Galactic Empire

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

- Darth Sidious declares a new order

The Galactic Empire, also known as the New Order, the First Galactic Empire, the Order or simply the Empire was the government that rose to power in the aftermath of the Clone Wars, replacing the Galactic Republic. Central authority was given to Darth Sidious, publicly known as Emperor Palpatine, who was also the 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. During the reign of the Empire, countless star systems were conquered and dissident actions ruthlessly stamped out by the rapidly expanding Imperial Army and Navy. The Empire also oversaw the near extermination of the Jedi, with the destruction of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and its renovation into the newly named Imperial Palace.

After nineteen years of minimal resistance, the Empire would face its first major setback after losing its planet-destroying battle station known as the Death Star to a Rebel pilot. The following four years would see the Galactic Civil War wage across the galaxy as the Order rapidly attempted to stamp out the growing Rebellion on the galaxy's outer fringes. Following the death of Galactic Emperor Palpatine and his right hand man Darth Vader in the Battle of Endor, the Empire would be fragmented as the New Republic slowly pushed its way back towards the Coruscant Core. Following the disastrous Battle of Jakku, the Empire would be forced to sign the Galactic Concordance, severely limiting its ability to wage war and effectively transforming it into a rump state. Dissatisfied Imperial leaders would ultimately venture into the Unknown Regions with some of the regime's greatest secrets. There, distanced from the prying eyes of the New Republic, the First Order would emerge from its ashes. With the Galactic Empire no more than a former memory, it would be commonly referred to as the Old Empire.

Background
"I have good news for you, my Lord, the war has begun.''" "''Excellent. Everything is going as planned."

- Dooku and Darth Sidious

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. Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith known publicly as Senator Palpatine of Naboo, 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 orchestrated the invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation, in order to create a leadership crisis in the Senate. Sidious used the crisis to manipulate the then–Queen of the Naboo, Amidala, into calling a Vote of No Confidence against sitting Chancellor Finis Valorum. The vote passed, and in the subsequent election, Sidious&mdash;in his public persona of Palpatine&mdash;secured the position of Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic for himself. Ultimately, Sidious would be the last individual to hold this office. In the decade that followed, Sidious 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 political tensions in the Republic and engineering a Separatist Crisis. These actions would culminate in the outbreak of the Clone Wars, the last conflict of the Republic, while Sidious himself "reluctantly" accepted emergency powers.

Birth of the 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

For the duration of the war, Chancellor 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, Sidious 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 Dark 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 Chancellor Palpatine, and already disillusioned with both the Order and the war, ensured Sidious' victory. The prodigal Jedi was turned to the dark side of the Force, while Sidious had a pretext upon which to turn the Republic against the Jedi.

Sidious 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. However certain Jedi such as Depa Billaba and Luminara Unduli initially survived the purge, while Jedi Master Uvell gave antiques dealer Antron Bach numerous Jedi scrolls, lightsabers and other objects of historical significance to hide from the Galactic Empire in an abandoned Geonosian colony on a remote moon. Shortly afterward, Sidious dispatched his new apprentice, now christened Darth Vader, to wipe out the Separatist leadership on Mustafar, following which Imperial financier Arsin Crassus plundered the Trade Federation's accounts to fund the new Imperial government. Now able to demonstrate threats to the Republic from both within and without, a visibly injured and scarred Sidious addressed the Galactic Senate to announce the reforms which had been his endgame since the beginning. To the thunderous applause of the Senators, Sidious&mdash;now known publicly as Emperor Palpatine&mdash;announced that in order to ensure safety and security, the Republic would be reorganized into the Galactic Empire.

Age of the Empire
"Emperor unveils ambitious plan for Imperial fleet expansion" "Count Vidian contributes star power to new industrial inspection tour" "Leftover unexploded ordnance from Clone Wars remains a concern"

- Headlines, Imperial HoloNews (Gorse Edition)

Immediately following the conclusion of the Clone Wars, the Separatist Droid Army was promptly shut down and its fleets dismantled at locations across the galaxy such as at the Bilbringi shipyards. However various droid models and Separatist technology escaped Imperial appropriation and managed to work its way onto the black market, with many modules taken from CIS frigates and destroyers, including pieces from Admiral Trench's warship, the Invincible. Despite Separatist-era technology continuing to be used and appearing in locations such as the Corporate Sector, the Empire nonetheless continued to root out remaining Separatist holdouts four years after the Clone Wars, while criminal organizations composed of re-purposed battle droids such as the Droid Gotra operated in Coruscant's underground.

A year after the end of the Clone Wars, seeking to make examples of worlds who continued to harbor secessionist tendencies, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin was assigned to make an example of Antar 4, a populous moon that had been a part of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and involved in a scheme involving Republic Intelligence to train locals into well-armed resistance groups. While COMPNOR initially stifled information regarding the killings, word soon leaked out about the operation through inquisitive reporters such as Anora Fair and Hask Taff, while the event was soon penned as the Antar Atrocity, capturing the attention of many Coruscanti and other citizens from the Core Worlds.

As pirates, smugglers, and ex-Separatists were routinely imprisoned and destroyed, the Empire faced little serious resistance to its rule. A rare exception revolved around the Outer Rim world of Ryloth, where Moff Delian Mors and Colonel Belkor Dray were busy fighting an insurgency known as the Free Ryloth movement which was led by former Twi'lek Resistance leader Cham Syndulla, father to later rebel Hera Syndulla; with Cham establishing hidden bases across Ryloth and executing raids against the Empire and its lucrative spice and slave trade in the sector. Composed of freedom fighters who fought with the Galactic Republic and Jedi Master Mace Windu during the Clone Wars to free their homeworld from Separatist occupation by Emir Wat Tambor, the newly formed Free Ryloth movement would continue its struggle for independence against the Galactic Empire for decades.

Five years after the Proclamation of the New Order, various survivors of the Antar Atrocity and other malcontents joined together under the leadership of the former Captain Teller, who organized them into a rebel cell intent on stalling the development of the Emperor's newest weapon under construction at Geonosis. After stealing the Carrion Spike, an advanced starship based on a prototype stealth corvette used during the Battle of Christophsis during the Clone Wars, the rebels managed to wreck havoc across numerous star systems including Lucazec, Galidraan III and Nouane all while transmitting holovids of their attacks on Imperial HoloNet frequencies, increasing anti-Imperial propaganda across thousands of Mid and Outer Rim star systems before the Empire was able to shut down the communications grid. After lengthy fleet redeployment's and the discovery of a mole within the Imperial ranks, Tarkin aboard the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Executrix managed to disable the rebel warship and capture the dissidents after a brief battle and timely arrival of Star Destroyers Compliant and Enforcer. As an award for proving his skill, the Emperor gave Tarkin personal command of the Executrix and promoted him to the newly created rank of Grand Moff as well as oversight of the Outer Rim Territories, all while the recent attacks on Imperial facilities were made to look like an elaborate plot to root out rebel cells. The Empire had effectively dealt with a potentially disastrous situation, rooted out a traitor and had managed to keep details regarding the development of its superweapon at Geonosis a mere rumor.

Imperialization
"With shipyards turning out Imperial-class Star Destroyers, any revolt will be hard pressed to make so much as a dent in the Emperor's armor."

- Artoz

Almost immediately as part of the new regime, existing government bodies were renamed to reflect the change in authority. The Grand Army of the Republic became the Imperial Army, while the Republic Navy became the Imperial Navy and the Galactic Senate was rechristened as the Imperial Senate. The renowned Senate Plaza, with its name reminding residents of the Old Republic, was promptly changed to the Imperial Plaza, while an enormous statue of the Emperor was erected in its place. In addition, the former roundel of the Republic was replaced with the new Imperial crest, adorned on almost everything having to do with Palpatine's Empire. For the next decade and a half, Imperial rule; bolstered by the military created to fight in the Clone Wars; dominated the galaxy largely unchallenged. The Empire soon began to upgrade their military hardware, replacing V-wing and ARC-170 fighters with newer TIE models five years after the end of the Clone Wars, however Republic-era military equipment continued to be used for a while on distant outposts and locations such as Galidraan Station. The Republic's Phase II clone trooper armor would be replaced by superior stormtrooper armor, whose development had been headed by the Imperial Department of Military Research

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 three Inquisitors. Decades later, only four known Jedi had survived the Empire's wrath: Kenobi, Yoda , Ahsoka Tano (who went by the name "Fulcrum") and a Padawan named Caleb Dume, who changed his name to Kanan Jarrus in order to avoid detection. In order to hunt down any surviving Jedi and those in the galaxy who could sense the Force, the Empire created the Inquisitorius, an order of Force-sensitive Jedi hunters charged with finding and destroying the remaining Jedi and preventing the Force-sensitive youth of the galaxy from being used against them. The Empire also initiated Project Harvester, an clandestine operation designed to root out children with force sensitivity and detain them at an underground facility connected to the Arkanis Academy, located on the Outer Rim world of Arkanis. 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 with supplies coming from various planets and locations such as Sentinel Base and Geonosis. The Emperor's long-term plan was to allow what he called the 'skeleton of the Republic' to remain in place until the Death Star was completed; this included maintaining the Imperial Senate to make the systems believe that they still had a part to play in government. However, upon the completion of the Death Star, the Emperor planned to dissolve the Senate and grant its legislative and administrative powers to the military. The Death Star would provide order by making people too afraid to stand against the Empire.

Expansion into the Outer Rim
"Eventually the Empire will claim the Outer Rim. It is not without precedents to go to the periphery to secure the center."

- Emperor Palpatine

With the creation of the Galactic Empire, Palpatine had come one step closer to his ultimate plan of ruling the entire galaxy and unlocking the secrets of the Sith Masters that had come before him. With the near extermination of the Jedi Order and the Empire swelling in size and strength, the Emperor ultimately planned to posses the powers of the dark side to reshape reality itself into something of his own creation, and an omnipotent Empire would allow all the galaxy's inhabitants to be held in his dark embrace.

As the Empire expanded into the galaxy's periphery, most worlds would see their planets ecologically devastated, with rampant industrialization and mass-produced garments eroding local culture and ecological health. Men and women would see their sons and daughters drafted into Imperial service, while corrupt governors and magistrates would often exploit local populations on worlds such as Jelucan, Devaron and Tangenine. Parades, obligatory attendance at patriotic functions and the erection of barracks and garrisons on various worlds across the galaxy would become the norm. While the Empire turned a blind eye to various abuses, it still maintained a policy of zero corruption and maintained its high standards of conduct, resulting in numerous ISB officials to actively hunt down corrupt and negligent officials, even resulting in investigations by Lord Vader himself. Despite this, many citizens were content with the geopolitical situation in the galaxy, believing that strict measures were necessary to maintain order and stability after the destructive Clone Wars. Many also believed that the Empire, while not the best, was a better alternative than anarchy and chaos.

While many tolerated and even supported the Empire, many worlds and their people would continue to hold separatist tendencies and even exude hostility, with those that fought in the Clone Wars seeing the transformation of the Empire from a source for order into a brutal bully in a quest for control. During this so called 'Age of the Empire,' worlds such as Naboo would see rampant beautification projects in an effort to produce idealized versions of life in the Empire as a whole, with the state-sponsored HoloNet continually quoting new building projects, successful trade negotiations and endless economic prosperity. Many supported the growing view of the Empire as a nearly invincible force.

Despite its seemingly endless expansion, a major turning point against the Empire's advance into the Outer Rim would occur eight years after the end of the Clone Wars and eleven years before the Battle of Yavin, with the Empire being engaged in a small skirmish in the Inner Rim system of Gorse. This event would see the meeting of later rebels Hera Syndulla and Jedi survivor Kanan Jarrus who were confronting efficiency expert Count Denetrius Vidian and his aggressive methods of extracting thorilide&mdash;;a vital component in the construction of turbolaser batteries and thus essential for the expansion of the Imperial fleet. The Gorse conflict ultimately ended with the transferring of local thorilide mining operations to Imperial-aligned Baron Lero Danthe, while Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus departed on the heavily modified VCX-100 light freighter Ghost, and would become essential for the eventual formation of the Rebel Alliance.

With more and more worlds beginning to realize the Empire's true intentions after various massacres on Kashyyyk and increasingly brutal tactics, such as the Empire committing genocide on the Lasat homeworld of Lasan, a growing number of citizens of the galaxy began to rebel against Imperial dominion. At least nine years after the proclamation of the New Order, the Corellian Resistance fought the Empire from its headquarters on the planet Corellia.

Around fourteen years into Sidious' rule as Emperor, the Outer Rim world Lothal joined the Imperial Registration Program seeking protection and economic opportunities whereby local citizens would find work in the local Sienar Fleet Systems facilities. Ostensibly this was to grow the local economy, but was in fact secretly part of a much larger five-year plan involving numerous Outer Rim worlds. Lothal's industrial importance soon came to the fore for the Empire as the Emperor began to make plans to expand Imperial dominion over the Outer Rim Territories. In order to maximize the worth of newly occupied systems, worlds such as Lothal soon bore witness to Imperial authorities relocating farmers away from their farm lands to mine for Imperial purposes, leading to the development of settlements such as Tangletown and Lothal re-settlement camp 43, known by the residents as "Tarkintown."

A growing rebellion
"I don't know when things went wrong. But as law came back to Tangenine, the Empire changed from what it was to&hellip; whatever it is we've got now. I brought a man in for stealing power converters and saw him jailed for life. I tracked down a gang leader, a spice dealer&mdash;the lowest of the low&mdash;and saw him pardoned because he bribed a magistrate."

- Brand

The aggressive dislocation of persons and high tax rate eventually led to the development of a small insurgency against the Empire on Lothal. Although the insurgency itself (and several others across the Imperial territories) was of little consequence, the Empire did fear that various rebel cells could unite and form a more potent menace against the Empire and its interests in the Outer Rim. Imperial Military command maintained a list of known Rebel sympathizers on several Outer Rim worlds, including Lothal, however most of them were not arrested due to them having powerful allies in the Senate, a known hotbed of corruption and decadence. Among these cells on Lothal was the Rebel crew of a VCX-100 light freighter called the Ghost, consisting of Jedi Purge survivor Kanan Jarrus, the Twi'lek pilot Hera Syndulla, the Lasat genocide survivor Garazeb Orrelios, the sixteen-year-old Mandalorian Imperial Academy dropout Sabine Wren and the fifteen-year-old force-sensitive boy Ezra Bridger. When rumor on the discovery of Jarrus' Jedi identity and his duty on leading the insurgency begun to emerge, the Empire sent the Grand Inquisitor, a Force-sensitive Jedi hunter, to track him down.

Eventually, a daring battle over Mustafar, the Ghost crew would join with a growing rebellion. The rebels, commanded by former Padawan Ahsoka Tano,were part of a larger rebel movement across the entire galaxy which included several cells, led by Tano and Imperial Senator Bail Organa, and purposely kept in darkness about the existence of one another to prevent information leaks and Imperial crackdowns. Following rumors of an Imperial defeat over Mustafar, spontaneous riots and unrest on several Imperial worlds occurred. The size of the rebellion had also caused concern in the higher ranks of the Empire. With the Grand Inquisitor's death, the Emperor sent his loyal enforcer, Darth Vader, to quash the threat to the Empire's reign. The resulting years would see the growth of the Phoenix rebel cell and the larger resistance movement across the galaxy.

Eventually, the Alliance to Restore the Republic would be formed in the few short years before the destruction of the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin, with the Alliance's Sixty-First Mobile Infantry striking at Imperial-held worlds such as Mygeeto, Crucival and Vir Aphshire for at least over two months prior.

Galactic Civil War
"Even though I've only been in active service for a few weeks, it has already become evident to me that the Rebel Alliance is a far larger and more dangerous group than official broadcasts have ever acknowledged. We do not operate as a peacetime military. Our preparations are more appropriate for a time of war."

- Jude Edivon

Search for the missing plans
"I have traced the Rebel spies to her. Now she is my only link to finding their secret base."

- Darth Vader

Nineteen years after the proclamation of the New Order, Rebel forces captured the plans for the Death Star, seeking to find a weakness and exploit it to destroy the battle station. Imperial forces commanded by Darth Vader captured one of the leaders of the Alliance and the one who was in possession of the plans, 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 Sidious 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, and her refusal to give up the location of the Alliance's base, precipitated Grand Moff 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. Soon after the destruction of Alderaan, dubbed "the Disaster" by Alderaanian refugees, vigils for the dead were held on Coruscant's Level 3204, with many on the level having formerly lived on Alderaan. However, as soon as the circumstances behind the event became clear, the once peaceful vigils turned into violent riots, with many calling for justice and revolution against the Empire. Imperial stormtroopers and Coruscant underworld police were soon called in to restore the peace, and began arresting and eventually relocating those who would question Imperial rule.

Eventually, Organa was rescued from the Death Star by the 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; 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 major defeat for the Imperial forces, when young Skywalker successfully fired the shot which destroyed the Imperial battle station. The Death Star was destroyed, marking the Rebellion's first major victory against the Empire.

An Empire besieged
"We kept the skeleton of the Republic for nearly twenty years while the Death Star was constructed. Twenty years, my apprentice. All that planning is now a layer of dust orbiting around Yavin... Now, we no longer have the Senate to hold order. We do not have the Death Star to force it. Our greatest weapon is gone. Our production is in ashes. We are besieged. In all these years, we have never skirted closer to disaster."

- Darth Sidious to Darth Vader

With the Emperor now viewing the growing Alliance as a credible threat, Palpatine would issue a communique the morning after the Death Star's destruction ordering all ongoing ISB operations to be superseded for the immediate detention of known and suspected rebel sympathizers, as well as Admiral Kendal Ozzel ordering the fleet into battle readiness.

In an attempt to keep the Rebellion off-balance, the Empire engaged in a policy of rushed and scrambled offenses across the galaxy and raided spice worlds such as Kerev Doi in an attempt to cut off possible sources of income for the Alliance. With major military redeployments occurring around the clock, the Imperial Military began to mobilize for a full-scale galactic war, while the Rebellion began to push into the populous Imperial Mid Rim in a failed operation that only months later would become known as the Mid Rim Retreat, its ultimate demise owing in large part to the Empire's numerical superiority. Following losses at Phindar and Portocari two weeks following the Battle of Yavin, members of the Nashtah Squadron learned at the Zero Angle bar on the Bright Jewel Oversector Flight Base on Axxila III that the military was going to undergo a mass re-organization, rescinding the classification between Imperial Navy and Imperial Army pilots.

Unbeknownst to the Empire following the destruction of the first Death Star, the Rebel Alliance had successfully evacuated their base on Yavin 4 and was orbiting the remote world of Orto Plutonia in the Pantora system, located in the Sujimis sector, with the nearest Imperial presence being Moff Abran Balfour who patrolled the world of Llanic situated at the intersection of the Llanic Spice Route and Triellus Trade Route. A brief skirmish erupted when Luke Skywalker, in the luxury yacht the Desert Jewel, attacked two TIE fighters assaulting a Kupohan ship. Unknown to Skywalker at the time, the ship was in reality carrying a Kupohan spy with vital intelligence regarding Drusil Bephorin, a Givin woman with a reputation for being able to slice into security systems at an astonishing rate and interpret encoded messages at breathtaking speed. Desperately searching for the Alliance Fleet, the Empire sought to convince Drusil to use her cryptographic skills to aid them in their efforts and kept her in a sort of luxurious imprisonment on Denon in an effort to sway her favor. Secretly, Drusil offered to join the Alliance as long as the rebels could successfully extract her family to the ocean world of Omereth, a task given to Major Bren Derlin. After a side mission to the Deep Core, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 and Nakari Kelen managed to successfully extract Drusil after an elaborate chase across the galaxy, hampering the Empire's plans for a retaliatory strike against the Rebellion.

In addition to rebel agents wrecking havoc internally, the Empire also suffered desultory raids by rebel forces emboldened by their successful strike against the Death Star, with the rebels that destroyed it&mdash;Red Squadron&mdash;continuing to harass the Empire, especially during a mission above Giju where a transport carrying underground rebel leaders was evacuated from the planet. The Empire also continued to suffer setbacks from the Rebellion's golden boy, Luke Skywalker, including the trespass by the Jedi Purge survivor into the Temple of Eedit&mdash;an abandoned Jedi temple under guard of the Empire&mdash;on Devaron.

Despite the temporary turmoil instilled by the Rebel's bold strikes, the Alliance sought to attempt even bigger operations to capitalize on its former success. Most notably an attempt to assault, infiltrate and destroy Weapons Factory Alpha located in the Corellian Industrial Cluster on Cymoon 1, reputedly home to the largest weapons factory in the galaxy. In the meantime, the Empire opened negotiations with the Hutt Clan, led by Jabba the Hutt, to secure raw materials for Imperial Military production and secure their support for their expansion in the Outer Rim. The Rebels were ultimately successful in destroying the factory, crippling Imperial production and causing another major setback.

For his failure to stop the destruction of both the Death Star and the loss of Cymoon 1, Vader was relieved of much of his authority by Emperor Palpatine and was assigned to serve in the Imperial Military instead of commanding it. As much of the Empire's military command had been lost with the Death Star, the Emperor appointed General Cassio Tagge, the Chief of the Imperial Army, to the rank of Grand General and assigned him command of Imperial Military matters due to his foresight to fear the Alliance Fleet and doubt the invincibility of the Death Star. The Emperor pressed the military to focus its efforts on the conquest of the Outer Rim and the destruction of the Rebellion for, with the Death Star gone and the Senate disbanded, the Empire lacked efficient means to keep dissenting systems in line. Additionally, Imperial statisticians noted predictable increases in piracy following the Death Star's destruction. As a result, the military was to preserve order by any means necessary until the second Death Star was completed.

Under Tagge's command, the conquest of the Outer Rim progressed, with Tagge launching a significant crackdown on criminal elements that had gone unchecked in the past. The only criminal powers allowed to survive were the Hutts, per Vader's agreement with Jabba. The destruction of competitors also allowed the Hutts to capitalize on "new markets" supplied by the Empire.

Mid Rim Retreat
"[&hellip;] Our forces just chased half the Alliance out of the Mid Rim. How many other rebel ships managed to escape an engagement in this sector after sustaining damage&mdash;in the past week, say? How many others need repairs, as well? It's your hunt." "It's our hunt. All of ours!"

- Captain Tabor Seitaron and Prelate Verge on tracking down the rebel ship Thunderstrike during the Mid Rim Retreat.

Following the destruction of the First Death Star, the Rebellion embarked on a massive military campaign to liberate hundreds of worlds under Imperial control by pushing into the heavily populated Mid Rim. With thousands of starships, hundreds of battle groups and dozens of worlds involved in the operation, it was initially met with stunning success as Imperial forces, unprepared for such a large-scale operation and shattered from the recent shake-ups in the Imperial hierarchy, fell back from world to world, allowing the Rebellion to press further into Imperial space. Taking the factory-deserts of Phorsa Gedd and the Ducal Palace of Bamayar, the Rebellion's advance gradually slowed as Imperial resistance stiffened. Eighteen months into the operation, fearing to overextend the fleet and occupied with the consolidation of worlds now under Rebel control, High Command ordered for the defense of occupied territories, and shortly thereafter the slow withdrawal of Alliance military resources back towards the Outer Rim.

Assaulting Echo Base
"Make ready to land our troops beyond their energy field, then deploy the fleet so that nothing gets off the system."

- Darth Vader

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 and a half 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 at the Moorsh Moraine, a glacial feature on the planet in preparation for a major assault on the Alliance forces at Echo Base. 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 belt. 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.

Splintering of the Rebellion
"Since the destruction of the Alliance base over fifteen rebel outposts and seven members of the enemy leadership have surrendered. Emperor Palpatine is reportedly considering public trials for select combatants in the hope that others&mdash;witnessing their fair treatment&mdash;will follow their example and turn themselves in."

- Imperial HoloNet News

Operation Ringbreaker
"This is the Alliance's moment of weakness. The Emperor intends to deliver the killing blow at last, hunting down the scattered members of Alliance High Command as they flee deep into the galaxy's Outer Rim."

- Governor Everi Chalis

Following the disastrous Battle of Hoth, the Alliance Fleet was scattered across the galaxy and the absence of clear orders and the condition of Alliance High Command put the movement into its most critical stage in the war effort. With Imperial forces required to maintain the Mid Rim border and combat active war zones, vast numbers of Imperial forces from the Core Worlds were deployed to finally quash the Rebellion in the Outer Rim. This redeployment however, left the Core's defenses enervated if only by a slight margin. Knowing the Empire's reliance on the Imperial shipyards at Kuat and their vital importance in planetary containment and and fast infantry deployment, the Rebel Sixty-First Mobile Infantry would launch Operation Ringbreaker, an initiative designed to destroy the Empire's orbital facilities at Kuat. Ultimately, the plan would falter and end on Sullust owing to logistical concerns.

Conflict at Endor
"Admiral Ackbar is right. The Death Star isn't our only enemy&mdash;time is, as well. Our attack must come before the battle station is operational&mdash;or all will be lost"

- Chancellor Mon Mothma

Six months after the Rebellion's catastrophic loss at Hoth, the Rebel Fleet would split into small fragments across the galaxy in an attempt to avoid another propaganda victory for the Empire, further extending the Imperial fleet in an effort to engage the rebellion. Despite its previous advantages following the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion would be sitting on a knife's edge after knowledge of yet another battle station being constructed by Emperor Palpatine. Following the loss of the first Death Star, the Emperor made clear his determination to create yet another planet-shattering space station, this time more powerful than the first. Utilizing S-thread boosters to carve a secret hyperspace lane through the Outer Rim, the Emperor planned on destroying the rebels in a doomed engagement over the forest moon of Endor, construction site of the Death Star II and unbeknownst to the rebels with a fully armed and operational superlaser. Following the presumed destruction of a sizable portion of the Alliance's military capabilities, the Emperor planned on deploying some of the largest invasion fleets seen in centuries to blockade the known rebel strongholds of Mon Cala and Chandrila until the Death Star could destroy them, successfully eliminating any hope of a successful galactic resistance and thus permanently ending the Alliance to Restore the Republic through sheer terror and intimidation.

