The ISB Central Office, also known as the Imperial Security Bureau headquarters, or ISB Headquarters, was a massive complex the size of several city blocks that served as the headquarters of the Imperial Security Bureau located within the COMPNOR arcology on Level 5127 of the planet Coruscant's Federal District.
It housed personnel and equipment to analyze intelligence data. The Central Office's staff of analysts had access to HoloNet feeds from across the Empire. While individual agents had a great deal of discretion in resolving their assignments, the Central Office could reassign them as needed when higher-priority targets were identified. Most spend the majority of their time in the field, only returning to the Federal District between missions. It operated throughout the Imperial Era.
A meeting in the ISB Central Office
The ISB headquarters was a large pyramidoid building consisting of ten individual curved structures arranged in a circle around the main building, which itself was connected with the rest of the COMPNOR Arcology complex via transparent skybridges. Its grounds were patrolled by Imperial stormtroopers, while point defence cannons lined the perimeter to deter airborne threats. Inside the main building there were conference chambers, at least one of which was used for sector supervisors' forums organized by Major Partagaz as well as announcements of significant policy changes, such as the implementation of the Public Order Resentencing Directive following the Aldhani incident. The ISB Supervisors who attended ISB board meetings in the room were part of the Investigations branch.
Senior officers were afforded their own, albeit spartan, offices to share with their assistants. The building also housed a datavault where data from all sectors under ISB supervision was stored and could be pulled for analysis by orders of the sector supervisor. The walls and floors were white, in stark contrast with typical Imperial design, and decorated with bright Imperial insignias. Elsewhere in the building, there was at least one interrogation room, which was a brightly lit square room with a singular chair and three one-way mirrors on the walls. The room was surrounded by a dark room from which interrogations could be observed behind the glass.
The ISB Central Office in Darth Vader (2017) 8
The ISB Central Office was first mentioned in canon by the 2015 reference book Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, written by Adam Bray, Kerrie Dougherty, Cole Horton, and Michael Kogge. While two narrative sources state that the headquarters of ISB are located in the Federal District, the Fantasy Flight Games' 2018 roleplaying game book Dawn of Rebellion states that the headquarters are in the Verity District. This article assumes Dawn of Rebellion is in error.
The actual headquarters building made its first on screen appearance in "Aldhani," the fourth episode of the Andor television series. Prior to the show's release, the set was shown being built in the sizzle reel for Andor. The headquarters' exterior was photographed below Adams Bridge, Crossrail Plaza at the Canary Wharf in London, England.
In the Star Wars Legends continuity, ISB Central Office was first mentioned in the 1989 Imperial Sourcebook, which was authored by Greg Gorden and published by West End Games.
- Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know
- Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded
- Dawn of Rebellion
- "Galactic Britain II: Cassian's Travels" — Star Wars Insider 219
- Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide