The Sith Eternal army, also known as the army of the Final Order, was the ground force created by the Sith Eternal in its push for the reconquering of the galaxy and the ultimate goal of ushering the return of the Sith Order. Their fighting forces were harvested in secret, with their existence unknown even to most of their puppet galactic power, the First Order. The army of the Sith Eternal was the culmination of an elaborate contingency that was meant to establish the everlasting reign of a new, resurgent Sith Empire.
The Sith Eternal's army consisted of a large number of legions of elite and loyal Sith troopers that drew inspiration from a dark and ancient Sith legacy. The army participated in the pivotal Battle of Exegol, which saw the forces of the Sith Eternal, including a fleet—the Final Order—of Sith Star Destroyers, fight against the Resistance and the forces of the Citizens' Fleet which hailed from across the galaxy. The war on Exegol witnessed the final death of Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, the ultimate defeat of the Sith Eternal, and the uprising against the First Order.
The Sith Eternal was a large cult of Sith loyalists that sought to bring forth the return of the Sith Order by reconquering the galaxy under the leadership of the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious. To do so, the Sith Eternal used a military force that consisted of an expansive Sith armada, the Final Order, that worked in conjunction with the vast Sith Eternal army of Sith troopers.
In addition to the Final Order fleet, the Sith Eternal trained an army of elite soldiers imbued with Sith culture, history, and beliefs.
The army of the Sith Eternal was organized into several types of military units. Overall, the army was organized into legions, which used the ancient numerical definition of 5,000 soldiers. The legions were staffed by Sith trooper officers in the positions of commanders. The legions themselves were then subdivided into squads of ten soldiers who were led by a sergeant. The squad was then further composed of three triads, which were fireteams consisting of three soldiers. The triads were led by a lance corporal who led two corporals. Legions of the Sith Eternal's army were identified in two ways; by a numerical designation. and by a namesake of an ancient Sith Lord. Several legions within the army were the 3rd Legion, 5th Legion, 17th Legion, 26th Legion, 39th Legion, and the 44th Legion. They were also respectively named after the Sith Lords Revan, Andeddu, Darth Tanis, Darth Tenebrous, Phobos, and Desolous.
Another level of unit used by the Sith Eternal's army was that of battalion, with at least one, the 105th Battalion, being active. Squads of aerial infantry troops were organized into ten soldiers, and were named after weapons. Several examples included Lanvorak Squad, Parang Squad, and Warblade Squad.
With their crimson armor and advanced weaponry, Sith troopers formed the backbone of the Sith Eternal army.
Composed entirely of Sith troopers, the dark side warriors were secretly cultivated on the Sith world of Exegol deep in the Unknown Regions. After the Sith's trial and error of clone troopers during the Clone Wars, Sith troopers underwent flash-imprinting and loyalty conditioning that was built upon, and further advanced beyond, Kaminoan clone trooper procedures. The result was that the Sith troopers were superiorly more loyal and machine-like than even the stormtroopers of the Sith Eternal's puppet government, the First Order, who were trained from childhood. Although they bore the name of the revived sect of the dark side, Sith troopers were not able to use the power of the Force. Instead, their red armor evoked an aura of dread, spilled blood, Sith lightsaber blades, and of the elite Imperials from the Sith-controlled Galactic Empire which once ruled the galaxy. Crimson has always been closely associated with Darth Sidious; as such, the Sith troopers were considered as the Emperor's personal army, standing out from the stormtroopers of the First Order and the Empire. Sith troopers who excelled and were considered the army's best was elevated into a cadre of elite royal guards known as the Sovereign Protectors. These Sovereign Protectors were stationed in the amphitheater that housed the Throne of the Sith within the Sith Citadel on Exegol.
An elite aerial variant of Sith troopers, designated as Sith Jetpack Troopers, was considered the next evolution of the standard jetpack infantry. Due to their intense training and advanced gear, Sith jet troopers were capable of intelligent, devastating, rapid strikes. They provided efficient air cover for ground operations by working alongside standard ground Sith troopers and being too small and too fast to be targeted by anti-aircraft weaponry. Although similar in appearance to the standard First Order jet trooper, the crucial difference between the two types of warriors was in discipline, ferocity, and loyalty to an undying cause, which instilled Sith jet troopers with fearless aggression.
Sith troopers were armed with ST-W48 blasters and red-colored FWMB-10B repeating blasters. Sith jet troopers were armed with F-11ABA heavy blaster cannons incredibly deadly to ground troops. The Sovereign Protectors wielded the SP-B50 blaster rifle in both ranged and melee combat.
The predecessors of the Sith troopers exhibited traces of individualism and the capacity to rebel against their leaders.
The origins of the Sith Eternal army dated back to the respective forces of the Galactic Republic and the Galactic Empire. Darth Sidious, the leader of the Sith Eternal, endeavored to establish a Sith Empire enforced by the ideal soldier, which, in his view, lacked any trace of individualism. Although Sidious rose to power with the support of clone troopers and Imperial stormtroopers, he regarded their capacity for independent thought as a flaw. He sought to eliminate it from the latest generation of armored soldiers who served his cause.
The Sith Eternal created an army and a navy on the orders of their master, Darth Sidious, who was killed and resurrected during the fall of the Galactic Empire. While the New Republic focused on consolidating its rule, Sidious' followers spent a generation building a military force with the aim restoring Sith power throughout the galaxy. In the case of their army, the result was a new generation of soldiers whose programming for loyalty and obedience surpassed that of the Republic clone troopers as well as the Imperial and First Order stormtroopers. Their allegiance to the Sith cause was such that Sidious believed he had succeeded in eliminating all traces of individualism that he perceived in their precursors.
Kylo Ren sought to control the forces of the Sith Eternal as Darth Sidious' successor.
By the last days of the First Order-Resistance War, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren discovered the Emperor, his cultists, and the military that they built on the Sith world of Exegol. As a final opportunity to gauge Ren's worthiness as heir to the new Sith Empire, Sidious instructed him to end the legacy of the Jedi Order by killing the Jedi apprentice Rey. In exchange, he offered control of the Sith Eternal's soldiers and warships to Ren, making the grandson of Darth Vader the new Galactic Emperor.
Sith troopers were stationed aboard the Sith Star Destroyers as the Final Order readied for mass deployment.
The army's Sith troopers were stationed aboard the Sith fleet's Xyston-class Star Destroyers, including the Derriphan that destroyed the planet Kijimi. In response, the Resistance launched an attack on the Sith Eternal's forces, hoping to prevent the Final Order from leaving Exegol. During the Battle of Exegol, the Resistance's ground forces assaulted the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Steadfast to prevent Allegiant General Enric Pryde from successfully guiding the fleet through Exegol's atmosphere. As a result, several AAL-2100/9.5 atmospheric assault landers landed on the hull of Pryde's command ship, deploying Sith troopers into battle against Resistance troopers and a company of renegade stormtroopers.
Both sides sustained casualties in the firefight; ultimately though, the Sith troopers failed to prevent the Resistance from destroying the Steadfast. The Sith fleet was unable to leave Exegol and consequently destroyed by the combined forces of the Resistance and the Citizens' Fleet. The Sith Eternal's defeat on Exegol inspired an uprising against the First Order across the galaxy.
In the Star Wars Legends continuity, strength of the brigade of the reconstituted Sith Empire's Imperial Army ranged from 5,000 to 7,500 soldiers, similar to the strength of the Sith Eternal legion, which is said to be using ancient definition of a legion.
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