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- "The Inquisitorius. A project of mine, long planned. Slaves to the light side once, now awake. Hunters, one and all."
"What do they hunt?"
"Why, Jedi, of course." - ―Darth Sidious and Darth Vader
The Inquisitorius, also known as the Inquisitorius Program, the Order of Inquisitors, and the Imperial Inquisition, was an organization of mysterious, Force-sensitive dark side agents who served the Sith-ruled Galactic Empire. The operatives of the Imperial Inquisition were called Imperial Inquisitors, or simply Inquisitors, and were also nicknamed "Red Blades." They were tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi who had survived Order 66 at the end of the Clone Wars as part of the Great Jedi Purge, as well as other political dissidents, and retrieving any children identified as Force-sensitive for Project Harvester. The Inquisitors were governed by the Commander-in-Chief Darth Vader, who was also the Sith apprentice of the Galactic Emperor, Darth Sidious, though directly led by an individual known only by his title, the Grand Inquisitor, and briefly by his temporary substitute, the Third Sister.
In the years leading up to the Galactic Civil War, the Inquisitors came into conflict with several Jedi and third-parties affiliated with surviving or former Jedi as part of the purge. One of these groups was the Hidden Path, an anti-Imperial network that ferried Jedi and other Force-wielders from one safe haven to another and notably assisted the fugitive Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Another group were the Spectres, a rebel cell that included the Purge survivor Kanan Jarrus and his apprentice, Ezra Bridger. Their pursuit of the Spectres also brought them into contact with the former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, as well as the renegade Sith Lord Maul, who sought revenge against Sidious for casting him aside and killing his brother and mother. By the time of the Galactic Civil War, the Empire believed the Jedi Order to be largely extinct and the threat of other Force-wielders decreased, and so the Inquisitorius were reported to have vanished.
History[]
Origins[]
- "I foresee an army of Force-talented spies in my service, trained in the dark side to peer into every corner of the galaxy from afar. And my enemies would be helpless against such vision."
- ―Darth Sidious
A meeting of the Inquisitors
Knowing that there would be some Jedi who could survive his planned beginning of a Great Jedi Purge through Order 66, Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious began to lay the seeds of the Inquisitorious Program years before he became Galactic Emperor.[11] During the Clone Wars, he contracted the bounty hunter Cad Bane to kidnap several Force-sensitive children who would become Jedi younglings in the near future. At his private facility on Mustafar, the Dark Lord intended to put the children through a slave conditioning process, having foreseen he would have "an army" of Force-sensitive spies at his beck and call. Nevertheless, Darth Sidious' operation was prevented by the interference of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who rescued the children and escaped the ruined crashing base with them. Despite this setback,[10] the Dark Lord simply established more facilities and altered more nanny droids, ensuring the continuation of his plan to use Mustafar to turn infants to his cause.[12]
The Eighth Brother, Seventh Sister, and Fifth Brother
As the war carried on, Darth Sidious also kept an eye on Knights who had grievances with the Jedi High Council or the role the Jedi Order was playing in the conflict. The Sith Lord preyed on their weaknesses and secretly offered these select few the things their brethren had denied them in addition to a chance at surviving Order 66, so long as they gave him and the dark side of the Force their unyielding allegiance.[11] When the war ended, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, the public persona Darth Sidious, seized the carefully-orchestrated opportunity to form the Galactic Empire and declare the Jedi Order its enemy. Using Jedi Master Mace Windu's apparent attempt on his life as justification, the new Emperor activated Order 66, a protocol which had been hardwired into almost all of the Galactic Republic's clone troopers by the Sith prior to the war, and instructed them to kill their Jedi commanding officers.[3] Nevertheless, as the Dark Lord had predicted, some Jedi survived the mass–killing, so he planned for his huntsmen to hound those who survived until the light of the Jedi Order was extinguished once and for all.[11]
Darth Sidious also turned Anakin Skywalker to the dark side to be his apprentice, giving him the name "Darth Vader." Whereas Skywalker had the potential to be a Sith in his eyes, Sidious had selected those who would become Inquisitors specifically because he felt they had no chance of becoming powerful enough to challenge him.[11] The majority of the Jedi were killed by the clones but several managed to escape, especially after Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi sent out a distress signal from the Temple, warning the survivors off. As such, several of them had survived the initial purge and gone into hiding. Fearing the threat the surviving Jedi posed to his rule, the recently-instated Emperor Darth Sidious created the Imperial Inquisition to track down and taint or eradicate the last of the Jedi Order.[3][13][5] In a similar vein to how Skywalker had fallen,[11] the Inquisitors were all former Jedi that had fallen to the dark side[14] and sworn themselves to Sidious.[11]
Under Vader's command, the Inquisitors searched the galaxy to destroy all Jedi.
Many Imperial Inquisitors had joined the dark side due to intensive torture[5] or corruption.[15] Upon joining the ranks of the Inquisitorious, the Force-sensitives effectively lost their identities; they were given numerical designations to represent their entry into an organization that perverted everything the Jedi Order had had stood for.[11] A Pau'an Jedi Temple Guard, who became "the Grand Inquisitor,"[16] had joined Emperor Sidious when the Dark Lord had promised him access to the Jedi Archives.[11] The Ninth Sister was the former Jedi Masana Tide. The Tenth Brother was the former Jedi Master Prosset Dibs,[17] who had become suborned to the Sith at the end of the Clone Wars.[11] The Second Sister was former Jedi Padawan Trilla Suduri, who was captured shortly after Order 66 and tortured into giving into the dark side.[5] Darth Vader soon discovered the program and was put in charge of them by Darth Sidious. The Commander-in-Chief trained the Inquisitors in the ways of the dark side of the Force. As part of their tutelage, a number of Inquisitors had parts of their bodies severed by their master's lightsaber so that they would not forget the lesson of loss. After Lord Vader cut off Sixth Brother's left lower arm, the Grand Inquisitor began questioning his new master's training techniques. The cyborg claimed that he was intending to have the dark side adepts to abandon their tendency to fight defensively as former Jedi and adopt more offensive moves.[7]
Hunting the Jedi[]
- "You were a Jedi?"
"I was. Now I am an Inquisitor. The Grand Inquisitor in fact." - ―Jocasta Nu and the Grand Inquisitor
Jocasta Nu attacking the Grand Inquisitor
Following the formation of the Empire, the Grand Inquisitor worked closely with Lord Vader on locating the Jedi Order's Chief Librarian, Jocasta Nu.[7] During his research in the Archives, the formed,[19] who held a personal dislike of said Jedi Master because she had been the one to refuse him access to the Archives' secrets,[11] was confronted by Nu after he openly insulted the knowledge he was reading.[19] At first the Grand Inquisitor planned to kill her but when he defeated her in combat, he was prevented from killing her by his master. As Vader and the Inquisitor argued, Nu was able to make her escape.[18] However, the Dark Lord was able to pursue the Jedi Master and killed her himself without the Grand Inquisitor's help.[20]
Sometime later, the Ninth Sister accompanied Lord Vader to investigate reports of a possible Jedi in a cantina on Cabarria. The reports turned out to be false and the Commander-in-Chief was attacked by three bounty hunters. The Dowutin Inquisitor refused to help Vader and when he overpowered his would-be assassins, they retreated and stole the Ninth Sister's speeder at gunpoint. Vader chased and captured them, questioning them of who they were hired by. The Dark Lord found out that the culprit had come from the top of the Imperial ranks[14] and the Ninth Sister flew him back to Coruscant. However, when arriving at Coruscant their communications were deliberately jammed, stopping the Inquisitor from sending their clearance codes. This caused the Coruscant defenses to attack them and the Dark Lord pushed the Ninth Sister off the pilot chair to take control of the ship. They subsequently crashed onto Coruscant and Vader left the Ninth Sister with the ship.[21] Throughout the Imperial Era, the Inquisitors brought terror to the Jedi who had survived Order 66 and helped cement Imperial rule.[11]
Mission to Mon Cala[]
- "As the Inquisitors were once Jedi themselves, and the clones were built to kill Jedi, well…you see the result."
- ―Ferren Barr, on the Inquisitors and their Purge Troopers
The Tenth Brother, Ninth Sister and Sixth Brother arrive on Mon Cala
About one year after the rise of the Empire, Sidious suspected a Jedi of influencing the deteriorating negotiations on Mon Cala. The Emperor therefore sent his apprentice and three Inquisitors to investigate this, accompanied by a death squad of elite clone Purge Troopers. Upon their arrival, the Imperial Ambassador Telvar was assassinated[23] and his superior, Moff Wilhuff, sent down his forces to invade Mon Cala. Lord Vader and the Inquisitors Sixth Brother, Ninth Sister and Tenth Brother fought at Dac City and captured the king, Lee-Char. The Ninth Sister interrogated the monarch for the location of the Jedi but they were soon swept away by large waves generated by some of Mon Cala's large creatures.[24]
The three Inquisitors survived the cataclysm and picked up Vader on an Imperial submarine. The Ninth Sister revealed to the Dark Lord that she had obtained the location of the Jedi and they made for the place.[25] Upon arriving there, they were met by the Jedi and his six disciples. The group scattered, except for one that shot at the submarine until Vader crushed his helmet. As they chased the rest of them, another sacrificed himself to slow them down. The Inquisitors and their master soon reached Bel City and made chase for the remaining of the group. However, Lord Vader received a request from Governor Tarkin for an assignment that requited him elsewhere: to capture Lee-Char and thus end the war on Mon Cala. He agreed and left his Inquisitors and their squad of clones to find the Jedi.[17]
The Inquisitors soon found the Jedi and his last two disciples. The Sixth Brother cut down one of the disciples and they surrounded the other two. The Jedi then stepped forward and faced them, revealing their names from when they were Jedi. The Ninth Sister confronted the Jedi, identifying him as a Padawan named Ferren Barr. Barr ignored her and told them that they were still truly Jedi, acknowledging the clones and their role in Order 66. He then used the Force to take the helmets off the Purge Troopers and saw that they were newer clones that were commissioned after Order 66. Knowing they had not had their inhibitor chips activated, he used a mind trick on them, saying "execute Order 66."[17]
The Purge troopers turn on the Inquisitors
The trick worked and the Purge Troopers turned on their three superiors. They quickly succeeded in gunning down the Tenth Brother, although the Sixth Brother and Ninth Sister were able to deflect their shots. Barr and his last disciple, Verla, then leaped over the battle and escaped. Keen to intercept them, the Sixth Brother and Ninth Sister used their combined powers to Force push the troopers to the side. However, the Sixth Brother betrayed Ninth Sister, cutting her leg off and leaving her to fend off the last of the troopers alone. After his escape, the Sixth Brother took a boat away with three stormtroopers.[22]
Search for Ahsoka Tano[]
Shortly after the mission to Mon Cala, the Sixth Brother was searching for a possibly Force-sensitive child on Thabeska. However, he later abandoned this task after receiving word that a Force-attuned being who received some level of Jedi training was hiding in the Outer Rim, and set out to hunt the individual in question, hoping to earn a promotion. The supposed Jedi was in fact former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who had been hiding on Thabeska and the agricultural moon of Raada since Order 66 and the siege of Mandalore. She had since built up a resistance group on Raada. After a failed assault on the nearby Imperial Base, Ahsoka returned to Thabeska. When Hedala Fardi, the Force-sensitive child, told Ahsoka of "a shadow" that had come, the former Padawan went back to Raada, where The Sixth Brother had killed the entirety of the resistance group, with only Ahsoka's friend Kaeden Larte and her sister alive.[26]
The Sixth Brother then took Kaedan, who had become close to Tano. The Sixth Brother used Kaeden to lay a trap for Tano and she revealed herself to him. The Sixth Brother then battled her, but the former Padawan was able to identify his offensive fighting style and took advantage of it. Tano then reached out to his lightsaber's kyber crystals and they detonated the lightsaber, killing the Sixth Brother. Tano took his lightsaber crystals and fled the system with the rest of the citizens from Raada's sole settlement. Shortly afterwards, the Grand Inquisitor arrived and, unaware of the culprit's identity, decided to hunt her himself, but not before informing his master, Lord Vader .[26]
At another point during the Imperial Era, Tano was confronted by another Inquisitor.[27]
Hunt for Eeth Koth[]
- "Inquisitors--A woman and an infant escaped. Bring me the child."
