First Order Supreme Council

The First Order Supreme Council, also known as the High Council, was a cabinet of top military leaders drawn from the ranks of First Order High Command. Founded by Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, the Council's purpose was to carry out his orders and to plan a future for the galaxy under the absolute rule of the First Order. Its creation was also meant to introduce teamwork and greater coordination to a regime in which most high-ranking officers had little knowledge of the First Order's capabilities and goals. Cooperation was new to the proud men and women who led the First Order, however. As such, many of their meetings were marred by sniping and turf wars.

The Council's headquarters was located onboard the Steadfast, a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer in the First Order Navy and command ship of Allegiant General Enric Pryde, the highest-ranking official on the Council, second only to the Supreme Leader. This Star Destroyer also functioned as Ren's flagship after its predecessor, the Finalizer, sustained considerable damage.

Comprising both the highest-ranking officers in the military and their closest aides, the Council's responsibilities were as varied as its membership. This ranged from maintaining a tight security on the Steadfast to managing the First Order's war effort on a galactic scale. In the latter's case, it was the Council's task, specifically General Bellava Parnadee, to oversee the occupation of contested worlds, directing the First Order Army on occupied Kijimi, Torost, and Odynnia Gavo.

Some members of the Council supported and admired Ren, while others secretly opposed his reign or were concerned by his direction of the First Order-Resistance War. Despite his growing responsibility and maturity, the young Supreme Leader's command style was still reactive, which the Council found to be unsettling. Nevertheless, General Amret Engell admired Ren for his initiative and unquestioned authority, and endeavored to build an army worthy of her Supreme Leader's approval, having succeeded the late Captain Phasma as head of the First Order stormtrooper training program. General Domaric Quinn was a former junior officer of the Galactic Empire before rising to key position of command for the ground forces of the First Order. Unlike Engell, Quinn was frustrated at having to serve under Ren, being more than a decade older than the new Supreme Leader. As a technologist, Quinn disapproved of the mysticism of Ren and his predecessor, Supreme Leader Snoke, though he tried not to question their methods.

The Council as a whole reflected the First Order's well-regimented military, and as such, had little understanding of the ways of the Force embodied by the likes of Snoke, Kylo Ren, and the Knights of Ren. They were particularly concerned about Ren's complete submission to the dark side of the Force and how it fueled his drive for power, favoring more orthodox tactics and strategies for the conquest of the galaxy. General Armitage Hux, a rival to Ren prior to Snoke's assassination, was convinced that Ren had lost his sanity, diverting the First Order's resources away from the war to investigate the return of the Sith Lord and fallen Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious. Though the concept of the Force was also foreign to Pryde, he was prudent enough to not disrespect Ren's beliefs, focusing instead on the material benefits they offered to the military. In secret, additionally, Pryde was an agent of the resurrected Sidious.

Relationships were more contentious than cooperative within the Council's ranks. While Hux and Pryde served together on the Council, the latter held his younger colleague responsible for the destruction of Starkiller Base. Unlike Hux, Admiral Frantis Griss had Pryde's complete trust and reported directly to the Allegiant General. In the end, the high-ranking officers of the Council were driven by their pride and personal agendas, as was often the case with ranking officers in the First Order and the Empire before it. Comparatively, however, the aides who served them focused on carrying out their duties with maximum efficiency, though some were ultimately drawn into the Council's politics. Commander Masir Trach transferred from the Finalizer to the Steadfast, where he became caught in a silent struggle of loyalties between Hux and Pryde. His association with both senior officers allowed him to sense the turbulence between them, though he tried to avoid any dispute by focusing on his orders.

Prior to the creation of the Supreme Council, the First Order was led by Supreme Leader Snoke, a humanoid alien strong with the Force, whose origins were a mystery to even his closest subordinates. Though he ruled the First Order with absolute power, Snoke was content to focus on spiritual matters, ceding control of the military to his generals and allowing propaganda masterminds to shape the public image of his regime. Following the destruction of the New Republic, which, in turn, precipitated open conflict between the First Order and the Resistance, Snoke was assassinated by his apprentice, Kylo Ren, the heir to the Skywalker bloodline. Having slain his master, Ren secured his place in the succession by keeping his culpability in Snoke's death a secret, lest his subordinates should question his claim to the title of Supreme Leader.