With the Alliance Fleet assembling over Sullust, the Emperor decided to proactively approach the Rebel problem. Rather than guard the station's secrets, as with the first Death Star, Sidious 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. After the Bothan spynet successfully transmitted intelligence regarding the Empire's new and improved Death Star to Alliance High Command, an emergency summit would be held on the remote trade world of Zastiga, far from the Galactic Core. There, Rebellion leaders and generals were to be informed of the construction of the second Death Star located over Endor which, they knew, had to be destroyed before it became operational. Needing to buy time for the scattered fleet to assemble over Sullust, Princess Leia Organa devised a strategy to divert the Imperial attention to her; Operation Yellow Moon, instead of the upcoming mission to Endor. Ultimately, with the successful completion of Yellow Moon, the Rebel Alliance had gained valuable time for its now consolidated fleet to finally be able to strike out at an incomplete Death Star, and ultimately restore freedom to the galaxy.

Unknown to the Rebels, large portions of the Imperial Starfleet had already began massing in the Hudalla system, while Imperial engineers had ensured that the new Death Star's main weapon was fully operational. Eventually, Imperial Military command had discreetly moved the gathered warships to a staging point on the far side of Endor's 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 SLD-26 planetary shield generator, which neutralized any attempt at directly assaulting the station.

Imperial intelligence reports indicated that Sidious' trap was indeed well underway when it was discovered that the Rebel fleet was massing at Sullust, as a staging ground for their strike at Endor. Per the Emperor's design and command, Imperial Military authorities were ordered to ignore the buildup so that the Rebels would commit their entire force to a doomed attack. When the Alliance fleet arrived en masse, the Emperor's trap was sprung. The Rebel ground forces had taken the bait and been captured, allowing the Death Star's shield to remain 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.

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 who had allied themselves with the Rebels, 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 to the Annaj system. The Empire had suffered a decisive defeat.

Aftermath of Endor
"This isn't some kind of inspirational story. Some scrappy, ragtag underdog tale, some pugilistic match where we're the goodhearted gladiator who brings down the oppressive regime that put him in the arena. They get to have that narrative. We are the ones who enslaved whole worlds full of alien inhabitants. We are the ones who built something called a Death Star under the leadership of a decrepit old goblin who believed in the 'dark side' of some ancient, insane religion." "Were this a better day, you'd be executed for treason, General Shale." [&hellip;]"Then why do governors turn away from us every day? Why do we lose more ships every week? Why do we see holovids of freed worlds throwing parades and tearing down statues? They did so much with so little, Pandion. You misunderstand our place in history."

- General Jylia Shale and Moff Valco Pandion

With the destruction of the Death Star and death of the Order's totalitarian ruler, many worlds across the galaxy began to celebrate the Empire's defeat over Endor with the incorrect notion that the war was over. Despite being at the heart of the Galactic Empire, the Imperial Center would also see tumultuous festivities by its populace, eventually leading to a riot breaking out in Monument Plaza that would eventually coalesce into a full-scale civil war. Owing to the lack of a clear system of succession following the Emperor's death, chaos gripped the galaxy as former Imperial expansionism stalled. Members of the Imperial Council attempted to grab onto what territories they could, while tailored propaganda messages often contradicted each other. Some refused to legitimize the New Republic, and thus banned referring to it by name. Others portrayed it as a monstrous terrorist organization, swallowing up Imperial worlds for plunder and conquest, while others still refused to even acknowledge the Emperor's death for months. Governor Adelhard, who was in charge of the Anoat sector, attempted to downplay the Empire's defeat over Endor and cover up the Emperor's death. Shutting down all travel and communications in and out of the Anoat sector, Adelhard established the Iron Blockade. Citizens who dared to fight back and speak of so-called "rumors" of the Empire's defeat were hunted and eliminated by Commander Bragh and his Purge Troopers. While some such as Grand Moff Lozen Tolruck of Kashyyyk suggested that the Emperor had escaped the Death Star II through miraculous means, others claimed the even wilder notion that the Emperor was still leading the Empire from beyond the grave.

With the Empire fragmented, the Rebel Alliance embarked on numerous campaigns such as the Beltire Liberation and the Battle of Cawa City to capitalize on its stunning success over Endor, resulting in numerous Imperial defeats. Twenty days after Endor, the posthumous contingency plan of the late Emperor known as Operation: Cinder would be delivered to numerous Imperial captains by messenger droids. The plan would order the scouring of his homeworld of Naboo along with at least a dozen other worlds such as Burnin Konn, Candovant, Abednedo, and Commenor with climate disruption arrays. Utilizing N-1 starfighters dating 36 years earlier to the Battle of Naboo, the Alliance managed to destroy the satellites along with the aid of an MC80 star cruiser and the Alliance Fleet. Despite the Order's defeat over Naboo, the Empire would still attempt to execute the operation on numerous worlds in the three months following the Battle of Endor.

By the time after the Battle of Endor, illicit holovids of the Emperor's defeat over Endor and rebel propaganda detailing the liberation of worlds such as Naboo began to disseminate throughout the galaxy, with many facing the risk of arrest and execution for spreading what the Empire deemed lies. However the increasing view that the Empire was weakened, reinforced by the insistence of authorities claiming otherwise, prompted thousands of planets to join the Alliance, while Imperial Military defections steadily began to increase. In order to counter the accusations of the Emperor's demise, a proxy actor was installed in his place, however some citizens were able to notice slight differences in the facsimile. Eventually, the truth of the Emperor's demise became known to the general citizenry, while declarations of a new Emperor were announced almost everyday with none able to consolidate any substantial power. Former aide to Emperor Palpatine since the Clone Wars, Grand Vizier Mas Amedda attempted to keep the Empire together while splinter fleets and other Imperial officials fought each other to support the various claimants to the throne.

Eventually, the Galactic Empire would have to contend with the New Republic, a rival galactic government formed in the wake of the Rebel Alliance's victory at Endor. Suffering a string of defeats against the Republic including the loss of Sevarcos and Malastare, along with a failed attempt to restart the former Separatist droid foundries on Geonosis, the Empire gradually began to crumble. Self-appointed Grand Moff Valco Pandion and other military leaders began to jockey for power, while corrupt sector governors accepted payments for the Republic's allocation of Imperial ships or sued for peace at the earliest convenience. The captains of two of the Empire's thirteen Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts even surrendered to the New Republic.

With most of the Empire's veteran troops killed on the second Death Star or Vader's command ship Executor, military paucity and tactical clumsiness soon hampered the Empire's efforts at a concerted strike aimed against the Republic. The Imperial Military soon began suffering numerous losses of warships and troops, and began expending more ordinance than it could produce fighting Republic forces. This ultimately led to a supply deficit forcing Imperial-class Star Destroyers to make do with an inadequate supply of TIE/LN starfighters and resulted in both the Imperial Navy and Imperial Army utilizing untrained personnel pulled early from the numerous Imperial academies across the Empire. Consequently, many planets were either captured or seceded to the New Republic owing to the Empire's fractured state. With the loss and failure of three successive sieges to retake the Mid Rim world of Naboo, birthplace to the Emperor and thus influential rallying point for the New Order's shattered forces, the Empire retreated to numerous fallback positions on strategically unimportant worlds such as Naalol, often drawing the New Republic into long and indecisive conflicts, forestalling its slow push toward the Core Worlds. Despite these efforts, the Republic had already established its capital on Chandrila, a planet located within the Core.

The Imperial Future Council
"The rebels&mdash;because that's what they are, rebels, criminals, deviants&mdash;did what they did with almost no war machine in place. Insurgents, all of them. They managed a few lucky shots with their slingshots but we still have the ships, the men, the training. The money."

- Moff Valco Pandion

Despite the lack of a clear chain of command, old loyalists and a common fear of the rising Rebellion kept a vague semblance of unity between the surviving Imperial forces. Existing on a knife's edge, many officers wondered when someone of prominence would break away from commonality and begin to overtly act against the greater body, ushering in chaos and anarchy. To avoid this, the surviving Imperial leaders and their military forces converged on the Outer Rim planet of Akiva in an attempt to evade New Republic detection and stabilize the remaining factions of the Empire in the months following Endor, with various portions of the Outer Rim still occupied by Imperial forces. During the Akiva summit, various Imperial delegates discussed the future of the Empire in the aptly named Imperial Future Council.

Amid the conference, the various Imperial leaders were divided over how the Empire should deal with their newfound situation, and whether or not it would be wise to continue the war, or enter into a state of cold war. Additionally, the continued funding of the Imperial Military was hotly disputed, with some arguing that plundering the InterGalactic Banking Clan and other monetary bodies would plunge the galaxy into an economic depression. The notion of abandoning the Empire's dark-side devotion was even discussed, while Imperial Advisor Yupe Tashu&mdash;a long-time admirer of Palpatine and dark-side cultist&mdash;suggested sending the Imperial remnants to the outskirts of the galaxy to search for the source of the dark-side. With the more pressing objective to organize and thus strike out against the New Republic before it could grow any stronger, the delegates soon began discussing who should lead the Empire as the new Galactic Emperor.

