had an immediate disruptive effect on the coherence of the Imperial
system. In The Essential Chronology, the New Republic Historical Council explains that before the battle had even ended, one of the Imperial
task force commanders present, Admiral Harrsk, disregarded Captain Gilad Pellaeon’s unlawful order to retreat — it was mentioned in
Pellaeon’s first appearance in Heir to the Empire that he had been merely Executive Officer, HIMS Chimaera, and would not have succeeded
to command of the fleet until well after all flag officers were killed or incapacitated — and instead commandeered his forces and fled to the
border between the Deep Core and the Core Worlds Regions, where he quickly established for himself a miniature empire of his own, the first
of the Imperialist rogue warlords. He was quickly followed by others; the Historical Council lists among them in rapid succession task force
commander High Admiral Teradoc and then Admiral Gaen Drommel, who commanded his forces from the bridge of HIMS Guardian, a Super
Star Destroyer. The number of deserters — and the high ranks held by many of them — was scandalous; most shocking of all was the
desertion of Grand Moff Ardus Kaine, Governor of Oversector Outer, a vast domain in the Outer Rim Territories Region. As explained by
“The Pentastar Alignment,” this leading figure in COMPNOR (and presumably the New Order Party) carved an enormous warlord state for
himself out of Oversector Outer, allying with corporate interests and forming the Pentastar Alignment, one of the largest and most powerful of
all the warlord states. The Bacta War states however that the majority of the Armed Forces remained loyalists during this time.
The problem of the sudden and wholly unexpected regicide at Endor was complicated by the Byzantine power structure of the Empire. The
Galactic Emperor deliberately designed a system in which no one individual or group (aside from the Galactic Emperor himself) was able to
amass too much power. Hence, a plurality of competing authorities — both official and informal — existed in a complicating system of
separation of power but overlapping spheres of responsibility and authority. The most powerful groups in the Empire included the Ruling
Council, the Imperial Senate, the Privy Council (i.e., the corporate body of the Galactic Emperor’s formal advisors), the Imperial High
Command, the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR) and the New Order Party, the Grand Moff Governors (both
severally and collectively), and the million autonomous governments of the member states of the Galactic Empire. Above all these multifarious
authorities, in fact but not in law, was the Galactic Emperor’s Inner Circle, an informal club of those individuals closest to the Galactic
Emperor, known to have included Sate Pestage, Ars Dangor, Kren Blista-Vanee, Sim Aloo, and Janus Greejatus, according to “Who are the
gentlemen with the Emperor?” and Nefta and Sa-Di, according to Dark Empire II. One may presume that Lord Crueya Vandron, the blue-
blooded dictator of COMPNOR in the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition — and therefore one of the most powerful men in the Empire —
was probably also a member of the Inner Circle.
It was a foregone conclusion that someone must take the Galactic Emperor’s place as the supreme head of the Empire. But this conclusion
introduced an entirely new set of complications to the problem: Who would accede to the Throne, and how would he or she be selected?
Although the Galactic Emperor’s first Speech from the Throne in 16 rS in the novelization of Revenge of the Sith mentions a claim that the
Empire would be “directed by a single sovereign, chosen for life” (his emphasis), the Dark Empire Sourcebook explicitly states that the
Galactic Emperor had left no final orders, no last will and testament, and no constitutional mechanism for designating an heir; apparently this
part of his Speech was quietly buried. Legitimists saw a simple solution to this: Why not simply elevate the next dynast of the House of
Palpatine? Unfortunately, as explained by the Dark Empire Sourcebook, “nearly all of Palpatine’s personal records had been deleted from the
known libraries” (presumably this refers to his private life and family details only, and public records of his official acts as Supreme Chancellor
of the Republic and Galactic Emperor would remain on file, as demonstrated by Luke Skywalker’s discovery that Jorus C’baoth had been
“Jedi advisor” to Senator Palpatine, but inability to locate any further details in Dark Force Rising); Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary
mentions that “records of Palpatine’s ancestry, immediate family members, and upbringing on Naboo have mysteriously vanished” already
during his term as Supreme Chancellor. The Glove of Darth Vader reveals that there were well-known rumors — so common that even
stormtroopers knew of them — that the Galactic Emperor had a three-eyed son, but that “the Emperor and the Central Committee of Grand
Moffs always denied those rumors.” The answer, then, might perhaps be found in the Imperial Personal Archives, “Palpatine’s most secret
holo-communications and recordings,” but all access to those records was steadfastly denied by Sate Pestage, Grand Vizier of the Galactic
Empire — also rumored by some to be a son or perhaps even a clone of the Galactic Emperor — , who numbered Steward of the Imperial
Personal Archives as but one of his many, many offices; among his responsibilities the Dark Empire Sourcebook lists “preparation and tasting
of the Emperor’s meals, manager of his household, holder of the Imperial Seal, and chief scheduler of all functions,” the gatekeeper who
“determines who, of all those who request his master’s attention, finally gains access.” Although no sources explicitly use the terms, the Grand
Vizier was quite clearly HIM Privy Secretary, Master of the Household, and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of the Galactic Empire (Lord
Privy Seal).