Ren's leadership style differed from that of his predecessor. He adopted a more direct approach to the military, despite also relying on mysticism and the dark side for power. Furthermore, his reign introduced greater transparency to a regime that was accustomed to secrecy. In the past, information within the First Order was extremely compartmentalized, especially as the regime rose to power and so much depended on the scope of its operations remaining a secret from the wider galaxy. As a result, even the members of the First Order's top echelon remained unaware of the true scale of its forces. With Ren usurping command, the veils of secrecy that surrounded Snoke's plan gradually dissipated, and to that end he created the Supreme Council to plan for the future.

Drawn from the ranks of High Command, Ren anticipated that the Council would be fraught with infighting. He considered it good for his reign, as he preferred that they direct their energies against each other, thereby diminishing their chances of uniting against him. In the wake of Phasma's death, General Engell would double recruitment with enthusiasm, much to the Supreme Leader's approval.

As the war continued with the Resistance, a mysterious message was heard broadcasting the voice of Darth Sidious—the long-dead Dark Lord of the Sith who once ruled the galaxy as Emperor of the Galactic Empire—in 35 ABY. Ren immediately set out to investigate the Sith Lord's return, unwilling to tolerate any threat to his rule or return to a life of servitude after gaining unprecedented freedom and power. His search for answers led to Mustafar, the volcanic world that was once ruled by Ren's grandfather, Darth Vader. Leaving the Steadfast in orbit of Mustafar's stratosphere, the Supreme Leader personally led a squad of stormtroopers to the Corvax Fen region where they encountered a colony of Sith cultists, the Alazmec of Winsit.

Allegiant General Enric Pryde and General Armitage Hux observed as Ren and his soldiers slaughtered the cultists. Pryde watched with admiration as one Alazmec after another was cut down by his lightsaber, and even Hux found himself mesmerized by the carnage unleashed by his one-time rival. Even so, he regarded the mission as a useless endeavor, believing Ren had gone mad searching for a dead Emperor while the First Order's enemies grew in strength. Pryde chided his younger colleague, agreeing with Ren's decision to find the message's source.

Using his grandfather's Sith wayfinder that he obtained on the castle grounds of Fortress Vader, Ren set out on a solitary mission to the Unknown Regions, determined to find the legendary Sith world of Exegol. None of his subordinates objected to their Supreme Leader traveling alone in a dangerous region of the galaxy. When he returned from his journey, the Supreme Council gathered in the High Command conference room located in the Steadfast. Before Ren's arrival, Pryde briefed his colleagues about the outcome of Ren's mission, such as the discovery of the Sith Eternal cult and their military assets.

The Supreme Leader arrived on the Steadfast in the company of his personal bodyguards, the Knights of Ren. They were greeted by Admiral Griss, who kept silent after noticing the mud that Ren's Knights were tracking through the polished corridors of the command ship. By now Ren had gotten word that the First Order had captured a sympathizer of the Resistance. Boolio, an Ovissian miner at the Sinta Glacier Colony, was brought before the Supreme Leader and executed for handing over secret information.

Having decapitated the Ovissian with his lightsaber, Ren brought the sympathizer's severed head to the High Command conference room, slamming it on the table and causing his seated officers to flinch which Ren noted with satisfaction and there Supreme Leader Ren warned his minions that there was a spy in their ranks who sent a message to the Resistance but felt this agent wouldn't stop them because of what he saw on Exegol. Ren's report confirmed not only the Emperor's return through cloning, but also the existence of a vast fleet—the Final Order—comprising thousands of Xyston-class Star Destroyers armed with axial superlaser cannons. The promise of augmenting the First Order's existing forces with that of the Sith Eternal made Ren confident that his regime would evolve into a true Empire in its own right. It even bolstered the Council's confidence in Ren, as until now they had been skeptical of his leadership.

As Ren waited for the Council to take a long look at the severed, bleeding head on their table, he sensed Hux's unease in the Force and deduced that his appearance was the cause, having taken to wearing his mask once more. However, Hux complimented it, as did General Parnadee. General Quinn interjected with his assessment of their alliance with the Sith Eternal, his voice dripping with contempt of associating the First Order with a cult. Ren knew that the former junior officer of the Imperial Military disdained anything relating to religion and mysticism, and as such, he decided that Quinn would have to learn to respect such beliefs if he wanted to keep his life.