"And the woman, Lord Vader?"
"Irrelevant." - ―Darth Vader and the Fifth Brother
Sometime after his hunt on Chandar's Folly,[29] Lord Vader took three Inquisitors to a planet to hunt down the surviving Jedi Master known as Eeth Koth. He entered his house and interrupted the latter as his daughter had only just been born. Koth attempted to negotiate his way out of the situation but Vader made it clear he wasn't compliant and Koth attacked him, telling his wife, Mira, to run with their newborn daughter. The two took the fight outside and the Dark Lord threw him across the ground and told his Inquisitors to find the newborn and capture it. The Fifth Brother asked of what they should do about the mother and their master informed him that she was irrelevant.[28]
The three Inquisitors made haste into the city and the Fifth Brother suggested they split up. The other two agreed and they began searching in the city.[28] Iskat[30] decided to reach out into the Force to see if the infant made any ripples, as it was Force-sensitive. Her attempt was successful and she managed to stop Mira and her child before they could reach her father's shuttle. Mira begged her to let her go, appealing to her woman to woman. Iskat told her to go and she ran into the shuttle. The Fifth Brother then arrived and was shocked by what she had just done. The Twi'lek Inquisitor arrived as well and told her that their master would not take this lightly. However, Iskat wasn't finished yet and as the shuttle ascended, she used the Force to pull the baby from her mother's arms.[28]
Eeth Koth's daughter was given to two nursemaids
The Twi'lek Inquisitor asked Iskat why she had to do it the way she did. She explained that since Mira had appealed to her woman to woman, she had decided to let her trust her before snatching her baby and thus her soul, as she would never trust another woman, and likely another person, again. The three Inquisitors returned to the Dark Lord, who was gradually beating his Jedi opponent in the duel. Koth saw the baby in Iskat's hands and, using his shock as a distraction, Vader cut him down. The group returned to the Coruscant tower on their Zeta-class shuttle and gave the baby to a pair of nursemaids. The Dark Lord then asked the Grand Inquisitor of their next target. Vader was brought by his underling to see the list of the final confirmed Jedi survivors. There, he explained to Vader that they had hidden well and he concluded that they must wait until one of them made a mistake in order to find them.[28]
Rogue Inquisitors[]
- "What are we looking for, Lord Vader?"
"Two Jedi. Male and female. They will attack us. It is only a matter of time. Be wary. They are cunning. Their direction of attack may be…unorthodox." - ―Two Imperial shock troopers, and Darth Vader
The Twi'lek Inquisitor and Iskat use the Force to hurl a speeder at Darth Vader
The Fifth Brother notified the Dark Lord of Iskat's actions during their hunt and Vader surmised she had turned traitor, especially as he suspected her and the Twi'lek Inquisitor of having developed feelings for each other.[31] Later on, Iskat and her Twi'lek companion were toasting to Eeth Koth's death with a drink that came from the planet where they had found him. Iskat then brought up the Dark Lord and asked of what he would do when all the Jedi were finally dead. The Twi'lek Inquisitor told her he would find his way around it, saying he would always find something to kill. At that moment, Vader interrupted their conversation, igniting his lightsaber.[28] The Grand Inquisitor asked if this was a test, to which the Dark Lord coldly denied. Vader attempted to kill Iskat, but the Twi'lek halted him with his lightsaber and Vader confirmed his suspicions that the two had an attachment. Iskat ran away and the Dark Lord threw the other into the wall. He asked Vader why he attacked Iskat and he told the Twi'lek that it didn't matter because he had done it too. The Twi'lek Inquisitor ran and joined Iskat as she escaped the Coruscant Tower.[31]
Due to an incident with two Inquisitors that caused damage in Coruscant and a delay in the Emperor's plans, the Inquisitors were moved to a new headquarters on Nur.
The Dark Lord made chase for the two rogue Inquisitors and took a speeder into Coruscant. The pair planned on killing Vader in order for them to be free from his presence in the galaxy. They therefore attacked his speeder and he jumped to other speeders as they cut those down as well with their lightsabers. The pair then resorted to throwing speeders at their pursuer but he either threw them back or cut them down. However, the two Inquisitors eventually managed to topple a statue onto the Dark Lord and he fell onto a balcony, temporarily immobilized. They attempted to finish him off but Vader used the Force to freeze them in mid air. The two Inquisitors turned to one another to spill out their last words and the Dark Lord made their lightsabers activate to stab the pair and kill them at the same time. Sidious later asked Vader why he suspected the two of treachery and he explained to his master of their attachment and how Iskat briefly let Eeth Koth's child escape. Nonetheless, the Emperor was displeased with his apprentice's rampage that killed a Gran senator who was important to his plans and so had the Inquisitorius relocated offworld, to the water moon Nur.[31]
Further events[]
- "If we do not stop the Inquisitor, you will. If we do not stop the Empire, you will."
