Four unidentified Imperial Royal Guards

"An Imperial guard! I thought they had all been destroyed"

- Rullak

These four unnamed Imperial Royal Guards led a faction of the Imperial Remnant known as the Second Imperium. These four had had formerly been stormtroopers promoted by Admiral Daala to guardsman status.

Expansion
"We had all of the brilliant speeches and recordings the Emperor had made. We had his thoughts, his policies, his records. We knew we could make the Second Imperium work, but no one would have followed us. We had to give the people what they wanted, and they wanted their Emperor back &mdash;as you did. You were easy to fool because you wanted to be fooled."

- Third Royal Guard

Following the signing of the Bastion Accords by New Republic Chief of State Ponc Gavrisom and Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon on the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Chimaera in 19 ABY, many Imperials in the Imperial Remnant rejected these accords as "sham" and sought the return of Emperor Palpatine and his Galactic Empire.

These Royal Guards took advantage of this by founding the Second Imperium and impersonating Palpatine by using holograms stretching from his earliest days as the Senator of Naboo to Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and finally to Emperor of the Empire. The Second Imperium numbers grew as a result.

Among the members of the Second Imperium was the former Jedi Brakiss whom they tasked with establishing a cadre of Dark Jedi to counter those of Master Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order. To train and house these pupils, a cloaked hyperspace-capable spacestation known as the Shadow Academy was constructed. Those recruits discovered to be Force-sensitive were trained as Dark Jedi while those who weren't became stormtroopers and TIE pilots.

Following a series of raids on the New Republic including the Bulk Cruiser Adamant and on Thikkiiana on Kashyyyk which provided the Second Imperium with hyperdrive cores and weapons, the four Royal Guards arrived at the Shadow Academy with Palpatine supposedly residing in a massive repulsorlift isolation chamber. The Royal Guards prevented Brakiss from visiting the Emperor, causing him to be concerned about the Emperor's health. Later, from his isolation chamber, the Emperor prompted Brakiss to launch an assault against the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4.

Attrition
"Where is the Emperor? There is no Emperor, is there? This has all been a hoax, a pitiful bid for power."

- Lord Brakiss

At first the battle played out as planned. A Second Imperium ground force consisting of Stormtroopers and Dark Jedi surrounded the Jedi Praxeum while TIE fighters and TIE/sa Bombers bombed the surrounding jungle. In space, the Shadow Academy and a fleet of refitted Star Destroyers and battle cruisers blockaded Yavin 4. This changed with the arrival of the New Republic fleet under Admiral Ackbar and Brakiss' defeat during a single combat with his former Master. Having made it back to the space station, Brakiss made his way to the isolation chamber and demanded to see the Emperor. However, he was blocked by two of the Royal Guards. Enraged and giving in to his anger, Brakiss cut them down with his lightsaber and then entered the chamber.

There, he discovered a third Royal Guard working on a bank of controls, computer screens and holographic generators and realized that the Emperor had never returned. In reality, the Royal Guards had created this illusion so that they could control the Second Imperium. Unfortunately, the fourth guard used his "Emperor's" override controls to activate the Shadow Academy's self-destruct systems, destroying the Shadow Academy and killing all onboard. With the destruction of the Shadow Academy, the battle turned in favor of the New Republic and the remaining Imperium troops and Dark Jedi were presumably captured by the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant.

Elimination
"You may release him. There's no longer any danger"

- Nolaa Tarkona commenting on the death of the last Royal Guard.

The fourth guard then managed to escape on a shuttle and headed for parts unknown. Despite the defeat of the Second Imperium, he still continued to wear his uniform when doing business to both instill fear and to commemorate his close connection with his late master Palpatine. He entered the criminal and underworld made contacts with the human-hating Diversity Alliance around 24 ABY, not realizing their strong hatred for humans particularly Imperials.

In the end, the Diversity Alliance double-crossed him and took him prisoner. He was brought before the presence of the Alliance's leader Nolaa Tarkona who demanded that he reveal the location of the Emperor's Plague Storehouse - an entire cache of the most deadly biological and chemical agents. When he refused, she murdered him by unleashing a sample of the dreaded human-killing Emperor's Plague after he refused to reveal to them the location of the Emperor's Plague Storehouse.

Appearances

 * Young Jedi Knights: Darkest Knight
 * Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Under Siege
 * Young Jedi Knights: Delusions of Grandeur