Praetorian Guard

History

Origins

The Praetorian Guard, initially known as the Imperial Praetorian Guard, was modeled after the Emperor's Royal Guard, who served as personal bodyguards to Darth Sidious during his reign as Emperor of the Galactic Empire. These elite personal security soldiers were responsible for guarding key personnel within the Imperial Remnants following the Empire's downfall. The designation "Praetorian Guard" can be traced back to the Praetorian Guards of the 14th Atrisian Emperor.

Commandant Brendol Hux deployed three Praetorian Guards at the request of Moff Gideon to assist in the battle for Mandalore, as Gideon anticipated that the Mandalorians would attempt to reclaim their homeworld. As Gideon had foreseen, the Mandalorians were ambushed by Imperial armored commandos near the Great Forge, trapping them. As the Heavy Infantry Mandalorian Paz Vizsla engaged the last of the commandos to allow the surviving Mandalorians to escape, the three Praetorian Guards appeared and killed the exhausted warrior.

Soon after, the three Praetorian Guards aided Moff Gideon in his battle against Din Djarin, quickly gaining the upper hand. Before they could deliver the final blow, Grogu, piloting IG-12, intervened. The Praetorian Guards pursued the foundling into Gideon's conference room and swiftly disabled the mech suit. Grogu evaded them by utilizing his Force abilities to jump across the room's light supports. The guards severed the supports, grounding Grogu, but Djarin, freed from the engagement with Gideon by Bo-Katan Kryze, re-engaged the Praetorian Guards. Employing his beskar armor to deflect their weapons, Djarin, with Grogu's Force assistance, eliminated the three guards using his blaster pistols and vibro-knife.

The First Order

Under the First Order, the successor state to the Empire, the Praetorian Guard, then known as the Elite Praetorian Guard, consisted of eight human warriors tasked with protecting the First Order's leader, Supreme Leader Snoke. Mirroring the Atrisian Emperor's original guards, Snoke's guards operated in pairs. The Elite Praetorian Guard stood guard beside the Supreme Leader in his throne room and were housed on Snoke's Mega-class Star Dreadnought, the Supremacy. Among the guards, three were identified as the First, Third, and Seventh Guards. Snoke depended on them to counter physical threats at a distance, as while he retained his powerful Force abilities, his physical prowess was diminished, rendering him vulnerable to direct attacks.

The guards were on duty in Snoke's throne room when the Supreme Leader summoned his apprentice Kylo Ren, whom he rebuked for his failures on Starkiller Base. When Kylo reacted aggressively to the taunts, the guards assumed combat stances but stood down at Snoke's command. As Snoke was explaining to Rey how she and the Resistance were doomed, Rey grabbed Kylo Ren's lightsaber to attack him, the Guards immediately attempted to attack her but Snoke called them down. As she tried to attack Snoke, he used the force to push her away while the Guards returned to neutral stances.

During Snoke's confrontation with Rey, he ordered Kylo Ren to fulfill his destiny and strike her down. However, Snoke was deceived, expecting Ren to use his own lightsaber to kill Rey, when in reality, he was using the Force to manipulate the Skywalker lightsaber lying next to the Supreme Leader. Ren used the Force to activate it, killing Snoke before the Praetorian Guard could react.

Upon Snoke's assassination by Ren, the Praetorian Guards immediately engaged to avenge their leader's death. Ren and Rey, who was present, faced all eight guards in a brief but intense battle. Initially, the guards were evenly matched against the two Force-wielders, their weapons proving resistant to lightsabers and managing to inflict wounds on both. However, they were ultimately outmatched and fell one by one. The final guard was killed when Kylo ignited Rey's lightsaber, which she had thrown to him, through his faceplate, resulting in his immediate death. Ren then claimed the title of Supreme Leader.

Legacy

By 35 ABY, near the end of his reign as Supreme Leader of the First Order, Kylo Ren considered the Knights of Ren, an enclave of masked elite warriors, as his equivalent to the disbanded Elite Praetorian Guard.

Equipment and training

Imperial Praetorian Guards were elite warriors who served the Shadow Council during the New Republic Era. These guards, prepared to respond fiercely to any threat, were highly skilled warriors. They wore red armor, reminiscent of the Emperor's Royal Guard's attire, and helmets with a design similar to Mandalorian armor. Their uniforms featured segmented armor plates and robes. Moreover, their chest plates were identical to those of the First Order's later stormtroopers, albeit colored red. The weapons used by the Imperial Praetorian Guards included a bilari electro-chain whip, an electro-bisento, and a vibro-arbir blade. They served as predecessors to the First Order's Elite Praetorian Guards, who continued the segmented armor and robe design seen on their Imperial counterparts.

The First Order's Elite Praetorian Guards were adorned in elaborate crimson [armor](/article/armor], [robes](/article/robe], and a plastoid helmet. The Praetorian Guard's layered crimson armor was a sophisticated onion-skin laminate interwoven with conductive wirepaths. When powered, these wirepaths generated a localized magnetic field. Once activated, this energy-intensive field enabled the plates to deflect blaster fire. Even a lightsaber would glance off, although a direct thrust could penetrate the shell. The mag-coils were expensive, the plates heavy, and exposure to the mag-field was painful for the wearer. They were merciless, persistent, and specialized in melee combat, as Snoke anticipated they would eventually face lightsaber wielders. The armor underwent numerous revisions over the years, with the original Guard's armor incorporating elements of stormtrooper armor.

The Praetorian Guards wielded an array of melee weapons that were advanced versions of unpowered analogs found in primitive societies throughout the galaxy, such as long vibro-voulges, electro-bisentos featuring an electro-plasma energy filament along the blade's edge, flailing Bilari electro-chain whips, and heavy double-bladed vibro-arbir blades that could be separated into dagger-like single-bladed weapons to adapt to any combat situation. Each Praetorian Guard specialized in a specific weapon configuration. The First Guard both wielded electro-bisentos. The Third Guard utilized Bilari electro-chain whips, and the Seventh Guard wielded dual vibro-arbir blades.

The precise, sweeping movements of their martial arts fighting style struck fear into the hearts of foes. The eight Praetorian Guards consisted of four sets of pairs that wielded the same weapon. The First Guard both wielded electro-bisentos. The Third Guard utilized Bilari electro-chain whips and the Seventh Guard made use of dual vibro-arbir blades.

Although the Praetorians' weapons and plate armor, which could withstand lightsaber attacks, along with their training, allowed them to initially hold their own against Ren and Rey, the Force-sensitive pair ultimately defeated and killed the guards.

Behind the scenes

The Elite Praetorian Guard was conceived and developed for Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, the eighth installment in the Star Wars saga, released on December 15, 2017. The Praetorian Guard was officially unveiled in an article by Entertainment Weekly, published on August 9, 2017. The Guards made their debut in Star Wars: Tales of the Force, a Golden Book released on September 5, 2017, as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi series.

Rian Johnson, writer and director of The Last Jedi, envisioned the Praetorian Guards as agile and dangerous, more akin to samurai, in contrast to the Emperor's Royal Guards, who appeared formal and ceremonial. Michael Kaplan designed the Praetorian Guards' costumes in accordance with Johnson's vision. The guards were named after the historical Praetorian Guard, who served as personal bodyguards to the Roman emperors.

An earlier iteration of the Praetorian Guard was introduced in "Chapter 23: The Spies" of The Mandalorian television series. However, it wasn't until the 2024 reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy that the two groups were confirmed to be one and the same.