Domus Publica
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Even before 42 rS brought the fall of Imperial Center — and with it, Isard’s regency — there were some circles of the Imperial ruling class that
had realized that it might be prudent to seek alternatives to reliance on the Imperial State for defense of their power and holdings. The Dark
Empire Sourcebook states that some of these New Order loyalists —having a “vested interest in seeing the Empire endure” — remained in place
and “feigned loyalty to the New Republic,” leaving the New Republic’s civil service “noble in its intentions” but “riddled with Imperial
holdouts,” prompting a long and largely unsuccessful policy of “de-imperialization.” Other “lords, nobles and governors,” thinking it likely that
Imperial Center itself might someday fall to the rebel Alliance, found that they had “little recourse but to leave before being overrun.” Soon
thereafter, “Coruscant, Alsakan, Grizmallt, Wukkar, and a host of the most heavily populated worlds” fell to the Alliance, Isard’s regency
collapsed, and the Emperor’s Ruling Circle came into power. Still others, closer to the Deep Core, remained defiant, like the Inquisitorius’s
headquarters world of Prakith in “Byss and the Deep Core, Part 3: Prakith,” a world so heavily defended that it was reputed as one of the
leading examples of the so-called “Fortress Worlds” (Dark Empire succinctly says “whole systems became fortresses, bristling with
firepower”). With the collapse of the Imperial State and breakdown of Imperial command and control, Prakith’s Moff Governor Foga Brill
established a brutally repressive totalitarian police state, which controlled the commissions and postings of officers with “commission fees and
annual posting assignments,” paying off favors to “wealthy families” with “command ranks that drew pay in goods and gold instead of Prakith
scrip,” and controlled its enlisted personnel by leaving “the security of their families to Brill’s promise of the protection of the Red Police for the
daughters and wives of those who protected his power with their lives,” according to Shield of Lies; those whom Brill’s government did not draft
into the navy were “drafted into the slit mines or the foundaries,” or else were “one of the hundreds rousted nightly from the riverbanks in Prall
and Skoth to dig their own graves.” Nor was Brill’s Terrorist rogue state alone in the outskirts of the Deep Core; in The Essential Chronology,
the New Republic Historical Council mentions that the pocket empires of Supreme Warlord Harrsk and High Admiral Teradoc were both located
on the fringes of the Deep Galactic Core, among the Imperial “safe worlds,” dangerously close to the New Republic’s holdings in the Core
Worlds Region. Nevertheless, as these pocket empires and warlord states were no longer part of the Galactic Empire proper and were fiercely
competitive amongst themselves, the New Republic was not faced with the prospect of a two-front war.
With the assassination of Thrawn at Bilbringi in 44 rS and the collapse of his shōgunate, the tide of Thrawn’s War immediately turned against
the Empire. Perhaps out of panic, Thrawn’s flag captain, Captain Gilad Pellaeon, ordered the fleet to regroup near the Unknown Regions,
despite the fact that Bilbringi was in the Inner Rim (given the insensibility of this order, it is possible that the New Republic Historical Council,
notional authors of The Essential Chronology, may have erred in this matter, or else Pellaeon may have ordered a withdrawal vertically relative to
the galaxy’s disk). The same source does mention that the sudden loss of leadership provoked a new collapse into warlordism and sectarianism,
while “the New Republic began recapturing its lost territory, planet by planet,” “amazed at the ease with which they swept up small pieces of
the Empire, as if the Imperial fleet had gone into hiding.” Indeed, Isard’s Revenge indicates that the New Republic had immediately seized
control of the Bilbringi Naval Shipyard, even going so far as to finish repair and refitting work on the captured Super Star Destroyer HIMS
Lusankya there. Encouraged, the New Republic Defense Forces (NRDF) undertook a campaign against Isard’s former Loyalist admiral and rogue
warlord, Delak Krennel, Prince-Admiral of the Ciutric Hegemony, who had murdered the Grand Vizier’s clone in 39 rS and was now believed by
New Republic Intelligence (NRI) to have custody of Imperial Intelligence’s missing political prisoners, including among them the rebel Alliance’s
Lieutenant General Jan Dodonna, architect of the Alliance’s victory in the Battle of Yavin in 35 rS. With the Prince-Admiral’s death in battle and
the annexation of his territories in Isard’s Revenge, The Essential Chronology says that the NRDF “pushed forward still farther,” and that “the
Empire had lost nearly all of its recently won territory” “in only a short time since the death of Thrawn.” Flush with victory, the Provisional
Government of the New Republic ordered its forces “outward into the Imperially held sections of the Rim, leaving Coruscant and the Core
Worlds relatively unprotected.”
Dark Empire says that “within days of Thrawn’s downfall, surviving members of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle, in concert with six former
Starfleet commanders,” launched a surprise attack on the Core Worlds. The Essential Chronology mentions that “within days” of the new
alliance between the Empire and the six rogue warlords, “the Imperials conquered several key systems.” The Dark Empire Sourcebook lists
among these conquests “the nearby Kaikielius and Metellos systems,” which so alarmed the Provisional Government that they decided to
“select a new command base immediately.” Coruscant and the Core Worlds mentions the ferocity of the Empire’s assault, with “an Imperial
armada under the command of Admiral Delvardus” — the rogue warlord and self-titled “Superior General” who had laid claim to most of the
Rimma Trade Route but had been forced into the Deep Core by military reverses — “shelled the planet in a cruel and wholly unnecessary show
of force, killing more than five billion people.” It is important to emphasize that such violence in the Core Worlds Region was unheard of
throughout the Civil War of 35 - 39 rS; The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition notes that the Empire “carefully insulated” the Core
Worlds from “the evils taking place in the outer regions.” Indeed, the Core Worlds are known to have seen little to no rebel activity throughout
the war, remaining firmly in Imperial hands until the fall of the Isard regency; even the fall of Brentaal IV in mid-39 rS and Coruscant in early 42
rS had been relatively limited military operations. Not since the destruction of the ecumenopolitan world of Humbarine by the Confederacy of
Independent Systems in Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross-Sections during the Clone War of 13 - 16 rS had such violence been seen in the heart
of the galaxy. “Retreat from Coruscant” describes the sudden appearance of an Imperial armada (including a very large number of Star
Destroyers, Dreadnaught heavy cruisers, and smaller support ships) over Coruscant, and the beginning of a heavy bombardment against the
planetary deflector shields which apparently lasted all night; hoping to spare the population the hardships of a long siege or an even more
destructive amphibious assault, the New Republic abandoned the world and fled abroad, relocating its headquarters to the secret Pinnacle Base
on the fifth moon of Da Soocha in the Cyax system. Interestingly, The Jedi Academy Sourcebook indicates that the Imperial attack came as the
New Republic was “celebrating our victory over Thrawn,” and that “between the first wave of attack, the ensuing battles, and the evacuation,”
the New Republic “lost over 60 percent of the Army’s command staff,” including “the upper hierarchy” and “many of our best COs, even those
stationed on other worlds.” With one swift stroke, the New Republic was humiliated and its army decapitated; the Dark Empire Sourcebook
mentions that “a formal ceremony to reconsecrate the capitol city earned General Balan fame throughout Imperial space and a triumphal parade.”
The renewed Imperial offensive continued even after the recapture of the re-(re-)named Imperial Center. The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions
an Imperial siege of Caprioril, “a New Republic Sector capital, “ during which Major Arhul Hextrophon, the Executive Secretary and Master
Historian, Alliance High Command, — the notional editor-in-chief of both the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook (in continuity, it is The Official History
of the Rebellion, Volume One) and the Imperial Sourcebook (in continuity, it is a companion report to the Official History), and quite probably a
member of the New Republic Historical Council — was injured in an assassination attempt. Nor did the offensive stop there; Coruscant and the
Core Worlds mentions the capture of Esseles III and Ralltiir (Ralt II) in the Darpa Sector — the banking world of Ralltiir was nearly totally
evacuated — , of Duro II in Duro Sector (during the capture of Duro, the newly-promoted Vice Admiral Pellaeon’s flagship HIMS Chimaera
was severely damaged and abandoned, with the loss of “many of Pellaeon’s most loyal and skilled officers,” according to The Essential
Chronology), and of Corulag (Corulus IV) in Bormea Sector, this last world becoming “a major battleground” during the offensive, with heavy
damage being sustained by the capital city of Curamelle and other major metropolises on the planet. The Historical Council describes the capture
of Chandrila II in Bormea Sector, but Coruscant and the Core Worlds claims that the world was unaffected during this phase of the war, while the
Dark Empire Sourcebook indicates that Hextrophon was convalescing on Chandrila at Mothma’s dacha at Lake Sah’Ot, and that he gave a guest
lecture at the Brionelle Memorial Military Academy shortly after the events of Dark Empire, which suggests that the Empire’s hand rested very
lightly indeed on the pastoral world. The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons describes the re-annexation of Balmorra, near the inner edge of
the Core Worlds Region, and The Essential Chronology summarizes by saying that “Ralltiir, Chandrila, Esseles, and other key Core Worlds soon
fell to the Imperials.” By the time of the Dark Empire Sourcebook, the Empire had “regained the Core Worlds, and still holds the Deep Galactic
Core, as well as many high industry regions beyond the Core Worlds,” in addition to supplying its fleets from “power bases in the Mid-Rim and
the reclaimed Inner Rim, where industrial planets depend on wartime economies to survive.” The re-conquest of the Core Worlds and Inner Rim
Regions, combined with existing Imperial territories in the Mid-Rim and Outer Rim Territories Regions, had the effect of “linking Imperial
holdings all the way to Wild Space.” “Once control of these vital planets was ensured,” the sourcebook says, “the Empire began bulwarking
them against further attack.” In only a few months the balance of power had been shifted radically, and the Galactic Empire was once again
galactic in fact as well as in name.
The grandees of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle were determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past, and the Dark Empire Sourcebook states
that they immediately sought “more drastic measures to guarantee their control over these worlds,” “the newly reinstalled nobles” being little
reassured by Balan’s triumph. Inspired by the so-called “Fortress Worlds” of the Deep Core like Prakith, the powers that be “set out to fortify
their worlds,” with impenetrable planetary deflector shields being de rigueur amongst the members of the ruling coalition, who amassed
“perimeter defense squadrons” of ships loyal to themselves personally to form “an overpowering border guard,” ranging from the 30 ships
defending the shipyards of Gyndine to the hundreds of warships defending the banking world of Aargau (Zug III). Nor did they stop at these
measures, having “the wealth to indulge their paranoia,” creating “airless moons” that “bristled with turbolaser and ion cannon emplacements”
and “asteroid belts” that were “mined with anti-matter particles and reflecting satellite arrays for surface based beams.” The rise of the Fortress
Worlds indicated a breakdown in trust by the members of the Ruling Circle in the ability of the Imperial State to defend their property and their
interests, and set a dangerous precedent by unifying the politics of personality and control of armed force. In short, the rise of the Fortress
Worlds signaled the triumph of warlordism within the Empire itself.
Thus infected with distrust for their fellow oligarchs, “the factions of the Empire” were now faced with the question of governmental reform.
The moribund Imperial State had never recovered from the crippling fall of Imperial Center in 42 rS, and the haphazard style of the Ruling Circle
was grossly insufficient to govern the vastly expanded Empire. It now went without saying that there could be no return to the disorganization
and confusion that had followed Isard’s regency and the humiliating retreat to the Outer Rim; regime change was necessary. According to the
Dark Empire Sourcebook, Ars Dangor, still the most powerful man in the Empire and the de facto leader of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle, led the
surviving Privy Counsellors in proposing that the remains of the Privy Council should “convene in the old Senate building on Coruscant” and
hold a conclave to elect a new Galactic Emperor, after which the Privy Council would form a legislature, “overseeing the new ruler’s decisions.”
The Moffs and Grand Moffs who had managed to hold onto their power bases heartily approved of this plan, but demanded the right to vote
with the Privy Counsellors, further suggesting that votes be apportioned according to “the number of worlds they controlled.” As the Imperial
Sourcebook, Second Edition indicates that only weak Privy Counsellors were given large territories to govern as proconsuls, this proposal would
naturally skew the votes against the powerful Privy Counsellors who remained. The “wealthy party functionaries and corrupt officials” of the
Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR) were disgusted by this proposal, decrying “any decision based on political
convenience” as “nothing short of treasonous” and demanding “litmus tests of ideological purity.” COMPNOR was a quasi-autonomous non-
governmental organization (QUANGO) that still controlled most of the bureaucracy and the totalitarian New Order Party’s political machine on
countless worlds throughout the Empire, and although COMPNOR’s leadership could rely on the fervor of “CompForce chiefs and other New
Order purists in the government” and had “regional armies and CompForces at their disposal,” the fact remained that it had few voices in the
Privy Council and did not actually directly control any planets at all, so it would effectively be frozen out of the new regime by either the
Dangor Plan or the Moffplan. Furthermore, the Inquisitorius — a secret branch of Imperial Intelligence which handled special interrogations and
planetary pacifications, as well as being the Galactic Emperor’s preferred organization for dealing with the Jedi and other Force-related cults that
“smacked of the old ways during the Great Purge” — deeply resented their lack of influence in the Ruling Circle and believed their enemies in
COMPNOR, the military, and the Privy Council were “secretly beholden to Rebel interests”; they “staged show trial after show trial to cow
resistance.” Finally, leaders in the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, remembering the power the Armed Forces had held under the stratocratic
regency of Isard and shōgunate of Thrawn, demanded the right to designate from themselves a new supreme commander to take charge of the
situation, a dangerous indication that the old Imperial State’s firm control of its Armed Forces had deteriorated badly.
Several months after the crisis of succession began, tensions escalated and fighting broke out among the countless factions, resulting in the
outbreak of full-scale civil war within the Empire itself; the conflict was called the Imperial Civil War by most non-participants, the War of
Purification by COMPNOR purists, the Imperial Mutiny by those opposed to the ambitions of the military and naval leaders, and the Time of
Destruction by most others. The Essential Chronology succinctly says that the fighting “involved the ruling council, the moffs, the fleet, the
Inquisitorius, COMPNOR, and the Imperial Security Bureau, each trying to claim the whole sabacc pot at the expense of the others.” The Dark
Empire Sourcebook indicates that “fleets bombarded rival worlds from orbit, destroying whole planets,” sometimes without any apparent
reason. Imperial Intelligence “published proscription lists naming ‘enemies’” and “partisans were offered incentives to betray and assassinate
their fellows, and by doing so gain possession of their property”; the tactic was soon adopted by Intelligence’s rivals in the Imperial Security
Bureau (ISB), a quasi-official secret state police organization within COMPNOR, and copied “eventually by others as the sides splintered
further.” The fighting reached its fierce climax when “the equivalent of three sector battlegroups, divided among a dozen loyalties, hammered
against each other in the skies” above Imperial Center; as these forces “annihilated each other,” “planetary bombardments were ordered,” the
planetary shields were sabotaged by ground forces, and fighting broke out in the streets and walkways of the megalopolis between private armies
and counter-insurgents. Once the shields had collapsed, “Star Destroyers began blasting cities at will,” while “walkers and tanks and fighters
dueled non-stop for weeks,” transforming “thousands of square kilometers” of Imperial Center into “burned-out wreckage,” with severe damage
to “the great public transit systems, the malls, and many of the great buildings of the capitol,” sparking a humanitarian crisis as famine and
disease broke out in the population. Between the destruction wrought by the battle and the flight of all those inhabitants who could manage to
evacuate, Imperial Center’s population was reduced to less than a billion during this time, according to the Dark Empire Sourcebook. Hoping to
hasten the collapse of the Empire and restore order to the situation, the New Republic’s supreme commander, Admiral Ackbar, ordered “a few
captured Imperial vessels to stir up trouble,” including NRS Liberator’s mission to Imperial Center under the command of General Lando
Calrissian and General Wedge Antilles, the heroes of the Battle of Endor; once Liberator arrived in the system, however, “three battlewagons”
challenged it with “ident codes they’d never heard before.” Fighting immediately broke out and Liberator was incapacitated by an ion cannon and
crashed into the planet; mirroring his own father’s exploits years during the Battle of Coruscant in 16 rS during the Clone War, former General
Luke Skywalker took the Star Destroyer’s controls and maneuvered a controlled crash landing that caused minimal casualties to the ship’s
company. It appears that the fighting within the Empire had stopped as suddenly as it had begun, as there is no mention of any further action in
the Time of Destruction after Liberator’s crash into the planet’s surface. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that the whole affair was an
elaborate and deadly pantomime arranged by a single intellect; this is of course because that is exactly what it was: The Galactic Emperor had
returned.
After his Sith Apprentice, Darth Vader — the former General Tan Anakin Skywalker — betrayed him and threw him to his death aboard the
second Death Star in 39 rS in Return of the Jedi, “The Emperor’s Pawns” explains that the Galactic Emperor “used the dark side knowledge the
Sith Lords had granted him years earlier” to “transmigrate his essence across lightyears” and possess the body of his most loyal Emperor’s
Hand, Jeng Droga, who was at that time aboard his yacht, HIMY Emperor’s Shadow, on Kaal. Driven mad by the possession, Droga murdered
the crew and plunged the ship into the ocean; only later was the Grand Vizier — who had by then abandoned the Imperial State to the
superintendence of his hapless clone — able to “tear the Emperor’s essence from Droga’s body,” enabling him to reincarnate in a cloned body on
Byss. The Dark Empire Sourcebook states that he had “spent over a year disembodied,” which presumably refers to the period between his
death at Endor and his reincarnation on Byss. The experience was traumatic — “he had never foreseen having to transport his spirit so far across
space” and “had nearly dispersed forever” — and he spent the next years convalescing and devoted even more time to his studies in the “Science
of Darkness.” In the meantime, he continued to interfere in the galaxy’s affairs, by means of “his Dark Side Adepts or other loyal servants,”
including “his Hands and his Noghri.” He still retained his extensive network of contacts outside of the Imperial State’s formal structure, such as
his secret corporate allies from the Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook, or his secret pass codes and built-in back-doors from Dark
Force Rising. The Dark Empire Sourcebook claims that his “spies moved everywhere with confidence, probing loyalty, checking for those most
likely to prove worthy.” He summoned some of those struggling for power to his secret lair deep within the heart of the Deep Core, and
demanded their renewed loyalty; those who obeyed him were rewarded and those who rejected him were summarily executed and their forces
destroyed. In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe identifies the former regent Ysanne Isard as one of those summoned by the
Galactic Emperor.
The Galactic Emperor was not prepared to reveal himself to the galaxy for several years, but via his intermediaries and agents he was directly
responsible for much of the confusion of the period following his death. The Dark Empire Sourcebook states that it was he “who had given all
the various orders and counter-orders that were impeding the petty plans of the various factions,” and that his activities were “the reason so
many of the warships Thrawn needed had vanished into the fortress systems, forcing him to rely on the Katana fleet of lost Dreadnaughts” and
that “the construction of new palaces and his flagship” inexplicably continued. Given the scribe’s assertion in The New Essential Guide to
Characters that Isard had indeed been contacted by the Galactic Emperor, it is probable that her deliberate policy of weakening the authority and
influence of the college of Moffs, and deliberate abandonment of Imperial Center were part of his plans; certainly these events made possible the
political crisis and loss of command and control that he used to test his subordinates and their abilities. Indeed, he had decided that “no contender
could ever be allowed to become too powerful,” and the Dark Empire Sourcebook says that “it was no accident when Thrawn fell,” having been
used by the Galactic Emperor “to divert attention from his own return”; this statement, combined with the fact that the sourcebook refers to a
cadre of Noghri Death Commandos loyal to him and the appearance of other Noghri Death Commandos at the Sith temple on Dromund Kaas in
Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, implies very strongly that the Galactic Emperor arranged for Thrawn’s assassination at Bilbringi. The Dark
Empire Sourcebook is clear that he had allowed the fratricidal infighting — Imperial politics had always been dangerous, with “Soldiers of the
Empire!” even going so far as to say that Imperial Guards units were frequently used to assassinate rivals — and had even organized the Time of
Destruction to “cull out the weak, the cowardly, the stupid,” regarding “one such Civil War” as being “useful to prune the nest of vipers”; when
the time had come to finally reveal himself, he summoned “each of the leaders in the Mutiny” and put an end to the farce.
The Galactic Emperor had created an enormous reserve of military and naval power in the Deep Core. His interest in the Deep Core had begun
during his days representing Naboo and the Chommell Sector in the Galactic Senate (ca 27 BrS - 3 rS). The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions
that even as a Senator he had “funded and promoted long range Deep Core explorations”; with his ascension to the podium as Supreme
Chancellor of the Galactic Republic in 3 rS, he gained access to “more comprehensive charts” than even the Trade Federation’s extensive and
monopolistic astrogation charts, according to Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross-Sections. Through more unethical means he gained details of
secret hyperspace routes charted by the Jedi during their own secret explorations of the Deep Core, according to Labyrinth of Evil. Once he had
taken possession of detailed maps of the Deep Core, he immediately set about creating a hidden empire within it, ordering modified scout ships
and survey teams into the region, where they “catalogued and surveyed hundreds of potentially habitable worlds” (the Galactic Emperor had all
of the surveyors put to death, however, to preserve the secrecy of his activities). Over the next decades, the Dark Empire Sourcebook describes
the careful colonization of some of these worlds, creating “secret military facilities, shipyards, and training grounds for his exclusive troops,”
along with “worlds of loyal servants and private retreats for him and his select ministers”; it is possible that the Empire’s cloning facilities were
located in the Deep Core, which would explain the stormtrooper shortage described by Cracken’s Threat Dossier, as well as explaining why the
New Republic did not seem to be aware that the Imperial Marines were predominantly clones. The Galactic Emperor’s retreat world Byss,
which served as the new headquarters of the Imperial State, and as “a military staging area, refueling depot, and stopover station” where
“hundreds of ships arrive on an hourly basis,” was nearly at the center of the Deep Core. To protect this secret empire, he ordered the
construction of the Imperial Hyperspace Security Net, a system of hyperspace interdiction technology and “connected non-mass transceivers
linked by a network of coordinated hyperspace S-threads.” The transceivers could detect when a ship in hyperspace passed through the “cross-
channeled radiation” emitted by the network, and then used gravity-well generators to force the ship to exit hyperspace. The Dark Empire
Sourcebook is explicit that all of the navigable paths within the Deep Core were monitored by the Security Net, and that many of the navigable
regions were “mined, patrolled, and otherwise blockaded to prevent further unauthorized exploration.” The entire Deep Core Region was the
culmination of the Fortress Worlds phenomenon, an entire region of the galaxy turned into an impregnable fortress.
In the Star Wars Encyclopedia, the scholars state that half of the Empire’s Star Destroyers were “held on reserve in the Galactic Core to protect
key military, industrial, and political systems,” and the Dark Empire Sourcebook adds that the Galactic Emperor had begun to “bring supplies
and troops into the Deep Core” in preparation for his return. Using the vast wealth he had accumulated throughout his rise to power via his
secret corporate and criminal alliances (not to mention surplus tax revenues from the Wheel, the Commonality and the Corporate Sector
Authority, which could easily be made to “disappear” during the Imperial State’s financial disarray following the capture of Imperial Center,
given his secret connections within the banking industry), he created the Deep Core hauler system, a tightly regulated system whereby the
Imperial State licensed certain reliable cargo haulers — ranging from reputable and old-line shipping lines like the Tagge Company (TaggeCo.) to
smugglers and fringe independent freighters — to ship war matériel, fuel, and ammunition through well-supervised routes within the Deep Core
in exchange for “huge sums.” The Galactic Emperor’s Deep Core reserve combined with the remnants of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle and the
rogue warlords — The Essential Chronology mentions that “surviving warlords such as Harrsk, Delvardus, and Teradoc swore obedience to the
same master and fought under the same banner, as did the loyal Imperial forces under Pellaeon,” the Galactic Emperor having “done a better job
of reuniting the Imperial factions than anyone before him, including Thrawn” — to create a renewed Galactic Empire in control of approximately
half the galaxy, although a Top Secret memorandum to the Provisional Council of the New Republic from Brigadier Colin Darkmere of the
Intelligence Operations Command was quoted in the Dark Empire Sourcebook as saying that the New Republic’s analysts had concluded that
“militarily, we still hold the winning hand and most likely [the Imperials] realize this.”
In the early days of 45 rS, the Galactic Emperor launched Operation Shadow Hand, which was the actual implementation of his “Shadow Hand
Strategy,” a detailed plan so comprehensive that the Dark Empire Sourcebook calls it “an autopilot system for the Empire itself.” The Shadow
Hand Strategy was “a summation of the Emperor’s battle philosophy,” which he considered “more important than any admiral or weapons
system.” He had begun designing it “as he waited for the Alliance fleet to walk into his trap over Endor,” and it “made use of all his resources —
not simply COMPNOR or the military, but everything,” including “his Dark Side Adepts and Dark Jedi,” who were provided with “a secret and
chilling role to play.” Notably, not even the Galactic Emperor’s closest advisors had access to the entire Strategy, having access only “to as
much of the plan as necessary,” it being made clear that “it was in their best interests to follow it precisely.” The Essential Chronology states
that the plan was “designed to subjugate the galaxy in a series of unstoppable wave assaults.” The Galactic Emperor’s identity as a Sith Lord is
reflected by the fact that “a new servant to replace Vader” was “one of the key ingredients of this Shadow Hand Strategy,” and he had already
chosen Luke Skywalker — the son of Darth Vader and the cause of Vader’s betrayal at Endor — to replace his father in the Sith Order. To that
end, the Galactic Emperor captured Skywalker at Imperial Center after Liberator crashed, and brought him to Byss, where he convinced the Jedi
Knight to join him in order to learn his secrets of the dark side so as to destroy him, à la Ulic Qel-Droma’s deliberate joining of the Krath in
order to learn their secrets and thus destroy them. Skywalker was henceforth styled “Lord Skywalker” and was appointed supreme commander
in Thrawn’s place, with responsibility for overseeing the next step in Operation Shadow Hand: The destruction of Calamari (Daca II),
homeworld of one of the most important groups in the rebel Alliance and a leading member of the New Republic.
Hextrophon’s guest lecture at the Brionelle Memorial Military Academy on Chandrila mentions that the New Republic “received reports of
fringe worlds in the Borderland Regions whose surfaces had been burned away by monstrous things the survivors called ‘city-smashers.’” The
attack on Calamari was to shed light on these reports, as the attack was led by the so-called “city-smashers,” the Galactic Emperor’s World
Devastators, war machines designed by Umak Leth, Master of Imperial Projects and Chief Engineer to the Galactic Emperor, as self-sustaining
mobile molecular furnaces with on-board factories. Controlled by “highly advanced computers” and regulated by the Master Control Signal
transmitted from Byss, the World Devastators operated freely within their designated parameters, virtually immune to attack, and able to adapt
and modify themselves to respond to threats. Quite simply, a World Devastator was able to eat whatever ship the enemy sent to fight it, and use
the materials to create more armor and weapons for itself. These war machines (including Silencer-1, Silencer-7, and Inquisitor-4 from the Dark
Empire Sourcebook and Nullifier-5 from Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds) were constructed in secret at the shipyards of Thomark, which
were officially closed years before because of “a new strain of contagious hive virus,” a cover story created by the Galactic Emperor’s agents to
create an abandoned and haunted area suitable for a top secret project (the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that this cover story was made
credible by the murder of over 450 people).
The World Devastators proved to be as lethal as Leth had claimed them to be, and they ran roughshod over the Calamarian defenses, bringing
“destruction to Mon Calamari on a scale not seen since the reprisals that triggered the planet’s uprising,” according to Geonosis and the Outer
Rim Worlds; The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons mentions the destruction of the floating cities of Kee-Piru and Heurkea; Dark Empire
even shows the lead Devastator, Commander Titus Klev’s Silencer-7, eating Calrissian’s other Star Destroyer, NRS Emancipator. Only the
treachery of Skywalker prevented the complete destruction of Calamari; he used the Master Control Signal to order Silencer-7 to destroy itself
and immobilized the other Devastators, then gave the Master Control Signal to his astromech R2-D2, which then used it to order the Devastators
to attack and destroy each other. In the mean time, Skywalker attempted to prevent the Galactic Emperor from reincarnating in another clone
body, and though he destroyed the Galactic Emperor’s Clone Vat Chamber, he failed to prevent the reincarnation; with Skywalker once more
subdued by the power of the dark side of the Force, the two then boarded the Galactic Emperor’s flagship, the enormous Star Destroyer HIMS
Eclipse, and set course for the New Republic’s secret headquarters at Da Soocha V, where the Galactic Emperor intended to capture Skywalker’s
sister, the Princess Leia of Alderaan, and the ancient Jedi holocron she’d stolen from him on Byss (he himself had taken it years before from
Master Jedi Ashka Boda).
