Here's everything we know about the Neo-Empire era, distilled down from the Aftermath books:
The War Continues
The Rebel’s victory at Endor may have been portrayed in Return of the Jedi as the killing blow of the Galactic Civil War, but it was far from it. The Empire was deeply wounded by the loss of the second Death Star as well as the Emperor and Darth Vader, but surviving and fleeing Imperials quickly clamped down on any galaxy-wide celebrations or thoughts of rebellion.
The victory parade at Coruscant’s Monument Plaza was cut down by Imperial Police, and just as quickly as talk of the Empire’s doom spread, equal talk from the Empire that not only had the Emperor survived the battle of Endor, but that the Rebels had been wiped out altogether, spread to combat the news.
The Rebels knew this, however. Following the celebrations at Bright Tree village, Rebel intelligence discovered an Imperial holdout still active on Endor—one hastily liberated by the Rebels, but which lead to the discovery that the Empire were trying to clamp down any talk of their victory on the forest moon. The Alliance quickly sought to counter Imperial propaganda; both Admiral Ackbar and Leia Organa delivered recorded speeches on the Holonet (the Star Wars universe’s galaxy-wide transmissions service—think the internet, but with holograms!) as a declaration of the Empire’s defeat at Endor, and that the war to free the galaxy is far from over:
Today is a day of celebration. We have triumphed over villainy and oppression and have given our Alliance—and the galaxy beyond it—a chance to breathe and cheer for the progress in reclaiming our freedom from an Empire that robbed us of it. We have reports from Commander Skywalker that Emperor Palpatine is dead, and his enforcer, Darth Vader, with him.
But though we may celebrate, we should not consider this our time to rest. We struck a major blow against the Empire, and now will be the time to seize on the opening we have created. The Empire’s weapon may be destroyed, but the Empire itself lives on. Its oppressive hand closes around the throats of good, free-thinking people across the galaxy, from the Coruscant Core to the farthest systems in the Outer Rim. We must remember that our fight continues. Our rebellion is over. But the war… the war is just beginning.
-Admiral Ackbar
Bonus fun fact—The Force Awakens’ Poe Dameron was likely conceived during the celebrations at the end of Return of the Jedi! His parents, Shara Bey and Kes Dameron, both fought in the ground and space battle at Endor and are protagonists in Shattered Empire.
The Iron Blockade
As news got harder to control, and rebellious uprisings across the galaxy harder to put down, the remaining Imperial governors in power got increasingly desperate—none moreso than Adelhard, the governor of the Anoat sector (home to locations like Hoth and Bespin). Adelhard rallied what was left of the Imperial Navy under his command to construct a blockade around the entire star system, stopping citizens from leaving (and potentially joining the emboldened Alliance), clamped down on communication, and sent Stormtroopers out on the streets. The idea spread across the Empire, as the Imperials no longer attempted to combat the Rebel threat but instead simply shut down and holed up.
A New Republic Rises
Be patient. Be strong. Fight back where you can. The Imperial War Machine falls apart one gear, one gun, one stormtrooper at a time. The New Republic is coming. And we want your help to finish the fight.
-Leia Organa
As the Empire locked itself down, the Rebel Alliance swept into action—but no longer as the Alliance to Restore the Republic. With Mon Mothma’s homeworld of Chandrila free from the Empire’s grasp, the Alliance was dissolved shortly after the Battle of Endor and reformed into the New Republic, a new Senate ushered in at the capital city of Hanna.
Mon Mothma took on the role of Chancellor of the New Republic, and although its charter was largely based on that of the Old Republic—right down to the fact that Mothma still had many of the Emergency Powers granted to Palpatine during the height of the Clone Wars—unlike the former Republic, the new Senate was democratically elected to serve on Chandrila, rather than a delegated position. The very first meeting of the Senate includes over 100 senators from across the galaxy.
Despite the ongoing hostilities between the New Republic and the Empire, Mon Mothma’s primary goal upon the opening of the Senate was to demilitarize the New Republic as quickly as possible. The majority of the Chancellor’s emergency powers were stripped immediately, and plans were made (despite disagreement from sections of the senate) to eliminate 90% of the New Republic’s army and Navy, which was headed up by Admiral Ackbar. Instead of entirely removing that military power though, the funding went instead go to bolstering the planetary armies of the New Republic’s member worlds, with the remaining New Republic armies kept as a peacekeeping force stationed at a new academy on Chandrila to train recruits.
Downfall
The New Republic’s call for its own demilitarization came hand-in-hand with its numbers being vastly increased by a swathe of Imperial captures and defections over the year following Endor. With the Empire largely in chaos as Moffs backstabbed each other, attempting to consolidate power and declare new Emperors (at such a regular occurrence the announcements have lost all meaning), the New Republic’s forces swept across the Galaxy and won victory after victory against Imperial forces.
