With the Republic abolished, Emperor Palpatine consolidated his power. First he reorganized
the military and administrative structure of the Empire, while diminishing the power
of the Senate, making it a symbolic organization with no real authority.
To deal with any lingering Secessionist rebels, and deter any future rebellion, the Empire
carried out various atrocities such as the massacre of Antar 4, led by Moff Wilhuff Tarkin.
But rather than quell hostilities against them, the violence of the Empire turned many
more away. Leading them into the arms of newly formed rebel movements emerging throughout
the galaxy. In the early years, after the fall of the
Republic, Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan worked in secret with former Jedi Padawan
Ahsoka Tano, to form a Rebel Network, consisting of a number of independent cells, sabotaging
and attacking Imperial forces whenever possible. These cells were deliberately kept ignorant
of the activities of other rebels, so that if captured they would have no information
of value to offer the Empire. Many of these early rebel groups had their
origins in local conflicts, only later joining the larger rebellion against the Empire. Ahsoka
Tano, under the code named Fulcrum, would often act as the sole contact for many cells
to the larger rebel network. One of the best known early resistance Fighters,
was the legendary Cham Syndulla, who led the Free Ryloth movement, working for years to
liberate the Twi’lek homeworld first from Republic Control, then Separatist Control
and finally Imperial Control. Cham’s efforts culminated in an assassination attempt against
the Emperor himself, who had been purposely stranded on Ryloth alongside his apprentice
Darth Vader. Though the attempt on Palpatine’s life failed, the event forced Cham to leave
Ryloth, and join the larger Rebel movement in the galaxy.
Many years later, his daughter Hera Syndulla would continue her father’s legacy. Joining
the Rebel Network and even recruiting former Jedi Padawan Caleb Dume, known as Kanan Jarrus
into the Rebellion. On Aldaaron, Bail Organa continued to feign
loyalty to the Empire, raising his adopted daughter Princess Leia Organa, once Leia Skywalker,
as a Rebel, teaching her of the Jedi and Galactic Republic. Meanwhile on Tatooine Luke Skywalker
worked as a moisture famer with his uncle Owen and aunt Beru. Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi
also stayed on Tatooine, watching Luke from afar, and protecting him from danger. As a
child, Luke was nearly killed when he confronted Jabba the Hutt’s men who had extracted a
water tax from his family. Although Luke was injured he was saved by Obi Wan, known only
to Luke as crazy Old Ben Kenobi. 5 years before the battle of Yavin, a young
force sensitive named Ezra Bridger, joined a Rebel cell operating on his homeworld of
Lothal. The Spectres, as were known, were led by Cham Syndulla’s daughter, Hera Syndulla
and former Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus. Kanan, who after surviving Order 66, abandoned the
ways of the Jedi, sensed the strong Force presence within the boy and chose to return
to the way of the Force, taking on Ezra as his Jedi apprentice.
4 years before the Battle of Yavin, as the Spectre crew carried out various missions
on behalf of the Rebel Network, Ezra began his Jedi Trials, acquiring a Kyber crystal
in an abandoned Jedi Temple on Lothal and using it to craft his lightsaber.
The Spectre cell then decided to use the Main Communications Tower on Lothal to broadcast
a message across the Holonet, calling for the Galaxy to rise in Rebellion against the
Empire. Though there mission was successful, Kanan Jarrus was captured and taken aboard
Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin’s ship, the Sovereign, where he was tortured by the Grand Inquisitor.
Inquisitors, were Dark side force users, trained by the Sith Lord Apprentice Darth Vader and
armed with duel bladed red lightsabers. They acted as agents of the Sith and Empire, used
to hunt down Jedi who survived Order 66. They also captured force sensitive children, to
prevent them from becoming Jedi. Though Kanan was thoroughly interrogated,
like all Rebels he had been deliberately kept ignorant about the larger Rebel movement,
and was therefore unable to provide any useful information.
Meanwhile the Spectre crew organized a rescue effort and infiltrated the Sovereign as it
orbited Mustafar. After Kanan was freed,* he went on to defeat the Grand Inquisitor
in combat, leading to the Inquisitor’s death. Grand Moff Tarkin’s ship the Sovereign was
also destroyed in the attack, with Tarkin only narrowly escaping with his life.
For years the Rebellion endured, growing and expanding beyond the independent cells of
their past. Eventually the organization grew into the Alliance to Restore the Republic,
a more formal Rebel movement, headed by Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, a former Senator of
Chandrila and longtime supporter of the Rebellion. As their military forces grew, so did their
intelligence and spy networks. In the year of the Battle of Yavin, Alliance
agents discovered the location of a secret Imperial military installation, where Grand
Moff Wilhuff tarkin oversaw the construction of a colossal superweapon, that would come
to be known as the Death Star. Committed to the destruction of the weapon,
the Alliance managed to steal the design specification of the Death Star, entrusting them to Princess
Leia of Aldaaran, now known to the Galaxy as Senator Leia Organa, who would attempt
to bring the plans to the Rebel leadership. When Darth Vader learned of the theft, he
tracked down the Senator, capturing her and demanding she surrender the plans and name
the location of the Rebellion’s base of operations.
Yet Princess Leia no longer had the schematics, as she had hidden them with her astromech
droid R2D2, and sent him on an escape pod to the planet of Tatooine, on a mission find
Obi Wan Kenobi and enlist his aid in taking the information to the Rebels.
While on Tatooine, R2D2 encountered Luke Skywalker who took the droid home to his family’s
moisture farm. But It was not long before Imperial forces tracked the droid to Tatooine,
destroying Luke’s home, killing his aunt and uncle. After learning of the plight of
the Alliance, and with no more ties to Tatooine, Luke joined Obi Wan in his journey to find
the Rebellion. At last Obi Wan felt it was time to begin his Jedi training, taking the
boy on as his apprentice. With the help of Han Solo, Chewbacca and the
Milenium Falcon, Obi Wan, Luke and their droids were able to leave Tatooine, and made their
way to Alderaan, where they might make contact with the Alliance. Yet with the Death Star’s
construction completed, Grand Moff Tarkin chose to destroy the planet of Alderaan, both
to extract information from Leia Organa, and as a message to every rebel planet in the
galaxy, that acts of treason would no longer be tolerated. The Millennium Falcon was then
captured by the Death Star, but used the opportunity to rescue Princess Leia. Darth Vader, having
sensed the re-emergence of his old Jedi master, sought out Obi Wan, who sacrificed himself,
fighting off the Dark Lord, allowing for Luke and the others to escape.
Making contact with the Rebellion on the moon Yavin 4, the Death Star tracked their movements
and so confronted the Alliance fleet in the battle of Yavin. Luke and a team of X wing
fighters, were sent to destroy the Death Star, having found a single weakness in the structure’s
design, requiring small fighter planes to exploit that weakness.
Though Obi Wan was seemingly dead, and Luke left without a Jedi Master, Obi Wan had in
fact survived, having learned a secret of force manipulation, which allowed his consciousness
to live on after the death of his physical body. He had learned the secret from his former
master Qui Gon Jinn, who had survived his duel with Darth maul, living on as a spirit
within the Force. It was therefore the voice and spirit of Obi
Wan Kenobi that guided Luke on his mission against the Death Star and aided him in channeling
the force, so he might shoot his laser directly into the exhaust port of the great Superweapon,
allowing for a chain reaction that would destroy the Death Star, killing Grand Moff Tarkin
who commanded the ship. Despite the great victory at Yavin and destruction
of the Imperial Superweapon, 3 years after the Battle of Yavin, the rebellion still struggled
against the might of Imperial power. The Rebel stronghold of Hoth was discovered by the Empire
and destroyed, causing the Rebel Alliance to flee and find a new base of operations.