But the Galactic Emperor had miscalculated, and Dark Empire shows that he was defeated in a second duel against Skywalker, and retaliated by
attempting to destroy the New Republic fleet with a Force storm. The twin offspring of Tan Skywalker — Skywalker and the Princess Leia —
joined their strength in the Force together with that of the Princess Leia’s unborn son, and disrupted the Galactic Emperor’s control of the storm,
causing it to return to him, killing him and destroying his flagship. The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons states once word of his second
death reached the Empire, Balmorra again seceded and returned to arming the New Republic. In the meantime, Operation Shadow Hand
continued unabated, with the Galactic Emperor’s chief Dark Jedi, Military Executor Sedriss, in overall command (the position of military
executor apparently served as a sort of substitute for that of supreme commander; Skywalker is the last known incumbent of that older office).
Darkmere’s memorandum to the Provisional Council in the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that the Intelligence Operations Command
detected “a 64% increase in inter-sector communications” in the weeks following the Galactic Emperor’s second death, and suggested that “a
unified front may be forming,” as “the Emperor, through proxies or by decree, galvanized his servants into a new level of coordination.” The
New Republic Historical Council mentions that Sedriss first “consolidated the forces remaining in the newly subjugated Core and Colonies
regions,” but the Dark Empire Sourcebook states that the New Republic had “a stable hold” on the Colonies Regions, indicating that the Empire
must have seized most of the Colonies Region in the time between the Dark Empire Sourcebook and Dark Empire II. It is possible that former
Grand Moff Ardus Kaine, ruler of the Pentastar Alignment in the Outer Rim, may have died during this period (The Essential Chronology states
only that he died during Operation Shadow Hand, giving no further details).
Sedriss then moved against Balmorra in Dark Empire II, intending to conquer the planet and bring its factories under direct Imperial control,
landing a force of at least “36,000 stormtroopers, 700 AT-ST class assault vehicles, and 382 SD-9 war droids,” using an operational plan created
by the recently-demoted Captain Maximilian Veers (the former major general and victor of the Battle of Hoth, a victim of Sedriss’s envy of his
relationship with Darth Vader). Beltane deployed his own defense force of Balmorran soldiers and SD-10 war ‘droids (also designed by Leth);
Sedriss countered by pulling back his troops — Veers had been killed — and deploying the powerful new Shadow Droids, which made “a mess
of the SDs,” according to one of Beltane’s staff officers. Beltane responded by playing his trump card, the X-1 Viper Automadon, an advanced
war machine that proved a match for the Shadow Droids. Intrigued, Sedriss agreed to grant Balmorra its freedom and the right to continue to sell
arms to the Empire, in contravention of Imperial policy — he mentions that the Galactic Emperor “doesn’t buy weapons from free planets,”
apparently ignoring the embarrassing case of Lianna — in exchange for a shipment of the X-1s; ironically, both parties to the agreement were
dealing in bad faith, as Sedriss planned to “reduce Balmorra to space dust” as soon as he had the war machines and their designers, while Beltane
gave the New Republic the itinerary and registry numbers of the shipment of X-1s to Byss, which Calrissian proposed to hijack and then use to
target “the six top Imperial command posts,” but Antilles suggested instead that the shipment be allowed to proceed to Byss with a special
forces team aboard, and then be used to make “a dash for the Citadel.” Skywalker — now Master Jedi Luke Skywalker, having returned to the
New Republic and eschewed his Imperial courtesy title — disagreed, saying that Byss security would prevent the X-1s from reaching the
Citadel, and that it would be better to use them to “liberate other worlds that can help the Alliance launch an all-out attack” (after the fall of
Coruscant to Balan’s armies, it had become commonplace to refer to the New Republic as “the Alliance” again). There was strong support for
Antilles’s suggestion, however, and Mothma settled the matter by voting for it.
Other schemes were afoot as well. There are at least two separate plots by Imperial leaders current during this time period. Dark Empire II
mentions that it was known that “a number of hidden clone tanks survived Skywalker’s assault” in Dark Empire, and there was therefore the
possibility that the Galactic Emperor could reincarnate again (the Empire was as yet still being driven by the Shadow Hand Strategy’s autopilot),
but “certain powerful adepts, members of the Emperor’s inner circle” had been “spreading rumors that the Emperor will not take a new clone
body.” Two of the Galactic Emperor’s “closest friends,” the dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di, set about destroying the remaining clones, hoping
to ensure that “the rumors of the Emperor’s permanent demise come true.” They were summarily executed by Sedriss when he found them in
the Clone Lab (“The Emperor’s Pawns” claims they were betrayed by Sarcev Quest, an Emperor’s Hand and former member of the defunct
Imperial Ruling Council and apparently a member of the New Imperial Council mentioned by the scholars in the Star Wars Encyclopedia; it is
difficult to see how he could have betrayed them unless he tipped off Sedriss to their intentions and prompted his abrupt return to Byss). There
was a parallel plot by Quest and his partner in intrigue, the overly ambitious Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax, who had been promoted to that
rank from the lower rank of Royal Guardsman at Quest’s suggestion. According to Crimson Empire, Jax sent his own agent, General Redd
Wessel, to meet with “those whose appetites for power were left unfulfilled while the Emperor was alive,” and negotiated for a certain amount
of “funds” which were used to “persuade the Emperor’s trusted private physician to secretly sabotage Palpatine’s clones.” The Essential
Chronology mentions that the sabotage would “trigger a premature aging cycle and a quick death for the resurrected Palpatine.” The sabotage
accomplished before Nefta and Sa-Di made their own move, Jax and his conspirators kept a low profile, although Crimson Empire indicates that
Jax’s assistant Lieutenant Geff Blim was compelled to murder at least one conspirator in order to prevent their plot’s revelation. The Galactic
Emperor reincarnated in his last remaining clone — which had been affected by the physician’s sabotage — and he immediately commanded
Sedriss to capture both Skywalker and the Princess Leia. One of Sedriss’s probes tracked Skywalker to Ossus in the Adegan system, which had
been a Jedi stronghold until ravaged during the Sith War of 3,961 BrS, and the Galactic Emperor sent Sedriss and his fellow Dark Jedi, Vill Goir,
with a team of Darktroopers (elite stormtroopers imbued with the dark side) to Ossus to capture the Jedi Master. The mission failed, however,
and both Sedriss and Goir were killed.
The Galactic Emperor received word of their deaths while conducting an inspection tour of his new Galaxy Gun, an enormous missile launcher
that fired “intelligent projectiles into hyperspace,” designed by Leth to be able to “exist hyperspace at precise coordinates, find its target... and
destroy it,” using “a particle disintegrator that initiates a massive nucleonic chain reaction” able to “destroy a city... a land mass... or even an
entire planet anywhere in the galaxy.” Having lost four of his elite Dark Jedi — Baddon Fass and Zasm Katth were killed earlier when their Star
Destroyer, HIMS Invincible, crashed on Nar Shaddaa — the Galactic Emperor used an ancient Sith secret and made his military aides de camp
Xecr Nist and Tedryn-Sha into “Dark Jedi... extensions of my own power,” with Nist as military executor and Sha as his second in command. At
the same time, however, the X-1 Vipers from Balmorra were delivered, and the commando team — under the command of the star-crossed team
of Calrissian and Antilles — took control and made their way to the Imperial Citadel itself, making short work of the ground forces and air
defenses ordered to stop them. Observing the battle from high orbit, the Galactic Emperor immediately realized that “those war droids are
invulnerable to short-range fire,” and ordered the release of his Chrysalides, alchemically created Sithspawn Rancors which literally tore the X-1s
to pieces, prompting a hasty retreat aboard three licensed Deep Core haulers’ ships. Because the escaping freighters passed too close to the
Galaxy Gun, Byss’s spaceborne security forces did not fire on them, and the Galactic Emperor casually ordered their release, not caring about
their eventual fate. He ordered the firing of the Galaxy Gun, whose test firing completely annihilated Da Soocha V, although the New Republic
had already evacuated the moon. The Galactic Emperor then sent his seven Dark Jedi to the New Republic safe world New Alderaan., intending
to capture the entire Skywalker family — Skywalker, the pregnant Princess Leia, and her twin children, Jacen and Jaina Solo. The raid proved to
be a disastrous failure, as Tedryn-Sha, Krdys Mordi, and Kvag Gthull were all killed and a fourth, unidentified Dark Jedi had his arm cut off,
with the death of only an untrained Jedi initiate, Jem Ysanna, to show for their efforts. Nist and two others (both unnamed) escaped, but
Skywalker and the rest of his clan, which traveled to Nespis VIII in late 45 rS, a space station in the Auril systems that now served as the New
Republic’s central headquarters.
The Essential Chronology states that “New Republic commando and sabotage teams attacked the Galaxy Gun but were unable to destroy it,”
and the Galactic Emperor destroyed two more worlds with the weapon in early 46 rS, “bringing the resistance to its knees.” The knowledge that
the Galactic Emperor now possessed the ability to completely destroy even a fully-shielded world anywhere in the galaxy and at any time,
without warning, was apparently enough to break the fighting spirit of worlds throughout the galaxy, and many began to surrender. The Essential
Chronology states that the Empire soon “regained key territories in the Inner and Outer Rim,” solidifying its hold on most of the galaxy, an
amazing feat considering that the New Republic had controlled approximately three-quarters of the galaxy barely two years before, just before
Thrawn’s War. The New Republic was on the verge of total collapse, holding onto a handful of worlds (no source describes the conquest of the
Expansion Region, for example, which implies that the Empire did not successfully seize the majority of that region), and Empire’s End
mentions that “troopships and heavy armor” were “directed against Imperial supply ports and shipyards”; one such was the troopship NRS
Pelagia, “transporting a hundred thousand ground troops and their assault armor to the galactic rim, where rebel forces have a great Imperial
shipyard under siege.” Seemingly selecting this target at random, the Galactic Emperor destroyed Pelagia with the Galaxy Gun, watching the
spectacle via “subminiature probe drones” which followed the missile to its target; the sight of the troopship’s destruction prompted Nist to
remark that the Galaxy Gun “has only been fired four times... and yet planets all over the galaxy are capitulating.” A spy provided the location
of the New Republic’s new base, and a fifth Galaxy missile was fired, which failed to detonate because of a “faulty Bonadan timer”; a sixth
Galaxy missile finished the job approximately an hour later, but this delay gave the New Republic government the time it needed to evacuate the
spaceborne city. Mothma ordered the New Republic forces to disperse throughout the galaxy, preventing the Galaxy Gun from destroying them
all at once.
With the Shadow Hand Strategy continuing to direct the Empire’s forces and resources, the Galactic Emperor was able to focus entirely on his
deteriorating condition, as his body was being destroyed by “his dark powers and the cellular sabotage of Carnor Jax.” The Essential Chronology
indicates that “he tried to clone other bodies so he could resurrect himself again, but Jax’s manipulations had tainted even the genetic source
material” (incidentally, this passage confirms that there were other cloning facilities in the Deep Core, as between Skywalker in Dark Empire and
Nefta and Sa-Di in Dark Empire II, the Clone Lab within the Imperial Citadel had been completely destroyed). In Empire’s End, the Galactic
Emperor traveled for the first time in ten years to the great Sith necropolis of Korriban, home to the tombs of most of the previous Dark Lords
of the Sith; there, he conferred with the Dark Lords’ specters, and he realized that he needed to reincarnate in the body of the Princess Leia’s
youngest son, Anakin Solo. To that end he boarded his new flagship, HIMS Eclipse (hastily commissioned to replace the destruction of her
predecessor over Da Soocha V in Dark Empire), and accompanied by his physician, the dark side hierarch T’iaz, and his last Emperor’s Hand,
Jeng Droga, he traveled to Onderon. Meanwhile Skywalker and a small cadre of Jedi — former Dark Jedi Kam Solusar, Jedi initiate Rayf Ysanna,
and King Empatajayos Brand, a Jedi Knight of the old Order who had survived the Purge — attacked Bast Castle on Vjun, the Dark Jedi
headquarters, killed six of the Dark Jedi and captured Nist. At Onderon, the Galactic Emperor ignored Droga’s concern that it would be too
dangerous for him to travel to the surface and capture young Solo, and left for the planet, accompanied by his physician, T’iaz, Droga, and a
contingent of Royal Guards. While the Galactic Emperor made his way to the fortress of Modon Kira where the Princess Leia and her children
were hidden, Solusar, Calrissian, and Antilles led a team of commandos in sneaking aboard Eclipse, sabotaging its guidance and astrogation
systems. The stage was set for the greatest disaster ever to occur in the history of the Galactic Empire, more devastating by far than even the
debacles of Endor, Brentaal, Imperial Center, and Bilbringi.
Sneaking into the Kira Fortress under the guise of a monastic pilgrim, the Galactic Emperor killed Rayf Ysanna and mortally wounded King
Empatajayos. The Galactic Emperor moved to take hold of young Anakin Solo, but was shot in the back by the infant boy’s father, General Han
Solo. Desperate to escape final death, he attempted to reincarnate in the boy’s body, but was prevented from doing so by King Empatajayos,
who held the Galactic Emperor’s spirit in his body while they both died. The Galactic Emperor was finally dead, never to return; Crimson
Empire mentions that his physician was captured and confessed his treachery to Skywalker, and this confession was overheard by a surviving
member of the Galactic Emperor’s Royal Guard detachment. Added to the Galactic Emperor’s final death was the fact that the sabotaged Eclipse
was set on a collision course with the Galaxy Gun and the collision of the two sent a loose Galaxy missile with a fully-armed particle
disintegrator warhead spiraling toward Byss. The destruction of Byss and its 19.7 billion inhabitants proved to be the coup de grâce from which
the Empire never recovered, as the planet took with it an enormous amount of war matériel and warships, not to mention the Shadow Hand
Strategy, the Imperial State, and most of the Empire’s ruling class, including the Grand Vizier, according to the scribe’s biography of him in The
New Essential Guide to Characters. The Empire immediately suffered a total collapse; The Essential Chronology says that “the confused
Imperial fleet went into retreat, abandoning Coruscant and other Core planets,” and that “the speed with which the Empire crumbled was
amazing, surpassing the mass confusion that had occurred following the Battle of Endor.” Former warlords like Admiral Harrsk, Admiral
Teradoc, and Admiral Delvardus abandoned the Empire, returning to their pocket empires in the outskirts of the Deep Core and re-assuming
their old titles of Supreme Warlord, High Admiral, and Superior General, respectively. By the time some semblance of order was restored in 46
rS, virtually all of the gains made during Thrawn’s War and Operation Shadow Hand had been lost and the Empire had been reduced to “a
narrow band stretching from the Outer Rim to the Colonies.” As a sign of the Empire’s weakness, Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood reveals
that the Mining Guild was able to extort an agreement from both the Empire and the New Republic acknowledging its right to sell its ores to both
sides openly and without legal penalty from either.