- ―Nuhj, in a recording made just prior to his death
Anoat Hunt[]
An Inquisitor was dispatched by the Empire to deal with a small group of surviving Jedi who had recently been discovered in a Jedi shrine on Anoat. The Imperial operative went there to find the Jedi Mususiel, who stayed to save the others. The Inquisitor killed her and tracked the others to Mataou, where the agent pursued one of the others, named Zubain Ankonori, and slew him. The last two Jedi, Nuhj and Khandra, fled to Embertown on the planet Burnin Konn, but the Inquisitor soon followed and attacked them in a chromium mine near Wickridge. The Inquisitor slew them and their belongings were stored in an Imperial vault on Nar Hypa.[32]
Dathomir and Jerserra[]
At one point, a female Inquisitor was on Dathomir when she encountered Jerserra, a Dathomirian from the Nardithi Nightsisters, a sect of the Nightsisters. She took in Jerserra as her secret apprentice and spent a number of years training her in combat and lightsaber combat. The Inquisitor hoped to use Jerserra against the other Inquisitors but Jerserra eventually came to believe her abilities outmatched her Master's, and before long, the Inquisitor was slain by Jerserra, who covered up her murder and took her lightsaber as her own.[33]
Hunting Cal Kestis[]
- "We seek a dangerous fugitive. This is no common anarchist, but a devotee of the treasonous Jedi Order."
- ―The Second Sister tells a group of people that they are looking for a Jedi
The Second Sister and Ninth Sister were sent to Bracca to eliminate Cal Kestis, a surviving former Padawan.
The Second Sister and the Ninth Sister were sent by the Empire to hunt Cal Kestis, a former Padawan who was discovered on Bracca after an Imperial viper probe droid witnessed him using the Force to save his friend Prauf. The Second Sister ordered a group of Bracca Scrappers, including Kestis and his friend Prauf, to reveal who the secret Jedi was. Prauf came forward to confess as the Jedi, but the Second Sister killed him on the spot, to where Kestis revealed his lightsaber in anger. Kestis was rescued by the Stinger Mantis crew and joined with former Jedi Knight Cere Junda on a secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order, using a holocron that contained a list of Force sensitive children. The Second sister discovered the tomb of Mitkrull and after revealing her identity, set a trap for Kestis, which he escaped from. The Grand Inquisitor became aware of the fact that Kestis helped the rebel group known as the Partisans attack an Imperial refinery on Kashyyyk. The Ninth Sister told the Grand Inquisitor that Kestis would not return to the planet, although she was mistaken. Kestis defeated the Ninth Sister after she fought him on top of the Origin tree on Kashyyyk. When Kestis climbed back up, the Ninth sister duelled him and lost a hand before being pushed down the tree; her fate was unknown. The Second Sister was killed by the disappointed Lord Vader during the mission to Nur after she began to reconcile with Junda, her former Jedi master, who apologized for letting her fall to the dark side and become an Inquisitor. Kestis, Junda, and the Mantis crew escaped Fortress Inquisitorius, and Kestis subsequently destroyed the holocron to prevent the Empire from obtaining it, entrusting the fates of the children to the Force.[5]
Encounter with Obi-Wan Kenobi[]
In 9 BBY,[34] the Grand Inquisitor, the Fifth Brother, and[35] the mysterious[36] Third Sister—who was also known by the name "Reva"—visited Tatooine in search of Nari, a Jedi in hiding on the planet, interrogating and threatening several patrons of a cantina regarding the Jedi's location. Reva encountered the moisture farmer Owen Lars during the search for the Jedi, threatening the moisture farmer. The Inquisitors' hunt ended successfully, leading to Nari being found and killed.[35] Afterward, the Inquisitors, joined by the Fourth Sister, were involved a search for Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet Daiyu, leading to an Imperial garrison being deployed at the behest of the Grand Inquisitor, Reva issuing a bounty on the Jedi, and the city being locked down. Afterward, during a confrontation at an automated cargo port, Reva double-crossed the Grand Inquisitor, stabbing him through the stomach with her lightsaber.[37]
Hunting the Spectres[]
- "You have great potential, but perhaps it is I that might teach you, as your master never achieved the rank of Jedi Knight. Did he?"
"Maybe not, but he took out the last Inquisitor. So I think I'll just stick with him."
"Yes, the death of the Grand Inquisitor was a surprise to all. Yet, it does present the rest of us with new opportunities." - ―The Seventh Sister and Ezra Bridger
When rumors emerged of a Jedi leading a rebel cell on the planet Lothal reached the ears of the Empire, Lord Vader assigned the Grand Inquisitor to take care of the problem.[3] After several encounters, the operative succeeded in capturing Jarrus,[39] but was defeated by the latter in a lightsaber duel during a rescue staged by the rebels and Jarrus's Padawan, Ezra Bridger. Rather than face the Dark Lord's punishment for his failure, the Grand Inquisitor killed himself.[40] In the aftermath, Seventh Sister became a vital commander among the ranks of the Inquisitorius.[41]
The Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister continued the Grand Inquisitor's hunt for the Spectres.
During a skirmish with Phoenix Cell, Vader learned that Tano, who had been his Padawan during the Clone Wars, was still alive. Upon learning of this news, the Emperor ordered his apprentice to dispatch another Inquisitor to hunt the rebels down.[42] As a slight alteration of the sovereign's commands, two Inquisitors—the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister—were appointed to do so. They confronted several crew members of the Ghost during a skirmish aboard an abandoned Republic medical station. Due to Garazeb Orrelios' quick-thinking, the rebels managed to escape the Inquisitors aboard the Phantom.[38]
The death of the Grand Inquisitor was a great surprise for the other Inquisitors but it also opened new opportunities to increase their own station by hunting down the ones responsible. In addition to the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother, several other Inquisitors began to scour the galaxy searching for the two Jedi who had defeated their leader, all of them competing to advance their own position within the Inquisitorius.[38] While intercepting transmissions from Mustafar, Tano discovered that the Inquisitors' second mission was to kidnap Force-sensitive children. Meanwhile, the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother kidnapped the infants Alora and Pypey above the planets Chandel and on Takobo respectively. This brought them into contact with the crew of the Ghost and Ahsoka, who soundly defeated them in combat.[43] Later, the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother took part in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the rebels in Garel City.[44]
Three years before the Battle of Yavin,[45] the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister spent several months pursuing Jarrus and Bridger. On one occasion, they managed to track the Jedi to the planet Oosalon where they fought with them. Despite their efforts, the Jedi managed to escape and regroup with the Spectres. Later, the Inquisitors followed Jarrus, Bridger, and Tano to the Lothal Jedi Temple. After forcing their way into the temple, the two operatives were attacked by ghostly apparitions of the Jedi Temple Guards. One of these apparitions was the old Grand Inquisitor. The Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister survived the encounter and reported to Lord Vader, who vowed to put an end to the Jedi threat.[16]
Crossover at Malachor[]
Sometime after the events of the Lothal Jedi Temple, Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka traveled to Malachor, following a hint given by Grand Master Yoda. When they arrived there, the Eighth Brother, who was already there hunting an individual known as "the shadow", attacked them. Soon after, Bridger became separated from the others and encountered the castaway Sith Lord Maul. As this was happening, Tano and Jarrus chased and captured the Eighth Brother, who unbeknownst to them sent a distress signal to his fellow Inquisitors, the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister. Maul and Bridger together entered the Sith temple on Malachor and retrieved the Sith holocron inside.[46]
The three Inquisitors duel Ahsoka Tano, Kanan Jarrus, and the dark side warrior, Maul on Malachor
Shortly later, they found the Fifth Brother, Seventh Sister and Eighth Brother dueling Tano and Jarrus. Maul and Bridger intervened and the Inquisitors were forced to retreat. While attempting to plant the Sith holocron in the Sith temple's obelisk, they encountered the Imperial operatives yet again. Maul began Force choking the Seventh Sister and urged Bridger to strike her down. When Bridger could not bring himself to do it, Maul then threw his lightsaber at her, killing her instantly. The duo then found Tano and Jarrus once more fighting the Fifth and Eighth Brothers. After the Togruta destroyed the Fifth Brother's lightsaber, the Zabrak warrior made quick work of him with a fatal slash to the gut. During this time, Jarrus had also managed to slice the Eighth Brother's lightsaber. Cornered and outnumbered, the Inquisitor attempted to escape by using his lightsaber to hover away but the lightsaber malfunctioned in flight and sent the Eighth Brother plummeting to his death at the base of the temple below.[46]
Disappearance[]
- "During the early years of the Empire, the red blades of the Inquisitorius cut a swath through the galaxy as they wiped any remaining traces of the Jedi Order from existence. Once the Jedi were finally considered extinct by the Empire, the Inquisitorius vanished into the darkness as well."
- ―Luke Skywalker
The Inquisitorius vanished by time of the Battle of Yavin, and Darth Vader was thought to be the only Force-wielder in Darth Sidious' service.
In 2 BBY,[48] around six months after[49] the incident on Malachor,[46] the Empire ordered Grand Admiral Thrawn to try to finish what Lord Vader and his Inquisitors had started. The Chiss Admiral pursued the rebels until his defeat during the Liberation of Lothal.[50]
Another Inquisitor was the Third Brother, whose actions and fate were mysteries to those unfamiliar with him, with the same being true for those unfamiliar with the Third Sister. Another member of the organization, the Fourth Sister, also had an unknown fate, although her armor would fall into the hands of rebel Commander Lina Graf, who employed it to impersonate her on at least one occasion.[36]
In 0 BBY,[51] the Jedi Order was largely thought to be extinct by the Empire,[52] and once their objective of wiping out these Force-wielders was completed, the Inquisitors themselves vanished as well.[47] At a meeting aboard the first Death Star, Governor Tarkin expressed his belief that Lord Vader was the only living practitioner of what he termed "the ancient religion."[52] By this time, the Emperor deemed the Inquisitors' purpose obsolete as they had outlived their usefulness.[53]
Legacy[]
- "The Jedi aren't my story. So what if I'm meant to become one of these Inquisitors, instead?"
"I believe we've learned that they no longer exist."
"But what if they come back? What if my vision was of the future and I become some sort of anti-Jedi Knight. [...] What if the Force awakens and there are those who want to snuff it out again? What if there are dark side users who are meant to do such a thing, and I'm meant to become one of them?" - ―Karr Nuq Sin and RZ-7
Although the Imperial Inquisition disappeared from the galaxy, its actions were still felt for decades to come. The Force-sensitive Verla, who had escaped the Imperial Inquisitors' attack on former Padawan Ferren Barr and his disciples on Mon Cala, came to fear the dark siders and fled into exile on the planet Serelia, where she became a fisherwoman. When she was sought out by the Jedi-in-training Luke Skywalker[55] around 3 ABY,[56] she initially ran from the boy, believing him to be a pawn of the Inquisitorius. Later, she explained to the uneducated Skywalker that Vader and his minions had hunted down and destroyed the Jedi in the Great Purge, leaving her to believe that anyone who aspired to be a Jedi was nothing more than a fool.[55] Despite her warnings, however, Skywalker insisted on continuing the Jedi path, and on Verla's instruction traveled to Tempes in the Outer Rim, searching to replace the lightsaber he had lost in a duel with Vader.[57]
The spirit of the Grand Inquisitor resided in an old Jedi outpost in Tempes.
