Ars Dangor/Legends

Ars Dangor was one of the most important figures in the New Order, devoting his life to transforming Palpatine's grand vision for the Galaxy into workable policy&mdash;a role in which he served from before 32 BBY, through the height of Galactic Empire, until the final collapse of the Imperial system in the civil war of 11 ABY.

Political career
Ars Dangor began his political career as an aide to Palpatine when the future tyrant was still only Senator for Naboo, and continued to serve Palpatine when he became Supreme Chancellor and Galactic Emperor. After the creation of the New Order, Palpatine placed him in the Imperial Inner Circle, where he was considered to rank second among the advisors, deferring only to Grand Vizier Sate Pestage.

As Palpatine withdrew into semi-seclusion in the years after the Clone Wars, it was Ars Dangor who stepped forward on his behalf. As the senior administrative figure in the Empire, it was Dangor who transformed Palpatine's grand visions into detailed policy and oversaw the implementation of these designs, and it was Dangor who served as the regime's primary spokesman, the public face of Imperial authority.

Dangor was, as a result, responsible for much of the day-to-day government of the Empire. He, rather than Palpatine, issued the policy statement which officially endorsed the Tarkin Doctrine and promoted Wilhuff Tarkin to the rank of Grand Moff. In 0 BBY, he announced the disbandment of the Imperial Senate and the implementation of martial law and direct rule by the Moffs. After the Battle of Yavin, it was a communiqué from Dangor which announced the creation of Death Squadron, proclaiming that it was "time for the Empire to strike back". But Ars Dangor was more than simply a policymaker. In these dark times of rebellion and unrest, it was his speeches, full of passionate conviction, which allowed trillions of loyalists to believe that the Empire remained a vital force for order in the Galaxy. It seems almost certain that he genuinely believed in the idealistic mission of the New Order himself.

After the Battle of Endor, Pestage assumed the position of regent, but it was Dangor and his faction, known as the Emperor's Ruling Circle, who oversaw the new policy of retrenchment, recalling front-line forces to the Core and redeploying them to defend strategic fortress worlds. However, Dangor's orders were perceived by many military commanders as an arrogant attempt to strip them of their status and autonomy, and men like Admiral Zsinj responded by breaking with the regime and establishing themselves as warlords. Almost simultaneously, Dangor lost control of Coruscant. After Pestage fled Coruscant for Ciutric, a rival faction headed by General Paltr Carvin mounted a coup and briefly formed the Tribunal, before being overthrown by Ysanne Isard's dictatorship.

Nevertheless, Ars Dangor survived the purges and proscriptions, and after Isard lost control of Coruscant, he came to the fore once again. He backed Grand Admiral Thrawn's return as the Empire's military leader, believing that an alien fleet commander could never be more than the military tool of Human political patrons like himself—and after Thrawn's death, it was Dangor and his faction who took control of the war, driving a stunning thrust into the Core and seizing Coruscant from the New Republic.

Subsequently, Ars Dangor proposed convening the advisors in the Senate Building to select a new Emperor from among their number. But such a course of action was more than the other elements of the Imperial regime could bear, and a brutal civil war erupted—a conflict which shattered any lingering belief that the Empire embodied the public will to restore order to the Galaxy, and destroyed the mandarin elite which Ars Dangor had led since its inception.

Character and personal qualities
A tall, thin man with the sneer of cruel amusement and the bright eyes of a fanatic, Ars Dangor was ruthless in his defense of his own position within the vicious, lawless politics of the Imperial court, but he also admired Palpatine passionately, and his ambition was ultimately directed into serving and facilitating his Emperor and the New Order he embodied. As befitted the man who served as Palpatine's senior spokesman for most of his reign, he was an impressive orator, whose powerful, seductive speeches were compared to those his Emperor had given during his rise to power, and whereas many of the other Advisors adopted pompous costumes based on the traditional dress of their homeworld, he preferred simple cloaked garb, modeled on that of the man he served. As befitted his status as a luminary of Palpatine's court, Ars Dangor enjoyed civilized pursuits—he was a capable horseman, and his interest in politics extended to a deep, scholarly understanding of the long history of Galactic government; but he was also at home among the underbelly of Galactic society, a skilled gambler and a capable street fighter, adept with bladed weapons and blasters alike.

A man of undoubted political abilities, Ars Dangor was also one of the most committed supporter of Palpatine's brutal autocracy, entirely ruthless in eliminating his political rivals and instrumental in facilitating the brutal policy of fear and oppression. He had impressive powers of persuasion, involving other senior Imperial figures in his schemes and political strategies, and using his rhetoric to secure and retain the adherence of the New Order's grass-roots supporters throughout the Galaxy. Ultimately, however, his influence was limited to the Council and the rabble, and he alienated the regional governors, the ideologues and uniformed paramilitaries of COMPNOR, and above all, the military, who he saw as merely a tool of central power.

After Endor, Ars Dangor seems to have been blind to the disdain in which the Advisors were held by other elements of the Imperial hierarchy, and his insensitivity to this discontent played a major part in bringing about the implosion of the Imperial system.

Ars Dangor's final fate, subsequent to the eruption of the civil war in 10 ABY, is at present unknown.

Galactic Weekly NewsStack correspondent
The name of Ars Dangor was co-opted by the arts correspondent of the subversive magazine Galactic Weekly NewsStack, chronicling such cultural highlights of the Galactic Civil War as the running feud between the loyalist boy band The Emperor's New Clothes and their banned rivals Deeply Religious.

It is likely that the byline "Ars Dangor" (pseudonym), Arts Correspondent was intended to mock and parody the signature of Ars Dangor, Imperial Advisor on high-level communiqués.

Behind the scenes



 * Some fans believe that Dangor's image was identified by the now defunct "Ask the Lucasfilm Jedi Council" feature on StarWars.com. In a piece on the Imperial Ruling Council, several prominent advisors were named, along with a production photo from Return of the Jedi, showing a group of Imperial courtiers in the shuttle bay aboard the Death Star II: it was assumed that by a process of elimination, one of these men could be identified as Ars Dangor. However, this theory is based on the assumption that the names listed are those of the individuals in the photo, rather than those of the most prominent advisors (the three named movie extras plus Dangor and Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, the two most important Ruling Council members in the Expanded Universe). Moreover, Dangor is never explicitly said to have been aboard the second Death Star, as this image would imply, and his rapid consolidation of power on Coruscant after the Battle of Endor suggests that he was in Imperial City at the time, rather than accompanying Palpatine to Endor. In the end, West End Games resolved the issue when it published the Star Wars Trilogy Sourcebook: Special Edition in 1997, which contained a full-body illustration of Dangor that did not resemble any character in the Jedi Council photo.


 * Dangor's profile in the Death Star Technical Companion is mistakenly titled "Dars Angor." However, his name is spelled correctly throughout the rest of the book.


 * Dangor's first name is pronouned similar to arse, a term for buttocks in Britain.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi