Arkanis Academy

The Galactic Republic founded the Arkanis Academy back in 67 BBY, utilizing a fortress constructed by a long-gone indigenous race. During the Age of the Empire, the Academy evolved into a high-ranking Imperial Academy, providing training to Imperial cadets to become future officers within the Imperial Military. The planet Arkanis was considered an ideal location for the Academy due to its lack of "social unrest" compared to other Imperial worlds like Lothal. Despite its modest size and isolated location, it garnered a solid reputation within Imperial circles for producing outstanding officers. Nevertheless, certain Imperial cadets viewed the Arkanis Academy as less prestigious than institutions like the Raithal Academy and Coruscant's Royal Imperial Academy.

In 4 BBY, Commandant Brendol Hux, a captivating Imperial officer with a vision of cultivating devoted soldiers who saw the Empire as their family, took charge of the Arkanis Academy. After the Imperial military establishment rejected his concepts, Hux secretly formed the Commandant's Cadets, a society of cadets. To gain membership, prospective recruits had to murder a fellow cadet and disguise it as an accident. Eventually, word of Hux's actions reached Major Siward Cass, an aide to Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, leading him to dispatch Lieutenant Chiron to investigate the Arkanis Academy.

In that same year, Zare Leonis, a cadet from the Academy for Young Imperials, was transferred to Arkanis, ostensibly as a reward for his exceptional performance. However, Zare was secretly a rebel sympathizer determined to rescue his sister Dhara Leonis, who was being held at the nearby Area Null. The Grand Inquisitor expedited Leonis' transfer, suspecting a connection between Leonis and the Spectres. While the Inquisitor aimed to expose Leonis, he met his end during a skirmish above Mustafar.

After developing a friendship with cadet Penn Zarang, Leonis discovered the Commandant's Cadets and offered his assistance to Chiron's investigation. Leonis successfully passed the initiation test for the Commandant's Cadets by staging Zarang's death. However, before his official induction, his former friend Beck Ollet, who had been recruited into Project Unity, exposed him as a traitor. Colonel Julyan sentenced Leonis to death, but he managed to escape with his sister thanks to a rescue mission launched by Merei Spanjaf and the Spectres. Chiron perished during the rescue, allowing Hux to proceed with his project.

Following the Battle of Endor, the New Republic, the successor government established by the Rebel Alliance, besieged Arkanis and its Academy. By that time, Commandant Hux had fathered a son named Armitage Hux. With the aid of Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, Brendol and his son fled offworld and joined Gallius Rax's Shadow Council. In the years following the Battle of Jakku and the Galactic Concordance, Brendol Hux's concepts influenced the First Order's stormtrooper training methods; a legacy that his son Armitage, who rose to the rank of General in the First Order, continued.

During the Age of the Empire, the Arkanis Academy functioned as a senior academy responsible for training officers for the Imperial Military. Imperial cadets at the Academy wore gray field uniforms paired with polished boots and white stripes. Additionally, cadets wore a black dress uniform that included a shoulder braid and ceremonial scabbard. Most recruits, aged between sixteen and eighteen, were graduates of junior academies, such as the Academy for Young Imperials on Lothal and the Jelucan preparatory academy. While the majority of cadets were senior students, the Arkanis Academy occasionally admitted junior cadets like Zare Leonis and Anya Razar mid-year; the latter intended to continue as a junior cadet at the Raithal Academy. In the fourth year before the Battle of Yavin, the Academy housed at least seventy cadets. Given the frequent rainfall on Arkanis, cadets were also provided with foul-weather gear, including hoods and faceplates.

The Arkanis Academy's curriculum encompassed a blend of theoretical coursework and practical field exercises, including Colonel Julyan's Strategy and Tactics class and live-fire drills in both Arkanis' wilderness and the nearby high-gravity planet of Sirpar. Due to the use of classified Imperial military data, such as fleet movements, informant reports, and arrest records, in Julyan's Strategy and Tactics class, all Arkanis cadets were required to possess a class-three clearance. The Arkanis wilderness live-fire exercise involved cadets riding diplopod mounts under simulated enemy fire. The Sirpar exercise, on the other hand, required cadets to command stormtroopers in demanding combat scenarios. Cadets also regularly attended assemblies and communal dinners in the Academy's banquet hall.

