The Commandant's Cadets were a clandestine student organization operating within the Galactic Empire's Arkanis Academy, situated on the planet of Arkanis. Established by the academy's head, Commandant Brendol Hux, this group consisted of cadets personally selected by Hux. Potential recruits were identified based on their exceptional performance at the academy, but admission required successful completion of an entry examination.
The Commandant's Cadets were a secretive group located at the Galactic Empire's Arkanis Academy, a prestigious Imperial Academy specializing in the education of future officers. Commandant Brendol Hux of the Arkanis Academy, a Clone Wars veteran, held a deep admiration for the combat skills displayed by the Galactic Republic's clone troopers. He believed their superior fighting abilities stemmed from their lifelong training as soldiers. However, the genetic uniformity of the clone troopers made them susceptible to Separatist biological weapons and diseases, in addition to the high cost of their reproduction. Consequently, the Emperor opened the Imperial Military to non-clone recruits through the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill.
Given that non-clone recruits couldn't match the combat effectiveness of their clone trooper predecessors, Hux developed the concept of training non-clone recruits as stormtroopers from their earliest years. Hux envisioned cultivating an Imperial Military over generations that possessed the same combat qualities as clone troopers but without their genetic vulnerabilities. In Hux's perspective, these stormtroopers would be raised to consider the Empire as their family. Unable to find support for his ideas among Imperial Military officers, Commandant Hux resolved to "create" these officers by enlisting talented young cadets from the Arkanis Academy. A requirement of the initiation test for prospective cadets was the killing of a fellow cadet, disguised as an accident. Initiations would occur at Area Null, a remote tower within the Academy grounds that housed various clandestine Imperial operations.
By the time Zare Leonis arrived at the Arkanis Academy, the Commandant's Cadets consisted of ten members, including Orman le Hivre and Rav Horan. Unbeknownst to all, Leonis was a rebel sympathizer who had infiltrated the Imperial Academy to locate his missing sister, Dhara Leonis. When he attempted to sit at a specific table during lunch, he was informed that only members of the Commandant's Cadets were permitted to sit there and that membership required an invitation. Shortly after, he spoke with a girl named Anya Razar, who implied that she had been chosen for membership and would soon become a member after passing a test. Leonis soon discovered the "test" to be deadly when a "under-performing" cadet named Xan Lanier was killed during a live-fire exercise at the Academy. Razar had been the commander of Leonis and Lanier's squad during that particular exercise. Lanier's death was covered up, and Razar was subsequently inducted into the Commandant's Cadets, becoming its eleventh member.
Later, Lieutenant Chiron, Leonis's mentor at Lothal's Academy for Young Imperials, arrived at the Arkanis Academy to investigate reports that Commandant Hux was forming a group independent of the official Imperial chain of command. Leonis agreed to infiltrate the Commandant's Cadets. Shortly after, Leonis received an invitation to join the secret society but was shocked to learn that his task was to kill fellow cadet Penn Zarang during a field exercise, which would be reported as a weapons malfunction. He relayed this information to Chiron, who arranged to fake Zarang's death so that Leonis could join the Commandant's Cadets. With Zarang's assistance, Leonis and Chiron buried a side of nerf in Zarang's "grave." Chiron also assured him that he would arrange for Zarang to be transferred to another Academy.
The next day, Leonis successfully convinced the other Commandant's Cadets that he had killed Zarang during the night and buried his body. Later that night, Leonis was invited to a formal dinner with Commandant Hux and the eleven other Cadets. During the dinner, Hux revealed the true purpose of the organization. Hux had served with the clone troopers during the time of the Galactic Republic and admired their combat abilities. Dissatisfied with the quality of non-clone recruits, the Commandant desired to create soldiers who would be loyal to the Galactic Empire from birth. Before Leonis could be formally inducted as the twelfth member of the Commandant's Cadets, he was exposed as a traitor by his former friend Beck Ollet, who had been captured and inducted into Project Unity.
Commandant Hux and the eleven other Commandant's Cadets later attended Leonis' trial. While Colonel Julyan presided over the proceedings, the Cadets were seated on a bench below the Colonel's dais. During the trial, Leonis pleaded guilty to various charges, including fraudulent enlistment, treason, sedition, and conspiring to undermine the Empire. However, he withheld any information about Chiron's investigation into the Commandant's Cadets out of respect for his former mentor. Colonel Julyan formally dismissed Leonis from Imperial service and sentenced him to death. As part of the sentence, the Commandant's Cadets stripped Leonis of his uniform and publicly turned their backs on him. Before Leonis could be executed, he and his sister Dhara were rescued by his girlfriend Merei Spanjaf and several members of the Spectres.
Given that Chiron was killed during Leonis's escape, Commandant Hux was presumably able to continue pursuing his ideals. Following the Galactic Concordance between the Empire and the New Republic, which brought an end to the Galactic Civil War, Brendol Hux departed from the Arkanis Academy and escaped to the Unknown Regions. There, he and other like-minded officers established a military junta known as the First Order. Hux's concepts influenced the First Order military and were carried on by his son, Armitage Hux, who rose to the rank of general in the First Order. Under General Hux's leadership, the First Order's stormtroopers underwent training from infancy, including intense simulations and rigorous political indoctrination designed to create formidable and deeply devoted soldiers.