On Tempes, the trainee discovered a horrifying secret: the spirit of the dead Grand Inquisitor haunted the walls of an ancient Jedi outpost.[57] Despite his death above Mustafar,[40] the Inquisitor's indentured servitude to the Sith did not end with death. Lord Vader had prevented the Grand Inquisitor's spirit from disappearing and bound him to reside on Tempes, where he sat for years to protect the outpost from people seeking the Jedi artifacts held within. The fiery spirit battled the young Jedi aspirant, hunting their kind even in death. The ensuing duel ended when Skywalker disarmed the Inquisitor by cutting off his hand and hitting him in the chest, making the spirit disappear. Sometime after Skywalker's departure, Vader, who felt the confrontation between Skywalker and the Inquisitor through the Force, arrived at the outpost. The spirit confessed that the boy was too strong and tried to convince Vader to free him from his curse. The unrelenting Dark Lord, however, was dissatisfied that the Inquisitor had let the young man escape and ordered his underling to continue protecting the place.[57] As for Skywalker, he eventually went on to overthrow the Sith and reforge the Jedi Order.[58]
Around thirty[59] years after the Battle of Yavin, the Inquisitors and their history, much like the Jedi they hunted, was little-known. By this time the antiques collector Dok-Ondar acquired a broken lightsaber that once belonged to the Grand Inquisitor. When Karr Nuq Sin, a Force-sensitive teenager seeking to understand his connection with the Force and the ways of the Jedi, visited Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities hoping to find Jedi artifacts, Dok-Ondar showed him the weapon. He explained the mission of the Inquisitors to Nuq Sin and the boy had never heard of them or the fact that the Jedi were hunted down after the Clone Wars. When Nuq Sin, who possessed the Force power of psychometry, touched the two broken pieces of the lightsaber he experienced two visions simultaneously: one of his former Jedi Padawan great-grandfather Naq Med fighting the Grand Inquisitor and another of the Grand Inquisitor fighting and killing a different Jedi. The overlapping visions gave Nuq Sin, who strongly resembled his relative, the impression that he had witnessed his future self kill a Jedi. The visions caused him to doubt whether he was meant to become a Jedi and fear that in his future the defunct Inquisitorius would be resurrected and he would become one of its constituents.[54]
The sinister Knights of Ren would have been ideal Inquisitors had circumstances been different.
The First Order, the government that rose from the ashes of the Empire following its fall after the New Republic's victory at the Battle of Jakku and the subsequent signing of the Galactic Concordance, used interrogation chairs, based on those used by the Imperial Inquisition, to painfully extract information from their prisoners.[60]
Around the time of the war between the First Order and the Resistance, the now-Jedi Master Luke Skywalker wrote a book chronicling what he knew of the history of the Jedi Order. In the book, Skywalker included a brief history of the Inquisitorius and their mission of hunting the Jedi, identified several of them by the names they bore as Inquisitors and noted that once the Jedi were considered extinct, the Inquisitors themselves vanished. He also wrote about the signature double-bladed spinning lightsabers used by the Imperial operatives.[47] The Knights of Ren were a band of dark side warriors who did the bidding of Ren and later Darth Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren, during the Galactic Civil War and the age of the New Republic. They would have been prime candidates to become Inquisitors if they could have been tamed.[61]
Organization[]
Status and command[]
The Inquisitors utilized Purge Troopers for their operations
Although the exact number of Inquisitors was kept secret, there may have been as many as twelve.[62] Inquisitors utilized a Zeta-class shuttle named the Infernum[17] in 18 BBY,[63] and commanded Purge Troopers, elite death squads comprised of the last generation of clones brought online after the Jedi Purge.[23] Due to the nature of their mission, Inquisitors had the power to commandeer any required Imperial Military forces, and all officers were to obey their orders.[64][43][26] Any officer who came into contact with Force-sensitive beings was to immediately contact an Inquisitor to investigate the situation.[3] Also, some Imperial officers disliked the interference of Inquisitors, such as Admiral Kassius Konstantine who had no tolerance for assumed conjurers and mystics.[38] When inducted into the ranks of the Inquisitorius, individuals left behind their names and took up new ones, being labelled Brother/Sister denoting their genders.[22]
Inquisitor mutuality[]
- Tenth Brother: "Smells like fish."
- Ninth Sister: "That's just Sixth Brother."
- Tenth Brother: "More like fish, then."
- Sixth Brother: "Hilarious."
- ―The Tenth Brother and Ninth Sister make fun of Sixth Brother[23]
Although everyone was on the same side, the Inquisitors often competed with each other, always trying to get more credit.
The Inquisitors in the Inquisitorius held a mutual relationship with each other. Many had to work together on occasions where they were up against bigger threats.[23][28] The female Inquisitor and the Twi'lek Inquisitor had a mutual friendship and always toasted to the death of every Jedi they hunted with a drink made on the planet of which they found them.[28] However, being users of the dark side of the Force, the Inquisitors became power hungry, and a sense of competition grew between them, as they showed signs of mistrust between one another.[15] Upon arriving at Mon Cala, the Sixth Brother was insulted by his two subordinates, the Ninth Sister and Tenth Brother.[23]
Later on, the three aforementioned Inquisitors were caught up in a skirmish in Bel City and the Tenth Brother was killed. The other two helped each other clear a path but then the Sixth Brother betrayed the Ninth Sister, cutting off her leg and leaving her to the remainder of the enemy.[22] The Sixth Brother later abandoned one of his mission to monitor and survey a suspected Force-sensitive child on Thabeska in favor of responding to a communications message about a confirmed force sensitive being and potential Jedi on Raada, hoping to obtain himself a promotion.[26] A female Inquisitor trained her own apprentice to use against the other Inquisitors before she was betrayed and killed by her.[33] During his search for the Spectres, the Seventh Sister decided to intervene with the Fifth Brother's hunt to obtain the kill for herself.[38]
Operations[]
- "I've read the reports from the Inquisitorius. Vader and his monsters have done their job well. Few Jedi remain, if any."