Commandant Hux and Colonel Julyan aimed to instill values of leadership, loyalty, and discipline in the Imperial cadets at the Arkanis Academy. In one instance, Hux gathered the cadets at the Academy's cliffside to witness a juvenile nerf being consumed by a sea monster, using it as a lesson to emphasize the importance of natural selection and obedience. Cadets received demerits for minor offenses, such as being out of their dormitories at night or attempting to access the secluded Area Null, which housed secret Imperial operations. Disciplinary actions at the Academy included assigning cadets to clean the diplopod stables. Believing that regular contact with outsiders hindered proper military education, Hux restricted cadets to a single fifteen-minute Hologram session with their families each month. Hux's personal droid assistant DeeDee monitored the Academy's offworld communications. Some cadets circumvented this rule by visiting Jasko's shop in nearby Scaparus Port.

The Arkanis Academy also maintained a secret society of cadets known as the Commandant's Cadets. Commandant Hux founded this society to cultivate a group of Imperial officers who shared his belief in a breeding program that trained children to become stormtroopers. Hux admired the combat skills and dedication of the Old Republic's Clone troopers and was disappointed by the inferior quality of the Empire's stormtroopers, who were recruited from ordinary human Imperial Academy cadets. Aware that the genetic homogeneity of the Old Republic Clone troopers made them susceptible to Separatist biological weapons and pathogens, Hux believed that training normal human recruits from a young age would enable the Empire to produce devoted soldiers who possessed the fighting abilities of the Clone troopers but lacked their genetic vulnerabilities. Hux's Commandant's Cadets operated outside the official Imperial chain of command, and prospective recruits were required to murder a fellow cadet to gain membership.

The Arkanis Academy was constructed around an ancient fortress built by an extinct alien civilization before the Republic made contact. The Academy consisted of three buildings encircling a rectangular open space. The Academy grounds overlooked a cliff edge facing a sea with a gunmetal hue. A series of zig-zag stone steps descended to the shore, which cadets were forbidden from visiting due to the dangerous marine predators inhabiting the Arkanis coast. The Arkanis Academy also housed a herd of nerfs, used for lawn maintenance. An ancient stone tower called Area Null stood approximately thirty meters offshore from the Academy, accessible via a narrow causeway. Area Null accommodated several secret Imperial projects, including Project Unity, which aimed to rehabilitate dissident youths, and Project Harvester, which identified Force-sensitive cadets.

The Arkanis Academy featured a stable housing diplopods, insectoid creatures used as mounts during training exercises. The Academy included various facilities, such as a mess hall, barracks, lecture rooms, and a dedicated banquet hall. The Commandant also had private quarters with a balcony overlooking the Academy grounds. The nearest settlement was Scaparus Port, located two klicks up the coast. The Academy had two landing pads, one on a hill overlooking the Academy and another at Area Null, which was technically separate from the Academy. Arkanis was a wet planet with frequent rainfall and drizzle, experiencing heavy downpours at least two or three times a week and drizzle for the remainder of the time.

• Lieutenant Chiron [2]
• DeeDee [2]
• Commandant Brendol Hux [2]
• Colonel Julyan [2]
• Sergeant Pocarto [2]

• Bedal Cerroux [2]
• Chan Harra [2]
• Jasko [2]
• Xan Lanier [2]
• Zare Leonis [2]
• Tigard Manes [2]
• Anya Razar [2]
• Willard Waylin [9]
• Penn Zarang [2]

The Arkanis Academy received its initial mention in the Star Wars Rebels episode titled "Vision of Hope," which originally aired on January 26, 2015. The Academy made its debut as a setting within Jason Fry's junior novel, Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy, published on October 25, 2015.