Galactic Empire

"In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society!"

- Sheev Palpatine declares a new order

The Galactic Empire, also known as the New Order, was the government that rose to power in the aftermath of the Clone Wars, replacing the Galactic Republic. Central authority was given to Emperor Palpatine, who was also a Dark Lord of the Sith. For nearly two decades, the legislative body was the Imperial Senate, but it was dissolved by the Emperor shortly before the Battle of Yavin.

Manufacturing a crisis
For at least a thousand years, the dominant governing body of the galaxy was the unicameral and democratic Galactic Republic, led by an elected Supreme Chancellor. In the last decades of its existence, the Republic Senate became mired in bureaucracy, rendering it woefully ineffectual as a governing body. Then–Senator Palpatine privately lamented the declining state of the Senate, noting that the Republic was ‘not what it once was.’ Thirteen years before the Republic's end as a democracy, Darth Sidious&mdash;reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, and the secret identity of Senator Palpatine&mdash;orchestrated the invasion of his own homeworld by the Trade Federation, in order to orchestrate a crisis in the Senate. Palpatine used the crisis to manipulate the then Queen of the Naboo, Amidala, into calling a vote of no-confidence against sitting Chancellor Valorum. The vote passed, and in the subsequent election, Palpatine secured himself as the last Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. In the decade that followed, Palpatine secretly manipulated galactic events to the extent that war became inevitable. Besides persuading a dead Jedi Master to create a secret clone army, he also tasked his Sith apprentice, Darth Tyranus, with exacerbating poltical tensions in the Republic and engineering a schism. These actions would culminate in the outbreak of the Clone Wars, the last conflict of the Republic, while Palpatine himself "reluctantly" accepted emergency powers.

The Clone Wars
For the duration of the war, Palpatine remained a popular leader, remaining in office at the will of the Senate for far longer than his term technically allowed. Throughout this period, Palpatine continued to consolidate and centralize his own power,  paving the way for his eventual ascension to Emperor. As the war drew toward its end, the Jedi Order learned of Palpatine’s true identity as Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious. Following an attempt to arrest him, a brief but vicious fight ensued in which several Jedi were killed at Sidious’ hands, and Sidious himself visibly injured in the struggle. The intercession of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who was a personal friend of Palpatine’s, and already disillusioned with both the Order and the war, ensured Palpatine’s victory. The prodigal Jedi was turned to the dark side of the Force, while Palpatine had a pretext upon which to turn the Republic against the Jedi.

A new order
"The war is over. The Separatists have been defeated, and the Jedi rebellion has been foiled. We stand on the threshold of a new beginning."

- Emperor Palpatine

Palpatine immediately seized the opportunity to order the clone army to enact Order 66: to exterminate the Jedi commanding forces across the galaxy. With this command programmed into the clones since their beginnings on Kamino, the Republic soldiers immediately turned on their Jedi commanders, and exterminated the vast majority of the Jedi Order in an instant. Shortly afterward, Palpatine dispatched his new apprentice, now christened Darth Vader, to wipe out the Separatist leadership on Mustafar. Now able to demonstrate threats to the Republic from both within and without, a visibly injured and scarred Palpatine addressed the Galactic Senate to announce the reforms which had been his endgame since the beginning. To the thunderous applause of the Senators, Palpatine announced that in order to ensure safety and security, the Republic would be reorganized into the Galactic Empire.

Imperial rule
As part of the new regime, existing government bodies were renamed to reflect the changes. The Grand Army of the Republic became the Imperial Army, while the Galactic Senate was rechristened as the Imperial Senate. For the next decade and a half, Imperial rule&mdash;bolstered by the military created to fight in the Clone Wars&mdash;dominated the galaxy largely unchallenged. Throughout this period, dubbed the "dark times" by Jedi survivor Obi-Wan Kenobi, any survivors of Sidious' Jedi purge were systematically hunted down and killed by Darth Vader, with the assistance of at least one Inquisitor. Decades later, it was apparent that just three Jedi had survived the Empire's wrath: Kenobi, Yoda, and a Padawan named Kanan Jarrus. Meanwhile, the Empire constructed a massive battle station with enough firepower to destroy an entire planet, later known simply as the Death Star, that had formerly been a Separatist project.

Armed rebellion
Around fourteen years into Palpatine's rule as Emperor, a small armed rebellion broke out on the Outer Rim world Lothal, with the assistance of former Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus. From these humble beginnings, the rebel movement would eventually coalesce into the Alliance to Restore the Republic. About five years later, Imperial forces commanded by Darth Vader captured one of the leaders of the Alliance, Imperial Senator and Princess of Alderaan, Leia Organa; who, unknown to Vader, was in reality his own daughter. While nearly all of the old institutions of the Republic had been swept away in the intervening decades, this provided Palpatine the opportunity to finally wipe away the last vestiges of the old democracy, and dissolve the Imperial Senate permanently. With this, governance of the various systems of the Empire came to be directly under the purview of the Regional Governors and the Imperial military. Organa's presence&mdash;and her refusal to give up the location of the Alliance's base&mdash;precipitated Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's decision to test-fire the newly-completed Death Star's primary weapon on her homeworld, Alderaan. In an instant, the Imperial military's superweapon utterly destroyed the populous, influential world. In so doing, Tarkin hoped not only to force Organa to submit, but also to strike fear into any others who sought to rebel against Imperial rule. Eventually, Organa was rescued from the Death Star by an unlikely alliance of Han Solo, a smuggler, Jedi survivor Obi-Wan Kenobi, who later sacrificed himself in his duel with Darth Vader, and her unknowing twin brother, Luke Skywalker. The group escaped the Imperial fortress and fled to the Alliance base on Yavin 4&mdash;hotly pursued by the Death Star. At Yavin 4, the Empire and the Rebels engaged in a major battle, with the fate of the rebellion hanging in the balance. Despite destroying a great many of the Alliance's starfighters, the battle ultimately ended up a crushing defeat for the Imperial forces, when young Skywalker successfully fired the shot which destroyed the Imperial battle station. The Death Star was destroyed, with all hands lost.