Of all the members of the ruling class in general and the Inner Circle in particular, the Grand Vizier had perhaps the greatest personal power at
the time of the Galactic Emperor’s death in early 39 rS. Both the Dark Empire Sourcebook and the scribe’s biography of him in The New
Essential Guide to Characters emphasize that he had day-to-day control of the Empire by 38 rS (specifically, around the time of the Battle of
Hoth VI in The Empire Strikes Back), making him the de facto regent; the fact that this power and influence is exactly equivalent to that of Ars
Dangor prior to the Battle of Yavin as described by the Death Star Technical Companion suggests that it is possibly derived from a particular
office (aside from Dangor’s status as the Galactic Emperor’s public spokesman and messenger to the Senate — which strongly suggests he was
both an Assistant Privy Secretary and the Lord Chamberlain of HIM Household), perhaps the Presidency of the Ruling Council. In any case,
the Grand Vizier, despite being not particularly well-liked by anyone in the ruling class, was essentially Galactic Emperor in all but name after
the Battle of Endor, which — fully consistent with the Galactic Emperor’s political science theories about the nature of power — made him
the single most visible target in the entire Galactic Empire. His rule was to last approximately six months before being brought down not by
the rebel Alliance or secessionist member states, but by intrigue and backstabbing in his own camp and among the ‘loyal opposition’ of the so-
called Emperor’s Ruling Circle.
For now, the Grand Vizier’s refusal to allow any search of the Imperial Personal Archives — which the Dark Empire Sourcebook explains to
have been done at the explicit orders of the Galactic Emperor himself, although he had not yet reincarnated — served as the desired cause
célèbre, and the Dark Empire Sourcebook explains that “the ranks of Imperial Advisors” closed around him “within weeks” and impeached
and censured him, formally stripping him of all his properties, titles, and privileges, with the only thing saving him from the disintegration
booth being his offer to retire permanently to Byss, the Galactic Emperor’s private retreat world deep in the Deep Core Region. Yet “In the
Empire’s Service” depicts the Grand Vizier still in power six months after the Battle of Endor, well beyond the reasonable limits of “within
weeks,” and the depiction of his fall from power in “Masquerade” and “Mandatory Retirement” is an event quite different from the preceding
version of events. Although the two versions are inconsistent, they are not necessarily contradictory; in the Star Wars Encyclopedia, the
scholars write that the Inner Circle had attempted (unsuccessfully) to seize power after the Galactic Emperor’s death, while “The Emperor’s
Pawns” adds that the Grand Vizier’s agent in the Ruling Council, Sarcev Quest, “sabotaged the Ruling Council’s attempts to wrest control
from the Imperial vizier, Sate Pestage.” These two claims, otherwise unexplained, may be identified with the impeachment and censure of the
Grand Vizier. One may therefore conjecture that the members of the Inner Circle, acting through the Ruling Council, attempted to oust the
Grand Vizier, but were prevented by Quest. The Grand Vizier must have then recovered from this early strike at his power, but must surely
have alienated much of the ruling class even further by what would seem capricious and inconsistent behavior.
