Fulcrum

Within the rebel network, the title of Fulcrum was assigned to spies. Their role encompassed the collection and sharing of intelligence, along with the recruitment of new members for the rebel movement. Fulcrums were expected to maintain utmost secrecy regarding their identities. To achieve this, they typically modulated their voices during transmissions and employed avatars when communicating via hologram. The most prevalent avatar featured the Fulcrum symbol, a white design inspired by Ahsoka Tano's facial markings. As the originator of the title, she would sometimes appear as a cloaked figure.

Fulcrums functioned as both agents and commanders, investigating Imperial activities, assigning missions to subordinates, directing forces, and supervising associated cells. The use of Fulcrum as a single codename was a strategy to create confusion for Imperial intelligence should an individual agent be exposed.

Initially, "Fulcrum" denoted a subspace communications frequency employed by Jedi General Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. Among those familiar with this frequency were Skywalker's former Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Admiral Wullf Yularen, Onderonian freedom fighter Saw Gerrera, and Skywalker's former Padawan Ahsoka Tano. During the Battle of Yerbana, when Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze utilized the frequency to contact Skywalker and Kenobi, Skywalker initially believed that Gerrera was attempting to make contact, given the ongoing siege at Onderon.

Following the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Tano, having survived Order 66, assumed control of Senator Bail Organa's intelligence network, a component of the nascent rebel movement. She adopted the codename Fulcrum, which subsequently became the standard alias for other rebel operatives within the network. By 9 BBY, Tano and the other Fulcrums were using a symbol inspired by her forehead markings. While most were unaware of the symbol's significance, Miara Larte, a rebel pilot who had once been rescued by Tano, recognized it. She kept this knowledge secret, even from her sister Kaeden, who had also known Tano.

By 5 BBY, Hera Syndulla, leader of the Spectres rebel cell, maintained contact with Fulcrum, who provided her cell with information regarding Imperial targets. Although Syndulla possessed some knowledge of Fulcrum's true identity, though not her actual name, she concealed this information from her team members, including Sabine Wren, the Mandalorian weapons expert. Following an attack on an Imperial convoy, Wren demanded to know Fulcrum's identity and insisted on accompanying Syndulla on a supply mission to Fort Anaxes on the asteroid PM-1203.

After the Spectres rescued Tseebo, an Imperial defector, from Lothal in 4 BBY, Syndulla arranged for him to be secretly transported aboard one of Fulcrum's CR90 corvettes. Following the capture of Kanan Jarrus, the Spectres rebel and Jedi Padawan, Fulcrum contacted Syndulla via hologram. She advised against rescuing Jarrus to avoid revealing the rebellion's existence to the Empire, cautioning that further attention from the Empire could endanger the Spectres, including the Jedi apprentice Ezra Bridger. Despite these warnings, the Spectres proceeded with their rescue mission, ultimately destroying Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's Star Destroyer, the Sovereign. After Chopper, the Spectres' astromech droid, contacted her, Fulcrum dispatched members of Phoenix Cell to rescue the rebels. It was at this juncture that she finally revealed her true identity to the rest of Syndulla's team, including her real name.

Although Tano was presumed dead following her duel with Darth Vader on Malachor, her codename persisted and was utilized by several other rebel spies and operatives, including Alexsandr Kallus, the disillusioned Imperial Security Bureau Agent, and Cassian Andor, the Rebel Alliance recruiting agent. Xosad Hozem, another rebel recruiting agent and former Partisan, was aware of the Fulcrum agents. Upon encountering Jyn Erso, a fellow ex-Partisan, he attempted to ascertain whether she knew about them. As Erso had never heard of the Fulcrums, she was unaware of his meaning.

Between 2 BBY and 0 BBY, Cassian Andor utilized the Fulcrum symbol when transmitting information to and receiving information from agents dispatched on the Mission to Mustafar.

In 2 BBY, Kallus, using his Fulcrum pseudonym, informed Phoenix Squadron about the presence of Imperial cadets seeking to defect to the rebellion at Skystrike Academy. Consequently, Wren launched a rescue mission and successfully recruited Wedge Antilles and Derek Klivian, both starfighter pilots. During the mission, Kallus actively assisted the trio in escaping from the academy by providing information on which levels to avoid and which hangar bay they could acquire a ship from. When Wren, unaware that he was their new Fulcrum, questioned why they should trust him, he simply stated, "Tell Garazeb Orrelios, we're even." Orrelios, a member of the Spectres, had inadvertently prompted Kallus to reconsider his loyalty to the Empire after saving his life during an incident involving an escape pod on Bahryn, the Geonosian moon.

