Following the end of the cloning production during the early years of the Galactic Empire,
a vast recruitment campaign spread across the galaxy
searching for regular Humans to fill the ranks of
the rapidly growing Imperial army, navy and officer core.
While initially most of the early recruits came from planetary security forces and private
enforcement agencies, the Empire quickly came to encourage all its citizens to join its
military, including its youngest.
This was done with the establishment of Imperial Academies across its
countless worlds, with separate Junior Academies for its youth.
For most backwater and underdeveloped planets, these Imperial Academies were the only
opportunity the Human inhabitants had in hopes of leaving their impoverished lives and learning
skills beyond farming and mining, a common trade for many living on these worlds.
As a result, families would send their children to these Junior Academies in hopes of giving
them better lives and to do their duty of serving the new Empire, with a few cases of
children joining on their own or even against their
parents’ wishes.
While the primary purpose of these academies was to train future soldiers, pilots, and
officers, some also provided education for non-military
careers.
Data management, starship engineering, medical science, galactic history, journalism,
and various other skills were also taught.
With some exceptions, most of the non-military careers undertaken by graduates tended to
pay less and came with fewer perks when compared
to their peers that served directly in the Empire’s war machine.
Most attendees that initially came to the academies seeking basic
education, were strongly encouraged to take courses for military career paths.
Those who attended Junior Academies stayed for one to a couple years, depending on their
age of admission.
By the age of sixteen, they were then transferred to a senior Imperial
Academy to further their education and training.
At the Junior Academies, cadets were required to live on its premises during their attendance.
The experiences of these children and young teens during their stay varied depending on
where they were located, but in general nearly all
Junior Academies sought to weed out the weak through physical tests, teach history and
current events, instill loyalty, and prepare cadets for
their chosen careers for when they would graduate to the Senior Academies.
The history lessons given ranged from detailed descriptions of battles of the Clone Wars
to the politics of the former Republic.
Of course, these lessons were always taught with the purpose of
undermining the Republic and shining light on the Empire’s methods of governance.
Jedi involvement in battles of the Clone Wars was rarely mentioned, with credit of their
victories given to the Admirals or Generals instead.
Current events on the other hand taught cadets of relevant news taking place within or near
their planets, with the Empire always painted in a positive manner.
Sports and other recreational activities were common at Junior Academies, with Grav-Ball
being among the most popular.
Both mental and physical examinations were given which dictated the career paths cadets
could pursue following their graduations, with those
who failed too often being kicked out.
The strictness of these examinations was not equal across the academies, however.
For example, the Junior Academy on Eriadu was
noted for its very laid-back attitude when it came
to training cadets, with the instructors passing everyone who attended and going out of their
way to treat them well.
This was largely due to the low enrollment of new cadets it received
each year as a result of the sparse population of nearby settlements.
In contrast, the Junior Academy on Lothal was uniquely harsh and unforgiving, with Cadets
made to undergo extreme physical tests such as those that took place within “the Well”,
and it was common for each year to have multiple
dropouts.
Depending on the region of the galaxy, some Junior Academies were focused mainly on
producing future stormtroopers and Imperial army personnel.
This was usually the case within the Outer Rim regions and planets with active
rebel activity.
By the time of graduation, most cadets were transferred to a senior academy within their
system; while a select few were allowed to attend prestigious academies if they were
the top of their class.
At the senior Imperial academies, cadets were placed in specialized training to become either
Stormtroopers, TIE Pilots, Deck Officers, or other personnel for the military; with
some overlap of training involving everyone across the
different classes.
From the age of Sixteen, cadets typically attended these academies until they reached
eighteen or nineteen, in which case they would either
graduate and start their service shortly afterwards, or be accepted for further training at elite
academies, like the Skystrike Academy.
When it came to aspiring young Stormtroopers, they received among the harshest physical
training when compared to their Officer and Pilot counterparts.
Most of their education centered around battle tactics, as well as lessons
of past military campaigns.
Stormtrooper training was quite similar to that of past Clones, where their individualities
were broken down and replaced to view themselves
as only a single piece of a larger fighting force.
They were all given operating numbers, which their instructors typically referred to them
with during their training rather than their given
names.
Additionally, loyalty tests were among the strictest, with Stormtroopers being taught
to view the Empire as their new home and the worlds
they came from as simply a small cog of the galaxy.
They were also trained to remove their emotions when dealing with unlawful citizens,
viewing them as inferiors who deserve cruel treatment.
In one case, a friend of Zare Leonis trained to become a Stormtrooper on Lothal.
