Imperial Civil War

Grand Vizier Sate Pestage assumed command of the Empire immediately after the Imperial forces were defeated at Endor. However, he lacked the personal magnetism, political acumen, and connection to the Force that the deceased Palpatine and Darth Vader had employed to maintain the cohesion of the New Order. Admiral Blitzer Harrsk was the first Imperial leader to declare independence and establish his own private domain, a trend that would continue. Subsequent warlords included figures such as Admiral Treuten Teradoc, Admiral Zsinj, and General Sander Delvardus.

Pestage's reign lasted only six brief months before the Imperial Ruling Council ousted him from power. The three Tribunes comprising this council were, in reality, manipulated by Ysanne Isard, who soon replaced their rule with her own.

Ysanne Isard successfully governed the Empire and defended against aggressive warlords for almost two years. In 5 ABY, the Central Committee of Grand Moffs formed in an attempt to undermine Ysanne's authority. Realizing that she was losing control, Ysanne tasked her scientists with developing a biological virus specifically targeting non-humans. In 7 ABY, Isard unleashed this virus during the New Republic's liberation of Coruscant. Recognizing her untenable position on Coruscant, she fled to Thyferra, pursued by members of the resigned Rogue Squadron, initiating the Bacta War. At the conclusion of this conflict, Isard was presumed dead.

The Empire's remaining forces found themselves sharing a common adversary with the New Republic for the first time, as both governments considered the renegade warlord Zsinj to be their most significant threat. Zsinj faced pressure from both sides, but it was only when Admiral Rogriss allied with New Republic General Han Solo that they were able to contain him and ultimately eliminate him at the Battle of Dathomir.

The Empire continued to suffer setbacks until the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. As the last legitimate Grand Admiral, he managed to rally Imperial forces and launch a campaign that reclaimed nearly half of the galaxy for the New Order, despite the fact that he was not human. This unexpected resurgence was cut short, however, by Thrawn's assassination at the hands of his own Noghri bodyguard, Rukh, who had defected to the New Republic. Captain Gilad Pellaeon, Thrawn's second-in-command, recognized his own limitations, as well as the limitations of his forces, and ordered a withdrawal.

The New Republic promptly exploited the Imperial power vacuum, moving to neutralize future threats by targeting the remaining warlords. Under the guise of pursuing Imperial war criminals and other offenders, the New Republic initiated their offensive against Prince-Admiral Delak Krennel. Despite Krennel's alliance with a cloned Ysanne Isard, and Isard's schemes to reclaim her Super Star Destroyer, the Lusankya, the New Republic emerged victorious and intensified their advance. This left the Core Worlds with only minimal defenses.

In 10 ABY, the surviving Imperial warlords, encouraged by Grand Admiral Thrawn's recent accomplishments with limited resources in a short timeframe, agreed to unite under the Imperial Ruling Council (secretly with the involvement of the resurrected Emperor Palpatine) for an offensive into the Galactic Core. The New Republic was unable to match the military strength of the reunified Empire, and after a brief, decisive campaign, the Empire recaptured the former Imperial Center in the Second Battle of Coruscant.

Having seized Coruscant, the Ruling Council determined that the time had come to establish a new Imperial Senate to serve the Galactic Emperor. The governors, Moffs, and Grand Moffs concurred, but stipulated that they too would be granted seats in the Senate and that their votes would be weighted based on the number of worlds they controlled. The Councilors, however, refused, as this would effectively decentralize power and distribute it among local rulers.

The situation rapidly deteriorated. The Imperial military sought to seize power, but a division arose between the Army and the Navy, with the latter insisting that it alone could appoint a new Supreme Commander. Subsequently, the bureaucrats and COMPNOR attempted a coup, arguing that any alteration to the New Order would invalidate the Empire's existence. The ISB and Imperial Intelligence, in turn, initiated a campaign of assassinations against each other. Only the Dark Side Adepts remained aloof from this internal power struggle.

An armed conflict soon erupted among the various Imperial factions on Coruscant, with nearly three Sector Groups destroying each other in orbit, and the divided Imperial Army devastating much of the planet. The chaos then spread across much of the recently recaptured galaxy, with notable incidents including the Star Dreadnoughts Whelm and Panthac annihilating each other over Alsakan, the Captain of the Vengeance-class dreadnought Javelin ramming his ship into a Torpedo Sphere defending Chasin, and squadrons of droid TIEs destroying the Mandator III-class dreadnought Aculeus at Drearia.

The hostilities ceased only when the resurrected Emperor Palpatine announced his return several months later. However, Palpatine deliberately delayed quelling the mutiny out of vengeance, personally referring to the carnage as "culling the weak," and may have even encouraged this internecine conflict through his use of the dark side of the Force. While most of the rank-and-file returned to loyal service, along with some of the warlords, many of the warlords instead chose to flee for their lives as the Emperor was not expected to take kindly to their usurping of his throne. The Imperial Mutiny played into Palpatine's plans to establish a "Dark Empire," a galaxy-spanning government ruled directly by the dark side of the Force rather than military might.

Palpatine was resurrected by transferring his spirit into a newly cloned body, allowing him to regain power and rebuild the Empire. It took him only 6 years to recover enough strength to challenge the New Republic. After regrouping the fragmented Empire's many warlords and loyalists into a single unified force, Palpatine launched a series of devastating attacks on the New Republic from his new capital at Byss in the Deep Core. With his superior numbers and newly constructed superweapons, he nearly brought the New Republic to its knees.

The Imperial Ruling Council, however, was hesitant to relinquish the authority it had gained since Endor. At Sarcev Quest's urging, the Council had already extended its patronage to Carnor Jax, a Royal Guard officer and aspiring Sith Lord who was intended to serve as a new figurehead for the Empire. Quest and Jax began collaborating within the Imperial court to overthrow the Emperor.

To prepare for a coup, Quest appointed Carnor Jax as one of the Imperial Sovereign Protectors who served as the resurrected Palpatine's personal guard. Together, they then sought support, eliminating rivals such as Sa-Di and Nefta, the only other Force-users on the Council. With funding provided by other Council members, such as Xandel Carivus, Quest bribed the Emperor's physician to sabotage the genetic material for the clone bodies that were essential to Palpatine's rebirth.

The motives of the conspirators are relatively straightforward: they were confronted with the perceived madness of the Emperor, the transfer of much of their power to a Dark Jedi elite, and the deliberate, wanton destruction caused by Operation Shadow Hand. Some may have believed they were taking necessary actions for the good of the Empire, while others were driven by ambition or concern for their own survival. Regardless, the Council now contained a dedicated group of conspirators. Jax and Quest led this cabal, but the former's key role possibly indicates the support of his mistress, the Dark Side Adept Lumiya. The subsequent appearance of Blackhole Stormtroopers as Jax's personal guard also suggests a connection with Lord Cronal.

Palpatine seemed unaware of the Council's machinations, and while there is no evidence that they anticipated the events on Onderon and the destruction of Byss, they were nevertheless prepared to act when the opportunity arose and eliminate those who might oppose them. Following the Battle of Onderon (Galactic Civil War), they orchestrated a coup, led by those who had considered themselves rulers of the Empire and guardians of the principles of the New Order since Endor.

Following the collapse of the reborn Palpatine's regime, the Empire once again descended into chaos and disarray. High-ranking officials and military commanders gathered their own forces and retreated to the Deep Core, establishing their own domains and engaging in feuds for control of what remained. These warlords were exceptionally self-absorbed, wasting valuable resources to advance their individual positions. Hoping to reunite the squabbling remnants of the once-mighty Galactic Empire, Admiral Daala took it upon herself to act as an intermediary between the factions, with limited success. When Daala was forced into the service of the self-proclaimed "Supreme Warlord" Blitzer Harrsk in his conflict against High Admiral Treuten Teradoc, she reached her breaking point. Aligning herself with Teradoc's top fleet officer, then-Vice Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, she convened a meeting at Tsoss Beacon of the thirteen most powerful warlords, intending to negotiate a reunification and the appointment of a Supreme Commander.

