Trioculus

Unknown to Trioculus, his existence was the result of clandestine scientific experiments commissioned by Palpatine, who was then the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Beneath his seemingly civilized and grandfatherly demeanor, Palpatine was secretly Darth Sidious, a Dark Lord of the Sith consumed with unraveling the mysteries of life and death. Under the supervision of Sly Moore, Palpatine's advisor, scientists Mammon Hoole and Borborygmus Gog conducted experiments on the spontaneous creation of life, utilizing Niobi, a woman from Bordal, as their "test subject." Initial experiments were largely unsuccessful, yielding deformed, multi-headed homunculi with distorted limbs. After numerous revisions, Hoole and Gog managed to eliminate all abnormalities in their sole successful specimen, except for a third eye located on the forehead. This mutant child was named "Trioculus."

This apparent disability could have been a blessing in disguise. The Prophets of the Dark Side were aware of a legend stating that the Force would manifest a perfectly symmetrical three-eyed being once every millennium. More significantly, the legend claimed that such a being would possess immense power and charisma. However, the birth of Trioculus was not welcomed by Sarcev Quest, one of Palpatine's Force-sensitive protégés. On Quest's orders, the newborn child and his mother Niobi were secretly relocated to the spice mines of Kessel, overseen by the ruthless Lord Overseer Reskell Twane.

Trioculus's mother met an early demise in the mines when he was still quite young. Twane, perhaps due to the boy's sharp intellect, felt compassion for the three-eyed orphan. He took Trioculus under his wing and even provided him with an education. However, the boy's third eye made him a target of ridicule among his peers. Trioculus resented this and became fixated on seeking revenge against his tormentors, developing a talent for espionage and reporting on his classmates over time.

As he grew older, Trioculus immersed himself in the study of military tactics and history, focusing on mastering the art of manipulation. He cultivated a small circle of influential friends. His unwavering dedication to the Empire and his extensive knowledge of military affairs earned him the favor of several high-ranking officers in the Imperial Military, including Grand Moff Bertroff Hissa, who supervised the young man's development. Under Hissa's guidance, Trioculus ascended to the position of ruthless Supreme Slavelord of the spice mines on Kessel by 0 BBY.

Trioculus gained notoriety for his brutal methods. He drove thousands of slaves to their deaths, orchestrated the deaths of thousands more during a revolt, and once destroyed a dam, flooding settlements that posed a threat. He also permitted the distribution of glitterstim to certain populations to maintain control, acting on Palpatine's orders. As an operative of Imperial Intelligence, he kept the organization informed about operations on Kessel. However, Commander Maximillian Seerdon of the rival Imperial Security Bureau did not foresee a promising future for Trioculus.

Following Palpatine's demise at Endor, numerous surviving factions of the Empire vied for control of the Imperial state. Ysanne Isard, the former Director of Imperial Intelligence, eventually emerged as the frontrunner. In 5 ABY, the Central Committee of Grand Moffs, determined to retain their power, put forward Trioculus as a rival candidate to Isard. They proclaimed him to be the Emperor's son, rallying thousands of Imperial leaders to Kessel to hear Trioculus's claim to the Imperial throne.

Trioculus's claim to the Imperial throne was bolstered by his resemblance to Triclops, Palpatine's three-eyed son who had once been imprisoned on Kessel. As Supreme Slavelord, Trioculus had taken a particular interest in tormenting Triclops, promising to usurp his position as Palpatine's son. While the Grand Moffs had considered Triclops as a potential Imperial leader, they ultimately deemed him insane and believed Trioculus would be more reliable and willing to serve as a figurehead while the Central Committee wielded the true power. Trioculus, fully aware that his rule was being used to exert their own power, accepted this role. In return, the Moffs displayed unwavering loyalty, a fact that did not escape the warlord's notice.

Although rumors of Palpatine having a three-eyed son had circulated throughout the Empire, Trioculus was the first to seemingly confirm them. His claim was backed by Grand Moff Hissa, the leader of the Central Committee of Grand Moffs, who ostensibly served as Trioculus's second-in-command but was, in reality, the true power behind the Committee. During a clandestine meeting on Kessel, Trioculus was declared Emperor and hailed as the "new chosen one," referring to himself as a "Dark Lord" whose third eye granted him secret powers known to "the ancients."

However, his right to rule was met with skepticism. Numerous individuals across the galaxy had laid claim to the throne, including Grand Admiral Josef Grunger, who had amassed a fleet consisting of thirty Star Destroyers and one Executor-class Star Dreadnought at the planet Gargon. Furthermore, Rajah Ubooki, an imposter posing as the Prophet of the Dark Side Kadann, had issued a fabricated "prophecy" stating that the new Emperor would possess the glove of Darth Vader, worn on the hand he lost during his duel with Luke Skywalker, which was said to have survived the destruction of the Death Star II. When two individuals present at the convocation, a Grand Admiral and a Royal Guard, questioned Trioculus on this matter, he responded by torturing them, seemingly with Force lightning. This display quickly secured the loyalty of those in attendance.