While the rest of the Council sat in uncomfortable silence, Pryde spoke in support of the alliance and scolded the young general, noting that the people Quinn dismissed as "conjurers" had "conjured" legions of Star Destroyers. The Sith fleet promised to increase the First Order's resources ten thousand fold, giving them a range in power that would compensate them for the loss of their superweapon, Starkiller Base, a debacle that Pryde blamed Hux for. Ren, however, was unsettled by the Allegiant General's lack of fear toward him. He had contemplated liquidating Pryde as a potential threat to his power, but ultimately he found the veteran officer of the Empire far too competent to dismiss. In addition, part of Ren enjoyed knowing that Pryde's presence fed Hux's insecurity and frustration of not having as much power as he used to when Supreme Leader Snoke was still in charge of the First Order.

The discussion about increasing their resources gave Parnadee and Engell an opportunity to promote their own interests, as both generals were keen on expanding the army by conscripting more of the galaxy's children. Quinn, however, drew Ren's ire by further attempting to learn more information about the Emperor's conditions. He did not want them to know that Sidious had bidden him to kill the scavenger-turned-Jedi apprentice Rey, for he had his own plans for her and desired to kill him so he can finish what his grandfather started and destroy the Sith once and for all. Regardless of what the Emperor wanted, Ren served his ambitions alone because he felt that he gave too much to obtain his power and what he wanted most of all was to rule the galaxy with Rey at his side.

Surrendering to all of his anger and impatience, Ren reached toward Quinn with the Force, telekinetically slammed the general onto the ceiling. The impact fractured Quinn's body and the Council could only watch as Ren asphyxiated him by way of the Force, leaving Hux visibly shaken because he feared that would be his fate one day. He ordered the Council to prepare their forces to crush any world that resisted the First Order, while he personally oversaw the hunt for Rey with the help of his Knights of Ren.

Pryde and Hux remained at Ren's side during his hunt for the scavenger. Hux fumed with resentment over his diminished status in the First Order, being made to serve under both Ren and Pryde, all the while feigning loyal subordination to both of them. Determined to see his rivals fall, Ren in particular, Hux secretly fed vital information to their enemies, making him a spy for the Resistance. Though he cared nothing for their cause, more than anything he wanted Ren's reign to end in defeat. Upon encountering Rey's group at Kijimi, Hux saved Commander Poe Dameron, Finn and Chewbacca from execution, and then employed Finn's aid in injuring himself to avoid suspicion. Pryde was no fool, however. He correctly identified Hux as the spy and personally executed him for attempting to seek revenge on Supreme Leader Ren, putting an end to the young general's career, ambitions and life which caused him to meet a similar fate to Quinn's.

Hux's death and Ren's subsequent return to the light side of the Force left Pryde in complete control of the First Order. After making contact with Sidious, the former Imperial officer swore his allegiance to the Sith Lord he once served in the Galactic Civil War and let him be in charge of the First Order. As a result, the First Order and the Sith Eternal formally joined forces, and Pryde was appointed as the Sith fleet's commanding officer. The Sith Eternal's first order of business was to send a message to the galaxy, demanding the unconditional surrender of all of the free worlds or else they would die—to that end, a single Sith Star Destroyer was deployed from Exegol, the Derriphan. Armed with a planet-killing superweapon like all of her sister ships, the Derriphan destroyed Kijimi's core, obliterating the entire planet in a single attack.

The Steadfast traveled to Exegol, where Pryde and Griss oversaw the preparations for the launching of the Final Order fleet. Pryde personally took command of the fleet when the Resistance navy launched a surprise attack on Exegol, attempting to abort the Sith fleet's launch. Although their efforts succeeded in destroying a few warships, including the Derriphan, Pryde accepted them as minimal casualties. The battle had been going well for the Sith Eternal forces until the arrival of the Citizens' Fleet, a flotilla comprising thousands of civilian ships that united in opposition against the Sith fleet. Pryde was surprised by their sudden arrival and tried to ascertain where the Resistance could have acquired so many reinforcements. However, Griss deduced that they were not military vessels, but rather ordinary citizens who had taken up arms against them.

As the tide of battle turned against the Sith fleet, the Resistance launched an assault on the Steadfast, which had attempted to guide the remaining Sith Star Destroyers to a safe orbit. Pryde and Griss both perished when the command bridge was destroyed, causing the Steadfast to crash into Exegol's surface. General Amret Engell was also present on Exegol at the time and thus suffered the same fate. Without Pryde's command ship, the Sith fleet was unable to leave Exegol, rendering the remaining Star Destroyers vulnerable to attacks from thousands of ships. The Battle of Exegol was ultimately won by the Resistance and their allies, precipitating a galaxy-wide uprising against the First Order.

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