Carnor Jax — now styling himself “Lord Jax” and affecting an idiosyncratic black version of the Imperial Royal Guard’s vestments — set up a
provisional government in early 46 rS on Ord Cantrell, which The Essential Chronology calls “a thirteen-member Interim Council.” The first
appearance of the Imperial Interim Ruling Council (many sources refer to it only as “Imperial Ruling Council,” confusing it with the pre-Endor
ruling council also known by that name) is in Crimson Empire, where Jax’s deputy is seen to meet with four Imperial officers, a Defel, and a
Devaronian “ whose appetites for power were left unfulfilled while the Emperor was alive” and whom Jax called “the members of the current
ruling council” (it is implied that these six are not the only members of the conspiracy). Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood says it was
“assembled to manage the affairs of the Empire until a new emperor could take the throne,” but in its first depiction of the Council shows at least
twenty-five members. Between the evidence of Crimson Empire, Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood, “The Emperor’s Pawns,” and Star Wars
Handbook Volume Two: Crimson Empire, fifteen members of the Interim Ruling Council have been identified. Jax, the chairman, was a former
Sovereign Protector and had some limited training in the use of the Force. His vice chairman, Sarcev Quest, was a former Emperor’s Hand and
member of the old Ruling Council, a “dashing playboy” known for his “silky charm.” Burr Nolyds was an arrogant aristocrat with enormous
wealth, and one supposes he might have been a Privy Counsellor. Xandel Carivus was a career civil servant, probably included for his expertise
regarding bureaucracy (the Interim Council would of course need to establish a new civil service to replace the losses suffered at Byss). Norym
Kim, a male Myke, was a warlord who ruled a Sector as well as a pirate lord with control of several groups of deep-space pirates. Spearmaster
Ch’unkk was leader of the largest clan of Whiphids, a species which frequently served as bodyguards of many highly-placed Imperial officials.
Lord Manos was the Devaronian foreman of the galaxy’s largest labor union. The bigoted General Immodet was the highest ranking general
officer still serving the Empire, and commanded the soldiers that formed the first line of defense against the New Republic in several Sectors.
Admiral Banjeer and Admiral Jeratai commanded two of the Empire’s largest fleets, and were of course included in order to placate the Navy,
which had acquired a taste for playing kingmaker during the Time of Destruction. Tann Starpyre was an older and experienced colonial
administrator who represented the Diet of Imperial Planetary Governors, a group that “put a positive spin on Imperial edicts” and served to
“create the illusion of representative democracy within the Empire.” Ragez, Baron d’Asta, was a powerful nobleman who controlled a
strategically important Sector as well as owning “the largest privately owned fleet in the galaxy” and controlled most of the Empire’s remaining
shipping; because of the Lord d’Asta’s poor health, he was represented on the Council by his daughter Feena d’Asta, although Crimson Empire
II: Council of Blood explains that she had actually been kidnapped by Black Sun gangster Grappa the Hutt in 42 rS, and replaced with a clone fed
with information extracted from the genuine Feena by drugging her with Gree spice (as a result, it was the clone of Feena d’Asta that participated
in the plot against the Galactic Emperor and who covertly pushed the agenda of Y’ull Acib, Underlord of Black Sun; the Lord d’Asta himself had
no knowledge of either matter). Kooloota-Fyf was the Givin guild master of the Shipbuilders and Astromechs Guild, which designed many of the
Empire’s astrogation systems; he was included in the Council to ensure good relations with the Guild. The Prince Za was a Defel that controlled
a number of strategic trade routes. Mahd Windcaller had been a part of the Empire’s ruling class since its earliest days, and controlled a media
empire which doubled as an ersatz spy network (given that she is a known media mogul with very early connections to the Empire, Windcaller
may be the chairwoman of Millennium Entertainments).
The known composition of the Interim Council reflects the Empire’s condition at that time. Norym Kim’s power points to a serious weakness
in the central government, as one of the Imperial Navy’s raisons d’être was the eradication of piracy; given the known conditions of the galaxy
throughout the post-Endor period, it is likely that he controlled one of the nominally Imperial regions of space in the Mid-Rim Region, near the
Borderlands. Banjeer, Jeratai, and Immodet point to the triumph of Isardian stratocracy and the final collapse of the old doctrine of strict civilian
control of the military, as they no longer report to the civilian-controlled bureaucracy or the Privy Council, but have a direct voice at the highest
level of government, their continuing command of operational forces notwithstanding. Starpyre’s inclusion suggests timid steps toward
liberalization, possibly to alleviate the effectiveness of Neo-Republican propaganda (notably, The Essential Chronology points out that the
inclusion of Lord Manos, Ch’unkk, Kooloota-Fyf and the Prince Za was hoped to “give new life to the dying Imperial military” via “alien
strength”). The influence of Lord Manos points to a breakdown in the Empire’s traditional laissez-faire attitude toward labor relations, and
suggests that the traditional alliance between the Empire and corporate leaders might have broken down. Much as the Mining Guild’s dictation of
trade policy is indicative of an astonishing collapse of the Empire’s own industrial resources and its firm control of its corporate associates, the
influence of the Lord d’Asta and the Prince Za points to an ironic relapse to the conditions of the Galactic Republic before the Naboo Crisis that
prompted Senator Palpatine of Naboo’s election as Supreme Chancellor: private entities holding a de facto monopoly on shipping and trade
routes that effectively neutered the state’s power to regulate commerce and gave the monopolists the ability to directly and substantially
influence state policy. This marks a complete reversal of the Imperial tradition of the boardroom being junior partner to the throne room. It is
especially interesting to note the shift in ideological composition; few if any of these Interim Councilmen have any clear political identity. The
Interim Council resembles a technocratic government, and it is remarkable in itself that COMPNOR, the totalitarian wing of the monarchist
party, is not represented at all.
The twilight of the Empire was short and bitter. Jax ordered the destruction of the remaining 21 members of the Imperial Royal Guard — most
of the Guard had been killed on Byss or on board Eclipse and Eclipse — but he was too late: The Guard had discovered his treachery, and the
sole survivor, Kir Kanos, vowed revenge. Jax’s obsession with capturing Kanos led to the loss of two Imperial Star Destroyers — first
Commander Vivant’s HIMS Steadfast was captured by the New Republic at Phaeda, and then Jax’s own flagship HIMS Emperor’s Revenge
was destroyed by Kanos at Yinchorr — and his own death at Kanos’s hands on Yinchorr in Crimson Empire. With Jax’s death, “The Emperor’s
Pawns” indicates that the Interim Council ordered Quest’s arrest and subjected him to “a week-long torture session” before “dumping him like
refuse at Nar Shaddaa,” and Burr Nolyds took control as chairman of the Interim Council. D’Asta proposed a peace treaty with the New
Republic, but she was voted down by the Council; Nolyds was blown up immediately afterward in his residence in De-Purteen, Ord Cantrell,
bare minutes after adjourning the Council for the day. Recognizing that the head of the Council would inevitably be a target for assassination —
the concept that power makes one into a target was a major theme of Palpatinian political theory — , Kim, Windcaller, Kooloota-Fyf and the
Prince Za agreed to support Carivus for chairman, and he was duly elected, to d’Asta’s considerable disdain. Unbeknownst to the others,
Carivus was under the influence of Nom Anor, subsequently revealed to be a representative of the extragalactic Vong invaders in Vector Prime;
although the assassination of Nolyds was blamed on Kanos, it was actually the work of Anor. The stabbing to death of Banjeer in his suite —
also Anor’s doing — prompted Lord Carivus — as he was now styled, suggesting that “Lord” was a courtesy title attached to the chair — to
suggest sending both Banjeer’s and Jeratai’s fleets on a massive manhunt; d’Asta and Lord Manos moved a motion of no confidence in Carivus’s
leadership, but were soundly voted down, with only the Prince Za voting with them. Immodet, one of Carivus’s supporters, was poisoned (not
at Anor’s behest), and Carivus panicked, ordering the arrest of all nonhuman members of the Council — Ch’unkk was shot and killed while
resisting arrest — and declaring d’Asta a traitor, ordering her arrest as well. Even as Windcaller tried to convince Carivus of the inadvisable nature
of these orders, they survived an attempt by Black Sun to kidnap the Chairman and replace him with a clone, in an attempt to replace the cloned
d’Asta’s lost voice on the Council. The Lord d’Asta threatened to secede from the Empire, and Carivus announced the dissolution of the Interim
Council, arrested its remaining members, and proclaimed himself Galactic Emperor. His notional reign proved short, as the Lord d’Asta launched
a direct assault on Ord Cantrell, forcing Carivus to sue for peace and release his daughter. He was stabbed to death by Kir Kanos that evening in
Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood.
The Lord d’Asta followed through on his threat to secede from the Empire, depriving what remained of his shipping line’s services. Although the
remaining members of the Council — Jeratai, Kim, Windcaller, Kooloota-Fyf, the Prince Za, and Starpyre — were captured by the New
Republic, and at any rate they lacked the ability to control the remainder of the Empire: Jeratai was simply one fleet commander, no longer
distinctive in any way; Starpyre was only a representative and lacked any power base of his own; Kim controlled only one Sector and was a
pirate lord; the Prince Za’s control of strategic trade routes was effectively neutered without the ships of the d’Astan fleet; and Kooloota-Fyf
and Windcaller were only business leaders, lacking any real direct power in the Empire. The Essential Chronology aptly remarks that the
outcome of Carivus’s policies and the assassinations was that the Interim Council was simply “gone,” and the loss of this government ad interim
— which surely could not have had much success at reordering the mangled Imperial State — resulted in “most of the Imperial fleet disappearing
into the Deep Core to form warlord allegiances”; even Gilad Pellaeon, an old-line Imperial loyalist who had never defected throughout the long
retreat of the post-Endor period, “cast his lot with High Admiral Teradoc, who possessed the largest intact military.” Pellaeon’s decision to join
a rogue warlord speaks volumes about the total collapse of the central government of the Empire. Faced with the break-up of the Empire, “die-
hard Imperial planets like the academy world Carida,” like the grandees of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle after Thrawn’s War in 44 rS and the
worlds on the edge of the Deep Core like Prakith before them, transformed themselves into Fortress Worlds, remaining Imperialist holdouts for
years after the final collapse of the Empire itself in early 46 rS. Although these states would continue to use the imagery and trappings of the
Galactic Empire, few made any pretense at establishing any sort of central government again. Carivus’s death marked the complete collapse of
what was left of the Imperial State after Byss and the breakup of the Empire into unconnected pocket empires; in Children of the Jedi, Luke
Skywalker mentioned that there were “six, maybe ten major fragments” as soon as 47 rS, less than a decade after the seemingly invincible Empire
— Galactic in fact as well as in name — had been defeated at Endor.
The decline and fall of the Galactic Empire is primarily a result of its leadership. It is true that the New Republic made substantial gains against
the Empire, but it is also true that its most spectacular victories had as much to do with Imperial policies and Imperial politics as with their own
strategies and heroism. It is difficult to say how successful the Grand Vizier’s regency might have been; he was an experienced administrator and
had governed the Empire on the Galactic Emperor’s behalf for years by the time he found himself its regent. The fall of Brentaal IV in 39 rS
cannot fairly be blamed on his misgovernment (or, more accurately, that of his clone), as it was after all a deliberate act planned by his de facto
prime minister, Ysanne Isard. Isard proved to be relatively capable, reorganizing the Empire and holding it more or less intact for two years
before she deliberately lost Imperial Center in 42 rS (and with it, much of the Core) as part of a dangerous and risky plan to shatter the New
Republic; although there was rhyme and reason behind her schemes, it remains undisputed that her policies deliberately weakened the Empire,
perhaps as part of the Galactic Emperor’s plan to “prune the nest of vipers.” The Emperor’s Ruling Circle proved to be disastrous for the
Empire, subjecting it to inconsistent, weak, and directionless leadership for two and a half years, during which the Empire was steadily pushed
from its position at the heart of the galaxy and reduced to controlling less than a quarter, primarily in the Outer Rim Territories with some
residual holdings in the Inner Rim and largely nominal territories in the Mid-Rim and Wild Space; the only success the Ruling Circle can claim
was its decision to appoint Thrawn as the Empire’s shōgun. The remarkable successes of Thrawn’s War in 44 rS demonstrate that firm
leadership was indeed capable of reversing the march of history, accomplishing an expansion that nearly doubled the Empire’s size in six months;
the ultimate loss in Thrawn’s War was a result of Thrawn’s assassination, not of any real success on the part of the New Republic. With the
return of the Galactic Emperor in 45 rS, Operation Shadow Hand reversed the losses of the past six years, seeing the Empire return to being the
single overwhelming superpower of the galaxy, re-conquering vast territories and seeing the Empire once again stretch from the Core to the Outer
Rim; the Galactic Emperor’s defeat had little to do with the New Republic and much to do with treachery, the Force, and sheer bad luck. Even
the loss of the Galactic Emperor, Byss, and the Shadow Hand Strategy in 46 rS might not have been fatal had the surviving Imperial leadership
kept their wits about them and stayed the course; rather, the most ambitious and powerful immediately abandoned the Empire and set about
aggrandizing themselves instead. The Empire was left to the ineffectual management of a glorified bodyguard, an arrogant aristo, and finally, a
spineless bureaucrat. When the Empire did die in early 46 rS, it did so not with a bang but with a whimper. Ambitious men and women had
fought each other ruthlessly and violently to take control of the Empire, either not knowing or not caring about the devastating consequences of
their struggle for power. The result was that the Empire ultimately broke its own back, cut off its own head, and fell into a grave it had dug for
itself. Ambition’s debt was paid.
