Octavian Grant

Grand Admiral Grant was one of the twelve original Imperial Grand Admirals appointed by Emperor Palpatine two years before the Battle of Yavin.

Biography
Grant was nicknamed "The Last Grand Admiral" for his political ineptitude (as opposed to his strategic genius); his fellow Admirals thought when things broke down after the disastrous Battle of Endor, he would be the first to die. Being from the Tapani nobility, Grant was rabidly aristocratic, and deeply contemptuous of droids, aliens, politicians (a prejudice which would prove to be unfortunate; after the Battle of Endor, he had no political powerbase), and those who received their rank due to merit&mdash;he was doubly so of aliens rewarded by the meritocracy of the Empire, such as Grand Admiral Thrawn.

He was not blinded by his beliefs, recognizing full well that while he deserved to rule, having been born of the upper classes, he had not the power to effectively take over the Empire. So, while his fellow Grand Admirals fell in grandiose schemes and internecine warfare, he lurked in the Pentastar Alignment in the Outer Rim, biding his time. Unfortunately, the Empire's decline was not reversed in that period, and his fleet continued to melt away. With the Pentastar Aligment and his host, Grand Moff Ardus Kaine, increasingly unstable, Grant petitioned the New Republic two years after Endor to be allowed to defect. They accepted his dual conditions of immunity from prosecution for any actions he might have taken while an Imperial officer, and a peaceful retirement to the planet Rathalay. He would seek to come out of retirement during the Thrawn Crisis, desiring to best the alien, but suspicion of his loyalties prevented the New Republic from employing his services.

Behind the scenes

 * "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals" co-author Daniel Wallace has unofficially suggested here that Grant's personal Star Destroyer was named Oriflamme.