Sate Pestage

Sate Pestage was a human male official who served on the Ruling Council of the Galactic Empire. During the Clone Wars, he served as a Senior Advisor of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine who sometimes acted as a bureaucrat, emissary, or a dignitary in Palpatine's name and one time accompanied Janus Greejatus, Ars Dangor, Sly Moore and Lieutenant Commander Orson Krennic to Geonosis to oversee Poggle the Lesser's homecoming. As Poggle gave a speech to his fellow Geonosians, Pestage sat alongside the other emissaries in the Petranaki Arena.

After the rise of the Galactic Empire, Pestage continued to serve Emperor Palpatine as an adviser. He had a shaved head, pointed chin beard, and raking eyebrows. Like all the other members of the Imperial Ruling Council, he donned colorful robes and floppy hats. In 14 BBY, he attended a meeting of the Ruling Council and Joint Chiefs, which also included the Emperor, Sith Lord Darth Vader, Wilhuff Tarkin, and Grand Vizier Mas Amedda. When Pestage raised the matter of Tarkin's encounter with the insurgents at Sentinel Base, Dodd Rancit of the Naval Intelligence Agency vouched for Tarkin's role in frustrating Separatist propaganda efforts during the Clone Wars.

Sate Pestage was introduced to the new Star Wars canon in James Luceno's 2014 novel Tarkin. He was first introduced in the Star Wars Legends continuity, first appearing in the Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron comic book series by Michael A. Stackpole. Within Legends he held the position of Grand Vizier, a position held in canon by Mas Amedda.

Sate Pestage, originally called Sate Molock, was initially meant to appear in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Molock first appeared in the second screenplay draft, where he warns Darth Vader that the Emperor is in a bad mood before Vader reports the Imperial victory over Hoth. In the revised second draft, Molock was renamed Sate Pestage.

In Episode V's fourth draft, Pestage was planned to appear in scene 286 as a "shimmering holographic image." When Darth Vader attempts to contact the Emperor, he reaches Pestage, who, as previously mentioned, warns Vader of the Emperor's foul mood and bids him to wait. According to Lucasfilm Story Group's Pablo Hidalgo, by the fifth script draft of the film, Pestage had been already cut.

In 2003, a production photo from five of the Advisors seen in the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, the last installment of the Star Wars original trilogy, was included in an article published on StarWars.com, accompanied by text that read "Among the members of Palpatine's Inner Circle are: Sate Pestage, Janus Greejatus, Sim Aloo, Ars Dangor, and Kren Blista-Vanee." In September 2023, after the release of his short story "Kernels and Husks" in From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, author Jason Fry confirmed that Pestage was the advisor in black robes, canonizing his appearance in the film.