See also:
had realized that it might be prudent to seek alternatives to reliance on the Imperial State for defense of their power and holdings. The Dark
Empire Sourcebook states that some of these New Order loyalists —having a “vested interest in seeing the Empire endure” — remained in place
and “feigned loyalty to the New Republic,” leaving the New Republic’s civil service “noble in its intentions” but “riddled with Imperial
holdouts,” prompting a long and largely unsuccessful policy of “de-imperialization.” Other “lords, nobles and governors,” thinking it likely that
Imperial Center itself might someday fall to the rebel Alliance, found that they had “little recourse but to leave before being overrun.” Soon
thereafter, “Coruscant, Alsakan, Grizmallt, Wukkar, and a host of the most heavily populated worlds” fell to the Alliance, Isard’s regency
collapsed, and the Emperor’s Ruling Circle came into power. Still others, closer to the Deep Core, remained defiant, like the Inquisitorius’s
headquarters world of Prakith in “Byss and the Deep Core, Part 3: Prakith,” a world so heavily defended that it was reputed as one of the
leading examples of the so-called “Fortress Worlds” (Dark Empire succinctly says “whole systems became fortresses, bristling with
firepower”). With the collapse of the Imperial State and breakdown of Imperial command and control, Prakith’s Moff Governor Foga Brill
established a brutally repressive totalitarian police state, which controlled the commissions and postings of officers with “commission fees and
annual posting assignments,” paying off favors to “wealthy families” with “command ranks that drew pay in goods and gold instead of Prakith
scrip,” and controlled its enlisted personnel by leaving “the security of their families to Brill’s promise of the protection of the Red Police for the
daughters and wives of those who protected his power with their lives,” according to Shield of Lies; those whom Brill’s government did not draft
into the navy were “drafted into the slit mines or the foundaries,” or else were “one of the hundreds rousted nightly from the riverbanks in Prall
and Skoth to dig their own graves.” Nor was Brill’s Terrorist rogue state alone in the outskirts of the Deep Core; in The Essential Chronology,
the New Republic Historical Council mentions that the pocket empires of Supreme Warlord Harrsk and High Admiral Teradoc were both located
on the fringes of the Deep Galactic Core, among the Imperial “safe worlds,” dangerously close to the New Republic’s holdings in the Core
Worlds Region. Nevertheless, as these pocket empires and warlord states were no longer part of the Galactic Empire proper and were fiercely
competitive amongst themselves, the New Republic was not faced with the prospect of a two-front war.
With the assassination of Thrawn at Bilbringi in 44 rS and the collapse of his shōgunate, the tide of Thrawn’s War immediately turned against
the Empire. Perhaps out of panic, Thrawn’s flag captain, Captain Gilad Pellaeon, ordered the fleet to regroup near the Unknown Regions,
despite the fact that Bilbringi was in the Inner Rim (given the insensibility of this order, it is possible that the New Republic Historical Council,
notional authors of The Essential Chronology, may have erred in this matter, or else Pellaeon may have ordered a withdrawal vertically relative to
the galaxy’s disk). The same source does mention that the sudden loss of leadership provoked a new collapse into warlordism and sectarianism,
while “the New Republic began recapturing its lost territory, planet by planet,” “amazed at the ease with which they swept up small pieces of
the Empire, as if the Imperial fleet had gone into hiding.” Indeed, Isard’s Revenge indicates that the New Republic had immediately seized
control of the Bilbringi Naval Shipyard, even going so far as to finish repair and refitting work on the captured Super Star Destroyer HIMS
Lusankya there. Encouraged, the New Republic Defense Forces (NRDF) undertook a campaign against Isard’s former Loyalist admiral and rogue
warlord, Delak Krennel, Prince-Admiral of the Ciutric Hegemony, who had murdered the Grand Vizier’s clone in 39 rS and was now believed by
New Republic Intelligence (NRI) to have custody of Imperial Intelligence’s missing political prisoners, including among them the rebel Alliance’s
Lieutenant General Jan Dodonna, architect of the Alliance’s victory in the Battle of Yavin in 35 rS. With the Prince-Admiral’s death in battle and
the annexation of his territories in Isard’s Revenge, The Essential Chronology says that the NRDF “pushed forward still farther,” and that “the
Empire had lost nearly all of its recently won territory” “in only a short time since the death of Thrawn.” Flush with victory, the Provisional
Government of the New Republic ordered its forces “outward into the Imperially held sections of the Rim, leaving Coruscant and the Core
Worlds relatively unprotected.”
Dark Empire says that “within days of Thrawn’s downfall, surviving members of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle, in concert with six former
Starfleet commanders,” launched a surprise attack on the Core Worlds. The Essential Chronology mentions that “within days” of the new
alliance between the Empire and the six rogue warlords, “the Imperials conquered several key systems.” The Dark Empire Sourcebook lists
among these conquests “the nearby Kaikielius and Metellos systems,” which so alarmed the Provisional Government that they decided to
“select a new command base immediately.” Coruscant and the Core Worlds mentions the ferocity of the Empire’s assault, with “an Imperial
armada under the command of Admiral Delvardus” — the rogue warlord and self-titled “Superior General” who had laid claim to most of the
Rimma Trade Route but had been forced into the Deep Core by military reverses — “shelled the planet in a cruel and wholly unnecessary show
of force, killing more than five billion people.” It is important to emphasize that such violence in the Core Worlds Region was unheard of
throughout the Civil War of 35 - 39 rS; The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition notes that the Empire “carefully insulated” the Core
Worlds from “the evils taking place in the outer regions.” Indeed, the Core Worlds are known to have seen little to no rebel activity throughout
the war, remaining firmly in Imperial hands until the fall of the Isard regency; even the fall of Brentaal IV in mid-39 rS and Coruscant in early 42
rS had been relatively limited military operations. Not since the destruction of the ecumenopolitan world of Humbarine by the Confederacy of
Independent Systems in Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross-Sections during the Clone War of 13 - 16 rS had such violence been seen in the heart
of the galaxy. “Retreat from Coruscant” describes the sudden appearance of an Imperial armada (including a very large number of Star
Destroyers, Dreadnaught heavy cruisers, and smaller support ships) over Coruscant, and the beginning of a heavy bombardment against the
planetary deflector shields which apparently lasted all night; hoping to spare the population the hardships of a long siege or an even more
destructive amphibious assault, the New Republic abandoned the world and fled abroad, relocating its headquarters to the secret Pinnacle Base
on the fifth moon of Da Soocha in the Cyax system. Interestingly, The Jedi Academy Sourcebook indicates that the Imperial attack came as the
New Republic was “celebrating our victory over Thrawn,” and that “between the first wave of attack, the ensuing battles, and the evacuation,”
the New Republic “lost over 60 percent of the Army’s command staff,” including “the upper hierarchy” and “many of our best COs, even those
stationed on other worlds.” With one swift stroke, the New Republic was humiliated and its army decapitated; the Dark Empire Sourcebook
mentions that “a formal ceremony to reconsecrate the capitol city earned General Balan fame throughout Imperial space and a triumphal parade.”
The renewed Imperial offensive continued even after the recapture of the re-(re-)named Imperial Center. The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions
an Imperial siege of Caprioril, “a New Republic Sector capital, “ during which Major Arhul Hextrophon, the Executive Secretary and Master
Historian, Alliance High Command, — the notional editor-in-chief of both the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook (in continuity, it is The Official History
of the Rebellion, Volume One) and the Imperial Sourcebook (in continuity, it is a companion report to the Official History), and quite probably a
member of the New Republic Historical Council — was injured in an assassination attempt. Nor did the offensive stop there; Coruscant and the
Core Worlds mentions the capture of Esseles III and Ralltiir (Ralt II) in the Darpa Sector — the banking world of Ralltiir was nearly totally
evacuated — , of Duro II in Duro Sector (during the capture of Duro, the newly-promoted Vice Admiral Pellaeon’s flagship HIMS Chimaera
was severely damaged and abandoned, with the loss of “many of Pellaeon’s most loyal and skilled officers,” according to The Essential
Chronology), and of Corulag (Corulus IV) in Bormea Sector, this last world becoming “a major battleground” during the offensive, with heavy
damage being sustained by the capital city of Curamelle and other major metropolises on the planet. The Historical Council describes the capture
of Chandrila II in Bormea Sector, but Coruscant and the Core Worlds claims that the world was unaffected during this phase of the war, while the
Dark Empire Sourcebook indicates that Hextrophon was convalescing on Chandrila at Mothma’s dacha at Lake Sah’Ot, and that he gave a guest
lecture at the Brionelle Memorial Military Academy shortly after the events of Dark Empire, which suggests that the Empire’s hand rested very
lightly indeed on the pastoral world. The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons describes the re-annexation of Balmorra, near the inner edge of
the Core Worlds Region, and The Essential Chronology summarizes by saying that “Ralltiir, Chandrila, Esseles, and other key Core Worlds soon
fell to the Imperials.” By the time of the Dark Empire Sourcebook, the Empire had “regained the Core Worlds, and still holds the Deep Galactic
Core, as well as many high industry regions beyond the Core Worlds,” in addition to supplying its fleets from “power bases in the Mid-Rim and
the reclaimed Inner Rim, where industrial planets depend on wartime economies to survive.” The re-conquest of the Core Worlds and Inner Rim
Regions, combined with existing Imperial territories in the Mid-Rim and Outer Rim Territories Regions, had the effect of “linking Imperial
holdings all the way to Wild Space.” “Once control of these vital planets was ensured,” the sourcebook says, “the Empire began bulwarking
them against further attack.” In only a few months the balance of power had been shifted radically, and the Galactic Empire was once again
galactic in fact as well as in name.
The grandees of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle were determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past, and the Dark Empire Sourcebook states
that they immediately sought “more drastic measures to guarantee their control over these worlds,” “the newly reinstalled nobles” being little
reassured by Balan’s triumph. Inspired by the so-called “Fortress Worlds” of the Deep Core like Prakith, the powers that be “set out to fortify
their worlds,” with impenetrable planetary deflector shields being de rigueur amongst the members of the ruling coalition, who amassed
“perimeter defense squadrons” of ships loyal to themselves personally to form “an overpowering border guard,” ranging from the 30 ships
defending the shipyards of Gyndine to the hundreds of warships defending the banking world of Aargau (Zug III). Nor did they stop at these
measures, having “the wealth to indulge their paranoia,” creating “airless moons” that “bristled with turbolaser and ion cannon emplacements”
and “asteroid belts” that were “mined with anti-matter particles and reflecting satellite arrays for surface based beams.” The rise of the Fortress
Worlds indicated a breakdown in trust by the members of the Ruling Circle in the ability of the Imperial State to defend their property and their
interests, and set a dangerous precedent by unifying the politics of personality and control of armed force. In short, the rise of the Fortress
Worlds signaled the triumph of warlordism within the Empire itself.
Thus infected with distrust for their fellow oligarchs, “the factions of the Empire” were now faced with the question of governmental reform.
The moribund Imperial State had never recovered from the crippling fall of Imperial Center in 42 rS, and the haphazard style of the Ruling Circle
was grossly insufficient to govern the vastly expanded Empire. It now went without saying that there could be no return to the disorganization
and confusion that had followed Isard’s regency and the humiliating retreat to the Outer Rim; regime change was necessary. According to the
Dark Empire Sourcebook, Ars Dangor, still the most powerful man in the Empire and the de facto leader of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle, led the
surviving Privy Counsellors in proposing that the remains of the Privy Council should “convene in the old Senate building on Coruscant” and
hold a conclave to elect a new Galactic Emperor, after which the Privy Council would form a legislature, “overseeing the new ruler’s decisions.”
The Moffs and Grand Moffs who had managed to hold onto their power bases heartily approved of this plan, but demanded the right to vote
with the Privy Counsellors, further suggesting that votes be apportioned according to “the number of worlds they controlled.” As the Imperial
Sourcebook, Second Edition indicates that only weak Privy Counsellors were given large territories to govern as proconsuls, this proposal would
naturally skew the votes against the powerful Privy Counsellors who remained. The “wealthy party functionaries and corrupt officials” of the
Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR) were disgusted by this proposal, decrying “any decision based on political
convenience” as “nothing short of treasonous” and demanding “litmus tests of ideological purity.” COMPNOR was a quasi-autonomous non-
governmental organization (QUANGO) that still controlled most of the bureaucracy and the totalitarian New Order Party’s political machine on
countless worlds throughout the Empire, and although COMPNOR’s leadership could rely on the fervor of “CompForce chiefs and other New
Order purists in the government” and had “regional armies and CompForces at their disposal,” the fact remained that it had few voices in the
Privy Council and did not actually directly control any planets at all, so it would effectively be frozen out of the new regime by either the
Dangor Plan or the Moffplan. Furthermore, the Inquisitorius — a secret branch of Imperial Intelligence which handled special interrogations and
planetary pacifications, as well as being the Galactic Emperor’s preferred organization for dealing with the Jedi and other Force-related cults that
“smacked of the old ways during the Great Purge” — deeply resented their lack of influence in the Ruling Circle and believed their enemies in
COMPNOR, the military, and the Privy Council were “secretly beholden to Rebel interests”; they “staged show trial after show trial to cow
resistance.” Finally, leaders in the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, remembering the power the Armed Forces had held under the stratocratic
regency of Isard and shōgunate of Thrawn, demanded the right to designate from themselves a new supreme commander to take charge of the
situation, a dangerous indication that the old Imperial State’s firm control of its Armed Forces had deteriorated badly.
Several months after the crisis of succession began, tensions escalated and fighting broke out among the countless factions, resulting in the
outbreak of full-scale civil war within the Empire itself; the conflict was called the Imperial Civil War by most non-participants, the War of
Purification by COMPNOR purists, the Imperial Mutiny by those opposed to the ambitions of the military and naval leaders, and the Time of
Destruction by most others. The Essential Chronology succinctly says that the fighting “involved the ruling council, the moffs, the fleet, the
Inquisitorius, COMPNOR, and the Imperial Security Bureau, each trying to claim the whole sabacc pot at the expense of the others.” The Dark
Empire Sourcebook indicates that “fleets bombarded rival worlds from orbit, destroying whole planets,” sometimes without any apparent
reason. Imperial Intelligence “published proscription lists naming ‘enemies’” and “partisans were offered incentives to betray and assassinate
their fellows, and by doing so gain possession of their property”; the tactic was soon adopted by Intelligence’s rivals in the Imperial Security
Bureau (ISB), a quasi-official secret state police organization within COMPNOR, and copied “eventually by others as the sides splintered
further.” The fighting reached its fierce climax when “the equivalent of three sector battlegroups, divided among a dozen loyalties, hammered
against each other in the skies” above Imperial Center; as these forces “annihilated each other,” “planetary bombardments were ordered,” the
planetary shields were sabotaged by ground forces, and fighting broke out in the streets and walkways of the megalopolis between private armies
and counter-insurgents. Once the shields had collapsed, “Star Destroyers began blasting cities at will,” while “walkers and tanks and fighters
dueled non-stop for weeks,” transforming “thousands of square kilometers” of Imperial Center into “burned-out wreckage,” with severe damage
to “the great public transit systems, the malls, and many of the great buildings of the capitol,” sparking a humanitarian crisis as famine and
disease broke out in the population. Between the destruction wrought by the battle and the flight of all those inhabitants who could manage to
evacuate, Imperial Center’s population was reduced to less than a billion during this time, according to the Dark Empire Sourcebook. Hoping to
hasten the collapse of the Empire and restore order to the situation, the New Republic’s supreme commander, Admiral Ackbar, ordered “a few
captured Imperial vessels to stir up trouble,” including NRS Liberator’s mission to Imperial Center under the command of General Lando
Calrissian and General Wedge Antilles, the heroes of the Battle of Endor; once Liberator arrived in the system, however, “three battlewagons”
challenged it with “ident codes they’d never heard before.” Fighting immediately broke out and Liberator was incapacitated by an ion cannon and
crashed into the planet; mirroring his own father’s exploits years during the Battle of Coruscant in 16 rS during the Clone War, former General
Luke Skywalker took the Star Destroyer’s controls and maneuvered a controlled crash landing that caused minimal casualties to the ship’s
company. It appears that the fighting within the Empire had stopped as suddenly as it had begun, as there is no mention of any further action in
the Time of Destruction after Liberator’s crash into the planet’s surface. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that the whole affair was an
elaborate and deadly pantomime arranged by a single intellect; this is of course because that is exactly what it was: The Galactic Emperor had
returned.
After his Sith Apprentice, Darth Vader — the former General Tan Anakin Skywalker — betrayed him and threw him to his death aboard the
second Death Star in 39 rS in Return of the Jedi, “The Emperor’s Pawns” explains that the Galactic Emperor “used the dark side knowledge the
Sith Lords had granted him years earlier” to “transmigrate his essence across lightyears” and possess the body of his most loyal Emperor’s
Hand, Jeng Droga, who was at that time aboard his yacht, HIMY Emperor’s Shadow, on Kaal. Driven mad by the possession, Droga murdered
the crew and plunged the ship into the ocean; only later was the Grand Vizier — who had by then abandoned the Imperial State to the
superintendence of his hapless clone — able to “tear the Emperor’s essence from Droga’s body,” enabling him to reincarnate in a cloned body on
Byss. The Dark Empire Sourcebook states that he had “spent over a year disembodied,” which presumably refers to the period between his
death at Endor and his reincarnation on Byss. The experience was traumatic — “he had never foreseen having to transport his spirit so far across
space” and “had nearly dispersed forever” — and he spent the next years convalescing and devoted even more time to his studies in the “Science
of Darkness.” In the meantime, he continued to interfere in the galaxy’s affairs, by means of “his Dark Side Adepts or other loyal servants,”
including “his Hands and his Noghri.” He still retained his extensive network of contacts outside of the Imperial State’s formal structure, such as
his secret corporate allies from the Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook, or his secret pass codes and built-in back-doors from Dark
Force Rising. The Dark Empire Sourcebook claims that his “spies moved everywhere with confidence, probing loyalty, checking for those most
likely to prove worthy.” He summoned some of those struggling for power to his secret lair deep within the heart of the Deep Core, and
demanded their renewed loyalty; those who obeyed him were rewarded and those who rejected him were summarily executed and their forces
destroyed. In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe identifies the former regent Ysanne Isard as one of those summoned by the
Galactic Emperor.
The Galactic Emperor was not prepared to reveal himself to the galaxy for several years, but via his intermediaries and agents he was directly
responsible for much of the confusion of the period following his death. The Dark Empire Sourcebook states that it was he “who had given all
the various orders and counter-orders that were impeding the petty plans of the various factions,” and that his activities were “the reason so
many of the warships Thrawn needed had vanished into the fortress systems, forcing him to rely on the Katana fleet of lost Dreadnaughts” and
that “the construction of new palaces and his flagship” inexplicably continued. Given the scribe’s assertion in The New Essential Guide to
Characters that Isard had indeed been contacted by the Galactic Emperor, it is probable that her deliberate policy of weakening the authority and
influence of the college of Moffs, and deliberate abandonment of Imperial Center were part of his plans; certainly these events made possible the
political crisis and loss of command and control that he used to test his subordinates and their abilities. Indeed, he had decided that “no contender
could ever be allowed to become too powerful,” and the Dark Empire Sourcebook says that “it was no accident when Thrawn fell,” having been
used by the Galactic Emperor “to divert attention from his own return”; this statement, combined with the fact that the sourcebook refers to a
cadre of Noghri Death Commandos loyal to him and the appearance of other Noghri Death Commandos at the Sith temple on Dromund Kaas in
Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, implies very strongly that the Galactic Emperor arranged for Thrawn’s assassination at Bilbringi. The Dark
Empire Sourcebook is clear that he had allowed the fratricidal infighting — Imperial politics had always been dangerous, with “Soldiers of the
Empire!” even going so far as to say that Imperial Guards units were frequently used to assassinate rivals — and had even organized the Time of
Destruction to “cull out the weak, the cowardly, the stupid,” regarding “one such Civil War” as being “useful to prune the nest of vipers”; when
the time had come to finally reveal himself, he summoned “each of the leaders in the Mutiny” and put an end to the farce.
The Galactic Emperor had created an enormous reserve of military and naval power in the Deep Core. His interest in the Deep Core had begun
during his days representing Naboo and the Chommell Sector in the Galactic Senate (ca 27 BrS - 3 rS). The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions
that even as a Senator he had “funded and promoted long range Deep Core explorations”; with his ascension to the podium as Supreme
Chancellor of the Galactic Republic in 3 rS, he gained access to “more comprehensive charts” than even the Trade Federation’s extensive and
monopolistic astrogation charts, according to Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross-Sections. Through more unethical means he gained details of
secret hyperspace routes charted by the Jedi during their own secret explorations of the Deep Core, according to Labyrinth of Evil. Once he had
taken possession of detailed maps of the Deep Core, he immediately set about creating a hidden empire within it, ordering modified scout ships
and survey teams into the region, where they “catalogued and surveyed hundreds of potentially habitable worlds” (the Galactic Emperor had all
of the surveyors put to death, however, to preserve the secrecy of his activities). Over the next decades, the Dark Empire Sourcebook describes
the careful colonization of some of these worlds, creating “secret military facilities, shipyards, and training grounds for his exclusive troops,”
along with “worlds of loyal servants and private retreats for him and his select ministers”; it is possible that the Empire’s cloning facilities were
located in the Deep Core, which would explain the stormtrooper shortage described by Cracken’s Threat Dossier, as well as explaining why the
New Republic did not seem to be aware that the Imperial Marines were predominantly clones. The Galactic Emperor’s retreat world Byss,
which served as the new headquarters of the Imperial State, and as “a military staging area, refueling depot, and stopover station” where
“hundreds of ships arrive on an hourly basis,” was nearly at the center of the Deep Core. To protect this secret empire, he ordered the
construction of the Imperial Hyperspace Security Net, a system of hyperspace interdiction technology and “connected non-mass transceivers
linked by a network of coordinated hyperspace S-threads.” The transceivers could detect when a ship in hyperspace passed through the “cross-
channeled radiation” emitted by the network, and then used gravity-well generators to force the ship to exit hyperspace. The Dark Empire
Sourcebook is explicit that all of the navigable paths within the Deep Core were monitored by the Security Net, and that many of the navigable
regions were “mined, patrolled, and otherwise blockaded to prevent further unauthorized exploration.” The entire Deep Core Region was the
culmination of the Fortress Worlds phenomenon, an entire region of the galaxy turned into an impregnable fortress.
In the Star Wars Encyclopedia, the scholars state that half of the Empire’s Star Destroyers were “held on reserve in the Galactic Core to protect
key military, industrial, and political systems,” and the Dark Empire Sourcebook adds that the Galactic Emperor had begun to “bring supplies
and troops into the Deep Core” in preparation for his return. Using the vast wealth he had accumulated throughout his rise to power via his
secret corporate and criminal alliances (not to mention surplus tax revenues from the Wheel, the Commonality and the Corporate Sector
Authority, which could easily be made to “disappear” during the Imperial State’s financial disarray following the capture of Imperial Center,
given his secret connections within the banking industry), he created the Deep Core hauler system, a tightly regulated system whereby the
Imperial State licensed certain reliable cargo haulers — ranging from reputable and old-line shipping lines like the Tagge Company (TaggeCo.) to
smugglers and fringe independent freighters — to ship war matériel, fuel, and ammunition through well-supervised routes within the Deep Core
in exchange for “huge sums.” The Galactic Emperor’s Deep Core reserve combined with the remnants of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle and the
rogue warlords — The Essential Chronology mentions that “surviving warlords such as Harrsk, Delvardus, and Teradoc swore obedience to the
same master and fought under the same banner, as did the loyal Imperial forces under Pellaeon,” the Galactic Emperor having “done a better job
of reuniting the Imperial factions than anyone before him, including Thrawn” — to create a renewed Galactic Empire in control of approximately
half the galaxy, although a Top Secret memorandum to the Provisional Council of the New Republic from Brigadier Colin Darkmere of the
Intelligence Operations Command was quoted in the Dark Empire Sourcebook as saying that the New Republic’s analysts had concluded that
“militarily, we still hold the winning hand and most likely [the Imperials] realize this.”
In the early days of 45 rS, the Galactic Emperor launched Operation Shadow Hand, which was the actual implementation of his “Shadow Hand
Strategy,” a detailed plan so comprehensive that the Dark Empire Sourcebook calls it “an autopilot system for the Empire itself.” The Shadow
Hand Strategy was “a summation of the Emperor’s battle philosophy,” which he considered “more important than any admiral or weapons
system.” He had begun designing it “as he waited for the Alliance fleet to walk into his trap over Endor,” and it “made use of all his resources —
not simply COMPNOR or the military, but everything,” including “his Dark Side Adepts and Dark Jedi,” who were provided with “a secret and
chilling role to play.” Notably, not even the Galactic Emperor’s closest advisors had access to the entire Strategy, having access only “to as
much of the plan as necessary,” it being made clear that “it was in their best interests to follow it precisely.” The Essential Chronology states
that the plan was “designed to subjugate the galaxy in a series of unstoppable wave assaults.” The Galactic Emperor’s identity as a Sith Lord is
reflected by the fact that “a new servant to replace Vader” was “one of the key ingredients of this Shadow Hand Strategy,” and he had already
chosen Luke Skywalker — the son of Darth Vader and the cause of Vader’s betrayal at Endor — to replace his father in the Sith Order. To that
end, the Galactic Emperor captured Skywalker at Imperial Center after Liberator crashed, and brought him to Byss, where he convinced the Jedi
Knight to join him in order to learn his secrets of the dark side so as to destroy him, à la Ulic Qel-Droma’s deliberate joining of the Krath in
order to learn their secrets and thus destroy them. Skywalker was henceforth styled “Lord Skywalker” and was appointed supreme commander
in Thrawn’s place, with responsibility for overseeing the next step in Operation Shadow Hand: The destruction of Calamari (Daca II),
homeworld of one of the most important groups in the rebel Alliance and a leading member of the New Republic.
Hextrophon’s guest lecture at the Brionelle Memorial Military Academy on Chandrila mentions that the New Republic “received reports of
fringe worlds in the Borderland Regions whose surfaces had been burned away by monstrous things the survivors called ‘city-smashers.’” The
attack on Calamari was to shed light on these reports, as the attack was led by the so-called “city-smashers,” the Galactic Emperor’s World
Devastators, war machines designed by Umak Leth, Master of Imperial Projects and Chief Engineer to the Galactic Emperor, as self-sustaining
mobile molecular furnaces with on-board factories. Controlled by “highly advanced computers” and regulated by the Master Control Signal
transmitted from Byss, the World Devastators operated freely within their designated parameters, virtually immune to attack, and able to adapt
and modify themselves to respond to threats. Quite simply, a World Devastator was able to eat whatever ship the enemy sent to fight it, and use
the materials to create more armor and weapons for itself. These war machines (including Silencer-1, Silencer-7, and Inquisitor-4 from the Dark
Empire Sourcebook and Nullifier-5 from Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds) were constructed in secret at the shipyards of Thomark, which
were officially closed years before because of “a new strain of contagious hive virus,” a cover story created by the Galactic Emperor’s agents to
create an abandoned and haunted area suitable for a top secret project (the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that this cover story was made
credible by the murder of over 450 people).
The World Devastators proved to be as lethal as Leth had claimed them to be, and they ran roughshod over the Calamarian defenses, bringing
“destruction to Mon Calamari on a scale not seen since the reprisals that triggered the planet’s uprising,” according to Geonosis and the Outer
Rim Worlds; The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons mentions the destruction of the floating cities of Kee-Piru and Heurkea; Dark Empire
even shows the lead Devastator, Commander Titus Klev’s Silencer-7, eating Calrissian’s other Star Destroyer, NRS Emancipator. Only the
treachery of Skywalker prevented the complete destruction of Calamari; he used the Master Control Signal to order Silencer-7 to destroy itself
and immobilized the other Devastators, then gave the Master Control Signal to his astromech R2-D2, which then used it to order the Devastators
to attack and destroy each other. In the mean time, Skywalker attempted to prevent the Galactic Emperor from reincarnating in another clone
body, and though he destroyed the Galactic Emperor’s Clone Vat Chamber, he failed to prevent the reincarnation; with Skywalker once more
subdued by the power of the dark side of the Force, the two then boarded the Galactic Emperor’s flagship, the enormous Star Destroyer HIMS
Eclipse, and set course for the New Republic’s secret headquarters at Da Soocha V, where the Galactic Emperor intended to capture Skywalker’s
sister, the Princess Leia of Alderaan, and the ancient Jedi holocron she’d stolen from him on Byss (he himself had taken it years before from
Master Jedi Ashka Boda).