While the majority of the fleet remained loyal to Isard, Trioculus enjoyed the support of the Grand Moffs, several Grand Admirals, and numerous other military leaders and warlords. He briefly had the allegiance of Grand Admiral Miltin Takel, who had his own reasons for opposing Grunger, but Trioculus had Takel executed when the spice-addicted admiral expressed doubts about his ability to maintain power.

To attain a position where he could acquire the glove, Trioculus presented himself as the Emperor's son. To quell any remaining doubts, he resolved to find Vader's glove before any other contender for the throne, thereby securing the support of the false Kadann. He instructed the Moffs to initiate a galaxy-wide search for the glove, but they initially found nothing. As faith in Trioculus waned among his supporters, the warlord grew increasingly desperate. However, he experienced a stroke of luck when an Imperial agent, Captain Dunwell, discovered several pieces of debris from the Death Star in the Valley of the Giant Oysters on Mon Calamari, one of which revealed the outline of a glove when scanned.

Trioculus and Hissa immediately traveled to Mon Calamari, where they were greeted by Dunwell at his Whaladon Processing Center, a poaching operation targeting the native sentient Whaladon species. Aboard his Whaladon-hunting submarine, Dunwell transported Trioculus and Hissa to the wreckage site. Unbeknownst to them, Luke Skywalker and Admiral Gial Ackbar secretly followed them in a Calamarian minisub. Trioculus retrieved the glove, but when Skywalker and Ackbar's minisub was inadvertently captured by one of Dunwell's Whaladon-capturing devices, Luke infiltrated the vessel and activated its self-destruct. Trioculus and Hissa narrowly escaped, with the warlord vowing to avenge himself on Skywalker.

Despite Trioculus's announcement that he had recovered the glove, the independent Imperial forces did not immediately rally behind him. Grunger and COMPNOR declared that they would only offer their support with the official endorsement of Kadann. Trioculus and Hissa journeyed to Space Station Scardia, the headquarters of the false Prophets, to meet with the Supreme Prophet. After Kadann compelled Trioculus to admit that he was not, in fact, Palpatine's son, he promptly named him Emperor and bestowed upon him his dark blessing.

Kadann had another prophecy for Trioculus: the Jedi Prince Ken, he foretold, would destroy Trioculus if Trioculus did not eliminate him first. He advised Trioculus to seek out Ken in the Lost City of the Jedi on Yavin 4, knowing that the warlord would never succeed.

Trioculus embarked on his Strike-class cruiser for Yavin 4. Upon reaching the moon, he dispatched an explosive-lined probe droid to a meeting of the Senate Planetary Intelligence Network, issuing an ultimatum: if they did not reveal the location of the Lost City, he would detonate the droid. Luke Skywalker, who was present at the meeting, swiftly disabled the probe and its detonator, forcing Trioculus to resort to his backup plan: setting fire to the forests of Yavin 4 until he located the city's entrance.

The devices installed in the glove of Darth Vader, designed to simulate the effects of the Force, had been taking a toll on Trioculus's health. During the attack, he suddenly went blind. A Ho'Din named Baji residing on Yavin 4 appeared to be the only solution, and Trioculus had him captured. Baji informed him that the rare kibo plant, found only in the rapidly burning forests of the moon, could restore his sight. While obtaining it, Trioculus suffered burns and severe scarring. He eventually decided to remove the genuine glove and replace it with a replica.

Meanwhile, the rebels rallied, utilizing the moon's weather control system to extinguish the fires and destroy all but one of Trioculus's ships. The warlord and his entourage retreated, with Trioculus once again vowing vengeance, this time against the entire New Republic, with the exception of Leia Organa. His plan thwarted, Trioculus placed a substantial bounty on Ken.

Amidst the crisis, Ysanne Isard orchestrated the release of Jabba the Hutt's father, Zorba Desilijic Tiure, from prison to serve as an unwitting agent.

Meanwhile, determined to truly secure the Empire, Trioculus accelerated the production of war matériel. One such operation involved a massive factory barge situated near the core of Bespin, extracting resources from the gas giant's Rethin Sea for use in the production of weaponry and ammunition. Despite the air pollution generated by this facility drawing complaints from Lando Calrissian, the Baron Administrator of Cloud City, the warlord remained unfazed, threatening an invasion if Calrissian did not comply.

