The 1st Legion, also known as the First Legion, functioned as an elite stormtrooper legion within the military forces of the Galactic Empire. This particular legion operated under the direct command of the Sith Lord Darth Vader, a fact that contributed to their notoriety throughout the galaxy, as they were associated with the Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine's right hand. Its members were carefully chosen from the ranks of the equally respected 501st Legion, another stormtrooper legion reporting directly to Vader. Should any member of the 1st Legion fail to meet Vader's exacting standards, they faced either reassignment back to the 501st or immediate execution for their shortcomings. Kimmund, an officer within the First Legion, held the position of fourth commander in his particular unit, with his predecessors either demoted or executed by the Dark Lord of the Sith.
Before the Galactic Civil War began, the First Legion was deployed to the planet Batuu alongside the forces commanded by Grand Admiral Thrawn. This joint operation led them into conflict with the Grysks, a combative people originating from the Unknown Regions. The First Legion engaged the Grysks in several battles during their time serving with Thrawn, beginning on Batuu where Kimmund's troopers infiltrated a Grysk long-range heavy freighter, successfully capturing a number of Grysk warriors. However, the prisoners transported aboard the Chimaera—an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer serving as Thrawn's flagship—attempted to seize the First Legion's transport, the Darkhawk, triggering a battle from which Kimmund emerged alive thanks to the intervention of Thrawn's personal bodyguard, the Noghri assassin Rukh.
Following this failed prisonbreak, the First Legion participated in the Battle of Mokivj, with Darth Vader himself leading the ground assault. During this engagement, Kimmund's troops rescued the majority of the Force-sensitive Chiss girls who had been abducted by the Grysks. Driven by the desire to recover all of the captives, Thrawn and Vader tracked the Grysks who had escaped from Mokivj through hyperspace, resulting in another confrontation in which the First Legion successfully liberated the remaining Chiss children. The First Legion also provided support to the 501st Legion's Blizzard Force during the Battle of Hoth, where 1st and 501st Legion cold weather assault stormtroopers breached Echo Base under Vader's direct command.
During the reign of the Galactic Empire, the men and women of the First Legion served as the personal stormtroopers of Darth Vader. The legion's troopers took pride in their standing within the Stormtrooper Corps, and were well-known due to their association with the right hand of Emperor Palpatine. When Rukh referred to the First Legion as "unknowns," Commander Kimmund refuted the Noghri assassin's remark, citing his legion's reputation as evidence of their fame. Grand Admiral Thrawn held these soldiers in high regard, praising their actions against the Grysks as exemplary.
The First Legion selected its members from the ranks of the 501st Legion, another highly regarded Imperial Military unit that also served directly under Vader, though its history extended back to before the formation of the Empire as a clone trooper legion under Jedi General Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. First Legion officers also originated from within the 501st, but individuals who failed to live up to Vader's expectations, such as Commander Kimmund's predecessors, faced either demotion and transfer back to the 501st or execution by the Dark Lord of the Sith. Kimmund deduced that his only chance for survival, given Vader's command style, was to maintain strict control over his troops and ensure their unwavering obedience.
In addition to Vader and Kimmund, other officers within the 1st Legion included Sergeants Aksind, Drav, and Viq. As a legion within the Imperial Army, the 1st Legion could be divided into smaller units. Kimmund led his own unit within the 1st Legion, which included a squad. The 1st Legion also utilized a modified freighter called the Darkhawk, while Vader employed a personal Lambda shuttle. During the Battle of Hoth, 1st Legion stormtroopers served as cold weather assault stormtroopers.
Prior to the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, the 1st Legion was raised by the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Following the Battle of Atollon, the Emperor detected a disturbance in the Force originating from the planet Batuu in the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories. Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn were dispatched to investigate, with Commander Kimmund accompanying Vader along with a contingent from the First Legion. They traveled to Batuu aboard Thrawn's flagship, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Chimaera. The Star Destroyer was supported by the Sith's private Lambda-class T-4a shuttle and the First Legion's transport, the Darkhawk—a repurposed Clone Wars era Separatist starship.
During the journey to Batuu, tensions arose between Vader's legion and the crew of the Chimaera, particularly between Kimmund's unit and Thrawn's bodyguard Rukh. The Noghri warrior frequently boarded the First Legion's vessel without permission, leading trooper Sampa to install intrusion alarms on the ship's hatches to deter Rukh. Despite these precautions, Rukh still managed to infiltrate the Darkhawk, reaching the electronics shop on this time. He triggered the alarm using trooper Jid's helmet, alerting the First Legion, and was promptly escorted off the ship by Sergeant Drav and trooper Morrtic. Annoyed by Rukh's actions, Kimmund worried that the next security breach could result in either the Noghri's death or his own at the hands of the Sith Lord.
Upon arriving at Batuu, Vader and Thrawn went to the planet's surface while their subordinates remained aboard the Chimaera. Shortly after their arrival, a group of Grysk freighters appeared, and the largest was attacked by Kimmund's forces after Thrawn refused to disclose the Chimaera's location to the enemy. According to Thrawn, the Grysks, a warlike sentient species from the Unknown Regions, posed a threat to the interests of both the Chiss Ascendancy and the Galactic Empire. While Vader and Thrawn dealt with the Grysks' Darshi mercenaries, the First Legion deployed to the freighter via the Darkhawk. After Vult Skerris led a squadron of TIE/d "Defender" Multi-Role Starfighters to disable the Grysk vessel's hyperdrive, the First Legion boarded the freighter, attempting to secure it and its contents for the Empire. Kimmund personally oversaw the effort to secure the cargo hold, following Vader's instructions to preserve the cargo, but the Grysks used explosives to destroy both the cargo and themselves.
