Imperial officer

Imperial officers were individuals, predominantly human males, who held a position of authority and responsibility in the military forces of the Galactic Empire. When the Empire succeeded the Old Republic after the end of the Clone Wars, those officers were formed to lead the stormtroopers, the elite troops of the new regime.

Overview
Officers were high-class soldiers who held various positions of responsibility, authority, and duty within the various branches of Galactic Empire's military. Common traits among those officers were ambition, ruthlessness, and strong approval of the Emperor's plans to destroy the rebellion.

The upper echelons of the Empire included those whose influential families afforded them preferred treatment and advancement. Officers were put through one of several prestigious academies across the galaxy that raised ambitious men and women who would perfectly echo the Imperial mantra of control through authority. As the line between Imperial political machine and Imperial war machine became more blurred, the Empire so gradually transformed into stratocracy that many in the galaxy simply took no notice.

Since the Empire favored humans at the expense of aliens, the ranks of its officers were dominated by the former. Additionally, most of those holding high ranks were males. One notable exception to the Empire's humanocentrism was Thrawn, a Chiss who held the title of Grand Admiral.

Imperial officers wore a uniform that consisted of a double-breasted tunic with matching trousers, a pair of black boots, a belt and a command cap. There were regulations that made sure all officers maintained a neatly groomed appearance while wearing their uniforms. Although officers often cut their hair short for optimal efficiency, all were permitted to keep it long on the condition that they wore it pinned back in tight braids. This allowed Nash Windrider, a male officer from Alderaan, to retain a traditional hairstyle from his homeworld.

In addition to those officers who exerted command in the Navy or the Army, there were other specializations. Loyalty officers, also known as Security Officers, were tasked with identifying and culling any seditious individual within the Empire's own ranks. There were also members in these ranks known as 'Agents' either a part of the ISB or of the Imperial Intelligence who were tasked with the security and determination of loyalty for the Empire.

The Galactic Empire made an effort to identify recruits in its Imperial Academies who were potential officer material. Recruits identified to potentially have such talent were sometimes sent to specialized officer academies, such as the academy on Arkanis.

History
The Old Republic spent its last three years fighting the Confederacy of Independent Systems in a conflict known as the Clone Wars. Most soldiers in the Grand Army of the Republic were clones of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, mass-produced on Kamino. The command of those clone troopers was shared between members of the Jedi Order, a millennia-old group of mystic warriors who were capable of wielding the Force, and regular, non-Jedi officers. Sometimes, that sharing of responsibilities proved inauspicious, as exemplified by the rocky relationship between the Jedi general Anakin Skywalker and Admiral Wullf Yularen.

At the end of the war, Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, leader of the Republic, unilaterally reorganized the regime into an autocratic Galactic Empire. Since he had secretly been a malevolent Dark Lord of the Sith, Palpatine ordered the extermination of all Jedi. The Republic military was then reformed into the Imperial Military, with only regular high-class soldiers as officers.