Several Moffs and Generals defected, relinquishing not just themselves but their Star Destroyers to the New Republic. Naboo was liberated, and defended from three consecutive sieges as the Empire sought to own the homeworld of the Emperor as a symbolic victory—as was Geonosis, after a failed attempt by Imperials to restart the Separatist Droid factories housed there. Many planets seceded to the New Republic or were earned by victory in battle, including even ultimately Coruscant, the Imperials routed down to their final garrison on the Empire’s capital.
A remnant of Imperial Forces including the Ravager, the last Super Star Destroyer in the Galaxy, converged on the Outer Rim planet of Akiva in an attempt to stabilize the remaining factions of the Empire together, as much of the Outer Rim was still occupied by Imperial Forces. This holdout in particular formed into an “Imperial Future Council,” which was divided as to whether the Empire should turn their back on the Emperor’s devotion to the Dark Side and become a force for Order, or whether to continue the Emperor’s Dark Side teachings and hunt down its ultimate power, allegedly hidden on the outskirts of the galaxy. But before any real progress could be made, Akiva was ultimately liberated and the remnants of the Imperials scattered once more.
The Battle for Jakku
Almost a year to the day after the Battle of Endor, what’s left of the Imperial Navy, under the command of Grand Moff Randd, committed to an offensive over the planet of Jakku. Jakku was sparsely populated and of little tactical worth to the Empire, but Randd saw it as an opportunity: if the might of the Imperial Navy could score a decisive victory over the New Republic, worlds would return to the Empire just as they had turned to the New Republic after Endor.
Instead, Jakku became a costly mistake for the Empire. The largest battle in the war since Endor was a crushing defeat for the Empire, as New Republic forces overwhelmed them with superior tactics and a space fleet of similar scope to the forces committed by the Empire. Capital ships and starfighters from both sides crashed and burned into the sands of the planet as the engagement turned into a land battle—where the Star Destroyer Inflictor was forced to plow itself into the surface, scuttling it rather than allowing to be captured by the New Republic. This is where it remained for the next three decades, as seen in the second The Force Awakens teaser trailer.
The same teaser trailer also implies that the Super Star Destroyer Ravager was lost at Jakku, as the Millennium Falcon is seen being chased by TIE Fighters through what appears to be the wreck of an SSD.
A Hot War Goes Cold
Jakku was essentially the death knell of the Galactic Civil War. The humiliating route of the Imperial Navy led to the Empire signing a peace agreement with the New Republic, with strict borders carving out the areas of space under the control of the two sides. Imperials displeased with the treaty begin to amass a small fleet on the outskirts of the Galaxy, biding their time and preparing to strike at the unsuspecting New Republic.
But the New Republic wasn’t as naive as the Imperials may have thought. After the treaty was signed, and despite her intent to demilitarize the New Republic, Mon Mothma kept AdmiralAckbar’s fleet ready to defend the New Republic at a moment’s notice.
At this point, the heroes of the original Star Wars trilogy went their separate ways. Luke journeyed to the planet Devoran, with the intent of learning the ways of the Force and re-establishing a Jedi Temple there. Leia took a position as General in the New Republic, commanding armies alongside Admiral Ackbar. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Chewbacca headed off on their own—ostensibly on a mission to investigate smuggling rings that the Empire attempts to use to run supplies through New Republic blockades, but they instead head to the Imperial-occupied Kashyyyk to attempt to liberate the Wookiee homeworld once and for all.
Beyond the Stars
But in the year between Endor and Jakku, the presence of the Dark Side slowly began to swell once more. On the planet Taris (a name familiar to fans of the Knights of the Old Republic videogames), shadowy dark side Force users called the Acolytes of the Beyond began seeking out powerful Dark Side artifacts—perhaps linked to the organiztion that ultimately becomes the Vader-obsessed Knights of Ren, one of whom is Force Awakens villain Kylo Ren—and purchase what they believe is the Lightsaber of Darth Vader from a merchant there, leaving an ominous message that they “are not violent. Not yet.”
It’s not just the Acolytes who believe in the power of the Dark Side, though. Lead by a Tashu, a former advisor to the Emperor, a certain sect of Imperial forces believe that in order to regain control of the galaxy, they must hunt down the “wellspring” of the Dark Side, located on the fringes of the galaxy—and meet up with Imperial forces already investigating said power:
We must instead move toward the Dark Side. Palpatine felt that the universe beyond the edges of our maps was where his power came from. Over the many years he, with our aid, sent men and woman beyond known space. They built labs and communication stations on distant moons, asteroids, out there in the wilds. We must follow them. Retreat from the galaxy. Go out beyond the veil of stars. We must seek the source of the Dark Side like a man looking for a wellspring of water.
With Vader-obessessed acolytes and secret Imperials hidden beyond the stars, it seems like the First Order was on the rise almost immediately after Jakku.