The Empire strikes back
While the loss of both Tarkin and the Death Star itself were significant, Imperial resolve toward putting down the rebellion only increased. For the next three years, Imperial forces under the direct command of Darth Vader relentlessly pursued the Alliance. While the hunt was personal for Vader, having learned that the young rebel Skywalker was actually his son, the Imperial military nevertheless scoured the galaxy with Imperial probe droids. Eventually, the Empire's search came to fruition when one of its probe droids located the Alliance's new base on the ice planet Hoth. The massive Imperial fleet, led by the command ship Executor, arrived in the system and deployed ground forces in a major assault on the Alliance forces. Overwhelmed, the rebels were forced to flee, and the Empire claimed a decisive victory. The Imperial pursuit of the rebels, however, did not stop at Hoth. The Imperial fleet continued to chase down the fleeing rebels, pursuing Leia Organa and now-General Han Solo into the Hoth asteroid field. Though Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, did manage to elude Imperial pursuit, Vader engaged the services of bounty hunters to track down the fleeing Alliance leadership. One of these bounty hunters was successful in tracking Organa and Solo back to Cloud City on Bespin, enabling Imperial forces to capture them and lay a trap for Luke Skywalker. The trap was eventually sprung, and Skywalker learned of his true relation to Vader, but the Imperial forces found themselves betrayed and, at least initially, overwhelmed by Cloud City's local authorities. The rebel leaders escaped Imperial custody again, but not without cost. Skywalker was maimed in a duel with Vader, while Solo was frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter. Battered and bruised, the Alliance was once again in flight from pursuing Imperial forces.

Palpatine's trap
Sometime after the destruction of the Death Star at Yavin, work began on the construction of a new, larger version of the original battle station. This time, however, Emperor Palpatine decided to proactively approach the rebel problem. Rather than guard the station's secrets, as with the first Death Star, Palpatine opted to leak just enough information to bait the Alliance into striking at the station before it was completed&mdash;including the fact that he would be overseeing the final stages of the station's construction personally. Unknown to the rebels, Imperial engineers had already ensured that the new Death Star's main weapon was operational, and the Imperial military command had discreetly moved a large number of warships to a staging point on the far side of the Endor moon, where the Death Star was orbiting. Simultaneously, a legion of Imperial troops was deployed on the surface to stop any attempt at sabotaging the station's ground-based shield generator. When the Alliance fleet arrived en masse, the Emperor's trap was sprung. The rebel ground forces had taken the bait and been captured, so the Death Star's shield remained active, while the Imperial fleet moved into position to trap the rebels. With the Alliance fleet trapped between the bulk of the Imperial fleet and a shielded, fully-operational Death Star, victory for the Empire seemed assured.

Crushing defeat
Down on the surface of Endor, the tables were turned on the Imperial forces when they were unexpectedly attacked by the planet's indigenous Ewok population, giving the Alliance ground forces a free hand to destroy the Death Star's shield generator. With the shield down, Alliance starfighters were able to launch an assault on the Imperial station's reactor core. Meanwhile, aboard the station, a blow of an entirely different kind was struck against the Empire. A captive Luke Skywalker, now a Jedi in his own right, was successful in convincing Darth Vader to turn on his master. Vader&mdash;once again Anakin Skywalker&mdash;seized the Imperial head of state and hurled him down a shaft to his death. Soon after, the rebel starfighters were successful in attacking the Death star's reactor core. The station was destroyed; like its predecessor, lost with all hands. With the loss of both the Emperor and his right-hand man, Vader, the destruction of the Death Star itself, and significant losses inflicted on the Imperial fleet, the Imperial remnants were forced to withdraw. The Empire had suffered a crushing defeat, one from which it was unlikely to recover.

Government
Amongst high-ranking military personnel, the Emperor's name was spoken with fear.

At the Emperor's side was his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader. Though frequently styled as a "Lord," and treated with a similar fearful deference as Palpatine, it is unclear whether Vader performed an official function of government.

The Imperial Senate existed for nearly 20 years after the birth of the Empire, until it was disbanded by the Emperor.

With the dissolution of the Senate, authority over the various systems and sectors passed directly to the regional governors&mdash;effectively transitioning governance into military jurisdiction, who answered directly to the Emperor.

Military
As the direct successor to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Imperial Military comprised vast numbers of warships and countless soldiers. In addition, the Empire inherited the military assets of the defunct Separatist movement&mdash;the most notable of which was the Death Star.

The Imperial Army and Navy were responsible for carrying out the Empire's military operations across the galaxy. Ostensibly dedicated to maintaining law and order, the Imperial military forces came to be feared and fled from.

Perhaps the most ubiquitously visible element were the Imperial stormtroopers. These faceless soldiers were the enforcers of Imperial order, often exercising a 'shoot-first' policy.

Astrography
As the successor state to the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Empire's authority spanned most of the known galaxy.