But the Galactic Emperor had miscalculated, and Dark Empire shows that he was defeated in a second duel against Skywalker, and retaliated by
attempting to destroy the New Republic fleet with a Force storm. The twin offspring of Tan Skywalker — Skywalker and the Princess Leia —
joined their strength in the Force together with that of the Princess Leia’s unborn son, and disrupted the Galactic Emperor’s control of the storm,
causing it to return to him, killing him and destroying his flagship. The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons states once word of his second
death reached the Empire, Balmorra again seceded and returned to arming the New Republic. In the meantime, Operation Shadow Hand
continued unabated, with the Galactic Emperor’s chief Dark Jedi, Military Executor Sedriss, in overall command (the position of military
executor apparently served as a sort of substitute for that of supreme commander; Skywalker is the last known incumbent of that older office).
Darkmere’s memorandum to the Provisional Council in the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that the Intelligence Operations Command
detected “a 64% increase in inter-sector communications” in the weeks following the Galactic Emperor’s second death, and suggested that “a
unified front may be forming,” as “the Emperor, through proxies or by decree, galvanized his servants into a new level of coordination.” The
New Republic Historical Council mentions that Sedriss first “consolidated the forces remaining in the newly subjugated Core and Colonies
regions,” but the Dark Empire Sourcebook states that the New Republic had “a stable hold” on the Colonies Regions, indicating that the Empire
must have seized most of the Colonies Region in the time between the Dark Empire Sourcebook and Dark Empire II. It is possible that former
Grand Moff Ardus Kaine, ruler of the Pentastar Alignment in the Outer Rim, may have died during this period (The Essential Chronology states
only that he died during Operation Shadow Hand, giving no further details).
Sedriss then moved against Balmorra in Dark Empire II, intending to conquer the planet and bring its factories under direct Imperial control,
landing a force of at least “36,000 stormtroopers, 700 AT-ST class assault vehicles, and 382 SD-9 war droids,” using an operational plan created
by the recently-demoted Captain Maximilian Veers (the former major general and victor of the Battle of Hoth, a victim of Sedriss’s envy of his
relationship with Darth Vader). Beltane deployed his own defense force of Balmorran soldiers and SD-10 war ‘droids (also designed by Leth);
Sedriss countered by pulling back his troops — Veers had been killed — and deploying the powerful new Shadow Droids, which made “a mess
of the SDs,” according to one of Beltane’s staff officers. Beltane responded by playing his trump card, the X-1 Viper Automadon, an advanced
war machine that proved a match for the Shadow Droids. Intrigued, Sedriss agreed to grant Balmorra its freedom and the right to continue to sell
arms to the Empire, in contravention of Imperial policy — he mentions that the Galactic Emperor “doesn’t buy weapons from free planets,”
apparently ignoring the embarrassing case of Lianna — in exchange for a shipment of the X-1s; ironically, both parties to the agreement were
dealing in bad faith, as Sedriss planned to “reduce Balmorra to space dust” as soon as he had the war machines and their designers, while Beltane
gave the New Republic the itinerary and registry numbers of the shipment of X-1s to Byss, which Calrissian proposed to hijack and then use to
target “the six top Imperial command posts,” but Antilles suggested instead that the shipment be allowed to proceed to Byss with a special
forces team aboard, and then be used to make “a dash for the Citadel.” Skywalker — now Master Jedi Luke Skywalker, having returned to the
New Republic and eschewed his Imperial courtesy title — disagreed, saying that Byss security would prevent the X-1s from reaching the
Citadel, and that it would be better to use them to “liberate other worlds that can help the Alliance launch an all-out attack” (after the fall of
Coruscant to Balan’s armies, it had become commonplace to refer to the New Republic as “the Alliance” again). There was strong support for
Antilles’s suggestion, however, and Mothma settled the matter by voting for it.
Other schemes were afoot as well. There are at least two separate plots by Imperial leaders current during this time period. Dark Empire II
mentions that it was known that “a number of hidden clone tanks survived Skywalker’s assault” in Dark Empire, and there was therefore the
possibility that the Galactic Emperor could reincarnate again (the Empire was as yet still being driven by the Shadow Hand Strategy’s autopilot),
but “certain powerful adepts, members of the Emperor’s inner circle” had been “spreading rumors that the Emperor will not take a new clone
body.” Two of the Galactic Emperor’s “closest friends,” the dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di, set about destroying the remaining clones, hoping
to ensure that “the rumors of the Emperor’s permanent demise come true.” They were summarily executed by Sedriss when he found them in
the Clone Lab (“The Emperor’s Pawns” claims they were betrayed by Sarcev Quest, an Emperor’s Hand and former member of the defunct
Imperial Ruling Council and apparently a member of the New Imperial Council mentioned by the scholars in the Star Wars Encyclopedia; it is
difficult to see how he could have betrayed them unless he tipped off Sedriss to their intentions and prompted his abrupt return to Byss). There
was a parallel plot by Quest and his partner in intrigue, the overly ambitious Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax, who had been promoted to that
rank from the lower rank of Royal Guardsman at Quest’s suggestion. According to Crimson Empire, Jax sent his own agent, General Redd
Wessel, to meet with “those whose appetites for power were left unfulfilled while the Emperor was alive,” and negotiated for a certain amount
of “funds” which were used to “persuade the Emperor’s trusted private physician to secretly sabotage Palpatine’s clones.” The Essential
Chronology mentions that the sabotage would “trigger a premature aging cycle and a quick death for the resurrected Palpatine.” The sabotage
accomplished before Nefta and Sa-Di made their own move, Jax and his conspirators kept a low profile, although Crimson Empire indicates that
Jax’s assistant Lieutenant Geff Blim was compelled to murder at least one conspirator in order to prevent their plot’s revelation. The Galactic
Emperor reincarnated in his last remaining clone — which had been affected by the physician’s sabotage — and he immediately commanded
Sedriss to capture both Skywalker and the Princess Leia. One of Sedriss’s probes tracked Skywalker to Ossus in the Adegan system, which had
been a Jedi stronghold until ravaged during the Sith War of 3,961 BrS, and the Galactic Emperor sent Sedriss and his fellow Dark Jedi, Vill Goir,
with a team of Darktroopers (elite stormtroopers imbued with the dark side) to Ossus to capture the Jedi Master. The mission failed, however,
and both Sedriss and Goir were killed.
The Galactic Emperor received word of their deaths while conducting an inspection tour of his new Galaxy Gun, an enormous missile launcher
that fired “intelligent projectiles into hyperspace,” designed by Leth to be able to “exist hyperspace at precise coordinates, find its target... and
destroy it,” using “a particle disintegrator that initiates a massive nucleonic chain reaction” able to “destroy a city... a land mass... or even an
entire planet anywhere in the galaxy.” Having lost four of his elite Dark Jedi — Baddon Fass and Zasm Katth were killed earlier when their Star
Destroyer, HIMS Invincible, crashed on Nar Shaddaa — the Galactic Emperor used an ancient Sith secret and made his military aides de camp
Xecr Nist and Tedryn-Sha into “Dark Jedi... extensions of my own power,” with Nist as military executor and Sha as his second in command. At
the same time, however, the X-1 Vipers from Balmorra were delivered, and the commando team — under the command of the star-crossed team
of Calrissian and Antilles — took control and made their way to the Imperial Citadel itself, making short work of the ground forces and air
defenses ordered to stop them. Observing the battle from high orbit, the Galactic Emperor immediately realized that “those war droids are
invulnerable to short-range fire,” and ordered the release of his Chrysalides, alchemically created Sithspawn Rancors which literally tore the X-1s
to pieces, prompting a hasty retreat aboard three licensed Deep Core haulers’ ships. Because the escaping freighters passed too close to the
Galaxy Gun, Byss’s spaceborne security forces did not fire on them, and the Galactic Emperor casually ordered their release, not caring about
their eventual fate. He ordered the firing of the Galaxy Gun, whose test firing completely annihilated Da Soocha V, although the New Republic
had already evacuated the moon. The Galactic Emperor then sent his seven Dark Jedi to the New Republic safe world New Alderaan., intending
to capture the entire Skywalker family — Skywalker, the pregnant Princess Leia, and her twin children, Jacen and Jaina Solo. The raid proved to
be a disastrous failure, as Tedryn-Sha, Krdys Mordi, and Kvag Gthull were all killed and a fourth, unidentified Dark Jedi had his arm cut off,
with the death of only an untrained Jedi initiate, Jem Ysanna, to show for their efforts. Nist and two others (both unnamed) escaped, but
Skywalker and the rest of his clan, which traveled to Nespis VIII in late 45 rS, a space station in the Auril systems that now served as the New
Republic’s central headquarters.
The Essential Chronology states that “New Republic commando and sabotage teams attacked the Galaxy Gun but were unable to destroy it,”
and the Galactic Emperor destroyed two more worlds with the weapon in early 46 rS, “bringing the resistance to its knees.” The knowledge that
the Galactic Emperor now possessed the ability to completely destroy even a fully-shielded world anywhere in the galaxy and at any time,
without warning, was apparently enough to break the fighting spirit of worlds throughout the galaxy, and many began to surrender. The Essential
Chronology states that the Empire soon “regained key territories in the Inner and Outer Rim,” solidifying its hold on most of the galaxy, an
amazing feat considering that the New Republic had controlled approximately three-quarters of the galaxy barely two years before, just before
Thrawn’s War. The New Republic was on the verge of total collapse, holding onto a handful of worlds (no source describes the conquest of the
Expansion Region, for example, which implies that the Empire did not successfully seize the majority of that region), and Empire’s End
mentions that “troopships and heavy armor” were “directed against Imperial supply ports and shipyards”; one such was the troopship NRS
Pelagia, “transporting a hundred thousand ground troops and their assault armor to the galactic rim, where rebel forces have a great Imperial
shipyard under siege.” Seemingly selecting this target at random, the Galactic Emperor destroyed Pelagia with the Galaxy Gun, watching the
spectacle via “subminiature probe drones” which followed the missile to its target; the sight of the troopship’s destruction prompted Nist to
remark that the Galaxy Gun “has only been fired four times... and yet planets all over the galaxy are capitulating.” A spy provided the location
of the New Republic’s new base, and a fifth Galaxy missile was fired, which failed to detonate because of a “faulty Bonadan timer”; a sixth
Galaxy missile finished the job approximately an hour later, but this delay gave the New Republic government the time it needed to evacuate the
spaceborne city. Mothma ordered the New Republic forces to disperse throughout the galaxy, preventing the Galaxy Gun from destroying them
all at once.
With the Shadow Hand Strategy continuing to direct the Empire’s forces and resources, the Galactic Emperor was able to focus entirely on his
deteriorating condition, as his body was being destroyed by “his dark powers and the cellular sabotage of Carnor Jax.” The Essential Chronology
indicates that “he tried to clone other bodies so he could resurrect himself again, but Jax’s manipulations had tainted even the genetic source
material” (incidentally, this passage confirms that there were other cloning facilities in the Deep Core, as between Skywalker in Dark Empire and
Nefta and Sa-Di in Dark Empire II, the Clone Lab within the Imperial Citadel had been completely destroyed). In Empire’s End, the Galactic
Emperor traveled for the first time in ten years to the great Sith necropolis of Korriban, home to the tombs of most of the previous Dark Lords
of the Sith; there, he conferred with the Dark Lords’ specters, and he realized that he needed to reincarnate in the body of the Princess Leia’s
youngest son, Anakin Solo. To that end he boarded his new flagship, HIMS Eclipse (hastily commissioned to replace the destruction of her
predecessor over Da Soocha V in Dark Empire), and accompanied by his physician, the dark side hierarch T’iaz, and his last Emperor’s Hand,
Jeng Droga, he traveled to Onderon. Meanwhile Skywalker and a small cadre of Jedi — former Dark Jedi Kam Solusar, Jedi initiate Rayf Ysanna,
and King Empatajayos Brand, a Jedi Knight of the old Order who had survived the Purge — attacked Bast Castle on Vjun, the Dark Jedi
headquarters, killed six of the Dark Jedi and captured Nist. At Onderon, the Galactic Emperor ignored Droga’s concern that it would be too
dangerous for him to travel to the surface and capture young Solo, and left for the planet, accompanied by his physician, T’iaz, Droga, and a
contingent of Royal Guards. While the Galactic Emperor made his way to the fortress of Modon Kira where the Princess Leia and her children
were hidden, Solusar, Calrissian, and Antilles led a team of commandos in sneaking aboard Eclipse, sabotaging its guidance and astrogation
systems. The stage was set for the greatest disaster ever to occur in the history of the Galactic Empire, more devastating by far than even the
debacles of Endor, Brentaal, Imperial Center, and Bilbringi.
Sneaking into the Kira Fortress under the guise of a monastic pilgrim, the Galactic Emperor killed Rayf Ysanna and mortally wounded King
Empatajayos. The Galactic Emperor moved to take hold of young Anakin Solo, but was shot in the back by the infant boy’s father, General Han
Solo. Desperate to escape final death, he attempted to reincarnate in the boy’s body, but was prevented from doing so by King Empatajayos,
who held the Galactic Emperor’s spirit in his body while they both died. The Galactic Emperor was finally dead, never to return; Crimson
Empire mentions that his physician was captured and confessed his treachery to Skywalker, and this confession was overheard by a surviving
member of the Galactic Emperor’s Royal Guard detachment. Added to the Galactic Emperor’s final death was the fact that the sabotaged Eclipse
was set on a collision course with the Galaxy Gun and the collision of the two sent a loose Galaxy missile with a fully-armed particle
disintegrator warhead spiraling toward Byss. The destruction of Byss and its 19.7 billion inhabitants proved to be the coup de grâce from which
the Empire never recovered, as the planet took with it an enormous amount of war matériel and warships, not to mention the Shadow Hand
Strategy, the Imperial State, and most of the Empire’s ruling class, including the Grand Vizier, according to the scribe’s biography of him in The
New Essential Guide to Characters. The Empire immediately suffered a total collapse; The Essential Chronology says that “the confused
Imperial fleet went into retreat, abandoning Coruscant and other Core planets,” and that “the speed with which the Empire crumbled was
amazing, surpassing the mass confusion that had occurred following the Battle of Endor.” Former warlords like Admiral Harrsk, Admiral
Teradoc, and Admiral Delvardus abandoned the Empire, returning to their pocket empires in the outskirts of the Deep Core and re-assuming
their old titles of Supreme Warlord, High Admiral, and Superior General, respectively. By the time some semblance of order was restored in 46
rS, virtually all of the gains made during Thrawn’s War and Operation Shadow Hand had been lost and the Empire had been reduced to “a
narrow band stretching from the Outer Rim to the Colonies.” As a sign of the Empire’s weakness, Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood reveals
that the Mining Guild was able to extort an agreement from both the Empire and the New Republic acknowledging its right to sell its ores to both
sides openly and without legal penalty from either.