- ―Tarkin on the Inquisitorius
Three Inquisitors
The Inquisitors' primary objective was to hunt down and turn to the dark side (if possible) or kill (if not) Jedi who had survived the initial stages of the Great Jedi Purge.[3] As part of this task inquisitors typically sought to capture, torture, and interrogate surviving Jedi as a means of acquiring information. Should the Jedi possess no valuable information and refuse to convert to the dark side, then they would be eliminated. This was shown during the Grand Inquisitor's hunt for Jedi Padawan Caleb Dume and his apprentice Ezra Bridger; with him emphasizing the point of capturing both Jedi fugitives alive to then ISB Kallus; he also stated this fact to his platoon of Stormtroopers during his hunt for the Jedi on Fort Anaxes. Similarly, Seventh Sister sought to capture and used Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger to lure in Padawan Caleb Dume and Former Padawan Ahsoka Tano into a trap. Capture was not always of the modus operandi of all Inquisitors however as demonstrated by the likes of Ninth Sister, Eight Brother, Sixth Brother, Fifth Brother, Third Sister, and Second Sister who immediately sought to eliminate their respective targets first chance they got during their respective hunts, The Inquisitors' secondary objective was to prevent Force-sensitive children from falling into the hands of the remaining Jedi or using their skills against the Empire. As part of this strategy, an operation code-named Project Harvester was designed to identify cadets in Imperial academies across the galaxy who met the criteria that would identify them as Force-sensitive.[65] Should they be identified as such, the cadets would be abducted and taken into custody for experimentation and corruption.[43] Individuals who refused to serve the Galactic Empire would then be eliminated.[3]
As well as Imperial cadets, Project Harvester also targeted infants that were identified as Force-sensitive. One of the infants they took was the daughter of former Jedi Master Eeth Koth. The baby was given to the Nursemaids after being taken.[28] Besides hunting Jedi, the Inquisitors were also known to pursue other Force-sensitive opponents of the Sith, like the renegade dark sider Maul.[46] The Inquisitor's hunt saw gradual success overtime. Moff Wilhuff Tarkin read reports from the Inquisitorius and saw that their hunt had rid the galaxy of most, if not all of the surviving Jedi.[29] The success of their hunt was aided by their vast access to Imperial resources such as starships and combat personnel.[5]
The Inquisitors primary means of hunting Jedi was often by using the Jedi own sense of righteousness and compassion against them by targeting civilians within the area in which a Jedi is suspected to reside in. This tactic was demonstrated by the Second Sister on Bracca during her hunt for Cal Kestis, where she threatened to have the whole lot of Scrapper Guild workers executed unless the Jedi revealed themselves to her and Ninth Sister. Similarly the Grand Inquisitor employed a similar tactic during his hunt for Jedi Padawan Nari on Tatooine, where he threatened the safety of a bar owner whom the Padawan aided in the past to goad the Jedi into revealing himself. Third Sister also employed a more extreme version of this tactic in which she threatened to cut off the hands of all civilians present in her area in order to prompt Obi Wan Kenobi or Nari to reveal themselves; later she threatened to kill Owen Lar's and his family to the same end before being stopped by Fifth Brother. Another method employed by Inquisitors to hunt Jedi was by using people or items of interest and significance to the Jedi being hunted to lure them into a pre-arranged trap. This method was employed by the Grand Inquisitor when he release news of the survival and detainment of Jedi Master Luminara Unduli in the Stygeon System to lure in Padawan Caleb Dume and many other Jedi in to attempt a rescue. Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother employed a similar tactic using Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger and Mandalorian demolitions expert Sabine Wren as bait to lure in Jedi Padawan Caleb Dume (Kanan Jarrus) and Former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano to an abandon medical station for a trap, unfortunately their plans were foiled by Lasat Captain Garazeb Orrelios, Sixth Brother also used this tactic during his hunt for former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano by releasing news of his detainment of the rebel insurgent Kaeden Larte in order to lure her back to Raada for ambush. Third Sister employed this tactic by ordering the kidnapping of Leia Organa to prompt Obi Wan into coming to her rescue where she could ambush and detain him for Darth Vader. Second Sister employed a variation of this strategy by revealing that she was studying a Zeffonian sarcophagus to Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis (Knowing of his interest in the Zeffo) in order to lure him into her forces for an ambush. Furthermore Inquisitors have been known to use the populace of a planet to their advantage when hunting Jedi either by offering rewards leading to their capture or by placing an All Points Bulletin on a Jedi suspect within the Inquisitors area of operation as was demonstrated by Fifth Brother in the former and Third Sister in the latter.
Despite being assigned to hunt and kill Jedi and other Force-sensitive targets, most of the Inquisitors were not skilled enough to take on powerful Force-users such as Jedi Masters or experienced Jedi Knights on their own. Two working in tandem were defeated by Ahsoka Tano,[43] and three combined were unable to overcome the former Sith Lord Maul.[46] This was compounded by the fact that there were a limited number of available Inquisitors which could be allocated to hunt a given Jedi target at any given time. To counter this, the members of the Inquisitorius were assigned command of their own contingent of Purge Troopers, infantry units who were specifically trained to kill Jedi.[5] In situations where such forces were in limited supply or absent, Inquisitors could take command of other Imperial forces[6] such as stormtroopers to supplement their existing forces throughout the course of a hunt.[5]Commonly such forces would be deployed to attempt to contain the targeted Jedi within the confines of their residing location by conducting patrols, interrogating the populace, and locking down transportation out of the planet, occasionally they would act as fire support for inquisitors when patrolling or aid in containing located Jedi within the confines of a confined area.