At the same time that the Inner Circle was making this power grab, it seems that Ars Dangor, the Galactic Emperor’s official spokesman and a
member of the Inner Circle, was busy with plans of his own. It is around this time that the Emperor’s Ruling Circle was formed, a coalition of
disparate interests including not only other Privy Counsellors but also Government ministers, political leaders, flag and general officers,
capitalists and business tycoons, noblemen and noblewomen, and even no doubt some Moff Governors and Grand Moff Governors. Despite
its importance in the transitional period of post-Endor Imperial politics, the Emperor’s Ruling Circle is not well described in the Expanded
Universe; it is said to be a group of Privy Counsellors by the scholars in the Star Wars Encyclopedia, Wedge’s Gamble, The Bacta War, and
Cracken’s Threat Dossier. But in The Essential Chronology, the New Republic Historical Council adds “moffs, governors, and other political
leaders,” while the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions “ministers, munitions tycoons and functionaries.” The fact that it represented the
‘loyal opposition’ to the Grand Vizier’s rule in “In the Empire’s Service,” “Masquerade,” and “Mandatory Retirement” indicates that one
may add certain elements of the Armed Forces to the aristocrats, bureaucrats, and plutocrats of the coalition. Dangor’s role as the leader of the
Ruling Circle is unambiguously stated by Cracken’s Threat Dossier, which also states that the coalition began issuing orders throughout the
Empire, and that Admiral Zsinj refused to obey their order to withdraw from Quelii Sector and deserted, establishing himself as the self-styled
Imperial Warlord, the most powerful and formidable of the rogue warlords; interestingly, in The Essential Chronology, the Historical Council
dates Zsinj’s desertion well within the Grand Vizier’s six months of rule, which indicates that the Ruling Circle had been carrying on as though
its assumption of power were a fait accompli, while Zsinj’s reaction indicates that the situation was sufficiently confused that some in the
Empire mistakenly thought this to be the case.
Both “The Emperor’s Pawns” and the scribe’s biography of him in The New Essential Guide to Characters claim that at some point the Grand
Vizier secretly abandoned the Empire and left a clone to administer in his place, while he set out to find Jeng Droga and recover the Galactic
Emperor’s spirit from his body. His agent-in-place among the opponents of his regime, Quest, is further said to have deserted him after this
rapidly-gestated clone began to show signs of instability. It is convenient to place this switch shortly after the attempted coup d’état of the
Inner Circle/Ruling Council, and that the clone of the Grand Vizier immediately recognized that his hold on power was not as firm as it could
be. Therefore, one conjectures, he did not dare risk striking directly at the Emperor’s Ruling Circle despite its treasonable behavior, and instead
sought some sort of cohabitation accommodation. In any case, both the Grand Vizier and the Emperor’s Ruling Circle turned to Ysanne Isard,
the Director of Imperial Intelligence, to act as their interlocutor, a role she is seen to perform in “In the Empire’s Service” and “Masquerade.”
One finds, furthermore, that the emerging alliance between the Emperor’s Ruling Circle and the Grand Moff Governors, who controlled the
Oversectors and the vast military and naval resources assigned to them, presented a very real threat to the Grand Vizier’s already tenuous grip
on the Imperial State. It is quite likely that this is the reason that prompted the Grand Vizier to use Isard to establish an official State religion,
the Church of the Dark Side, governed hierarchically by the “Prophets of the Dark Side,” according to “Who’s Who: Imperial Grand Admirals.”