Despite failing to secure the cargo hold, Kimmund's men managed to stun some Grysks before they could complete their suicide mission. By order of Thrawn, who intended to interrogate the Grysks, the First Legion transferred the prisoners to the Chimaera. Thrawn confined them to personal quarters typically used by TIE fighter pilots; in response, Kimmund and Sergeant Aksind decided to remain aboard the Darkhawk with its pilot [Tephan](/article/tephan], feeling uneasy about leaving their ship unguarded with the prisoners nearby. When the Grysk escaped from their makeshift prison, they attempted to flee the Chimaera by stealing the First Legion's transport. A brief but intense skirmish broke out between the Grysks and Kimmund's companions, resulting in Aksind's death despite Rukh's timely intervention. Most of the aliens were killed in the fighting, but Kimmund and Rukh managed to recapture four of them.
Vader was far from pleased; he and Thrawn had allowed the Grysks to escape from their prison so that they could steal one of the ships, which had all been equipped with homing beacons to lead the Chimaera to the enemy's secret headquarters. Kimmund, unaware of his superiors' plan, inadvertently foiled it by preventing the aliens' escape. Kimmund believed that he might have been the second officer of his unit to be executed for failure if the Grand Admiral had not defended him. Due to the Grysks' choice to steal a Clone Wars era vessel like the Darkhawk, Thrawn concluded that their base was an old Separatist droid factory located on the planet Mokivj.
Upon the Chimaera's arrival at Mokivj, Thrawn requested the use of Vader's stormtroopers, intending to lead the ground assault himself. However, the Dark Lord rejected Thrawn's plan, insisting that he remain with the command ship while Vader led the First Legion to the planet's surface. They successfully infiltrated the factory, where Vader created a diversion to distract the Grysks while Kimmund, Sergeant Viq, and trooper Elebe searched for the prisoners they had been ordered to rescue. Kimmund's stormtroopers killed the Grysks guarding the prisoners, but the captives themselves surprised the Commander, as they were young Force-sensitive girls—three of whom were kept in hibernation chambers—of Thrawn's species, the Chiss. Kimmund and his troopers took the children into their custody, cleared the factory's courtyard of enemy units, and prepared to rendezvous with the Darkhawk. Aboard the Chimaera, Senior Lieutenant Lomar informed the Grand Admiral that the First Legion had succeeded in their mission and would return to the flagship with the rescued prisoners within the hour.
Upon the return of Kimmund's unit to the Chimaera, Vader informed the Commander that a small number of prisoners remained with the Grysks, who had escaped into hyperspace before Thrawn's Defenders could intercept them. At Thrawn's request, Vader used the Force to track the Grysks through hyperspace, believing that the Sith Lord's powers would lead them to the location of the Grysks' main forces, and thus, the remaining prisoners.
After tracking the enemy's lair to a star system, the First Legion planned to ambush the Grysk ship using the Darkhawk while the Chimaera attacked the main warships. Vader chose to support the First Legion by piloting one of the TIE Defenders, believing that his presence was not necessary for Commander Kimmund and the stormtroopers to carry out a breach and rescue operation. The trap was successful; with Vader disabling the engines, the First Legion boarded the Grysk vessel. Aided by Rukh's tracking abilities, Kimmund's unit began their search for the remaining Chiss captives, while two troopers remained with the Darkhawk to guard it. Although a few troopers perished during the mission and Jid was left behind after being directly hit by a Grysk lightning gun, the First Legion ultimately succeeded in their objective, rescuing more Chiss from the Grysks.
As the Galactic Civil War raged between the Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Darth Vader's Death Squadron was assigned the task of locating Alliance High Command's base. The Empire used Project Swarm to find Echo Base on the ice planet Hoth, and deployed its ground forces after arriving and the rebels activated their deflector shield generator. Darth Vader deployed the 501st's elite Blizzard Force, under the command of General Maximilian Veers. The First Legion supported Blizzard Force's units in the crucial Battle of Hoth, which resulted in a significant Imperial victory. Vader led 501st and 1st Legion snowtroopers into Echo Base.
Timothy Zahn created the 1st Legion for the 2018 novel Thrawn: Alliances. The English copy of "The Battle of Hoth and the Second Death Star" by De Agostini identified the 1st Legion as such, having previously written it as First Legion in translation. In an interview, Zahn stated that he had originally intended to include the 501st Legion as Vader's personal force of stormtroopers, as it was in Star Wars Legends. However, the Lucasfilm Story Group vetoed this idea, explaining that Vader would not have wanted to be closely associated with a unit that had been commanded by Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. However, due to the 501st's expert troops, Vader would still select his stormtroopers from within their ranks when recruiting for the First Legion.
The fact that the First Legion was Vader's personal legion during the time of the Galactic Empire contradicted the 2015 novel Battlefront: Twilight Company, in which Everi Chalis referred to the 501st as Vader's personal legion. When asked about this discrepancy, Matt Martin of the Story Group suggested that either Chalis was mistaken, or that the situation may have changed by the time of Battlefront. While the "Vader's Fist" nickname was attributed to the 501st in Star Wars Legends, The Odyssey of Star Wars: An Epic Poem applies it to the First Legion. However, Star Wars Helmet Collection and Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy have also applied it to the 501st in canon. While Helmet Collection was released before The Odyssey of Star Wars, Battles that Changed the Galaxy was released afterward.