Hours into the negotiations, it became clear to Daala that the warlords refused to cooperate. Frustrated and enraged, she killed them all by sealing the conference room and poisoning the air. Although it was not her original intention, Daala effectively made herself both Supreme Commander and Imperial Head of State. The Empire was once again poised to wage war against the New Republic. The stable government associated with the Imperial Remnant had not yet been established, but this event initiated the process by which that government was formed.

Still embittered by the losses she had suffered a year prior, Daala reorganized the Imperial Navy under the flag of the Star Dreadnought Knight Hammer. She then placed Pellaeon in command of a fleet of seventeen amassed Imperial-class Star Destroyers. She also entrusted control of Crimson Command (a fleet of one hundred twelve Victory-class Star Destroyers) to Colonel Ivan Cronus, her loyal third-in-command, before implementing her plan. Daala believed that the greatest obstacle to Imperial victory was the Jedi and their academy on Yavin 4. Focusing on this objective, she ordered Pellaeon's fleet to lead the attack as a vanguard for her flagship. The battle was a disaster for the Empire, costing Daala the lives of many loyal soldiers, including Cronus, as well as the Knight Hammer. Pellaeon managed to rescue Daala from an escape pod, though his Star Destroyers had been damaged by the Jedi. Humiliated and ashamed, Daala resigned her command and commission; her final act was to promote Pellaeon to full admiral and bestow upon him the powers of Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet, thus bringing the Imperial Civil War to a close.

Although not inclined to seize power, Pellaeon proved to be an extremely capable leader. He strengthened relationships with the Moffs of surviving Imperial factions in the Outer and Mid Rims—who had previously supported Daala's United Warlord Fleets with credits and war matériel—and decided to withdraw all of his fleets and war arsenals from the Deep Core, believing that it would confine his new Empire. Before departing, he discovered squadrons of robotic TIEs, caches of arms, mines, and the Star Dreadnoughts Megador and Dominion within abandoned Deep Core armories. As the Outer and Mid Rims offered more resources, better-traveled hyperlanes, and favorable opportunities to harass New Republic shipping, Pellaeon pledged his fleets to protect the Imperial Rim factions on the condition that they joined his Empire. The Moffs of the Rim factions, including the Pentastar Alignment, agreed that the Megador, Dominion, and the Reaper—a dreadnaught belonging to the Pentastar Alignment—were sufficient to defend against the New Republic, and named Pellaeon the Supreme Commander of the new Imperial Remnant. Their carefully hoarded stores of munitions and war matériel were donated to the new Empire. While Pellaeon was not a strategist of Thrawn's caliber, he was an intelligent officer with decades of Navy experience, and the remaining Imperial forces were unified under his command. For the next seven years, Pellaeon effectively and efficiently commanded the Imperial Remnant's ongoing war against the New Republic, which was proportionally much more costly than it had been when incompetent rival Imperial warlords were fighting each other more often than the rebels. The problem was that the Imperial Civil War had simply inflicted too much damage, with countless ships lost in internal conflicts and the majority of the galaxy lost. Even the reunification of the few remaining Imperial ships and systems under a capable commander like Pellaeon was too little, too late.

Recognizing that defeat was inevitable, Pellaeon finally acknowledged the need to sue for peace. After a peace accord was signed with the New Republic, the Remnant entered a period of stability that was not challenged until the Yuuzhan Vong War, when the Imperial Remnant allied with the New Republic and its successor state, the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, in the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong.

• Battle of Moorja – 4.5 ABY (Six months after the Battle of Endor ) [17]
• Battle of Tralus – 5 ABY [12]
• Battle of Kaal – 6 ABY [18]
• Battle of Vahaba – 7.5 ABY
• Second Battle of Coruscant – 10 ABY [2]
• Battle of Drearia (Imperial Mutiny) - 10 ABY [15]
• Battle of Chasin - 10 ABY [15]
• Battle above Alsakan - 10 ABY [15]
• Battle of Balmorra – 10 ABY [19]
• Attack on the Imperial Royal Guard Academy – 11 ABY [20]
• Battle of Ord Cantrell – 11 ABY [21]
• Battle of Harrsk's fortress – 12 ABY [5]