The Shadow Council was an advisory council that consisted of Imperial warlords and their remnants, and was led by Grand Admiral Thrawn during the New Republic Era. Members of the Shadow Council secretly coordinated their individual efforts to subvert the New Republic while they maintained an illusion as unorganized remnant warlords to conceal their true strength.
Basing itself on the original council that formed in the last year of the Galactic Civil War to be the new covert governing of the Empire, which collapsed after the Battle of Jakku, a new Shadow Council was active by 9 ABY. It consisted of at least ten delegations including Moff Gideon, Commandant Brendol Hux and Captain Gilad Pellaeon. During one of their meetings, they discussed a number of matters, including the quashing of Mandalorians intent on retaking Mandalore, advances made in cloning efforts, and preparations for the return of Thrawn. Moff Gideon, however, coveted the reins of leadership but would ultimately perish on Mandalore before he could rise to power.
The members of the new Shadow Council were responsible for their own sectors and maintained an illusion of working as unorganized remnant warlords to conceal their strength. Whilst Brendol Hux and Gilad Pellaeon were to amass countless resources and equipment to be shared, the other members including Gideon were to individualy scrape and claw resources awaiting for their grand plan to take shape.
Captain Pellaeon represented Grand Admiral Thrawn's faction in the Shadow Council.
During the New Republic Era, the new Shadow Council expanded to include new members, with Commadant Hux included, now representing an Imperial remnant situated within the Unknown Regions (which was itself slowly evolving to become the First Order). Navy Captain Gilad Pellaeon had joined, with his delegation representing the faction under Grand Admiral Thrawn, the ostensible chairman of the entire advisory body. Moff Gideon was another notable member, as was a warlord who held the rank of commander, and six other warlords. These other warlords included a warlord who believed that there were many citizens loyal to the Empire, another warlord who acknowledged this belief, and three other warlords.
Following the Battle of Jakku, the old Shadow Council apparently disintegrated with the Old Empire. With the deaths of Rax, Obdur, and Tashu, the only known surviving members were Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, Hux, Grand Moff Randd and General Hodnar Borrum. Randd escaped the destruction of the Ravager and led his own Imperial forces in the Queluhan Nebula. Sloane and Hux commanded the Imperial fleet and officials that regrouped as an Imperial remnant in the Unknown Regions and would go on to reform as the First Order.
By approximately 9 ABY, Imperial revanchists had established a revised Shadow Council under the ostensible leadership of Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo "Thrawn," although in reality he had yet to return to the galaxy from his exile, and included delegations from other remnants of the Old Empire, such as Moff Gideon, Captain Gilad Pellaeon, Commandant Brendol Hux, and at least six other Imperial warlords. During their time as Shadow Council members, Hux and Pellaeon secured numerous resources for themselves. When Gideon dispatched his massive squadron of TIE/IN interceptors to destroy the residence of one of his foes, the former ruler of Mandalore Bo-Katan Kryze, she realized the amount of starships attacking her home was too large for a single Imperial warlord. Forced to flee before she found any answers, she remained unaware that Gideon launched the attack and was part of a greater union of Imperial Remnants.
Sometime after the pirate siege on Nevarro, Gideon attended a meeting of the Shadow Council to discuss the Mandalorian threat on his operations. He requested three Imperial Praetorian Guards, reinforcements to his TIE/IN interceptor squadron, and more bombers to deal with them, which Hux and Pellaeon reluctantly agreed to upon learning of the re-emerging Mandalorian people. During that same meeting, Moff Gideon questioned Captain Pellaeon on Thrawn's absence, mockingly pointing out the lack of any concrete evidence of the Chiss commander's "imminent return." The warlord then suggested the council needed new leadership, implying his own ambition to assume that mantle. Moff Gideon also discussed Project Necromancer with Commandant Hux, who accused him of using Doctor Penn Pershing to advance his own cloning experiments on Nevarro.
In the end, despite the reinforcements he secured from the Shadow Council, Gideon would be bested in the reconquest of Mandalore, in which Gideon's base was destroyed, taking Gideon and his forces with him. All the same, the existence of the Shadow Council and the unified nature of the Imperial Remnants remained a secret to the New Republic. While officers Hera Syndulla and Carson Teva were convinced of a growing Imperial threat, with Teva pointing to the battle on Mandalore as proof, Senator Hamato Xiono, who sat upon the Senate Defense Council, disregarded their concerns and saw no evidence of a unified Imperial Remnant. Xiono also pointed to the conflict on Mandalore as evidence, believing it proved Gideon had worked on his own. In secret, Thrawn made his return to the galaxy with his personal forces and the Great Mothers after the escape from Peridea.
- "Who's the Boss?" — Star Wars Insider 224
- Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire