Imperial Officer uniforms came in a variety of colors which all related to the wearer’s
branch within the Empire.
The most common colors were the olive green and gray colored uniforms, which belonged
to Officers in the Imperial Army and Navy.
The less common white uniforms were given to I.S.B and Imperial Intelligence agents,
and the rare black uniforms to Stormtrooper officers.
However, the rarest Imperial Officer uniform by far was the red one, worn only by two people
during the Galactic Empire’s reign.
Unlike the other uniform colors mentioned earlier, the red uniform was worn as part
of a powerful Imperial family rather than in relation to a specific position in the
Empire, however both members of said family were Directors of the Imperial Intelligence
while they wore the red uniforms, so it can be associated to that position as well.
The
red uniform was initially worn by Armand Isard, who served as the first head director of the
Imperial Intelligence upon its creation following the declaration of the Galactic Empire.
Having been a close ally of Palpatine for years prior to him becoming Emperor, Armand
quickly rose to become one of the most powerful men in the Empire, among the likes of Wilhuff
Tarkin and Sate Pestage.
Working alongside Darth Vader and the Inquisitors on a frequent basis when it came to hunting
down surviving Jedi, Armand was almost the bridge between the dark side adepts of the
Empire and the traditional branches of the military, transferring and maintaining vital
intel between the two groups.
While it is not exactly known why Armand Isard decided to wear a red uniform, it wasn’t
uncommon for high ranking Imperials to greatly alter their standard issued uniforms.
Seeing how he worked so closely among the Sith of the Empire through their Inquisitors
and other dark side servants, it’s possible the red color of his uniform reflected the
traditional color of the Sith.
When it came to serving as Director of the Imperial Intelligence, Armand’s duties involved
spying on enemies of the empire as well as signing off on assassinations, exposing and
hunting down traitors, fighting corruption, and maintaining vital intel among the various
Imperial military branches.
Despite being given the duty of fighting corruption within the Empire, Armand understood the importance
of having historically powerful and wealthy families and houses in support of the Imperial
government, often giving members of said families minor punishments over corruption in hopes
of maintaining the order their power helped cement.
Armand also involved himself in numerous noble house conflicts, typically siding with the
house and family that was the most pro-Imperial, and then using his power to ensure they were
the ones who came out on top.
One of the most notable examples of this was his efforts in influencing the position of
the house of Dooku on Serenno, by ordering the assassination of the current head of the
family who was the nephew of the former Jedi Master Count Dooku, and later ensuring that
house Malvern took the title of Count of Serenno, effectively making them the leaders and most
powerful family within the Serenno system.
Fully understanding the importance of political power an influential family held within the
Galactic Empire, Armand did everything to ensure his own blood, the Isard family, would
remain on top for decades to come.
This involved him bringing up his own daughter, Ysanne Isard, as an agent within the Imperial
Intelligence and grooming her to take the mantle as head of the family when the time
came.
But he ended up grooming her a bit too well, as Armand began to fear for his own position
within the Empire following the Rebel Alliance’s capture of the Death Star plans, as protecting
them was one of his duties.
This failure in protecting the Death Star plans made Armand vulnerable in being replaced
as Director of Imperial Intelligence, and he feared his own daughter was making the
moves to replace him.
Because of this, Armand ended up sending her on a mission he knew she would fail in, in
order to make her look incompetent.
But while she was on the mission, Ysanne figured out the true purpose of it and her father’s
attempt to ruin her career.
So she instead flipped the script on him and went to betray him, by manipulating Imperial
intel behind his back and making it look like it was he who gave the Rebels the Death Star
plans, and that Armand was attempting to use the Rebel Alliance to overthrow Palpatine
and take the throne for himself.
Ysanne was able to get this manipulated information directly to Palpatine, who later called in
Armand and had him arrested and slated for execution.
Ysanne herself was rumored to have been the one to execute her father, promising him before
his death that he shouldn’t worry, because their family legacy was in good hands.
The Director of Intelligence position was then given to Lord Cronal, a dark side agent
of Palpatine, but his stay there didn’t last too long and the position was later taken
by Ysanne, filling in the shoes of her father and wearing the red uniform like him before.
As Director, Ysanne transformed the organization into one that would more effectively combat
the recently formed Rebel Alliance, putting resources into capturing and torturing rebel
prisoners, in order to turn them into unwilling sleeper agents.
She also attempted to manipulate Palpatine a bit, by making him question and suspect
his other close allies, all in hopes of placing herself closer to his sphere of power.
But Palpatine always knew not to take the bait, even calling her out once that out of
everyone she mentioned, he trusted her the least.
It’s even possible that Palpatine knew all along of her manipulations over her father,
and that the only reason he allowed her to succeed him was due to her ambition, and that
the true punishment of Armand was in his failure in protecting the Death Star plans and attempting
to cover up his failures on blaming his daughter.
Nonetheless, Ysanne’s real rise to power came following the death of Emperor Palpatine
during the battle of Endor.
Although the Galactic Empire fractured into multiple territories held by warring Warlords,
Ysanne remained at the center of the power vacuum at Coruscant which at the time still
held the greatest power over the remaining Imperial resources.
Acting as an advisor to the newly recognized leader of the Empire, Sate Pestage, Ysanne
quickly realized how incompetent the man was as a ruler and manipulated him in allowing
herself to eliminate her own rivals.
Once that was done, she had the Imperial Ruling Council on Coruscant turn on Sate Pestage,
forcing him to flee from the capitol.
She then turned on the Ruling Council itself, assassinating its members until the organization
itself had lost its power on the capital.
Following her purges on her political enemies, she quickly became a dictator of the remaining
Imperial territory that still recognized the Imperial capital’s authority, having some
refer to her as the Queen of the Empire, and effectively making her likely the second most
powerful Imperial warlord at the time, second only to warlord Zsinj who held the most territory
and resources.
But her hold onto power didn’t last long, as only a year after her rise to power, the
New Republic invaded Coruscant in an attempt to liberate it from the Empire.
Fully understanding she was going to lose the battle, Ysanne took a hidden Executor-class
Star Dreadnought buried within the planet’s deep levels and blasted out of there as a
means to flee from the New Republic, killing millions in the process and likely making
it the largest single incident on the planet to cause the most deaths.
Her escape with the Executor-class Star Dreadnought, known as the Lusankya, only bought her a short
amount of time.
As only months following her departure from Coruscant, she was tracked down by a rogue
squadron of the New Republic and ended up losing the star dreadnought to the republic
special forces, which were able to capture the warship for the New Republic, making it
the most powerful ship within the N.R fleet.
Despite this, Ysanne was able to avoid capture and escaped into Imperial friendly territory.
However, after losing both the Imperial capital and an Executor class Dreadnought, many under
her leadership began to question her ability to lead and even started to abandon her.
As more time passed, Ysanne simply fell into irrelevancy and even accepted that fate, as
by the time Grand Admiral Thrawn had returned to combat the New Republic, she decided to
stay out of the conflict and just watch it unfold from the sidelines, fully believing
at this point that the Empire was dead and could not be revived.
By the 5th year following the Battle of Ender, Ysanne was killed by Wedge Antilles’ wife,
Iella Wessiri Antilles, when the woman attempted to capture Ysanne but was forced to kill her
after the former Director resisted.
And with Ysanne’s death, the Isard name died with her, as she had no children and
all relatives of her family had died decades earlier.