While visiting Han Solo on Bespin, Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia Organa inadvertently stumbled upon the factory barge. As they approached the massive vessel to reconnoiter it, they were shot down, and Leia was taken captive. From the moment Trioculus laid eyes on Leia, he had been infatuated with her and desired her as his wife. Now that he had her as his prisoner, he embarked on a campaign to win her over.

Zorba, meanwhile, had seized control of Cloud City from Calrissian. Having learned of Leia Organa's involvement in his son's death, Zorba received information from an Imperial spy that she was being held by Trioculus. Coincidentally, Trioculus's own target, Ken, had been apprehended shortly before by Cloud City's police. Seeing an opportunity, Zorba arranged a meeting to negotiate with the warlord. When Trioculus interrogated Ken to confirm his identity, he discovered that the danger Ken posed stemmed from the knowledge he had acquired from the Jedi library in the Lost City; Ken was aware that Triclops, not Trioculus, was the true son of Palpatine.

Trioculus demanded that Zorba hand over the boy, and Zorba named his price: Trioculus must remove his factory barge from Bespin and relinquish custody of Leia Organa so that Zorba could avenge his son's death. The latter was unacceptable to Trioculus, and he ordered his stormtroopers to attack. However, Zorba was prepared, and his larger force of Cloud Police overwhelmed Trioculus's troops and captured the Imperial leader. Trioculus was transported to the same carbon-freezing chamber that had once held Han Solo. Despite making a last-ditch effort to bribe Zorba, offering him a share of power and the rank of grand admiral, it was to no avail, and the Hutt had Trioculus encased in a slab of carbonite. He placed the warlord's frozen body in the Figg & Associates Art Museum under heavy guard, holding him hostage to prevent any Imperial retaliation.

With Trioculus's mission having failed, the false Kadann seized the opportunity. From Scardia Station, he revoked his blessing of Trioculus, declaring himself the new Emperor. Meanwhile, the Central Committee worked to recover Trioculus. When Zorba departed Cloud City for Tatooine, chief of police Muskov alerted the Imperial forces in orbit of Bespin. After bribing the museum guards, they retrieved Trioculus's body, but before they could thaw it, a vessel of the Prophets arrived, carrying the false High Prophet Jedgar. Jedgar demanded that the moffs relinquish Trioculus, blackmailing Hissa with damaging information the Prophets' agents had gathered as leverage. Trioculus was handed over and taken to Scardia Station.

Upon Trioculus's slab arriving at Scardia Station, Kadann and the Prophets had it transported to the station's neutron furnace and exposed to its deadly rays. The heat was so intense that the block was completely vaporized, leaving no trace of Trioculus. To the Prophets and Moffs, it appeared as though Trioculus was dead.

However, both parties had been deceived. The block Zorba had displayed in the Cloud City Museum was a replica. The real body of Trioculus was concealed in a hidden compartment on Zorba's ship, the Zorba Express. It was not until the Grand Moffs' Moffship intercepted the Express over Tatooine, intending to avenge themselves upon Zorba for capturing Trioculus, that they discovered it. Having recovered him, they quickly set about reviving their Emperor. Once freed from the carbonite, Trioculus learned of the Prophets' betrayal, cursed them, and prepared to exact revenge on Zorba. Zorba stalled Trioculus by informing him that he had Leia imprisoned. Trioculus promised to free him if he revealed her location.

When Trioculus found Leia, her feelings towards him remained unchanged. However, after Trioculus threatened to return her to Zorba, she decided that the warlord was the lesser of two evils. Taking this as a sign, Trioculus instructed Hissa to make preparations for a wedding. Then, breaking his vow with Zorba, he had the Hutt thrown into the Great Pit of Carkoon. Trioculus forced Leia to watch, believing this would make her grateful to him and lead her to embrace her own darkness when she witnessed how much pleasure she derived from Zorba's death. This did not appear to be the case, but he nonetheless assigned a detail of stormtroopers to Leia and departed to prepare for the wedding.

For some time, the New Republic had been developing a project at the Defense Research and Planetary Assistance Center on Dagobah: Project Decoy. Its objective, as its name suggested, was to create a decoy for Leia, and the product was a Human replica droid that mirrored her appearance. In addition to diverting enemies from the real Leia, the droid was armed with lasers in its eyes.

A New Republic party, including Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and the Leia droid, boarded the ship while the rest of the crew was preoccupied with Zorba's execution. They ambushed Leia's stormtrooper escort and donned their armor, then replaced the real Leia with the droid Leia and escaped from the Moffship. When Trioculus summoned Leia for his wedding, it was, in fact, her droid double.

