Emperor's Royal Guard/Legends

The successors to the republic's Red Guard, Emperor's Royal Guard were an elite guard unit tasked with the protection of Emperor Palpatine. Unswervingly loyal, the Emperor was never seen without a detachment of Royal Guards at his side. The exact number of Royal Guards serving the Emperor was unknown, with speculations ranging from less than 50 to the tens of thousands. Like the Stormtroopers, the Royal Guards formed a military unit independent of the Imperial Military and directly answerable to the Emperor.

Palpatine's Imperial Royal Guard
Royal Guards wore matching scarlet robes, battle armor, and helmets. Although ceremonial, the red armor did not hamper movement or fighting. The armor bore design influences from the uniforms of the Death Watch of the Mandalore system, the Sun Guards of the Thyrsus system, and the Senate Guards of the Old Republic. Their preferred weapon was the meter-long force pike, although they were trained in the use of many common and exotic weapons.

Members of the Royal Guard were hand-picked from the ranks of the Elite Stormtroopers and considered a special detachment of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps. Each recruit was scrutinized to fit select size, strength, intelligence and loyalty requirements, as well as latent Force sensitivity. Recruits exceptionally strong in the Force were noted and pulled aside to test into a special class of Royal Guards known as Sovereign Protectors. If they passed the even more rigorous tests, they were by trained by Dark Jedi to wield the Force. Equipment and training were lavished upon them at the Imperial Royal Guard Academy on Yinchorr. During a yearlong training program, recruits sparred against each other continuously to perfect their combat skills. Aa step away from the squad-based Stormtrooper training received on Carida, by working both alone and in pairs, recruits learned how to rely on themselves or on a teammate to achieve victory, Failure in training often meant death. During their final test, trainees fought each other to the death in an arena called the "Squall" before Palpatine himself. Only a handful would survive this final test in a display of their loyalty and skill.

With their primary mission to protect the Emperor and any of his designees, the Royal Guard was never sent on combat missions as a corps. Instead, a few small elements of Royal Guardsmen were sent into combat on a rotating basis to keep them in fighting trim.

After the death of Palpatine, many of the Royal Guard refused to choose sides among the various Imperial factions, (Grodin Tierce being a notable exception). In 10 ABY, however, they all flocked to Byss when summoned by the reborn Palpatine. They fought by his side until his final death the next year. It was later revealed that his death was hastened by the sabotage of his clones by renegade Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax.

After Palpatine's final death, the Royal Guard return to Yinchorr, where they were slaughtered by Jax's stormtroopers. Only Kir Kanos escaped, and eventually killed Jax. With the exception of the impostors who served Admiral Daala and Brakiss's Shadow Academy, Kanos was the last surviving member of the Royal Guard.

Royal Guards serving other Imperial commanders
After the Battle of Endor, Royal Guards appeared as personal protectors of some of those who claimed Imperial power. The examples of Grodin Tierce and Carnor Jax show that the loyalty of the Royal Guard to Palpatine was not as absolute and unquestioning as their mystique suggests, and some of these Guardsmen may have been genuine members of Palpatine's pre-Endor corps d'&eacute;lite; others, however were merely ordinary soldiers, organized into new units wearing Royal Guard uniform.

In the immediate aftermath of Endor, power on Coruscant passed initially to the leader of the Imperial Council, Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, and although at first no Royal Guards were observed among his protectors, he began to use a visible escort of the red-robed warriors as his power began to crumble. Subsequently, when Ysanne Isard took stewardship of the Empire, a unit of Royal Guards appeared in turn as her personal bodyguard, and she would retain them later as premier of Thyferra. However, as Director of Intelligence, and even as an Agent working under her father, Isard had earlier created an élite unit of her own - hulking warriors clad in distinctive black leather uniforms, who she used as bodyguards, special operations troops, and casual lovers. Since they disappeared from view when she took power, it is possible that they were merely reorganized as a spurious "Royal Guard" detail at this time.

Almost simultaneously, another group of Royal Guards appeared in service with another Imperial leader - the Dark Lady Lumiya. Unlike most Royal Guards, who wore either their scarlet ceremonial uniforms or white stormtrooper armour, these two squads wore crimson stormtrooper armour in the field, serving their mistress as crack shock-troops. The origin of Lumiya's Royal Guards is, if anything, even more opaque than Isard's - the two women were allies, and could have shared resources, but it was, of course, also Lumiya who recruited Carnor Jax to betray Palpatine, apparently taking the former Guardsman as her Sith Apprentice.

As noted above, at least one warrior from the genuine Royal Guard, Grodin Tierce, attached himself to Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Tierce became as the template for at least one Mount Tantiss clone. Thrawn did not, however, surround himself with a visible Royal Guard detail; instead, the original Grodin Tierce and then his clone served in turn as officers with the stormtrooper force aboard Chimaera, supplimenting the Grand Admiral's Noghri bodyguard.

Later, when Admiral Daala siezed command of remaining Imperial assets in the Deep Core, she recruited stormtroopers into a new Royal Guard unit: after her defeat, four of them became leaders of Second Imperium, while another, Chik Apla, became an associate of Moff Derran Takkar, the lover of his wife Anlys, and part of the strike-team he used to disrupt the marriage of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade on Coruscant.

Sovereign Protectors

 * Carnor Jax

Royal Guardsmen

 * Kile Hannad
 * Kir Kanos
 * Ved Kennede
 * Grodin Tierce

Apprentice Guardsmen

 * Burr Danid
 * Alum Frost
 * Lemmet Tauk

Others

 * Chik Apla
 * Grodin Tierce (clone)

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * ''Star Wars Empire: Betrayal
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #35
 * Mandatory Retirement (trade paperback)
 * "Lumiya, Dark Star of the Empire" Star Wars Galaxy #3
 * Rogue Squadron
 * The Bacta War
 * Crimson Empire
 * Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood
 * Star Wars: The Bounty Hunters: "Kenix Kil"
 * Darksaber
 * Dark Empire Sourcebook p66-67,87
 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * Darkest Knight
 * Jedi Under Siege