The Rebellion Era Sourcebook and The Dark Side Sourcebook are both quite clear that these “Prophets” were in fact a group of charlatans
sponsored by Imperial Intelligence, and were impersonating the Galactic Emperor’s genuine Prophets of the Dark Side, a schismatic sect of the
Sith Order. The Church was established as “a last ditch effort to keep the Empire together” and “to help certain moffs retain power in the face
of the Emperor’s demise.” One may use this information to conjecture that the Church was also a political maneuver intended to woo Moff
Governors and Grand Moff Governors who might otherwise have joined the Emperor’s Ruling Circle or the later Central Committee of Grand
Moffs in opposition to the Grand Vizier’s regency. The Church confessed a “necromantic” faith which proclaimed the ultimate triumph of the
Empire and the resurrection of the Galactic Emperor Palpatine (the Dark Empire Sourcebook says that this belief was never taken seriously
by anyone in power). The Church appears to have been quite popular among Imperials, which gave the pseudo-Prophets a substantial power
bloc, including the ultimate loyalty of Grand Admiral Peccati Syn, on whose staff “Who’s Who: Imperial Grand Admirals” says that the
Prophetess Merilli served as chaplain. Their headquarters was found on Space Station Scardia, and Lost City of the Jedi explains that the
Church functioned as “a sort of Imperial Bureau of Investigations” and used murder, espionage, and other covert tactics to realize their
‘prophecies.’
Fortunately for the Empire, the rebel Alliance to Restore the Republic — the New Republic Historical Council says in The Essential
Chronology that it was officially renamed the Alliance of Free Planets “within days” of the Battle of Endor, as first mentioned in “Diplomacy”
— had not yet begun to press the tremendous advantage the Galactic Emperor’s death had given them. The very day after the Battle of Endor,
the Alliance committed itself to the defense of the Imperial world Bakura on the very edges of civilized space in the Outer Rim Territories
Region from the extragalactic invasion of the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, as seen in The Truce at Bakura. Immediately after that campaign’s
successful conclusion (which included the secession of Bakura from the Empire), the Historical Council states that the Alliance moved to assist
the rebellion of Clak’dor VII (Mayagil Sector), whose loyalist Governmental Assembly had “worked steadfastly to advance the ideals and
goals of the Empire, providing support for the computer programming needs of the military and assisting in the review of the designs of all
new Imperial equipment,” according to sentientologist Obo Rin’s Catalog of Intelligent Life in the Galaxy, Revised Edition (the notional ‘in
universe’ document corresponding to Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races). That loss, tied with the proliferation of warlordism and the creation of the
Pentastar Alignment, apparently caused a rapid collapse of loyalist governments throughout the Outer Rim, to the point that Admiral Ackbar
could talk of the Empire’s holdings as “nothing but the remnants” as early as “Diplomacy,” when the Alliance was still headquartered on the
Sanctuary Moon of Endor (the Alliance departed its base on the Sanctuary Moon one month after the Battle of Endor, in “First Strike,” whose
date was fixed by the Rebellion Era Sourcebook).
“First Strike” reveals that the apparent leader of the remaining loyalist forces in the Outer Rim, Lady Lumiya, had allied with the Nagai,
extragalactic invaders from beyond the Outer Rim. When speaking to the Nagai leader Lieutenant Den Siva in “Duel with a Dark Lady!”
Lumiya makes reference to “our masters,” which is obviously a reference to Commander Knife, the overall leader of the Nagai, and her own
superior, who is never named in the story but is clearly the Grand Vizier, as indicated by the timing of the story. However, “The Party’s
Over” shows that the Nagai were followed into the galaxy by the aggressive and expansionist Tof, their historical oppressors, and the loyalist
Imperial forces formed a temporary coalition with the Mandalorian Protectors, the Nagai, the Zeltrons, and the Alliance against the Tof; as for
Lumiya herself, “All Together Now!” shows that her lust to avenge her teacher, Darth Vader, drove her to abandon the Empire and to ally
herself with the Tof at Saijo, formerly a major spaceport and trading post among the Outer Rim worlds before its sack by the decadent Tof
invaders. The temporary multilateral coalition attacked the Tof headquarters even as Lumiya negotiated with the Tof supreme commander, the
Prince Sereno, Crown Prince of Tof; the coalition succeeded in capturing the Crown Prince and left Lumiya for dead. The Alliance appears to
have commemorated their successful conclusion of the Nagai-Tof invasions by releasing the Declaration of a New Republic one month after the
Battle of Endor according to The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook; the actual change from the Alliance of Free Planets to the New Republic
appears to have been delayed until the fall of Imperial Center in late 41 rS, seen in Wedge’s Gamble, possibly because of the “months” of
politicking at the Constitutional Convention called to frame the new government, as mentioned by The Essential Guide to Characters.
The Alliance was riding high. The President of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Mon Mothma, became first Leader and then Chief
Councilor of the Provisional Government of the Alliance of Free Planets, a fact symbolically obnoxious to the Empire; she had been the
Imperial Senator for Chandrila, and had led the opposition to the Galactic Empire in the Senate until the Imperial Security Bureau decided to
silence her, as mentioned in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition. A former radical — she had once advocated “visionary new plans
for social change” — , Mothma was in many ways the charismatic ‘Great Leader’ for her Alliance that the Galactic Emperor had been for his
Empire. But now the Empire had lost its source of unity, and there was little left to hold the loyalty of many of the galaxy’s citizens. In The
Essential Chronology, the New Republic Historical Council states that “countless worlds” in the Rim left the Empire after receiving word of
the Galactic Emperor’s death, and that in the months following the Alliance won over “hundreds of planets through diplomacy” while
undertaking “no large-scale military incursions into Imperial territory.” The result was that within months, the Imperial presence in the Outer
Rim was reduced to virtually nothing without battle or serious engagement. Although it had been long a source of support for the Rebellion
(according to the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition), the scholars write in the Star Wars Encyclopedia that the Outer Rim was a major
source of the Empire’s resources and slaves; the loss of such a well-known (if backwater) Region of the galaxy must have been quite a blow to
Imperial morale. The Empire had unambiguously lost this Phoney War in the Outer Rim.
The loss of so large an amount of territory (and the resources that went with it) must have been simultaneously inconvenient and embarrassing
for the Grand Vizier’s regime. In the first place, it seems a potent argument that he was incompetent and could not rule, and public confidence
in his regime must have plummeted, a concept which must surely have been unknown in Imperial politics, where the Galactic Emperor had
always enjoyed overwhelming popular support. In the second place, it meant that the Empire had lost a large and valuable source of
manpower, matériel, and manpower; every world that left the Empire was a world that stopped paying taxes to the seemingly infinite HIM
Treasury. In some ways, the situation resembles the crisis of the Count of Serenno’s Separatist movement that had caused the Clone War in 13
rS in Attack of the Clones; the secession of the worlds of the Outer Rim represents an outright attack on the credibility of the Imperial State, as
well as causing disproportionate damage to the interconnected economic network of the galaxy (hence the Lord Serenno’s confidence that the
secession of ten thousands of worlds from the Galactic Republic could represent a significant blow to that state’s integrity in Attack of the
Clones, despite being a mere 1% of the galactic union’s total membership). The increase of industrial mechanization tends to increase demand
for raw materials, and the Imperial socio-economic order is known to be highly industrialized and urbanized, especially in the Core Worlds
Region; the loss of the Outer Rim may not have represented a serious blow to the Imperial economy, but when combined with the heavy
taxation of the wartime economy mentioned by the Dark Empire Sourcebook, may have nevertheless caused inconvenient and annoying
shortages and inflation throughout the Empire, a constant, everyday reminder of the Grand Vizier’s conspicuous failure to stop the Alliance’s
expansion and his embarrassing loss in the Phoney War. The loss of the Outer Rim, in short, would be not only a blow to the Grand Vizier’s
public standing, but also to the average Imperial citizen’s pocket.
But there was another factor to be considered. The growth of the Alliance, its more or less bloodless triumph over the Empire in the Phoney
War, and its string of diplomatic coups, gave the Alliance a pool of resources that had increased almost as much as the Empire’s had shrunk.