Although Trioculus noticed that Leia's escort was missing, he was simply pleased that she had seemingly acquiesced. Trioculus and Leia approached the altar, with Grand Moff Hissa standing behind it. As Hissa began to read from the Dark Book of Imperial Justice, the Leia droid suddenly opened fire from its eyes, shooting Trioculus in the chest. Hissa drew a blaster and destroyed the droid, and MD-5 and several medical droids rushed to attend to the fallen Trioculus.

However, his wounds were too severe. The door to the room was locked, and rumors of Trioculus's fate quickly spread throughout the vessel. In his final moments, the dying Trioculus warned Hissa of Kadann's ambition and made him vow to destroy Luke Skywalker. Hissa promised, and in that moment, the Emperor died. Trioculus was cremated, and his ashes were launched into space in four containers, each sent in a different direction.

Trioculus saw himself as a master of deceit. Despite acknowledging a certain degree of ruthlessness, Trioculus was convinced that employing malevolence was a necessity, and he did not feel that this aspect of his character lessened his virtues.

His perception of himself was profoundly influenced by his third eye. Having been ridiculed for it during his childhood, he remained displeased when others expressed revulsion towards it, even in adulthood. He personally regarded his three eyes as a symbol of perfection. During his address on Kessel, he proclaimed that a three-eyed individual possessed a latent power, believing it endowed him with extraordinary insight. He considered his eye to be a characteristic that elevated him even above Palpatine.

During the period when Trioculus held the position of Supreme Slavelord of Kessel, Maximillian Seerdon from the Imperial Security Bureau made note of his cynical disposition, which was evident even in the reports he submitted to his superiors within the Empire.

The third eye of Trioculus had hypnotic capabilities, which enabled him to extract the truth from other individuals. Triclops also possessed this ability, and given that his third eye could generate potent magnetic forces, it is plausible that Trioculus was also capable of doing so.

Although Trioculus lacked Force-sensitivity, he had cybernetic enhancements implanted in his fingertips that enabled him to replicate Force lightning. He used this method to perpetuate the deception that he was the offspring of Palpatine. However, this ability came at a cost, as utilizing it resulted in some degree of electrical harm to his own body.

Trioculus was under the impression that donning Darth Vader's glove would grant him the Dark Lord's telekinetic abilities. When this proved to be untrue, his droid MD-5 equipped the glove with sonic devices capable of emitting a high-frequency sound that could kill a target. These devices were also intended to bolster the illusion that he could control the Force. Similar to the lightning devices, they also had a detrimental effect on his body, ultimately compelling him to discard the glove.

Trioculus had few friends in his life, although those he did have were typically high-ranking members of the Imperial hierarchy. His inclination to dominate others extended even to his friends. Furthermore, he had a select group of trusted confidants, as well as one known romantic interest: Leia Organa.

Bertroff Hissa served as Trioculus's mentor and played a crucial role in his ascent to power. Even after Trioculus assumed the throne of the Empire, Hissa remained the true source of authority behind him. Trioculus placed more trust in Hissa than any other moff, and Hissa reciprocated this trust. Even when Kadann seized power, Hissa remained loyal to Trioculus until his death, an act for which the warlord praised him on his deathbed.

Trioculus's droid MD-5, also known as Emdee, was a constant presence and a dependable and trusted servant to the warlord. Emdee was known for arranging Trioculus's meals, attending to his medical needs, and constructing the specialized devices that Trioculus employed in his charade as Palpatine's son. He was present even during Trioculus's most private conversations. Their relationship closely mirrored that of Luke Skywalker with C-3PO and R2-D2.

During his campaign against the New Republic, Trioculus developed an infatuation with Leia Organa. Despite her lack of reciprocation, Trioculus was confident that he could persuade her to betray the New Republic and embrace the dark side of the Force. His efforts to achieve this involved urging her to embrace her own darker tendencies and asserting that evil acts and murder were sometimes unavoidable and did not diminish his own capacity for love.

Trioculus's fixation on Leia would ultimately precipitate his downfall: initially when he attempted to eliminate Zorba the Hutt for desiring her death, which resulted in his capture and the rise of Kadann, and subsequently when he married Project Decoy's Human replica droid, mistaking it for Leia, which led to his demise.

The name Trioculus, when dissected into its Latin components, literally translates to "three eyes." Interestingly, Triclops, the actual son of Palpatine, is named after the Greek term for "Three Eyes." According to Mission from Mount Yoda, this meaning is also present within the fictional universe.

The Star Wars Insider article titled 20 Most Memorable Moments of the Expanded Universe identified "The Villainy of Emperor Trioculus and Grand Moff Hissa" as the fourth "goofiest moment" within the Expanded Universe.

The Jedi Prince series, where Trioculus makes his initial appearance, suggests that he was the sole leader of the Empire during that era. The Essential Chronology introduced the retcon that Trioculus and Ysanne Isard were competing for control of the Empire.