The Growth of the New Republic
The majority of Life Debt deals with the liberation of Kashyyyk, the Wookiee homeworld still occupied by Imperials in the wake of the Battle of Endor. For Han, this is a personal mission—he resigns his commission and goes off with Chewbacca to liberate his partner’s home. After both heroes go missing, a group of ragtag fighters that were protagonists in the original Aftermath novel, including Norra Wexley and her son Temmin (better known now as Greg Grunberg’s Snap Wexley in The Force Awakens), are tasked with finding the duo and helping them in their goal.
Han and Leia tied the knot on Endor
While previous novels confirmed that Han and Leia were indeed married post-Return of the Jedi, we now know that they didn’t hang around after the destruction of the second Death Star; they actually got married pretty much after the final scenes of Return of the Jedi. On top of that, Leia is already pregnant with the couple’s first child, although many of their friends and colleagues in the New Republic are unaware of that fact yet. We all know how that one turns out, don’t we?
The Force is definitely with Leia
Neither The Force Awakens or previous novels like Star Wars Bloodlines have shied away from the fact that Leia can call the Force an ally (and a powerful ally it is). She just doesn’t happen to join her brother as a Jedi—Luke’s presence in Life Debt comes through the meditation training he’s been giving Leia to help hone her Force sensitivity. She uses that training to guide her to Han after he goes missing, and notes how powerful that feeling is—a precursor to her feeling his loss through the Force 30 years later in The Force Awakens.
Han and Chewie go their separate ways
Yes, the dream team breaks up. With a child on the way and with Chewbacca finally free to live his life on Kashyyyk and see his family again, Han and Chewie decided to forge paths alone for the time being at the end of Life Debt. Even though we know they eventually get back to their smuggling ways ahead of The Force Awakens, and Han promises that Chewbacca will play a big role in his future son’s life, it’s still a little sad. They even get their own “I love you”/“I know” moment to boot:
“No. No! You have to stay here. We fought like **** for this and now. . . this is yours. Okay? All yours. This is home. You got people here and I want you to find them, You hear me? That’s my last demand. No arguments.” Chewie rumbles but Han reiterates, more firmly this time: “I said no arguments. You be with your family. I have to go start mine”
“I’ll be back. We’re not done, you and I. We’ll see each other again. I’m gonna be a father and no way my kid won’t have you in his life.”
One more bark and yip as Chewie pets his head.
“Yeah, pal. I know.” He sighs. “I love you, too.”
The Diminishing of the Empire
The most important things going on with the Imperial Remnant are much more behind-the-scenes. While Aftermath teased that the Empire was making plans after Endor to funnel resources and fleets into hiding on the edges of known space, providing a force for the rise of the First Order by the time The Force Awakens comes around, we finally get to see these plans begin in Life Debt.
Thanks to the novel Bloodline, we know the First Order doesn’t make itself officially known to the galaxy until a group of New Republic senators secede from the Galactic Senate and unite with the hidden remnant fleets a mere six years before the events of The Force Awakens. But Life Debt gives us the real start of what would eventually become Supreme Leader Snoke’s new galactic force to be reckoned with.
Meet the Shadow Council
The ruling force behind the proto-first Order is revealed as the Shadow Council—a cabal of Imperial officers who see the time of Palpatine’s Empire as over, and are ready to build a new, better Empire to rule the galaxy. They are:
* Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, an Imperial Officer who has appeared as rising through the ranks throughout various Star Wars novels in the new canon, including Aftermath
* Commandant Brendol Hux, father of future General Hux in The Force Awakens and avid trainer of Stormtrooper legions through natural selection
* Grand Moff Rand, who goes on to lead the Empire at the costly Battle of Jakku
* General Hodnar Borrum, an Imperial Officer dubbed “The Old Man” having served under Palpatine in the Old Republic
* Ferric Obdur, Chief Informational Officer (“informational” meaning “propaganda”)
* Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, the real driving force behind the Shadow Council
Rax is revealed to be the shadowy figure called “The Operator” in Aftermath, and is the most intriguing of them all, and there’s been some wild speculation that he’s actually a younger Supreme Leader Snoke. However, Life Debt keeps his race and appearance deliberately vague, and he displays no signs of Force sensitivity (although there’s an argument that could be made in that regard at the very end of the book—more on that later). But he’s positioned as the main face behind the new Post-Empire order.
They’re really interested in kids
The Shadow Council has big plans for children—mainly through Brendol Hux, who Rax orders rescued from the beseiged Arkanis Academy, where he was in charge of training young Imperial minds. Rax also orders the safety of Brendol’s illegitimate son, Armitage (yes: Domnhall Gleeson’s character is called Armitage Hux, and yes, it’s an amazing name) on the logic that “the Empire must be fertile and young.” This is presumably a predecessor to the younger Hux’s own belief in training loyal soldiers from childhood to adulthood rather than breeding a clone army, which leads to kids like Finn being taken from their families and brainwashed into being adherents of the First Order.
The Emperor’s Super Star Destroyer is missing
One of the most alarming things is that the Empire has lost control of a number of Super Star Destroyers. There were previously 13 of the massive ships in existence; Rae Sloane commands the Ravager, the only one left in the Imperial Remnant’s control. Of the remaining 12, the Executor, Vader’s flagship, was destroyed at Endor. Five more were lost in battles with the New Republic, a band of pirates has taken over the Annihilator, and one accidentally flew into a gravity well. Three are now in the New Republic Fleet. But Emperor’s personal Super Star Destroyer, the Eclipse, is missing. It was supposedly destroyed, but Sloane found irregularities in those records.
Snap Wexley is taken under the wing of Wedge Antilles
Rebellion hero Wedge Antilles goes through the ringer a fair amount in Aftermath: Life Debt. But, in between all that, he takes the time to mentor Temmin “Snap” Wexley. Snap showed up in The Force Awakens as a pilot under Poe’s command, and in Aftermath: Life Debt he trains in X-wings and X-wing simulators under the eye of Wedge. Wedge is even the source of the “Snap” nickname, which is a reference to how Temmin literally snaps his fingers all the time.
A Dark Side Cult is in open rebellion on Corellia
In Coronet City on Corellia, a group called the “Acolyte of the Beyond” is active, calling themselves devotees of something “greater than the Empire.” One is captured by the police while (essentially) spray-painting “Vader Lives” and says that, in this group, you have to “earn your mask.” In the basement of that building, the acolytes find what certainly sounds like a red lightsaber. They say that they’ve been looking for it, and they have it. It would make no sense for it to be Vader’s, but it would parallel Maz Kanata’s find nicely.
No matter what they found, the Acolytes seem to have a lot in common with the Knights of Ren from The Force Awakens.
There’s a Hutt on Tatooine again
In one of the weirder interludes, we find out what happened to the devastated rancor trainer from Return of the Jedi. His name’s Malakili and his poor, dead rancor was Pateesa. After the events of the movie, he hung around Jabba’s palace for a long time, before seeking more animals to train. After he fails to find purpose in training the sarlacc, he ends up in Mos Pelgo (now Freetown) where a baby Hutt was taken from a criminal gang, planning to put it on Jabba’s throne. Malakili is asked to teach the Hutt. If it turns out to be Stinky, that would be an amazing Easter egg.
Maz Kanata goes on a search
Maz Kanata makes an appearance in Aftermath: Life Debt. Her castle/bar allows everyone in it, so long as they don’t fight. “ALL ARE WELCOME (NO FIGHTING)” is on the wall, and she even has a prison for brawlers. We also get a list of smaller, unwritten rules of Maz Kanata’s:
If you get up on stage, you have to perform; don’t drink what’s in the brown jug; don’t go downstairs; if your animal drops a pile anywhere, you’re out; all deals need the approval of Maz before they’re done, and if you try to go around her back she’ll take what’s yours and what’s his and sell all of it to the highest bidder; and for the love of all that is holy don’t mention Maz’s eyes unless you want to get into a very long conversation.
In Aftermath: Life Debt, an Imperial and a Rebel get into a fight, and they end up locked up. Maz releases them, but says to a droid that predates even her, “Peace has not returned to my heart. Something is off balance. Some stirring in the Force has made the water turbid. Hard to see. But I think it best we be prepared.” And Maz gets in her ship to travel around and “See just what I can see.” Timeline-wise, this could be the journey that ends with Luke and Anakin’s old lightsaber moldering in her basement. It would parallel with the red one found by the Vader cult on Corellia.
Alderaan’s survivors are building a new home... out of the Death Star
In one of the weirdest interludes, we see a meeting of Alderaanians who weren’t on the planet when it was destroyed by the Death Star. They also take delivery of the first of many chunks of scrap of the Death Star as reparations. They want to build a space station of their own out of it.
And Finally...
Life Debt’s final major reveal concerns the aforementioned Gallius Rax. The epilogue of the novel offers a huge hint at where Star Wars is going with its story, not just in the new canon, but in the movies as well: and it involves a familiar locale and a familiar face. Set 30 years before the events of the novel (so roughly just after the events of The Phantom Menace) the epilogue reveals that Rax was born on Jakku. In an attempt to escape the dusty world, Rax sneaks aboard a Republic ship that lands on the planet one day... and finds himself face to face with none other than Chancellor Palpatine, who’s visiting the planet for undisclosed (and presumably nefarious) reasons to excavate a piece of land. After a short chat with Rax, Palpatine offers the boy a choice: die, or swear loyalty to him and become part of a grand plan:
I give you a new life. A better one. I give you a task that, if you manage, will lead you to greater things. Not some thing so mundane as a job, but a role. A purpose. I sense in you potential. A destiny. Most people have no destiny.