The Alliance now had rather more logistical and economical basis than it ever had during the Civil War; most importantly of all, the Alliance
had gained a measure of respectability that had always eluded them during the Rebellion. Although still viewed as something less than a fully
functioning government — after all, they did not control Imperial Center or the Core Worlds, and most of their territorial holdings were in the
Outer Rim — the Alliance was now something very much more than a ragtag band of pirates and guerrilleros. The Mid-Rim seemed to be next,
especially in the wake of the Alliance’s decisive victory over the Imperial forces at Kashyyyk (Sumitra Sector, Mid-Rim), during which Grand
Admiral Syn was killed and his flagship, HIMS Fi, was vaporized, either “in a one-on-one test of tactics” with Ackbar (the scribe’s version in
The New Essential Guide to Characters) or against “overwhelming force” (the version contained in “Who’s Who: Imperial Grand Admirals”);
the Kashyyyk campaign is dated simply before the Imperial Center campaign in late 41 rS by the New Republic Historical Council, but the
fact that Syn’s chaplain was an agent of the Church of the Dark Side (and Syn’s own status as a devout Dark Sider and a nominal supporter of
the Grand Vizier’s regime) requires that the campaign have taken place after the establishment of the Church but before the fall of the Grand
Vizier, in mid-39 rS.
The fall of the Outer Rim and the evident intention of the Alliance to begin further expansion Coreward must have encouraged the Emperor’s
Ruling Circle. By this time, the Grand Vizier’s agent-in-place, Quest, must surely have abandoned him, and the Grand Vizier’s clone was
desperate for a decisive victory of his own to bolster his standing. By six months after the Battle of Endor, the Alliance seemed secure enough
in its position (presumably with holdings throughout the Outer, Mid, and Inner Rim) to begin scouting worlds in the Core Worlds Region
itself, prompting Isard to recommend using Brentaal IV, which Coruscant and the Core Worlds explains to be a major trade center for the
entire Empire and one of the foremost worlds in Bormea Sector (which also included Chandrila and Corulag, the Sector capital, home to the
Imperial Academy at Corulag and the Sienar Fleet Systems Advanced Research Division); in addition to its status as a primary trade world,
starport, and jump point for traffic from the Core to the Corporate Sector and to the Colonies — it is located at the intersection of the
Perlemian Trade Route and the Hydian Way, two major hyperlanes — Brentaal was the location of the Sector’s primary HoloNet relay
station, a vital link between Imperial Center and military/naval outposts and ships operating along the Perlemian Trade Route. If this were not
enough to make Brentaal an attractive target, there was the fact that half of the Emperor’s Ruling Circled owned property there, and the entire
coalition had sizeable interests in its booming businesses, according to “In the Empire’s Service.” Because of this, Isard recommended that the
Grand Vizier make his stand at Brentaal; she argued that it would demonstrate to the public that he was capable of decisive action and that the
defeat at Endor and the Phoney War had been freak occurrences, as well as leaving the Emperor’s Ruling Circle — “the Cabal,” as the Grand
Vizier’s clone an his prime minister referred to it — no choice but to support him, or risk losing substantial amounts of money and property
by opposing him.
The Grand Vizier’s clone was dubious of the plan, but consented to its execution. Isard ordered to Brentaal elements of the 181st Imperial
Fighter Group, commanded by ‘Colonel’ (i.e., Captain) Soontir, Baron Fel (who rivaled Tan Maarek Stele as the Empire’s ace of aces), but
arranged to leave the command of Brentaal’s defense to Admiral Lon Isoto, an unsavory character addicted to glitterstim and disreputable
liaisons, perhaps in imitation of Grand Admiral Miltin Takel, a man of undeniable tactical genius; for his part, Isoto’s great genius was limited
strictly to degenerate hedonism, indulging in glitterstim spice and wanton adultery (Isoto casually remarked to the Lord Fel that his wife
wouldn’t approve of his willingness to partake of Brentaalian hospitality, “which is why she is on Coruscant”). The Grand Vizier — who
privately commented that he’d gladly cede a Super Star Destroyer to the Alliance if they would accept “Isoto the Indecisive” in the bargain —
only agreed to leave Isoto in command because he believed that the incompetent commander was favored by the Emperor’s Ruling Circle, and
accepted Isard’s argument that if he left Isoto in command until the Ruling Circle begged for his replacement, it would reinforce his position as
the supreme authority in the Empire while at the same time disgracing one of their favorites. Although the plan was risky, the Lord Fel’s
presence was anticipated to provide a stabilizing influence on Isoto’s incompetence, and the Grand Vizier trusted his prime minister Isard to
monitor the situation carefully for signs of potential failure. He publicly vowed that Brentaal would not fall.
