First Order Supreme Council

The Supreme Council of the First Order, also known as the High Council, was a group of top military commanders chosen from the First Order High Command. It was established by Supreme Leader Kylo Ren to carry out his directives and create a strategy for the future of the galaxy under the absolute control of the First Order. It was also intended to foster teamwork and better coordination within a system where the majority of high-ranking officers had restricted knowledge of the First Order's capabilities and goals. However, cooperation was a novel concept for the proud men and women leading the First Order. Consequently, their meetings were frequently marred by infighting and territorial disputes.

The Council's headquarters were located aboard the Steadfast, a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer within the First Order Navy and the command vessel of Allegiant General Enric Pryde, the highest-ranking member of the Council, second only to the Supreme Leader. This Star Destroyer also served as Ren's flagship after its predecessor, the Finalizer, sustained substantial damage.

The Council, which included both the highest-ranking military officers and their closest assistants, had responsibilities as diverse as its members. These ranged from maintaining strict security on the Steadfast to overseeing the First Order's war efforts on a galactic scale. In the latter case, it was the Council's responsibility, specifically General Bellava Parnadee, to supervise the occupation of contested worlds, directing the First Order Army on occupied Kijimi, Torost, and Odynnia Gavo.

Some Council members supported and admired Ren, while others secretly opposed his rule or were concerned about his direction of the First Order-Resistance War. Despite his growing responsibility and maturity, the young Supreme Leader's command style remained reactive, which the Council found unsettling. Nevertheless, General Amret Engell admired Ren for his initiative and unquestioned authority, and strove to create an army worthy of her Supreme Leader's approval, having succeeded the late Captain Phasma as the head of the First Order stormtrooper training program. General Domaric Quinn had been a junior officer in the Galactic Empire before rising to a key command position in the First Order's ground forces. Unlike Engell, Quinn was frustrated by having to serve under Ren, as he was more than a decade older than the new Supreme Leader. As a technologist, Quinn disapproved of the mysticism of Ren and his predecessor, Supreme Leader Snoke, although he attempted to avoid questioning their methods.

The Council as a whole reflected the First Order's highly structured military and, as such, had limited understanding of the ways of the Force as embodied by Snoke, Kylo Ren, and the Knights of Ren. They were particularly concerned about Ren's total submission to the dark side of the Force and how it fueled his drive for power, preferring more conventional tactics and strategies for conquering the galaxy. General Armitage Hux, a rival of Ren's prior to Snoke's assassination, was convinced that Ren had lost his sanity, diverting the First Order's resources away from the war to investigate the return of the Sith Lord and fallen Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious. Although Pryde also found the concept of the Force foreign, he was prudent enough not to disrespect Ren's beliefs, focusing instead on the material advantages they offered to the military. Moreover, Pryde was secretly an agent of the resurrected Sidious.

Within the Council's ranks, relationships were more contentious than cooperative. While Hux and Pryde served together on the Council, the latter held his younger colleague responsible for the destruction of Starkiller Base. Unlike Hux, Admiral Frantis Griss had Pryde's complete trust and reported directly to the Allegiant General. Ultimately, the high-ranking officers of the Council were driven by their pride and personal agendas, as was often the case with ranking officers in the First Order and the Empire before it. In comparison, the aides who served them focused on carrying out their duties with maximum efficiency, although some were eventually drawn into the Council's politics. Commander Masir Trach transferred from the Finalizer to the Steadfast, where he became entangled in a silent struggle of loyalties between Hux and Pryde. His association with both senior officers allowed him to sense the turbulence between them, but he attempted to avoid any dispute by focusing on his orders.

Before the Supreme Council was formed, the First Order was under the command of Supreme Leader Snoke, a humanoid alien powerful in the Force, whose origins were unknown even to his closest subordinates. Despite ruling the First Order with absolute authority, Snoke was content to focus on spiritual matters, delegating control of the military to his generals and allowing propaganda masterminds to shape the public image of his regime. Following the destruction of the New Republic, which, in turn, triggered open conflict between the First Order and the Resistance, Snoke was assassinated by his apprentice, Kylo Ren, the heir to the Skywalker bloodline. After killing his master, Ren secured his place in the succession by keeping his involvement in Snoke's death a secret, lest his subordinates question his claim to the title of Supreme Leader.

Ren's leadership style was different from his predecessor's. He adopted a more hands-on approach to the military, while still relying on mysticism and the dark side for power. Furthermore, his reign introduced greater transparency to a regime that had been accustomed to secrecy. In the past, information within the First Order was highly compartmentalized, especially as the regime rose to power and its operations needed to remain secret from the wider galaxy. As a result, even the members of the First Order's top echelon were unaware of the true scale of its forces. With Ren seizing command, the secrecy surrounding Snoke's plan gradually dissipated, and he created the Supreme Council to plan for the future.

Ren anticipated that the Council, drawn from the ranks of High Command, would be rife with infighting. He considered this beneficial to his reign, as he preferred that they direct their energies against each other, reducing the likelihood of them uniting against him. Following Phasma's death, General Engell would enthusiastically double recruitment, much to the Supreme Leader's approval.

As the war with the Resistance continued, a mysterious message broadcasting the voice of Darth Sidious—the long-deceased Dark Lord of the Sith who had once ruled the galaxy as Emperor of the Galactic Empire—was heard in 35 ABY. Ren immediately set out to investigate the Sith Lord's return, unwilling to tolerate any threat to his rule or a return to servitude after gaining unprecedented freedom and power. His search for answers led to Mustafar, the volcanic world that was once ruled by Ren's grandfather, Darth Vader. Leaving the Steadfast in orbit of Mustafar's stratosphere, the Supreme Leader personally led a squad of stormtroopers to the Corvax Fen region, where they encountered a colony of Sith cultists, the Alazmec of Winsit.

Allegiant General Enric Pryde and General Armitage Hux watched as Ren and his soldiers slaughtered the cultists. Pryde watched with admiration as one Alazmec after another was cut down by his lightsaber, and even Hux found himself mesmerized by the carnage unleashed by his former rival. Even so, he regarded the mission as a pointless endeavor, believing Ren had gone mad searching for a dead Emperor while the First Order's enemies grew stronger. Pryde chided his younger colleague, agreeing with Ren's decision to find the message's source.

Using his grandfather's Sith wayfinder that he had obtained on the castle grounds of Fortress Vader, Ren embarked on a solitary mission to the Unknown Regions, determined to find the legendary Sith world of Exegol. None of his subordinates objected to their Supreme Leader traveling alone in a dangerous region of the galaxy. Upon his return from his journey, the Supreme Council convened in the High Command conference room located in the Steadfast. Before Ren's arrival, Pryde briefed his colleagues on the outcome of Ren's mission, including the discovery of the Sith Eternal cult and their military resources.

The Supreme Leader arrived on the Steadfast accompanied by his personal bodyguards, the Knights of Ren. They were greeted by Admiral Griss, who remained silent after noticing the mud that Ren's Knights were tracking through the polished corridors of the command ship. By this point, Ren had learned that the First Order had captured a sympathizer of the Resistance. Boolio, an Ovissian miner at the Sinta Glacier Colony, was brought before the Supreme Leader and executed for providing secret information.

After decapitating the Ovissian with his lightsaber, Ren carried the sympathizer's severed head to the High Command conference room, slamming it on the table, causing his seated officers to flinch, which Ren noted with satisfaction. There, Supreme Leader Ren warned his minions that there was a spy in their ranks who sent a message to the Resistance, but felt this agent wouldn't stop them because of what he saw on Exegol. Ren's report confirmed not only the Emperor's return through cloning, but also the existence of a vast fleet—the Final Order—comprising thousands of Xyston-class Star Destroyers armed with axial superlaser cannons. The promise of augmenting the First Order's existing forces with those of the Sith Eternal made Ren confident that his regime would evolve into a true Empire in its own right. It even bolstered the Council's confidence in Ren, as they had been skeptical of his leadership until now.

As Ren waited for the Council to take a long look at the severed, bleeding head on their table, he sensed Hux's unease in the Force and deduced that his appearance was the cause, having taken to wearing his mask once more. However, Hux complimented it, as did General Parnadee. General Quinn interjected with his assessment of their alliance with the Sith Eternal, his voice dripping with contempt at the idea of associating the First Order with a cult. Ren knew that the former junior officer of the Imperial Military disdained anything relating to religion and mysticism, and as such, he decided that Quinn would have to learn to respect such beliefs if he wanted to keep his life.