Before any real progress could be made, Akiva was ultimately liberated after a New Republic fleet arrived, forcing the Imperials to scatter once more and resulting in Akiva to be the first Outer Rim planet to formally join the New Republic. In reality, Imperial Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, who had been going under the surname of the "Operator," had been secretly manipulating the entire event in an attempt to weed out those that he saw as weak, and had been giving the New Republic secret Imperial intelligence for quite some time following Endor.

Rise of the Shadow Council
"This is Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, commander of the Imperial Navy and de facto leader of the Galactic Empire. The Empire remains vigilant in combating the anarchist criminal government calling itself the New Republic. The dream of a safe, sane, and unified galaxy did not die with the glorious Emperor Palpatine. The Galactic Empire continues to march forward, tirelessly diligent in its quest to return order and stability where none before existed. Meanwhile, the New Republic continues its own mission to destroy what we have built together. Crime has returned to the galaxy tenfold as the underworld dynasties have regained dominance over worlds once kept free of their toxic influences by the Empire. Supply lines have been cut, and many worlds are now starving without adequate food. The corrosive influence of the New Republic has caused a seemingly insurmountable loss of jobs, income, and even lives. But fear not. The Empire remains, as sure as a mountain, as certain as the stars across all the systems. We will defeat the insurgency. We will make this false government pay for its crimes against you. Even now we are building new ships, new bases, and founding new technologies to keep you safe. The Empire is coming. We will deliver you from harm. And we will strike back against our enemies. Remain calm. remain loyal. With true hearts, victory for us&mdash;and for the whole galaxy&mdash;will soon be at hand."

- Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, in a OIP propaganda piece.

Roughly two months after the Battle of Akiva, the Galactic Empire's territorial possessions were rapidly shrinking. Numerous systems left the Empire or waged their own resistance movements, declared their independence, and established their own fiefdoms or joined the New Republic. Criminal syndicates flourished in this atmosphere of conflict, especially the reptilian pirate Eleodie Maracavanya, who had captured the SSD Annihilator and used it to forge her own criminal empire. Various moffs and governors rebelled against the Empire, while the question of what exactly the Empire was saw itself asked more and more often. Agencies, personnel, and whole planetary systems started to drift apart, each adopting differing tactics and methods for combating the New Republic, and each other. Grand Vizier Mas Amedda even attempted to commit suicide after the New Republic refused his surrender, instead ordering him to work towards signing a treaty of surrender to clear his name. As the war grew more desperate, TIE fighter pilots even began suicide attacks on entrenched Republic positions, and wholesale massacres of native populations were executed by various commanders. The HoloNet, now free of Imperial censorship, brought such atrocities to the public spotlight. Other Imperial officials went AWOL and holed up in distant, hyper-secure outposts to avoid the Republic Tribunal and its sentencing of Imperial war criminals. Additionally, the Emperor's Super Star Destroyer, the Eclipse, had disappeared from the galaxy.

While the Empire appeared weak and the New Republic grew in size, Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax&mdash;who had earlier staged the IFC to eliminate rivals in his accent to power&mdash;consolidated more and more systems to his cause. Publicly, Grand Admiral Rae Sloane was recognized as the de facto leader of the Empire's largest remnant faction and Imperial Navy, but was in reality nothing more than a pawn in Rax's game. Despite having been a personal friend to Palpatine, Rax saw the Empire of old as weak, corrupt, and overripe. To him, by allowing the New Republic to gain ground, he not only eliminated potential competition, but consolidated the leftover pieces of the Order. Unbeknownst to the Republic, Rax had secretly moved hundreds of Star Destroyers and thousands of light ships to hide in the Vulpinus, Almagest, Recluse's, Queluhan, Ro-Loo Triangle, and Inamorata nebulae following Endor. With the shipyards of Kuat, Xa Fel, Anadeen, and Turco Prime having already been lost or contested, Rax planned to use the Empire's last foothold in the Outer Rim as a "strangling cord" to tie around the New Republic. While the Empire of old relied on third-party corporations to produce its military hardware, Rax had nationalized all aspects of the production chain to be solely Imperial. To conclude his plan, Rax founded the Shadow Council after rescuing the final member of the council, Brendol Hux, from Arkanis. This "Shadow Council" was to serve as a secret advisory board comprised of the "best and brightest," with the ultimate motive of secretly guiding the Empire into a new golden age.

Roughly three months after the Battle of Akiva, Rax sent Rae Sloane on a mission to the New Republic's capital with the overtures of signing a peace treaty. The signing coincided with the New Republic's celebration of Liberation Day, a holiday celebrating the release of captives from the Imperial prison Ashmead's Lock on Kashyyyk, with many of the captives having been held in suspended animation since the days of the early Rebellion. In reality, the survivors were a part of an elaborate assassination scheme by Rax. Executed by his lackey, Windom Traducier&mdash;a disillusioned Senate Guard&mdash;by utilizing inhibitor chips that had been installed within the survivor's brains. The survivors then attacked and fired on the crowd after the chip's activation by Traducier, with the survivors targeting Chancellor Mon Mothma and various members of the Republic military during a dedication speech to their rescue. Watching the attacks from the balcony and under the false presumption that Rax planned on sending a naval fleet to assault Chandrila, Sloane realized that this terror attack was the "attack" Rax had foreshadowed to her. Already disagreeing on Rax's methods for administering the Empire, Rae announced her intention to confront Rax aboard the Ravager to her aide, Adea Rite, a secret supporter of Rax. As a result, her aide attempted to execute the Grand Admiral, only to have the attempt fail, allowing Sloane to escape both Imperial and New Republic custody.

Using the assassination attempt as a backdrop, Gallius Rax announced his ascension to the newly-created title Counselor to the Empire, promising to serve as an interstitial leader under the return of Rae Sloane, who he had assumed was dead. He then led the last remnants of the Imperial Navy to congregate over Jakku, where he planned to "test" the mettle of his new armada.

Signing the Galactic Concordance
"In the month since the Battle of Jakku, the Empire has attempted no further large-scale offensives. Sources report all Imperial vessels within the Core and Inner Rim staying within the boundaries defined by the treaty. A few prominent members of the Provisional Senate have speculated that the New Republic's war with the remnants of the Empire has finally come to an end and that a final surrender may be imminent. However, in her address today, the chancellor warned that all planets should remain on high alert, and that the New Republic Starfleet should be kept on a war footing for the foreseeable future."

- A news holo a month following the Battle of Jakku

A year and four days after Endor, the Empire and the New Republic fought a major battle over and on the Inner Rim planet Jakku as the rebels sought to expand their territory into a vital sector in the galactic war. With the Empire controlling most of the galaxy's major shipyards, the Republic sought to expand their fleet by capturing Imperial vessels, along with destroying a secret Imperial weapons facility on the planet. With the battle initially in the Empire's favor, it soon turned into a rout as the smaller rebel forces attacked the Imperials from their flanks, owing in part to the tumultuous military leadership following the Emperor's death. With the battle turning against the Empire, the surviving Imperial forces began pulling ships onto the planet's surface utilizing their tractor beams, killing most of the occupants in an instant. When word of a distant peace treaty, the Galactic Concordance was signed on far-away Coruscant, some surviving Imperials began jumping into the Unknown Regions, while the surface of Jakku would became littered with wreckage from the battle for decades to come.

Following losses on and over Jakku, the Empire effectively surrendered to the New Republic after negotiations on Coruscant. Treaty stipulations would see the building and mobilization of stormtrooper forces forbidden, heavy war reparations and other harsh concessions that would limit the Empire's ability to wage war and sustain its armada. The treaty would also force all Imperial vessels located in the Core and Inner Rim to be confined within pre-defined boundaries, locking the Empire into an endless cold war with the New Republic and seeing its eventual transformation into a rump state, with political hardliners dominating its internal affairs.

Legacy
"One conqueror replaces another..."

- Sinjir Rath Velus

Eventually, the Galactic Empire would cease to exist after the signing of the Galactic Concordance, instead being comprised of numerous nations, star systems, and factions merely wishing for their own independence. The New Republic would maintain an egalitarian policy of peaceful coexistence with the numerous galactic systems comprised of former territories and Imperial governors, some of which sought to join the Republic. The Empire, the heroes of the Rebellion, and the tragedy of Alderaan would be remembered by the generation of children conceived following the destruction of the Death Star II. These "victory kids," would learn of the battles of the past in textbooks, with the struggles of the Galactic Civil War soon becoming nothing more than a distant memory. Many of the Old Empire's orbital shipyards would be destroyed, and the New Republic would pass the Military Disarmament Act, among others, in an effort to avoid a repeating the former mistakes of the Galactic Republic; and would host its capital on a rotating basis among members worlds rather than on the former Imperial Center.

Imperial collectors of stormtrooper helmets, banners, flags and other regalia of the Imperial armed forces would often name themselves outlandish titles in a quasi-homage to the late Empire, taking on titles such as the Avenger of Jakku, Emperor's Wrath, and Interceptor Fire. Others would admire the fallen regime for its efficiency, vision, and massive military machine.

With the Empire's collapse, many of the Emperor's servants fled into the Unknown Regions with some of the regime's greatest secrets. There for nearly three decades after Endor, the Empire's first true successor state would coalesce as the mysterious First Order. Situated in the galaxy's vast frontier, the First Order would undergo the rapid expansion and colonization of newly discovered star systems, while new bases, shipyards, and weapons labs would begin churning out a technologically advanced military in a bid to conquer the galaxy. Inspired by the previous Galactic Empire and composed of various military leaders of the former regime, the First Order fought for control of the galaxy against the Resistance, a private military force led by General Leia Organa and funded by like-minded senators in the New Republic who believed the Order posed a greater threat than many believed.

Organization
"Efficiency is predictability. The Empire is nothing if not efficient."

- Everi Chalis

Rulers of the Empire
Amongst high-ranking military personnel, the Emperor's name was spoken with fear along with his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader. Frequently styled as a "Lord", and treated with a similar fearful deference as Palpatine, many considered Vader to be the Emperor's right hand man&mdash;a living weapon&mdash;and viewed him as the natural successor to the Emperor's legacy. In reality, the Emperor planned to live forever by uncover the secrets to immortality via Dark Side research into Sith alchemy, as epitomized by Project Blackwing. Ergo, the Empire lacked a clear chain of succession following both the Emperor and Vader's deaths.

The Emperor, Vader and Wilhuff Tarkin were considered to be the unofficial ruling triumvirate of the Empire in it's initial nineteen years of existence, with Tarkin favored by Palpatine since his academy days. Aiding them in their efforts were members of the Imperial Ruling Council, who handled the majority of the day to day affairs within the Imperial bureaucracy and wielded considerable powers over officers within the military. Following Tarkin's death during the Battle of Yavin, much of his operational responsibilities passed to newly promoted Grand General Tagge, who pursued a more pragmatic solution to the Empire's problems than 'Tarkin's folly;' the demeaning term later applied to the initial Death Star project. Following both the Emperor and Darth Vader's death four years later, Imperial head-of-government and Grand Vizier Mas Amedda would attempt to keep the Empire together, while new pretenders to the Imperial throne would announce their ascension to power on a near daily basis.

In the months following the Battle of Endor, Grand Admiral Rae Sloane would become publically recognized as the de facto head of the Galactic Empire and Imperial Navy. In reality, power would be held by Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax and his Shadow Council. After the covert Imperial-backed Liberation Day terror attack on Chandrila, Sloane's aide Adea Rite would execute a failed assassination attempt on the Grand Admiral per secret orders of Rax after Sloane refused to join his forces. Rax would then deny claiming the mantle of Emperor in a political move, instead choosing the title Counselor to the Empire, vowing to act as an interstitial leader until the Grand Admiral's return.

The Galactic Empire would see several rulers across its lifespan, including:


 * Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine: End of the Clone Wars &mdash; Battle of Endor.
 * Grand Vizier Mas Amedda, as chief administrator of the Empire on Coruscant, held little real political power: post-Battle of Endor.
 * Numerous claimants to power: post-Battle of Endor.
 * Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, as the de facto public leader of the Galactic Empire and the largest Imperial remnant faction: post-Battle of Endor.
 * Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, as the head of the Shadow Council and secret ruler of the largest remnant faction, and superior to Rae Sloane: post-Battle of Endor.
 * Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax, after the presumed death of Rae Sloane: months after the Battle of Endor, roughly three months following the Battle of Akiva.

Legislative branch
Emerging as an autocracy, the democratic and forward-thinking policies of the former Republic became obsolete within the new corridors of power. Thus, the Imperial Senate gradually lost the prestige it once held as the forum for galactic debate, as increasing numbers of senators became entangled into Emperor Sheev Palpatine's web of corruption, which began earlier during the Clone Wars. With the once powerful Senate firmly in Palpatine's hands, passing legislation became a mere formality for the New Order, while Senators and galactic citizens were made to believe that they had a voice in galactic politics. In reality, Palpatine held unlimited executive power, and was the only one who could formally pass legislation. While most feared to speak out against the Emperor, a few such as Bail and Leia Organa of Alderaan actively questioned the accountability of the Empire and its actions, much to the ire of Imperial authorities. Suspicions eventually began rising over Leia Organa using her diplomatic immunity to help the Rebel Alliance. After her capture aboard the Tantive IV, which was known to be carrying technical readouts for the Death Star, the Emperor used the incident as an excuse for disbanding the Imperial Senate shortly before the Battle of Yavin. 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.

Administration and bureaucracy
While the Emperor maintained a galactic armada and commanded the undisputed military, scientific, and economic hegemony in the entire galaxy, the ever-present fear of surviving Jedi would haunt Palpatine throughout his reign. In direct response to this feared threat, the Empire would employ numerous Dark Side Adepts, Force-sensitive individuals of the Inquisitorius trained to track down and eliminate any surviving Jedi. Due to the nature of their mission, Inquisitors could commandeer local Imperial forces, and possessed authority over other officers in the Imperial Military. In addition, Palpatine planned on further pushing the boundaries of what could be accomplished without the aid of the Force, creating cybernetically enhanced supersoldiers under the development of Cylo-IV at his heavily guarded research base. Owing to Vader's failure to protect both the First Death Star and Weapons Factory Alpha, Palpatine planned on eventually forming an army of cybernetic soldiers as his primary enforcers, while Vader's position as apprentice would be reduced to a mere ceremonial role.

While Dark Side leanings and occult goals may have fascinated the Empire's ruler, the banal commonalities of ruling a galaxy-wide Empire never failed to impress upon the Imperial leadership. With the rise of the New Order, many previous governmental agencies were re-named and re-purposed, while many official buildings saw themselves remodeled to fit a darker and more angular aesthetic. One such agency was the Republic-era COMPOR, newly dubbed COMPNOR, the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order. COMPNOR served as the Empire's chief umbrella agency dedicated to ensuring order and stability for the countless worlds under the Emperor's rule; supporting the new regime through both propaganda and intelligence services. Organizations such as the Imperial Security Bureau, Military Intelligence and Ubiqtorate worked under its oversight, with the ISB helping to stamp out potential dissident actions along with Military Intelligence's vast information and data gathering operations on the countless citizens in the galaxy. Also working under the auspices of COMPNOR was the Ministry of Information, designated under the Coalition for Progress. The Ministry was primarily tasked with muzzling the HoloNet News Agency of anti-Imperial messaging and ensuring the necessary infrastructure for the vast communications systems within the Empire. It also worked to monitor the Imperial Press Corps at the grand COMPNOR arcology, located in the Federal District of Coruscant, Level 5127.

The Empire also maintained the Imperial Information Office which employed civilians to help the Empire and its massive data operations in the galaxy, allowing employees the option of whether to cybernetically enhance their performance with AJ^6 cyborg constructs. The Ministry of Agriculture and Imperial Agricultural Collective oversaw the horticultural aspect of Imperial dominion, with officials on many worlds across the galaxy, including Lothal. The Economics Ministry, Education Ministry, Weather Ministry, Transportation Ministry and Imperial Survey Corps also employed numerous citizens across the Empire. The Imperial Mining Institute also existed under the New Order, while the Imperial Department of Military Research helped to boost the combat forces of the Empire, developing the widely used stormtrooper armor and the IT-O Interrogation Unit, along with the 9D9-s54 Spy Droid.

The Empire also employed the services of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, along with freelance bounty hunters to track down elusive elements within Imperial dominion. Bounty hunters such as Boba Fett, IG-88 and Dengar all assisted the Empire in tracking down the Millennium Falcon shorty after the Battle of Hoth, while Boba Fett had helped Darth Vader earlier by uncovering the mysterious agent of his master, Darth Sidious. In order to supply law enforcement information to the countless worlds in the galaxy, the Empire maintained the Imperial Enforcement DataCore and allowed it to be accessed by authorized Imperial personnel or bounty hunters for a small fee, and supplied Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificates to those who actively helped the Empire and its interests. The Imperial Office of Criminal Investigation also aided in law enforcement operations across the galaxy.

Following the Battle of Endor, COMPNOR would be reorganized into the Office of Imperial Promotion, Galactic Truth, and Fact Correction.

Foreign affairs
The Galactic Empire maintained a number of foreign relations with several independent or client states in the galaxy during its political existence. It maintained relations with both independent entities and established a number of protectorates across the galaxy. Alliances were brokered with factions such as with Fenn Rau and the Protectors, an ancient group of Mandalorians in the Concord Dawn system, which was an independent system and tasked to deal with potential rebels by reporting on their activities, and destroying them if possible. Following the Battle of Yavin, Vader would deliver pieces of the planet Alderaan to systems that needed a reminder of the Emperor's might. The Empire also maintained strategic resource systems, in which industrial surveillance, heightened security measures and higher work quotas were in effect, and were often placed under the supervision of influential barons, moguls and efficiency experts.

Military
"Look on our new military not as trespassers or interlopers, but as gatekeepers, here to shore up the Emperor's vision of a pacified and prosperous galaxy."

- Wilhuff Tarkin As the direct successor to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Imperial Military comprised vast numbers of warships and countless soldiers. One of the most recognizable warships being the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the mere sight of one usually being enough to bring a troublesome system in line. Rule through fear of force rather than force itself was the driving philosophy throughout the Imperial Military, epitomized by the Tarkin Doctrine. Bolstered by the near limitless resources at the Empire's disposal and loyalist companies such as Taim & Bak, Borstel and Phylon, corporations such as Kuat Drive Yards and its subsidiary Kuat Systems Engineering produced many of the New Order's Star Destroyers, as well as the formidable All Terrain Armored Transport, which was frequently deployed at hotspots throughout the galaxy. The AT-AT became to be feared for its formidable chin-mounted heavy laser cannons, while lighter walkers such as the All Terrain Defense Pod featured a single laser cannon able to be rotated independent of the walkers front facing direction, and were deployed primarily to protect Imperial Military interests on backwater worlds. BlasTech Industries was the primary weapons producer for the widely used E-11 blaster rifle. The Aratech Repulsor Company manufactured the 614-AvA speeder bike, commonly referred to as the Imperial speeder bike, which would eventually be replaced by the 74-Z. Sienar Fleet Systems produced many of the Empire's Imperial TIE fighters and variants, such as the TIE Advanced v1 which was originally unveiled on Empire Day and featured dual chin-mounted laser cannons and the ability to launch warheads such as the XX-23 S-thread tracker. The TIE Advanced x1 would be naturally become the next evolution of the deadly v1, as well as the preferred craft of Lord Vader. In addition, the Empire inherited the military assets of the defunct Separatist movement&mdash;the most notable of which was the Death Star.

Leading the Imperial Military were highly trained admirals, generals and Moffs who were instructed at the numerous Imperial Academy complexes throughout the galaxy. Several veteran officers also formerly served in the Galactic Republic, with decorated members such as Wullf Yularen. During the sixth year of the Emperor's reign there was a fixed number of twenty Moffs who answered directly to the Imperial Ruling Council. The title of Grand Moff was specifically created for Wilhuff Tarkin, while other Moffs such as Tiaan Jerjerrod and Therbon sought to increase their reputation with the Emperor. Some ambitious officers even supported insurgent activities with later plans to betray and destroy them in hopes of a promotion. It was not uncommon for high ranking officials to maintain private investments, with Hiram Zataire owning large plantations and a vineyard on Naboo, and Cassio Tagge being a member of the Tagge family, held ownership of TaggeCo and its mining facility at Lucazec.

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, 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. Following the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire's martial forces began to suffer both resource and personnel shortages, ultimately forcing untrained and untested recruits to fill the front lines in the Imperial war effort, while the once mighty Imperial Navy was reduced to a single Super Star Destroyer, the Ravager, which would ultimately be destroyed during the Battle of Jakku.

Within the Imperial Military, an "institutionalized suspicion" was noted by Tarkin as having established itself within the Imperial hierarchy, which he believed was used as a tool by Emperor Palpatine to control the various members of the Empire and its numerous organizations. There also existed an intense fear of the Emperor and Lord Vader, mainly due to harsh punishments often resulting in death or torture if a task was not completed in time or resulted in failure. Imperial patrol transports and stormtroopers were often utilized as the local police force for numerous worlds, while off-duty personnel could frequent local venues and neighborhoods after signing-out of their local garrison. The euphemism "off-base, recreation," was used in the Imperial Military when referring to the visiting of various mistresses or cantinas by personnel, while out of consideration it was common for duty officers to ask no questions about such escapades. Members within the Imperial Army believed that those stationed furthest from the Imperial Center were believed to be of less importance to the New Order, causing many to resent deployments on remote worlds such as Belderone.

Economy
The Galactic Empire adopted a planned economy, whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and directed in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars. During the Galactic Civil War, credits from the Empire became increasingly worthless following the formation of the New Republic. With the advent of the New Order, credits from the time of the Galactic Republic eventually became mostly worthless as they were out phased.

Society and culture
"Can you stop thinking of yourself as a native of your home planet and begin thinking of yourself as an Imperial first? An Imperial only? Can you accept that protecting and serving the world you came from is best accomplished by strengthening the Empire to which it belongs?"

- The introductory speech at the Royal Imperial Academy on Coruscant.

Propaganda
The Galactic Empire wielded a vast and powerfully effective propaganda machine to shift the opinions and cultures of numerous worlds across the galaxy. Celebrating the end of the destructive Clone Wars and the creation of the New Order, the Emperor founded Empire Day as the national holiday of the Empire. The song, "Glory of the Empire" served as the national anthem.

The Empire officially supported the political ideals of the New Order, and actively promoted its ideals through propaganda posters and pro-Imperial news reports delivered by news anchors such as Alton Kastle and monitored by the Ministry of Information on the HoloNet News, the only state-sanctioned news agency which was intent on glorifying the Empire and its armed forces, though there still existed local news outlets such as the Lothal Bulletin that supported the Galactic Empire. The Imperial Press Corps worked in league with HoloNet News, ensuring reporting stayed in line with "acceptable" news coverage. Due to physical alterations to Palpatine to make him look younger and more appealing in broadcasts, many citizenry did not know of the Emperor's scarred appearance, nor did they comprehend that the galaxy was under the command of a Sith Lord.

To enhance its legitimacy in the eyes of the people, the Empire used the duel in Palpatine's office to officially support the idea of a "Jedi Rebellion" occurring, and that the Jedi Order had attempted to stage a coup intent on taking control over the Republic, thus necessitating Order 66. In the years after the Proclamation of the New Order, all remaining recordings of the Jedi were removed, with many eventually believing and supporting the Emperor's version of events. However individuals such as Zaluna Myder and even Luke Skywalker questioned the Empire's account of the events leading up to their destruction, while those that knew the Jedi in person could not bring themselves to believe in the notion of a Jedi-lead coup. Those that attempted to distribute independent publications could be punished with imprisonment without term, while a defense was only allowed in civil cases, and not trials against the Empire. The Empire also outlawed any displays of organized worship and belief in the supernatural, yet underground religions such as the Church of the Force would exist well after the Age of the Empire.

Nonetheless, with the end of the Clone Wars and the dismantling of the Separatist Droid Army, a renewed sense of peace and prosperity returned to the Core. This peace was aided by the efforts of the Coalition for Progress division of COMPNOR, who took note when artistic media appeared to undermine the Empire, using its authority in one instance to dismantle a statue of Janyor of Bith on the Outer Rim world of Garel, or by banning subversive operas such as the Song of Lojuun and sending members of the band Hakko Drazlip and the Tootle Froots to work in the mines of Kessel after a song with political undertones mocked Lord Vader, with the song being declared contraband as a result. Unemployment in strategic resource systems was declared unlawful.

Grav-ball was a popular sport within the Galactic Empire, with many worlds hosting teams that would occasionally compete with one another. The Junior Academy of Applied Sciences on Lothal hosted a team known as the AppSci SaberCats, and consisted of ten players on a 64-meter grid, with which the game could be played with multiple rule variations such as Corellian rules. There also existed underground gladiatorial games within Imperial territories, with the Outer Rim Carve-up and Stormblade Bloodfest being some of the organized occurrences of the sport within the early years of the Empire.

Demographics
"... I have no issues with aliens myself&mdash;some of my best friends are nonhumans&mdash;but some grav-ball fans object to alien physiognomies, seeing them as giving nonhumans an edge."

- Janus Fhurek

The population of the Empire was dominated largely by humans, a species native to the Imperial capital world Coruscant. Humans were the most common species in both the Imperial Military and the Empire's political circles, with the highest echelons of the New Order almost entirely consisting of the species. This single-species domination was not coincidental, but intended. Imperial propaganda actively supported state-sponsored ethnocentric xenophobia and fear-mongering. To the Empire, "aliens" were by and large unwelcome within its order, with aliens being seen as "different," and "strange." As such, the Empire treated nonhuman segments of its populations as serfs, slaves, or obstacles needing to be tamed, removed, or ignored. The Empire supported the idea that aliens were untrustworthy&mdash;unlike humans&mdash;and behind their veneer of innocence lurked a viscous monster. The Imperial propaganda machine was so effective in its message that even near-human species exhibited an inherent distrust towards nonhuman populations. Since the Empire looked down on aliens, it was rare for aliens to serve as Imperial officers. Nevertheless, some nonhumans were known to occupy lofty roles within the Empire, such as the Chagrian Mas Amedda, who served as the Empire's Grand Vizier, the Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn, and the Pau'an Grand Inquisitor, the leading figure in the Inquisitorius during the Age of the Empire. In addition to state-sponsored discrimination against a predominantly nonhuman galaxy, the Empire discouraged the learning of alien languages and cultures such as Ithorese in an effort to destroy foreign cultures, and sought to impose high 'Imperial standards' for its citizens.