Rax agrees to join Palpatine, and then Palpatine gives the child a mission: return to Jakku, and guard the area that Palpatine’s droids were excavating with his life. Why? Palpatine espouses that the area, whatever it is, will have a major part to play in the future of the galaxy:
“You will go back to Jakku. The spot there in the dirt where my droids were operating is precious. Not just to me, but to the galaxy at large.” He sweeps his decrepit hand as if to the greater universe. “It is significant. It was significant a thousand years ago and it will be significant again. You will go back there and you will monitor my droids excavating the ground. Then I will send more droids and they will build something there below the ground. I want you to guard this space.”
Whatever it turns out to be, it appears to be a major hint for what’s to come. And it suddenly seems that both Rey and an explorer with ties to Force-based religion like Lor San Tekka finding a home on Jakku just became a lot less coincidental...
The Emperor Had a Plan
I cannot emphasize enough how much more bananas Emperor Palpatine was than we thought. He didn’t just found the Empire as a way to give himself powerrrrr, unlimited powerrrr, he also fully believed that the Empire should not continue on without him. His philosophy was basically the opposite of “the captain goes down with the ship.” It was more “if the captain goes down, make sure the ship and everyone on it is blown to pieces for letting the captain die.” Palpatine gave Aftermath’s main Imperial antagonist Gallius Rax the “blowing the Empire to pieces” job. (Also, definitely read this book to get Palpatine’s views on chess. Spoiler alert: Letting the king go down is the worst failure possible)
So while the Rebellion and Luke Skywalker’s actions at the Battle of Endor are important, the Empire’s dissolution was hastened by Palpatine’s own design. Also, part of his plan was to figure out calculations to leave this galaxy and head out to another. Those calculations finished after Palpatine died, but that’s where his Super Star Destroyer ended up, and it’s probably where a lot of the First Order was created. Go watch Return of the Jedi again with that knowledge rattling around your brain.
Jakku Is Much More Interesting Than You Thought
Speaking of secret Palpatine plans, the desert world that Rey found herself on is so much more interesting than what we saw in The Force Awakens. For one thing, it used to be covered in water and plant life. At some point, it changed into desert, but with a “spark” of life still hidden in its core.
Jakku was also one of several worlds that the Emperor established “Observatories” on. An observatory held any number of things the Emperor thought needed to be hoarded: Sith artifacts, weapons, prisons, etc. They all have replicas of the Emperor’s flagship and sentinel robots programmed to act like the Emperor and have his face projected on them, which sounds incredibly creepy. Jakku’s Observatory was built as part of Palpatine’s “in the event of my death” plan. Also, the Observatories can destroy the planet its on; Jakku narrowly avoids this fate.
Jakku is the home planet of Gallius Rax, who was originally an orphan in the care of a religious order on the planet, and taking the vows made one an “Anchorite.” Kids were left to be raised with the Anchorites, who are very harsh in their expectations.
At one point, Norra Wexley is in a work camp on Jakku where her rations are described almost identically to what we saw Rey eating in The Force Awakens (“a ballooning piece of bread”). It’s minorly interesting that the same rations that Norra was given will also be what Rey depends on to live.
Also, if you want to know how epic a battle has to be to justify why people are still combing Jakku to salvage parts in The Force Awakens, this book gives it to you. And during the battle, Wedge Antilles mentions the Tierfon Yellow Aces, which is nice continuity since the helmet Rey has in her little AT-AT home in The Force Awakens belonged to one of their pilots. Speaking of the battle of Jakku, Snap Wexley flies with Wedge’s Phantom Squadron in the battle of Jakku and crashes on the planet. I like to imagine Snap and Rey comparing notes on the sandiness of the planet.
Snap also ends this book a) growing some scruff, like he sports in The Force Awakens b) heading to the New Republic flight academy on Hosnian Prime c) doing that with the man in charge being Wedge Antilles, who is basically his stepfather at this point. I really hope Wedge wasn’t still on that planet when it exploded in The Force Awakens.
With the Empire Gone, Crime Has Flourished
It turns out that having the two biggest power centers in the galaxy focused on each other is a good thing for crime syndicates. So good for them that they do not want the war to end. To that end, the Black Sun crime syndicate—one of the things invented in the old Expanded Universe that’s made it back into canon in a big way—and the Red Key Raiders (a crime syndicate out of Tatooine) actually work together to manipulate the New Republic into dragging out the war.
The idea basically is that, once the Empire is taken care of, the New Republic will turn its eyes on slavers, smugglers, gun runners, etc. The longer the war goes on for the Republic, the better for the criminals
The war was also made it possible for pirates to get their hands on Imperial military hardware. Eleodie Maracavanya returns in Empire’s End, a character who appeared in Aftermath: Life Debt just beginning to consolidate her power as “the pirate ruler of Wild Space.” Here, Maracavanya orders her fleet to attack Imperial ships fleeing Jakku, promising to send the bill for this “clean-up” to the New Republic. There are so many disparate power bases in different places in the Star Wars Universe, and these criminal groups are just a few examples.