Unfortunately, the Grand Vizier failed to realize until it was too late that Isard was using him. Isoto was in fact not favored by the Ruling
Circle; they knew as well as the Grand Vizier did that the man was criminally incompetent, and had been told by Isard that Isoto was the
Grand Vizier’s favorite, and that he refused to remove him out of caprice. In fact, the Ruling Circle had already asked that Isoto be removed,
via their interlocutor... Isard. The truth was that Isard had no intention of successfully defending Brentaal, and had planned to lose it from the
very beginning of the whole sordid affair. Her actual plan was to simultaneously break any confidence remaining in the Grand Vizier’s regency
and cripple the power base of the Ruling Circle, in the process elevating her own standing due to the fact that the 181st — which would defend
the world long enough to allow its evacuation and looting — would have been present on Brentaal at her orders and no one else’s. The Grand
Vizier, not yet aware at the enormity of her betrayal, discovered that she had issued orders in his name to mobilize an evacuation force, but
agreed to allow it to proceed when she explained that she had intended to damage the Ruling Circle and to allow them to return to Brentaal only
by his good graces, and at the same time to ingratiate himself with the Brentaalian expatriates, whom he would have had rescued. Although he
allowed her to carry on with her plan, the Grand Vizier’s clone realized that he was in mortal danger if he remained in the Empire, and began
making new plans for his survival.
The fall of Brentaal IV in “In the Empire’s Service” represents a significant blow to the Galactic Empire whose importance is not much
commented upon by the Expanded Universe except in terms of the role it played in the fall of the Grand Vizier and the rise of Isard.
Nevertheless, the evidence is clear: Coruscant and the Core Worlds is quite unambiguous in its description of Brentaal’s economic status, not
to mention its strategic importance as a major HoloNet and hyperspace traffic node. The loss of such a major port could be only slightly
ameliorated by the fact that most of the physical wealth on-planet had been looted and that the Alliance could not benefit in turn from
Brentaal’s robust trade, because Coruscant and the Core Worlds explains that the battle had wiped out most of the orbital stations, crippling
Brentaal’s economy and sending it spinning into recession from which it would not recover for years. Furthermore, quite apart from the
inconvenience of the shortages and inflation signified by the loss of the Outer Rim, the fall of Brentaal would cause direct, substantial financial
damage to the Galactic Empire as a whole, something which the entire Imperial elite would feel — and be quite unaccustomed to feeling. Isard
was virtually the only person in the Empire to have benefited from the affair, and the fall of Brentaal IV can be safely categorized as an
unmitigated disaster for the Imperial State. It serves to demonstrate the ruthlessness that Isard was capable of showing in the pursuit of her
goals, to the point that she was willing to cause considerable damage to the Empire to gain political advantage.
The Grand Vizier’s regime had all but fallen. The disastrous loss of Brentaal must surely have destroyed any support he may have yet retained
among the ruling class, and he rapidly reached the conclusion that the only means of survival available to him was the Alliance. Although not
excited to be negotiating with the Galactic Emperor’s first lieutenant and personal deputy, the secret negotiations on Axxila between them in
“Masquerade” produced an agreement that the Grand Vizier would leave Imperial Center open to the Alliance, in exchange for control of 25
worlds of his choice and the right to join the New Republic as a full member. The Provisional Council agreed to the terms, hoping that the
Grand Vizier’s defection might encourage others to abandon the Empire for the Alliance. Unfortunately for the Grand Vizier and the Alliance,
his prime minister Isard’s office as Director of Imperial Intelligence was not for show, and Imperial Intelligence’s eyes were always watching.
She discovered the Axxila talks and immediately informed the Ruling Circle. The three-member Tribunal — presumably a sort of presidium for
the entire Emperor’s Ruling Circle, although its nature has never been clarified by any source — immediately took the extraordinary step of
formally deposing the Grand Vizier and installing itself in his place as collegial imperator pro tempore; with a warrant posted for his immediate
arrest and extradition to Imperial Center, the Grand Vizier fled to Ciutric, where he hoped to find a sympathetic Governor. Instead,
“Mandatory Retirement” shows that he found himself arrested by the very Governor he had installed there, and the Alliance dispatched a
rescue mission, trying to keep good faith with the fallen Imperial regent. The Tribunal ordered Admiral Delak Krennel to proceed to Ciutric
with HIMS Reckoning and effect the extradition of the deposed Grand Vizier.