Some Inquisitors were deemed to be capable enough hunters on their own to be trusted to conduct solo hunts like the Grand Inquisitor, Eighth Brother and Sixth Brother, with one Inquisitor being able to hunt down and kill four Jedi in the Anoat sector.[32] When possible, Inquisitors were known to be dispatched in teams of two or three on any given Jedi hunt, as was the case on Mon Cala where the Sixth Brother, Ninth Sister, and Tenth Brother along with Darth Vader where dispatched to deal with the Jedi Ferren Barr.[17] In the case of the pursuit of Eeth Koth, Fifth Brother was joined by two other Inquisitors alongside Darth Vader.[28] On the hunt for Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis, both the Second Sister and Ninth Sister where dispatched to deal with him.[5] Following the Grand Inquisitor's demise, both the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister worked in tandem to kill Jedi Padawan Caleb Dume, Ezra Bridger and attempt to capture former Padawan Ahsoka Tano.[38] During the hunt for Jedi Padawan Nari on Tatooine Fifth Brother, Third Sister and the Grand Inquisitor were dispatched to deal with the situation. During the hunt for Obi Wan Kenobi on Daiyu the Grand Inquisitor, Fifth Brother, and Fourth Sister where dispatched to hunt him down much to the annoyance of the Third Sister who sought to earn Darth Vader's favor through the Jedi Masters capture.
Equipment[]
- "How did you know?"
"That you were a fake? An Inquisitor without a lightsaber? You must think me a fool…" - ―Lina Graf and Vaneé, on the former's disguise as an Inquisitor
The Inquisitors often used double-bladed spinning lightsabers
The Inquisitors wore black and grey bodysuits with armor and were equipped with crimson-bladed lightsabers,[66] typically of the double-bladed spinning lightsaber model[3] that were also capable of spinning in a helicopter-like motion for escape due to their ringed emitters.[64] The Tenth Brother was an exception, possessing two separate shoto lightsabers.[17] The Inquisitors also developed interrogation chairs to assist in their questioning of suspected rebels or Jedi.[60]
Skills and training[]
- "The Inquisitors are formidable fighters. They are former Jedi!"
"And they fight like it. Defensive. Moving to attack only when there is no other choice. The Jedi taught that a battle could be counted a victory even if both parties survive. This error has infected the Inquisitors' tactics." - ―The Grand Inquisitor and Darth Vader
The Sixth Brother and Darth Vader after he severed his left arm
Consisting of former Jedi,[14] the Inquisitors were initially weak in the dark side of the Force and utilized a defensive fighting style. Darth Vader noticed this limitation when he began training them and sought to transform their fighting style to an only offensive one. The end result was an aggressive fighting style aimed at quickly overpowering surviving Jedi, hampering their concentration and preventing them from falling back on their Force abilities.[7] Among one of of Vader's first training sessions with the Inquisitors included teaching them loss, having expended several inquisitors of at least one of their limbs.[7][14] Overtime, the Inquisitors became among the most skilled fighters in the galaxy, though were deliberately trained to not surpass the prowess of a Sith Lord.[6]
Primarily, an inquisitor's style of attacking emphasized hampering a Jedi's connection to the Force through a rapid blitz of fast and strong lightsaber strikes to open up gaps in an opponent's defenses, broad slashes and sweeps to unbalance an opponent, and rapid parrying counters to force them back on the defensive, which could prevent the Jedi from bringing their full power to bear in a duel. Another notable tactic used by Inquisitors was the usage of taunts in their duels; while useless against more seasoned Jedi Knights and Masters, could psychologically impact the performance of less experienced Jedi Knights and Padawans. Strong emotions, pain, and exhaustion could hamper a Jedi's connection to the Force by making them feel cut off and isolated.[5]
Aside from their skills with a lightsaber, Inquisitors were trained in the use and application of dark side techniques such as mind probing. They were also well-trained interrogators and trackers, who were capable of using the Force to detect another Force sensitive's Force signature through vast distances. While the offensive techniques employed by Inquisitors made short work of fledgling Jedi Padawans and ill-prepared Jedi Knights, seasoned lightsaber duelists like Ahsoka Tano were able to circumvent such tactics with relative ease. For Tano, this was owed to her experience dueling General Grievous on Florrum, a proficiency which she put to use when combating the Sixth Brother.[26]
Individually, Inquisitors ranged in skill sets and strengths, many of them (i.e The Grand Inquisitor) having studied the records of the Jedi Order to familiarize themselves with their enemies' fighting techniques.[64][43] Some inquisitors like the Fifth Brother and Ninth Sister were strong in the Force, able to sense emotions or the locations of their prey across he vast expanse of space or could read the emotions of another.[14][38] Inquisitors like the Seventh Sister and Second Sister had keen tactical minds that enabled them to coordinate and allocates their forces with greater efficiency[5] while others such as Sixth Brother had keen deductive skills which enabled him to better predict the movement of their prey.[17] Some even had physiological advantages like the Eight Brother, who as a Terrelian Jango Jumper, had a physiology that afforded him great agility and endurance.[67]
Behind the scenes[]
A member of the Inquisitorius in Star Wars Legends.
The Inquisitors first appeared within the current Star Wars canon in the 2014 animated television series Star Wars Rebels.[3] The Inquisitorius previously existed in the Star Wars Legends continuity and were originally created for The Star Wars Sourcebook, a 1987 sourcebook for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game written by Bill Slavicsek and Curtis Smith.[68]
The Imperial Inquisition has its roots in the Spanish Inquisition of real life.[69]
At Dragon Con 2018, Rebels writer Henry Gilroy explained that in choosing former Jedi to join the Inquisitorius, Palpatine kept an eye on aggressive and selfish Jedi and those who could possibly be turned into Inquisitors.[70]
Appearances[]
Non-canon appearances[]
- Angry Birds Star Wars II
- Jedi Training - Trials of the Temple
LEGO STAR WARS: Celebrate the Season – "Obi-Wan vs Inquisitors"- Star Wars: Visions – "T0-B1" (Ambiguous canonicity)
- Visions: T0-B1: The Droid Who Became a Jedi (Ambiguous canonicity)
- LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens (DLC)
- LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (DLC)
Sources[]
Notes and references[]
External links[]
- Star Wars Inquisitors: A History on StarWars.com (backup link)
- Darth Vader (2017) #7 on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link) (First identified as Inquisitorius Program)