There Are Force Cults Everywhere
One interlude in this book tracks the attempt of a group of pilgrims to Christophsis, a planet where the Seperatists clashed with the Republic during the Clone Wars (and which appeared in Clone Wars TV series). Christophsis has a lot of crystals, and, apparently, it is one of the planets where the Force-sensitive Kyber crystals can be found. Many crystals there were taken to be used on the Death Star, but now pilgrims of the Church of the Force are returning them to the place they came from. The Church of the Force has access to the Journal of the Whills, which poetically describes the Force and the Jedi. Part of it was transcribed in The Force Awakens novelization, but we get more of it in this book (the last line may sound a bit familiar):
The truth in our soul
Is that nothing is true.
The question of life
Is what then do we do?
The burden is ours
To penance, we hew.
The Force binds us all
From a certain point of view.
In addition to a church devoted to the Light Side of the Force, we also have groups on the Dark Side, which all seem to be related to/predecessors of Kylo Ren’s Knights of Ren.
One of these is the Acolytes of the Beyond, one cell of which is on the planet Devaron. Like the Church of the Force, the Acolytes believe everyone is connected by the Force. But while the former sees all life as part of the Force, the latter sees everyone as a slave to the will of the Force. So Dark Side users are those who can fight the fate the Force is, well, forcing on people. The Acolytes believe they are being directed by visions of Sith who have died. The cell on Devaron also has its hands on a Sith lightsaber.
One of their living masters is Yupe Tashu, who advised Palpatine and aids Rax. Tashu is all in on the power of the Dark Side. Tashu believes that there are masks which have soaked up the Dark Side of the Force and can give power. He might be on to something, since he gives a mask to an Acolyte who is swept away by her anger, and uses it and a lightsaber to win a battle on Devaron. That belief in masks seems exactly like something Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren would take up and helps explain why Ren wanted Darth Vader’s mask so badly.
The Birth of Ben Solo
Eventually, after the Empire loses on Jakku and Imperial ruling council member Mas Amedda crawls out of where Rax tried to imprison him, Amedda contacts the New Republic to surrender on behalf of the Empire, ending the war. On the day the “Instruments of Surrender” are signed, Ben Solo is born.
Ben Solo’s birth is important enough to be the subject of a billion different rumors, told all over the galaxy.. Luke Skywalker might have been there, the stories differ. The stories also differ on whether it was a difficult or easy birth, and whether he was born with a full head of hair. One story mentions that Ben was born with a full set of teeth—which is an omen we’ve given Napoleon, Ceasar, and Henry VIII. That is a lot of speculation and expectation for one kid to grow up with.
Leia also described her unborn baby’s presence in the Force as “He is less a human-shaped thing and more a pulsing, living band of light. Light that sometimes dims, that sometimes is thrust through with a vein of darkness.” Some not-so-subtle foreshadowing, even though Leia admits that Luke told her everyone mixes Light and Dark like that.
The New Republic
The new canon books set in the post-Return of the Jedi, pre-The Force Awakens period have all made very clear why Leia has to found the Resistance rather than fight the First Order with the New Republic. And that reason is basically that the New Republic is mired in slow-moving politics. Throughout this book, the people running against Mon Mothma make it incredibly hard to strike back at the Empire, even though they know that what’s left of the Empire’s fleet is hanging out above Jakku. Mon Mothma loses the first vote to authorize military action and that stalls the final battle. If Rax’s plan wasn’t to fulfill the Emperor’s goal of burning it all down anyway, they’d have lost their chance.
Another example of the way that the New Republic is more political than practical is that everyone involved in the liberation of Kashyyyk from Aftermath: Life Debt gets a commendation and are exiled: A commendation because it was a successful action and, PR-wise, it looked good, and exile because it wasn’t actually an authorized mission. As a result, people like Wedge Antilles—Wedge ******* Antilles—are given jobs with no actual worth.
Meanwhile, the New Republic isn’t the only group to spring forth after the Empire’s fall. Mon Mothma names other independent groups springing up across the galaxy in the power vacuum the Empire is leaving: The New Separatist Union (presumably a callback to the Separatists of the Clone Wars), the Confederacy of Corporate Systems, and the Sovereign Latitudes (the name pirates have given to their attempt at self-governance).
The Foundation of the First Order
This book also explains why Armitage Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) has so much influence in The Force Awakens. It was hinted in the previous book, but Empire’s End says for certain that Armitage’s father Brendol Hux was the architect of a system that produced highly loyal, highly lethal child soldiers. Brendol, who doesn’t like his son and has clearly treated him poorly, is ordered by Grand Admiral Rae Sloane to train Armitage in the methods he used. Rax also puts him in charge of the first-generation of his father’s new troops. That’s all the background to this exchange from The Force Awakens:
Kylo Ren: How capable are your soldiers, General?