To increase the human population and military manpower, several Imperial breeding programs were enacted in the early days of the Empire, encouraging people to start and grow families, and rewarding them for it. While the Empire supported traditional heterosexual relationships, it did not care about the individual sexual preferences of its citizens, provided that such individuals kept their affairs behind closed doors, and did not interfere with any of its family programs.

War crimes
"We have a surplus of slave labor&mdash;but what to do with it? Could the Wookiees be farmed for their meat? Presently it's stringy and tough, but maybe if they could be fattened up, or modified in some way&mdash;crossbred with another species, perhaps, like the Talz."

- Commandant Theodane Sardo

Slavery
Within the Empire, non-humans were routinely subjugated, with many sent to numerous slave labor camps across the galaxy. One of the most infamous being the spice mines of Kessel, where Wookiee slaves, prized for their strength would be sent to mine the valuable spice located in the planets interior. A literal death sentence for many, with an expected survival time of three months. Humanoid species often had a longer survival time, ranging from one to two years in the mines. On Ryloth, isolated settlements often existed with little or no knowledge about the Empire at large, with those same camps oftentimes being disbanded and its inhabitants relocated to slave labor camps when needed. Escaped slaves or displaced persons often made up these camps, similar to Tarkintown on Lothal. Those that resisted Imperial rule could see their whole planet devastated and species reduced to near-extinction, such as the reptilian Bodach'i who would be forced to work in spice mines on planets such as Kerev Doi. Much of the Imperial war machine was built on the shoulders of the enslaved Wookiee population, who saw their homeworld of Kashyyyk ecologically devastated.

Bio-warfare and genocide
Numerous atrocities were conducted by the nascent Empire, often resulting in genocide owing to the Empire's humanocentric tendencies. On Geonosis, the Empire sterilized the planet's native Geonosian population with heavy bombing. The Lasat homeworld of Lasan would be ecologically destroyed by the later banned T-7 ion disruptor rifles, and almost saw the entire species wiped out. Furthermore, advances in bio-warfare under the command of Vice Admiral Perwin Gedde would test ancient diseases on captive worlds, raining sickness from sub-orbital battleships. As such, a vast distribution network existed within the Empire, with numerous warehouses on a various worlds holding thousands of biological agents. Biological testing would be conducted on planets such as Coyerti or against primitive indigenous populations and Wookiee slaves. While most research and development went unhindered, a few initiatives went out of control. On Dandoran, the accidental release of a highly contagious virus under the code-named Project Blackwing&mdash;a clandestine effort seeking to uncover the secrets to immortality&mdash;ultimately led to an outbreak across the planet.

Transportation
A vast transportation network to connect Palpatine's vast Empire served as the primary means of both civilian and military transport. Interstellar commerce and warfare primarily occurred along one of several major hyperspace lanes&mdash;considered trans-galactic highways&mdash;with their knowledge and existence dating back to well before the former Galactic Republic. With the major trade routes considered safe for hyperspace travel, their control was vital for maintaining an effective means of defense and galactic dominance. In smaller systems, hyperspace beacons could transmit their coordinates, allowing starships to make quicker jumps to and from the system. As a result, destroying them could hinder enemy mobility and response times. Serving this vast system existed spaceports, facilities where starships would dock and refuel, restock and rearm. Spaceships serving as fuel stations also existed in the vastness of the galaxy, along with major shipping ports such as Horizon Base. Owing to the immense size of the Empire, a vast, complex logistical network was maintained by the Imperial hierarchy, and as a result was both immensely interconnected and extremely fragile. Locales such as Mardona III served as 'warehouse worlds;' planets turned storehouses for millions of tons of metric goods to fuel the Empire. Shipping these resources across the galaxy often fell into the hands of Imperial cargo ships, which owing to their rather menial task, often resulted in slovenly and lower-quality personnel manning these vessels; or fresh recruits just out of the Academy. Mining stations, deep-space outposts, or jails far from the cosmopolitan core often saw Imperial Navy Troopers utilized as security personnel, who while still imposing, commanded less respect than their stormtrooper brethren.

Communications and media
Acquiring much of the galactic communications systems from the former Galactic Republic, the Empire would nationalize the HoloNet News and its galaxy-spanning broadcasts and hyperspace-powered communication systems. This would indirectly lead to numerous pirate broadcasts operating in the Outer Rim Territories. Despite this, the galactic HoloNet would remain one of the most-viewed news stations in the galaxy, forming public opinion and reporting on pro-Imperial issues and events. When military objectives trumped civilian information, the Empire could shut down the local HoloNet in varying sectors, and prioritized HoloNet transmissions to the military, giving Palpatine and his armed forces near-instantaneous communication across the entire galaxy.

Astrography
As the successor state to the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Empire's authority spanned most of the known galaxy. Its reach was vast, claiming as its own every territory within the former Galactic Republic, as well as those which had joined the Confederacy of Independent Systems. While the Empire utilized the senators of the Imperial Senate to maintain control of their respective systems, control was gradually given over to Imperial sector and planetary governors, or Moffs. Grand Moffs were charged with overseeing control of oversectors, which were comprised of numerous sectors, and the Imperial Navy was organized into sector fleets.

The Empire also controlled many territories through puppet states, alliances, and had many protectorates throughout the known galaxy, most notably the Corporate Sector. The Empire maintained numerous outposts in systems such as Trogan, Jomark and Felucia, as well as a small outpost on Rhen Var and a mining colony and Imperial prison on Nam Chorios. An invisible boundary existed on the border of the Mid Rim and Outer Rim Territories, with it being considered the 'front line' against the lawlessness of the Outer Rim. Nonetheless, the Imperial sphere of influence ended shortly before reaching Hutt Space, resulting in its reputation as a haven for smugglers, bounty hunters and other denizens of the galaxy. However following the Battle of Yavin, the Empire began to cut into Hutt Space trade in an effort to reduce their independence.

With the Emperor planning to eventually claim the entire Outer Rim, the logistical complexities of such a feat soon became apparent. Many of the exoplanets were too rough, wild, or strange to ever be brought under Imperial yoke. Thus, many were relegated to hold meager garrisons or host temporary military excursions. As a result, exploitation, weapons testing and military installations dotted the Outer Systems, while Imperials often came for the drinking, smoking, gambling, or black-market goods.

Seeking to find the source of the Dark Side, the Empire established numerous labs and communications stations on distant moons and asteroids beyond known space, with Emperor Palpatine believing his power was drawn from beyond the galaxy.

Following the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire's size steadily began to wane, losing numerous worlds to the recently formed New Republic, while Imperial assets and academies on worlds such as Uyter were destroyed in bloody warfare. Roughly two months following the Battle of Akiva, the Empire's territorial possessions were described as a "patchwork quilt," by Grand Admiral Rae Sloane. The Empire had already lost numerous systems to the New Republic's lighting-fast strikes, and factionalism had begun to scar any attempts to reclaim lost territories. The New Republic had already made headway into the Core Worlds, claiming Chandrila as its capital. The last sector of the Outer Rim under Imperial control was a thin region of space known as the Exterior, along with the planets Zhadalene, Korrus, and Belladoon.

Eventually, Imperial warships began jumping into the Unknown Regions following the Galactic Concordance to escape the prying eyes of the New Republic. This was made easier owning to the fact that parts of the Unknown Regions had previously been explored by military scout ships surveying star systems and blazing hyperspace routes known only to a select few.

Behind the scenes
The Galactic Empire first appeared as the main antagonist of the first Star Wars movie Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope in 1977. It later appeared in the two other films of the Original trilogy: Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. George Lucas later used the Prequel trilogy to chronicle the events which led to the rise of the Empire. The Empire's origins and role in the Star Wars universe was subsequently expanded by various Expanded Universe literature and media over the next four decades. Following the Lucasfilm Story Group's decision in May 2014 to reboot the Star Wars universe, the Galactic Empire reappeared as a major antagonist in several new Canonical media and literature including the Disney XD television series Star Wars Rebels.

According to the author Jason Fry, the Galactic Empire in the newly established Canonical universe was not openly xenophobic and misogynistic unlike the Legends version. However, he acknowledged that some of the Empire's most devoted supporters including xenophobes like his character Janus Fhurek, a minor antagonist in Fry's 2014 junior novel Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy. In his view, the idea of a misogynistic Empire was discounted by the presence of prominent Imperial female characters in John Jackson Miller's novel A New Dawn and Star Wars Rebels. The reference guides Star Wars Rebels: The Visual Guide and Star Wars Rebels: Visual Guide: Epic Battles have since confirmed that pro-human xenophobia existed within the Imperial Military and government bureaucracy. The novel Aftermath: Life Debt further confirms this fact.

Non-canon appearances

 * Epic Yarns: A New Hope
 * Epic Yarns: The Empire Strikes Back
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures
 * Epic Yarns: Return of the Jedi
 * LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales Episodes I-III
 * LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales Episodes I-III
 * LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales Episodes I-III
 * LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales Episodes I-III