Kallus later alerted Phoenix Squadron to the Empire's plan to place the planet Mykapo under martial law, prompting the rebels, including the Spectres, to evacuate all rebels and rebel sympathizers. Some time later, when Bridger, Jarrus, and Chopper embarked on an undercover mission to infiltrate and steal plans for Grand Admiral Thrawn's TIE Defender initiative, they received assistance from Kallus. Identifying himself as a Fulcrum operative using the code phrase "by the light of Lothal's moons," he aided the rebels in escaping with the plans. After analyzing the rebel infiltration, Thrawn realized that a spy within the Empire was leaking information to the rebels. Due to their numerous past encounters with Kallus, most of the Spectres doubted the sincerity of his change in allegiance.

Kallus subsequently utilized his Fulcrum pseudonym to assist the Phoenix rebels by leaking intelligence concerning Thrawn's E-XD-series infiltrator droids. Utilizing this information, the rebels Orrelios, Chopper, and AP-5 subdued EXD-9 before it could disclose Chopper Base's location to the Empire. They then reprogrammed the droid into an improvised warhead and used it to destroy a Star Destroyer. Fulcrum later contacted the Spectres to express gratitude for their ingenuity in addressing the infiltrator droids. However, Thrawn was able to use this incident to narrow down his search for Phoenix Squadron's base to 94 systems.

Subsequently, Thrawn and Governor Arihnda Pryce intercepted one of Kallus' Fulcrum transmissions and deduced that Fulcrum was the code name of the mole within the Lothal sector command staff. They monitored his subsequent transmission to ascertain his identity. Given that only a high-ranking Imperial could access the classified information Kallus transmitted, they concluded that the Fulcrum in the Lothal sector was not only a spy for the rebel network but also a traitor to the Empire. They enlisted the assistance of Colonel Wullf Yularen, head of the ISB, in identifying Fulcrum by screening staff from Sector Command. Thrawn and Yularen believed that the spy was an Imperial officer with sufficient rank to access classified information but low enough to transmit to the rebel network undetected. After learning that Thrawn was monitoring Fulcrum's transmissions, the Spectres launched a mission to rescue Kallus. During the mission, the rebels also removed Atollon from Thrawn's star chart. Kallus managed to stall the investigation by implicating Lieutenant Yogar Lyste as Fulcrum. However, Thrawn privately deduced that Kallus was the real Fulcrum because he had concealed Bridger's arrest. The Grand Admiral decided to keep this secret, believing that Kallus would be more valuable as a spy than he had been when loyal.

On the eve of Phoenix Cell's planned attack on Lothal's Imperial factories, Thrawn arrived on the planet to warn Pryce of the impending assault. Kallus, who was not invited to the meeting, used a mouse droid to spy on Thrawn from the ventilation system. At the meeting, Thrawn informed Pryce, Admiral Kassius Konstantine, and Tarkin, who attended via hologram, of the impending attack and that Phoenix Squadron was being reinforced by the fleet of General Jan Dodonna. Via the mouse droid, Kallus overheard everything and headed for an old communications tower outside of Lothal City. When he attempted to transmit a message, he discovered that his signal was being blocked and was soon ambushed by Thrawn. Kallus managed to destroy the Grand Admiral's jammer, allowing a partial message to be sent, before Thrawn and his death troopers arrested him. Thrawn explained to Kallus that the rogue agent's message was the final piece of the puzzle he needed to locate the rebel base, as its trajectory intersected with that of Dodonna's fleet. The art of the ancient people of the Lothal sector showed a star system at those coordinates, which was not on Imperial charts.

At Chopper Base on Atollon, the rebel commanders received Fulcrum's warning with enough advance notice to place all personnel on alert before the arrival of the Seventh Fleet. During the ensuing battle, Kallus was held prisoner on the bridge of the Chimaera and forced to observe. After the rebels were forced to retreat back to the planet and the ensuing orbital bombardment, Thrawn left Pryce in command of the fleet while he led a ground assault. One of the rebel ships, Bridger's Gauntlet, had escaped since Jun Sato ram his cruiser-carrier command ship the Phoenix Nest into the first Interdictor where Admiral Konstantine commands, and returned with reinforcements to destroy the Imperial fleet's remaining Interdictor, the other having been destroyed during the first stage of the battle. As the remaining rebel ships raced towards the blockade, Kallus capitalized on Pryce's reaction to the second Interdictor's destruction to taunt her about her mismanagement of Thrawn's fleet, prompting her to order him ejected from the airlock. He subdued his stormtrooper guards in the turbolift and escaped the Chimaera in an escape pod, transmitting his coordinates to the Ghost, which retrieved him before the remaining rebels escaped into hyperspace.

The Fulcrum title was initially introduced in "Out of Darkness," an episode from the first-season of Star Wars Rebels. Ahsoka Tano's identity as the individual behind it was not revealed until the first season finale, "Fire Across the Galaxy." The novel Ahsoka detailed the circumstances surrounding her creation of the title, while the season 7 episode "Old Friends Not Forgotten" of The Clone Wars revealed Tano's inspiration for the title. The third season episode "The Antilles Extraction" later revealed that the title had come to be used by multiple agents.