General Hux: I won’t have you question my methods.
Kylo Ren: They’re obviously skilled at committing high treason. Perhaps Leader Snoke should consider using a clone army.
General Hux: My men are exceptionally trained. Programmed from birth.
Most importantly, Armitage Hux and his loyal and vicious children, his father, and a number of officers deemed “loyal” to the Emperor are charting a path through the Unknown Regions using the calculations Palpatine had ordered made. This is undoubtedly the core from which the First Order will rise.
The Return of Chewbacca’s Son Lumpy
Okay, maybe this isn’t really plot relevant but it’s very satisfying. Way back in the oft-mentioned, but impossible-to-endure 1977 Star Wars Holiday Special, we met Chewbacca’s lovely wife Malla, ahis father-in-law Itchy, and his son Lumpy. Lumpy was turned into an actual character over the course of the old Expanded Universe, and his name became “Lumpawaroo,” which itself became “Waroo,” a definite improvement over “Lumpy.”
Chewbacca and Lumpawaroo are reunited after the liberation of Kashyyyk. So there’s at least a small part of the Star Wars Holiday Special that is now authentic canon. How you feel about that is entirely up to you.
The early days of the New Republic
Although the New Republic wouldn’t be able to really officially get underway for several years, the Alliance formally dissolved and established the New Republic shortly after its decisive victory at Endor, taking out the Emperor, Darth Vader, and the second Death Star in a stunning blow. Although the New Republic was now an entity, it was pretty much still the Rebel Alliance with a new name—planets still had to be liberated from Imperial control and holdouts of the Empire had to be defeated before the New Republic, which had no real formal regions of its own, could actually become the Republic it had christened itself.
The process took several months, as Republic forces moved towards Coruscant—the official seat of galactic power for the Empire, even in the wake of the Emperor’s death—as it slowly but surely began adding worlds to its cause, some liberated in battle, some willingly joining, now that retribution from the rapidly-splintering Empire was less of a threat. Even Coruscant itself became a hotbed of civil dispute, as forces loyal to Imperial Vizier (and onetime personal confidant of the Emperor) Mas Amedda battled with citizens looking to join the New Republic. Within a year of victory at Endor, the New Republic took its first significant step toward legitimacy when, after liberating several worlds like Bespin, Akiva, Malastare, and more, the Galactic Senate—dissolved by the Emperor during the events of A New Hope—reformed on Chandrila. That’s the homeworld of Mon Mothma, who was elected the first Chancellor since Palpatine... inheriting with it the emergency powers Palpatine was granted during the outbreak of the Clone Wars decades prior.
One of Mon Mothma’s first moves as Chancellor was to give up those powers—part of her pledge in relinquishing her wartime powers included a plan to reduce the current military capacity of the New Republic by 90 percent, entrusting civil defense to the individual member worlds of the New Republic. To Mon Mothma, it was an idea that represented a peace the Rebel Alliance had fought hard to achieve, but it was a decision that would eventually play a part in the New Republic’s unmaking.
Galactic Concordance
Although the New Republic was founded and its Senate reconvened, the Galactic Civil War was still happening—and Mon Mothma couldn’t really demilitarize the Republic while waging a war with what was left of the Empire. Battles continued as world after world entered the Republic’s fold, to the point that eventually the Empire entered peace talks with the New Republic in an attempt to bring the war to an end. Not everyone in the Empire—which had this point basically devolved into various factions controlled by regional governments rather than a cohesive unit—agreed with the talks, however.
The first peace talks, taking place nearly two years after the battle of Endor, ended in tragedy when Imperial sleeper agents were awoken to attack gathered Republic Senators and Imperial Moffs on Chandrila, killing several. The crisis threatened to pull the fledgling New Republic apart—the Senate itself was forced to relocate to the planet Nakadia after the attack, several worlds applying for membership pulled out after the attack and threatened to establish a rival independent alliance out of fear the New Republic wouldn’t be able to defend them, and factions within the Imperial remnant hungry for war to continue moved out into the open. Even the New Republic itself was facing internal turmoil; a weary Mon Mothma, who narrowly escaped the Chandrila attack with her life, struggled with trying to present the New Republic as a peaceful alternative to the Empire while also acting on a strong front from a military perspective.
These cracks were exploited by crime syndicates and weapons manufacturers as corruption began to infect the newly established Senate. With Mon Mothma needing government approval before military action after the relinquishing of her emergency powers, factions like the Black Sun crime family and the Red Key syndicate bribed and blackmailed multiple senators into consistently voting against any plan for military action against the Empire, effectively stalling the New Republic’s progress and further weakening Mon Mothma’s position as Chancellor. With the Imperials amassing forces for a decisive conflict over the outer rim world of Jakku, the New Republic faced a crisis that threatened to break it entirely—but thanks to the machinations of rebel operatives combating the syndicates blackmailing senators, military action was eventually approved, officially allowing Mon Mothma to send New Republic forces to Jakku.
It was over Jakku that the New Republic won the decisive victory it needed to bring the Imperial Remnant back to peace talks. Shortly after the routing of the Imperial fleet, the Galactic Concordance was signed, bringing about the final end of the Galactic Civil War. Under the Concordance, the Imperial Remnant offered a formal surrender, with any holdouts being declared war criminals that could be tried under New Republic jurisdiction. Recruitment of stormtroopers was formally banned, as was production of new forces for the Imperial Navy. While the New Republic was given Coruscant, the Remnant was forced to dissolve its regional governments and form a new internal government that would operate within established galactic boundaries laid out by the New Republic. Several Imperial leaders disagreed, secretly dispatching military forces out into Unknown Regions of the galaxy to hide away from the Empire and New Republic alike—but just five years after the battle of Scarif formally began the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Concordance brought it to an end.
Political division
What happened after all this in the 25 or so years between Return of the Jedi and Resistance (and The Force Awakens, which occurs just six months after Resistance begins) is still mostly hazy. We know early parts of the New Republic’s rule—like Mon Mothma’s demilitarization pledge being formally voted into law, and the decision not to re-establish the Senate on Coruscant, but to regularly move it around member worlds of the Republic based on regular elections. We also know that the New Republic never reached the size of either the Empire or the Old Republic, heavily relying on trade deals with independent collections of systems to keep the galactic peace, and that after some time, Mon Mothma stepped down as Chancellor, replaced by a string of successors who couldn’t measure up to Mon Mothma’s charisma or popularity among the Senate. But aside from that, there’s decades of time that have mostly been left uncovered by current Star Wars canon.
We do know, however, that the Imperial forces that abandoned the Empire after the signing of the Galactic Concordance went on to reform themselves as the First Order out on the far edges of the galaxy, away from the watchful eyes of the New Republic or the Empire itself, which stuck to its word and operated on a similar plan of demilitarization to the Republic. And we know that the First Order eventually willingly defied the the orders of the Galactic Concordance, recruiting stormtroopers and rebuilding its Navy—and that it also began seeding connections within both Imperial and Republic governments to sow discord, distracting either faction from its continuing flagrant defiance of the Galactic Concordance.
Two decades after the Concordance was signed, that discord saw the New Republic Senate divided into two political factions which, bafflingly, are named after political ideologies with very different connotations in our world: the Centrists and the Populists. In the world of Star Wars, the Centrists advocated for a stronger military and a rigid, centralized (the name makes some sense at least!) government, while Populists argued for more independence and sovereignty for member worlds of the New Republic. These two factions essentially held the Senate in a perpetual gridlock, voting each other into stalemates that left the New Republic largely incapable of actually defending or working with its member worlds, allowing crime syndicates—many of which were paid by First Order operatives to target New Republic worlds—to wreak havoc across trade routes and hyperspace lanes.
One such syndicate, the Amaxine Warriors, was part of a plot to sow further discord in the Senate that eventually publicly exposed Leia Organa—at this a popular senator and part of the populist faction—as the daughter of Darth Vader, rocking the New Republic’s political structure. Leia, disillusioned by the Senate’s infighting and inaction, retired and founded the Resistance as a paramilitary faction that would treat the First Order’s rise as a serious threat to the state of the galaxy. But that wasn’t the only political disaster that spiraled the New Republic into further disarray; the Centrist faction within the Senate, abetted by First Order sympathizers, drafted plans to formally secede from the New Republic, openly joining with the First Order to establish them as galactic power.
The fall of the Republic
The New Republic’s downfall wasn’t immediate. There were six years between the founding of the Resistance and Starkiller Base’s attack on the Hosnian system as the galaxy entered a new Cold War period. The Resistance, small as it was, became the de facto opposition of the First Order, while the New Republic refused to take action in an attempt to maintain peace—now openly and aggressively expanding its presence in the galaxy—and because its military was now considerably outmatched thanks to the ongoing affects of demilitarization. What was left of the New Republic defense fleet saw multiple defections to the Resistance—from The Force Awakens’ Poe Dameron to Resistance’s Kaz Xiono—as the Senate was perpetually gridlocked in any attempt to take military action, born out of hubris and a disillusionment about the true scale of the First Order’s military might.
Which meant that by the time Starkiller Base atomized the New Republic Defense Fleet and the Hosnian system—the then-current home of the Senate under the New Republic’s final Chancellor, Lanever Villecham—during the events of The Force Awakens, what was being destroyed was really a shadow of the New Republic established just three decades prior. While neither The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi particularly concern themselves with the wider galactic ramifications of the conflicts we see, we know one thing: the New Republic is dead. Long live the New Republic?
Edited by Desslok