While the rest of the Council sat in uncomfortable silence, Pryde spoke in support of the alliance and scolded the young general, noting that the people Quinn dismissed as "conjurers" had "conjured" legions of Star Destroyers. The Sith fleet promised to increase the First Order's resources tenfold, giving them a range of power that would compensate them for the loss of their superweapon, Starkiller Base, a debacle that Pryde blamed Hux for. Ren, however, was unsettled by the Allegiant General's lack of fear toward him. He had contemplated liquidating Pryde as a potential threat to his power, but ultimately he found the veteran officer of the Empire far too competent to dismiss. In addition, part of Ren enjoyed knowing that Pryde's presence fed Hux's insecurity and frustration at not having as much power as he used to when Supreme Leader Snoke was still in charge of the First Order.

The discussion about increasing their resources gave Parnadee and Engell an opportunity to promote their own interests, as both generals were keen on expanding the army by conscripting more of the galaxy's children. Quinn, however, drew Ren's ire by further attempting to learn more information about the Emperor's conditions. He did not want them to know that Sidious had bidden him to kill the scavenger-turned-Jedi apprentice Rey, for he had his own plans for her and desired to kill him so he can finish what his grandfather started and destroy the Sith once and for all. Regardless of what the Emperor wanted, Ren served his ambitions alone because he felt that he gave too much to obtain his power and what he wanted most of all was to rule the galaxy with Rey at his side.

Surrendering to all of his anger and impatience, Ren reached toward Quinn with the Force, telekinetically slamming the general onto the ceiling. The impact fractured Quinn's body, and the Council could only watch as Ren asphyxiated him by way of the Force, leaving Hux visibly shaken because he feared that would be his fate one day. He ordered the Council to prepare their forces to crush any world that resisted the First Order, while he personally oversaw the hunt for Rey with the help of his Knights of Ren.

Pryde and Hux remained at Ren's side during his hunt for the scavenger. Hux fumed with resentment over his diminished status in the First Order, being made to serve under both Ren and Pryde, all the while feigning loyal subordination to both of them. Determined to see his rivals fall, Ren in particular, Hux secretly fed vital information to their enemies, making him a spy for the Resistance. Though he cared nothing for their cause, more than anything he wanted Ren's reign to end in defeat. Upon encountering Rey's group at Kijimi, Hux saved Commander Poe Dameron, Finn, and Chewbacca from execution, and then employed Finn's aid in injuring himself to avoid suspicion. Pryde was no fool, however. He correctly identified Hux as the spy and personally executed him for attempting to seek revenge on Supreme Leader Ren, putting an end to the young general's career, ambitions, and life, which caused him to meet a similar fate to Quinn's.

Hux's death and Ren's subsequent return to the light side of the Force left Pryde in complete control of the First Order. After making contact with Sidious, the former Imperial officer swore his allegiance to the Sith Lord he had once served in the Galactic Civil War and let him be in charge of the First Order. As a result, the First Order and the Sith Eternal formally joined forces, and Pryde was appointed as the Sith fleet's commanding officer. The Sith Eternal's first order of business was to send a message to the galaxy, demanding the unconditional surrender of all the free worlds or else they would die—to that end, a single Sith Star Destroyer was deployed from Exegol, the Derriphan. Armed with a planet-killing superweapon like all of her sister ships, the Derriphan destroyed Kijimi's core, obliterating the entire planet in a single attack.

The Steadfast made its way to Exegol. It was there that Pryde and Griss supervised the preparations for the Final Order fleet's deployment. When the Resistance navy unexpectedly attacked Exegol, aiming to prevent the Sith fleet from launching, Pryde himself assumed control of the fleet. Despite their success in eliminating some warships, including the Derriphan, Pryde considered them insignificant losses. The Sith Eternal forces initially held the upper hand in the battle, but the arrival of the Citizens' Fleet, a fleet of thousands of civilian ships united against the Sith, changed the course of the battle. Pryde was taken aback by their sudden appearance and sought to understand how the Resistance had amassed so many reinforcements. Griss, however, realized that they were not military ships, but rather common citizens who had decided to fight back.

As the battle shifted in favor of the Resistance, they launched an attack on the Steadfast, which was attempting to guide the surviving Sith Star Destroyers to a secure orbit. The command bridge was destroyed, resulting in the deaths of both Pryde and Griss, and causing the Steadfast to crash onto Exegol. General Amret Engell, who was also on Exegol, met the same end. Lacking Pryde's command ship, the Sith fleet was unable to escape Exegol, leaving the remaining Star Destroyers exposed to attacks from numerous ships. The Battle of Exegol concluded with a victory for the Resistance and their allies, triggering a uprising against the First Order throughout the galaxy.