As with the Brentaal fiasco, the affair on Ciutric ended badly for almost everyone involved. “Mandatory Retirement” recounts the ultimate
failure of the Alliance’s rescue attempt, Krennel’s murder of the Grand Vizier’s clone and self-installation as “Prince-Admiral of the Ciutric
Hegemony,” severing his connections to the Empire. On Imperial Center, the Tribunal was liquidated by Isard, who had Tribune Challer
poisoned by a prostitute and Tribune Plumba murdered by an antiquities dealer wielding a Sith lanvarok; the Tribunal Leader, General Paltr
Carvin, was arrested and sent to Imperial Intelligence’s Lusankya penitentiary. Both the New Republic Historical Council in The Essential
Chronology and the scribe in The New Essential Guide to Characters claim that Isard liquidated the entire Emperor’s Ruling Circle, but this is
impossible, because Dangor was identified as the leader in Cracken’s Threat Dossier and he still figured as a major player in Imperial politics
in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, nearly five years after “Mandatory Retirement” (in 45 rS) and taking place even after Isard’s own death.
Presumably, the Historical Council and the scribe were careless with their details and Isard only liquidated the Tribunal and whatever other
elements of the Ruling Circle may have held specific high offices that she perceived to be threatening. Unfortunately there is no official
clarification of this matter, or of the relationship between the Tribunal and the Ruling Circle; the fact that Krennel expected Carvin to be
Tribunal Leader for life, combined with Dangor’s subsequent machinations, suggests that perhaps Dangor intended to be éminence grise to the
Tribunal’s public face. In any case, the Grand Vizier’s clone was dead, the real Grand Vizier was long gone, and the Ruling Circle was cowed.
Ysanne Isard, who had deliberately engineered the Brentaal debacle and the Ciutric affair to her own advantage, assumed absolute power within
the Imperial State, but cast her rule as mere stewardship of the Throne, according to Wedge’s Gamble.
The transitional period was over. Nicknamed “Iceheart” for good reason, Isard had possessed a reputation for remarkable ruthlessness even
before masterminding her own rise to power; indeed, she had denounced her own father to the Galactic Emperor as a traitor to the Empire in 35
rS, in the process replacing him as Director of Imperial Intelligence, as seen in “Interlude at Darkknell”; Alliance intelligence believed the
denunciation to have been an entirely false fabrication. She had already demonstrated her willingness to use Imperial Intelligence’s
Assassination Branch to neutralize dissent and bring the ‘loyal opposition’ into line. Because Imperial Intelligence was a branch of the Imperial
Armed Forces (as stated by the Death Star Technical Companion), the installation of Ysanne Isard as regent in place of the civilian Grand
Vizier marked an entirely new development in Imperial politics: the stratocratization of the Empire. Whereas before the Imperial State had
been militaristic, the civilian organs of government had always maintained strict control of the military/naval complex; now, for the first time, a
military officer was in control of the Imperial State, and she held a reactionary philosophy quite different from the conservative
authoritarianism of men like Ars Dangor and the Grand Vizier. Dangor and the Emperor’s Ruling Circle apparently decided discretion was the
better part of valor and toed the line. By mid-39 rS, six months after the Battle of Endor, in the absence of any organized opposition and at the
cost of much of the Rim and the loss of Brentaal, Ysanne Isard — Iceheart — was Galactic Empress in all but name.
See also:
| This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement of any kind is intended. Star Wars and related materials are © Lucasfilm Ltd., which reserves all rights thereto. All original material is © Julius Sykes. Please do not use without permission. |
| This article was originally published on 24 November 2004. It was republished on 4 February 2007. The header was generously provided by Mr. Jamie Holm, using a pencil drawing of the Grand Vizier done by the author in March 2007. |