Carnor Jax — now styling himself “Lord Jax” and affecting an idiosyncratic black version of the Imperial Royal Guard’s vestments — set up a
provisional government in early 46 rS on Ord Cantrell, which The Essential Chronology calls “a thirteen-member Interim Council.” The first
appearance of the Imperial Interim Ruling Council (many sources refer to it only as “Imperial Ruling Council,” confusing it with the pre-Endor
ruling council also known by that name) is in Crimson Empire, where Jax’s deputy is seen to meet with four Imperial officers, a Defel, and a
Devaronian “ whose appetites for power were left unfulfilled while the Emperor was alive” and whom Jax called “the members of the current
ruling council” (it is implied that these six are not the only members of the conspiracy). Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood says it was
“assembled to manage the affairs of the Empire until a new emperor could take the throne,” but in its first depiction of the Council shows at least
twenty-five members. Between the evidence of Crimson Empire, Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood, “The Emperor’s Pawns,” and Star Wars
Handbook Volume Two: Crimson Empire, fifteen members of the Interim Ruling Council have been identified. Jax, the chairman, was a former
Sovereign Protector and had some limited training in the use of the Force. His vice chairman, Sarcev Quest, was a former Emperor’s Hand and
member of the old Ruling Council, a “dashing playboy” known for his “silky charm.” Burr Nolyds was an arrogant aristocrat with enormous
wealth, and one supposes he might have been a Privy Counsellor. Xandel Carivus was a career civil servant, probably included for his expertise
regarding bureaucracy (the Interim Council would of course need to establish a new civil service to replace the losses suffered at Byss). Norym
Kim, a male Myke, was a warlord who ruled a Sector as well as a pirate lord with control of several groups of deep-space pirates. Spearmaster
Ch’unkk was leader of the largest clan of Whiphids, a species which frequently served as bodyguards of many highly-placed Imperial officials.
Lord Manos was the Devaronian foreman of the galaxy’s largest labor union. The bigoted General Immodet was the highest ranking general
officer still serving the Empire, and commanded the soldiers that formed the first line of defense against the New Republic in several Sectors.
Admiral Banjeer and Admiral Jeratai commanded two of the Empire’s largest fleets, and were of course included in order to placate the Navy,
which had acquired a taste for playing kingmaker during the Time of Destruction. Tann Starpyre was an older and experienced colonial
administrator who represented the Diet of Imperial Planetary Governors, a group that “put a positive spin on Imperial edicts” and served to
“create the illusion of representative democracy within the Empire.” Ragez, Baron d’Asta, was a powerful nobleman who controlled a
strategically important Sector as well as owning “the largest privately owned fleet in the galaxy” and controlled most of the Empire’s remaining
shipping; because of the Lord d’Asta’s poor health, he was represented on the Council by his daughter Feena d’Asta, although Crimson Empire
II: Council of Blood explains that she had actually been kidnapped by Black Sun gangster Grappa the Hutt in 42 rS, and replaced with a clone fed
with information extracted from the genuine Feena by drugging her with Gree spice (as a result, it was the clone of Feena d’Asta that participated
in the plot against the Galactic Emperor and who covertly pushed the agenda of Y’ull Acib, Underlord of Black Sun; the Lord d’Asta himself had
no knowledge of either matter). Kooloota-Fyf was the Givin guild master of the Shipbuilders and Astromechs Guild, which designed many of the
Empire’s astrogation systems; he was included in the Council to ensure good relations with the Guild. The Prince Za was a Defel that controlled
a number of strategic trade routes. Mahd Windcaller had been a part of the Empire’s ruling class since its earliest days, and controlled a media
empire which doubled as an ersatz spy network (given that she is a known media mogul with very early connections to the Empire, Windcaller
may be the chairwoman of Millennium Entertainments).
The known composition of the Interim Council reflects the Empire’s condition at that time. Norym Kim’s power points to a serious weakness
in the central government, as one of the Imperial Navy’s raisons d’être was the eradication of piracy; given the known conditions of the galaxy
throughout the post-Endor period, it is likely that he controlled one of the nominally Imperial regions of space in the Mid-Rim Region, near the
Borderlands. Banjeer, Jeratai, and Immodet point to the triumph of Isardian stratocracy and the final collapse of the old doctrine of strict civilian
control of the military, as they no longer report to the civilian-controlled bureaucracy or the Privy Council, but have a direct voice at the highest
level of government, their continuing command of operational forces notwithstanding. Starpyre’s inclusion suggests timid steps toward
liberalization, possibly to alleviate the effectiveness of Neo-Republican propaganda (notably, The Essential Chronology points out that the
inclusion of Lord Manos, Ch’unkk, Kooloota-Fyf and the Prince Za was hoped to “give new life to the dying Imperial military” via “alien
strength”). The influence of Lord Manos points to a breakdown in the Empire’s traditional laissez-faire attitude toward labor relations, and
suggests that the traditional alliance between the Empire and corporate leaders might have broken down. Much as the Mining Guild’s dictation of
trade policy is indicative of an astonishing collapse of the Empire’s own industrial resources and its firm control of its corporate associates, the
influence of the Lord d’Asta and the Prince Za points to an ironic relapse to the conditions of the Galactic Republic before the Naboo Crisis that
prompted Senator Palpatine of Naboo’s election as Supreme Chancellor: private entities holding a de facto monopoly on shipping and trade
routes that effectively neutered the state’s power to regulate commerce and gave the monopolists the ability to directly and substantially
influence state policy. This marks a complete reversal of the Imperial tradition of the boardroom being junior partner to the throne room. It is
especially interesting to note the shift in ideological composition; few if any of these Interim Councilmen have any clear political identity. The
Interim Council resembles a technocratic government, and it is remarkable in itself that COMPNOR, the totalitarian wing of the monarchist
party, is not represented at all.
The twilight of the Empire was short and bitter. Jax ordered the destruction of the remaining 21 members of the Imperial Royal Guard — most
of the Guard had been killed on Byss or on board Eclipse and Eclipse — but he was too late: The Guard had discovered his treachery, and the
sole survivor, Kir Kanos, vowed revenge. Jax’s obsession with capturing Kanos led to the loss of two Imperial Star Destroyers — first
Commander Vivant’s HIMS Steadfast was captured by the New Republic at Phaeda, and then Jax’s own flagship HIMS Emperor’s Revenge
was destroyed by Kanos at Yinchorr — and his own death at Kanos’s hands on Yinchorr in Crimson Empire. With Jax’s death, “The Emperor’s
Pawns” indicates that the Interim Council ordered Quest’s arrest and subjected him to “a week-long torture session” before “dumping him like
refuse at Nar Shaddaa,” and Burr Nolyds took control as chairman of the Interim Council. D’Asta proposed a peace treaty with the New
Republic, but she was voted down by the Council; Nolyds was blown up immediately afterward in his residence in De-Purteen, Ord Cantrell,
bare minutes after adjourning the Council for the day. Recognizing that the head of the Council would inevitably be a target for assassination —
the concept that power makes one into a target was a major theme of Palpatinian political theory — , Kim, Windcaller, Kooloota-Fyf and the
Prince Za agreed to support Carivus for chairman, and he was duly elected, to d’Asta’s considerable disdain. Unbeknownst to the others,
Carivus was under the influence of Nom Anor, subsequently revealed to be a representative of the extragalactic Vong invaders in Vector Prime;
although the assassination of Nolyds was blamed on Kanos, it was actually the work of Anor. The stabbing to death of Banjeer in his suite —
also Anor’s doing — prompted Lord Carivus — as he was now styled, suggesting that “Lord” was a courtesy title attached to the chair — to
suggest sending both Banjeer’s and Jeratai’s fleets on a massive manhunt; d’Asta and Lord Manos moved a motion of no confidence in Carivus’s
leadership, but were soundly voted down, with only the Prince Za voting with them. Immodet, one of Carivus’s supporters, was poisoned (not
at Anor’s behest), and Carivus panicked, ordering the arrest of all nonhuman members of the Council — Ch’unkk was shot and killed while
resisting arrest — and declaring d’Asta a traitor, ordering her arrest as well. Even as Windcaller tried to convince Carivus of the inadvisable nature
of these orders, they survived an attempt by Black Sun to kidnap the Chairman and replace him with a clone, in an attempt to replace the cloned
d’Asta’s lost voice on the Council. The Lord d’Asta threatened to secede from the Empire, and Carivus announced the dissolution of the Interim
Council, arrested its remaining members, and proclaimed himself Galactic Emperor. His notional reign proved short, as the Lord d’Asta launched
a direct assault on Ord Cantrell, forcing Carivus to sue for peace and release his daughter. He was stabbed to death by Kir Kanos that evening in
Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood.
The Lord d’Asta followed through on his threat to secede from the Empire, depriving what remained of his shipping line’s services. Although the
remaining members of the Council — Jeratai, Kim, Windcaller, Kooloota-Fyf, the Prince Za, and Starpyre — were captured by the New
Republic, and at any rate they lacked the ability to control the remainder of the Empire: Jeratai was simply one fleet commander, no longer
distinctive in any way; Starpyre was only a representative and lacked any power base of his own; Kim controlled only one Sector and was a
pirate lord; the Prince Za’s control of strategic trade routes was effectively neutered without the ships of the d’Astan fleet; and Kooloota-Fyf
and Windcaller were only business leaders, lacking any real direct power in the Empire. The Essential Chronology aptly remarks that the
outcome of Carivus’s policies and the assassinations was that the Interim Council was simply “gone,” and the loss of this government ad interim
— which surely could not have had much success at reordering the mangled Imperial State — resulted in “most of the Imperial fleet disappearing
into the Deep Core to form warlord allegiances”; even Gilad Pellaeon, an old-line Imperial loyalist who had never defected throughout the long
retreat of the post-Endor period, “cast his lot with High Admiral Teradoc, who possessed the largest intact military.” Pellaeon’s decision to join
a rogue warlord speaks volumes about the total collapse of the central government of the Empire. Faced with the break-up of the Empire, “die-
hard Imperial planets like the academy world Carida,” like the grandees of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle after Thrawn’s War in 44 rS and the
worlds on the edge of the Deep Core like Prakith before them, transformed themselves into Fortress Worlds, remaining Imperialist holdouts for
years after the final collapse of the Empire itself in early 46 rS. Although these states would continue to use the imagery and trappings of the
Galactic Empire, few made any pretense at establishing any sort of central government again. Carivus’s death marked the complete collapse of
what was left of the Imperial State after Byss and the breakup of the Empire into unconnected pocket empires; in Children of the Jedi, Luke
Skywalker mentioned that there were “six, maybe ten major fragments” as soon as 47 rS, less than a decade after the seemingly invincible Empire
— Galactic in fact as well as in name — had been defeated at Endor.
The decline and fall of the Galactic Empire is primarily a result of its leadership. It is true that the New Republic made substantial gains against
the Empire, but it is also true that its most spectacular victories had as much to do with Imperial policies and Imperial politics as with their own
strategies and heroism. It is difficult to say how successful the Grand Vizier’s regency might have been; he was an experienced administrator and
had governed the Empire on the Galactic Emperor’s behalf for years by the time he found himself its regent. The fall of Brentaal IV in 39 rS
cannot fairly be blamed on his misgovernment (or, more accurately, that of his clone), as it was after all a deliberate act planned by his de facto
prime minister, Ysanne Isard. Isard proved to be relatively capable, reorganizing the Empire and holding it more or less intact for two years
before she deliberately lost Imperial Center in 42 rS (and with it, much of the Core) as part of a dangerous and risky plan to shatter the New
Republic; although there was rhyme and reason behind her schemes, it remains undisputed that her policies deliberately weakened the Empire,
perhaps as part of the Galactic Emperor’s plan to “prune the nest of vipers.” The Emperor’s Ruling Circle proved to be disastrous for the
Empire, subjecting it to inconsistent, weak, and directionless leadership for two and a half years, during which the Empire was steadily pushed
from its position at the heart of the galaxy and reduced to controlling less than a quarter, primarily in the Outer Rim Territories with some
residual holdings in the Inner Rim and largely nominal territories in the Mid-Rim and Wild Space; the only success the Ruling Circle can claim
was its decision to appoint Thrawn as the Empire’s shōgun. The remarkable successes of Thrawn’s War in 44 rS demonstrate that firm
leadership was indeed capable of reversing the march of history, accomplishing an expansion that nearly doubled the Empire’s size in six months;
the ultimate loss in Thrawn’s War was a result of Thrawn’s assassination, not of any real success on the part of the New Republic. With the
return of the Galactic Emperor in 45 rS, Operation Shadow Hand reversed the losses of the past six years, seeing the Empire return to being the
single overwhelming superpower of the galaxy, re-conquering vast territories and seeing the Empire once again stretch from the Core to the Outer
Rim; the Galactic Emperor’s defeat had little to do with the New Republic and much to do with treachery, the Force, and sheer bad luck. Even
the loss of the Galactic Emperor, Byss, and the Shadow Hand Strategy in 46 rS might not have been fatal had the surviving Imperial leadership
kept their wits about them and stayed the course; rather, the most ambitious and powerful immediately abandoned the Empire and set about
aggrandizing themselves instead. The Empire was left to the ineffectual management of a glorified bodyguard, an arrogant aristo, and finally, a
spineless bureaucrat. When the Empire did die in early 46 rS, it did so not with a bang but with a whimper. Ambitious men and women had
fought each other ruthlessly and violently to take control of the Empire, either not knowing or not caring about the devastating consequences of
their struggle for power. The result was that the Empire ultimately broke its own back, cut off its own head, and fell into a grave it had dug for
itself. Ambition’s debt was paid.
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 10 May 2005. It was republished on 4 February 2007. The header was generously provided by Mr. Jamie Holm, using a pencil drawing of the Galactic Emperor done by the author in March 2007. |