Upon his graduation, Zare was barely able to recognize
his friend, who had been turned into a completely different person, one that was now indifferent
to the harm he caused and simply followed orders
without question.
Interestingly enough, some stormtrooper classes had a sense of superiority among its cadets
when comparing themselves to the past Clone Troopers.
When the Ghost Crew along with Captain Rex boarded a damaged Imperial Vessel,
they came across a few cadets stationed aboard.
One of them later proclaimed he was going to be a superior soldier as a Stormtrooper
than any Clone Trooper was, right to Captain Rex’s face after finding out he had deserted
the Empire and was a Rebel.
An opinion he held even after failing to capture the Rebels in hopes of
receiving a reward from his superiors.
When it came to Imperial Officers and Pilots, their training was far less harsh and dehumanizing
when compared to Stormtroopers.
Those that attended the prestigious Royal Imperial Academy
on Coruscant received some of the best education in the entire galaxy.
Along with access to amenities that would be considered luxurious to other academies,
attendees of the Royal academy were also given a lot of recreational time to befriend one
another as well as explore Coruscant, which was a dream experience to cadets that came
off world.
Although relationships were forbidden among cadets, they were allowed to date those not
in the academy.
Despite these more relaxed rules, there were a few unique obstacles to cadets at the royal
academy.
For one, it was perhaps the most politicized academy among the ruling elite, with
powerful families typically bribing or strong-arming instructors to give their children favors.
In some cases, cadets who excelled but came from
poor backgrounds, were sabotaged so they would not stay ahead of their more privileged
peers.
Another thing that was possibly unique to the Royal academy, was the culture of Core
world superiority shared by most cadets, viewing
those that came from the Mid and Outer Rim as
inferiors.
This mindset was so apparent, that some higher ups purposely manipulated events to
keep cadets that came from the same backwater worlds to distrust one another and undermined
their standings.
While academics were prioritized at the royal academy, cadets were still required to maintain
peak physical condition, which they were tested through a course known as the Sky Loop, a
running track which looped around the entire campus.
The dropout rate among cadets was exceptionally high, as standards for grades increased for
each new exam, with it not being uncommon for half the class being kicked out every
year.
Despite this, those that made it to graduation were given among the best positions the Empire
had to offer.
The top students of each class were invited to attend a party at the Imperial Palace
on Empire Day, where the most powerful Imperials and royals were known to attend, including
at one point Princess Leia of Alderaan.
Cadets that were invited were encouraged to dress their
best and to make as many connections as possible.
While some did this in hopes of aiding their future careers, other cadets were known to
get completely wasted and simply enjoy the party.
Although on average Imperial Officer training was less harsh to that of Stormtroopers’,
there was one academy where that was not the case.
The isolated Arkanis Academy trained aspiring Officers but had a brutal reputation, that
resulted in its cadets being killed either through
encouragement of its instructors or through accidents in unapproved live fire training
simulations.
This was where Zare Leonis attended after graduating from the Junior Academy on Lothal.
Much of the brutality of Arkanis came from its Commandant, Brendol Hux, the father of
Armitage Hux.
Brendol had a very unorthodox view of how to train Officers, wishing to instill loyalty
and cruelty within them that was so extreme that
his methods were banned from Imperial High Command, so he had to carry many of them out
in secret.
His methods included forcing the cadets to assassinate one another as a test, with them
only passing if they did not get caught.
He also had them train using live rounds, where cadets were
known to get killed.
The high death rate of his cadets was usually recorded as accidents, but
nonetheless the Empire ultimately sent a team to investigate his academy.
At one point he brought his cadets to watch a defenseless animal be mauled to death by
a predator, showing them the natural order of
things where strength trampled all else.
Cadets that disobeyed or resisted his training methods were often tortured and brainwashed
into compliance, with some being sentenced to death by him.
Something extremely rare to happen to cadets of other academies, but was
common on Arkanis.
Brendol’s motivation was to train a new generation of leaders and soldiers who would
be equal to, and perhaps surpass, the discipline and
talents of the former Clone Army.
He was also known to take cadets that were Force sensitive and personally house them
for the Inquisitors to teach them the ways of the
dark side, either through corruption or torture if they
resisted.
Overall, the childhood and teenage years of aspiring Imperials at the Junior Academies
was usually tame, especially when compared to
the upbringing Clones their age had on Kamino.
Only later would older teens training to become Stormtroopers at the senior academies face
similar treatment to that of Clones.
While for older teens that trained to become pilots and
officers, their treatment was far better, with them being given far more freedom for
recreation time as well as far less intensive physical
training, with exception to those unfortunate enough to
attend the Arkanis Academy.