Luke, having spent these years helping the Alliance carry out a number of missions, began
to once again hear the voice of Obi Wan in his mind, instructing him to travel to the
planet of Dagobah where he might complete his Jedi training. After crash landing on
the planet, Luke found former Jedi Grand Master Yoda, now living alone in exile. Yoda trained
him in the ways of the Force, making him confront his own fear and anger.
In the fourth year after the battle of Yavin, while Luke continues his training on Dagobah,
he senses that his friends Han Solo and Leia Organa were in trouble. Despite Yoda’s warnings
against leaving his training, Luke travelled to Cloud City on a mission to rescue his friends.
Yet the mission was a failure, with Luke defeated by Darth Vader in combat, losing a hand and
learning that Vader was in fact Luke’s father, the former Jedi Anakin Skywalker.
Lando Calrissian, who had initially betrayed Han Solo and Princess Leia to the Empire,
was too late to save his old friend Han, who had been frozen in carbonite and taken to
Jabba the Hutt by the bounty hunter Boba Fett. But was able to rescue Leia and Chewbacca,
escaping with them aboard the Millennium Falcon and rescuing Luke who had nearly been killed
by Lord Vader. 6 months later, Luke Skywalker was successfully
able to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt’s palace, then returning to Dagobah to complete
his Jedi training. But Yoda was now dying and only able to give Luke some final words
of advice, telling him he must confront Vader again, and revealing the identity of Luke’s
sister, Leia Organa. Yoda also confirmed that Vader was in fact Luke and Leia’s father,
before declaring Luke the last of the Jedi and letting his body die, so his spirit might
join Obi wan and Qui Gon Jinn in the Force. Luke now returning to the Alliance, aided
in organizing a final attack against the Empire, targeting the second Death Star being built
in orbit of the planet Endor. While Han, Leia and the Alliance attacked
a shield generator protecting the superweapon, Luke would go aboard the Death Star, confronting
Lord Sidious and Vader. After a grueling battle, in which the Dark
Side briefly took hold of Luke, allowing him to defeat his father Darth Vader, Luke ultimately
rejected the dark side, turning down the Emperor’s offer to become his new apprentice, instead
throwing down his lightsaber, choosing the light and refusing to kill his father. Sidious,
disappointed in his potential new pupil, attacked him with force lightening, putting so much
of his own power into the attack he left himself vulnerable. Darth Vader, unable to watch his
son die, reached out and threw the Sith Lords down a cavernous shaft, to his death.* Vader
then collapsed, and asked Luke to remove his mask, so he might see his son with his own
eyes, one last time before death. His return to the light side of the force, allowed for
Vader’s consciousness to survive the death of his body, joining Obi Wan and the others
as spirits within the force. With both Deathstar’s destroyed and the
Emperor and Vader dead, the Galactic Empire was severely crippled though not yet defeated.
The surviving leadership of the Empire would abandon many core worlds, retreating into
the Outer Rim. Imperial Governors, admirals and moffs would then begin conspiring against
each other, engaging in small scale civil wars as the many ambitious leaders of the
Empire competed for ultimate power. Governor Adelhard, reacted with drastic and immediate
actions, locking down the Anoat Sector, proclaiming the rumors of the Emperor’s death as treasonous
lies, and arresting any who dared speak against the Empire. The blockade lasted for many months,
forcing the local population into the blackmarket for food and supplies. Eventually a group
of gangsters, bounty hunters, mercenaries and civilians joined together to form a rebel
movement against the Iron fisted governor, engaging against the elite Purge Troopers,
used by the Adelhard to keep the population subdued.
The Rebel Alliance would dissolve becoming a new Galactic Republic complete with Galactic
Senate. Though unable to get passed the Iron blockade of the Anoat sector, the New Republic
would fill the power vacuum now left on many other worlds, including many of the more modern
and industrialized planets of the Galactic core. Former Senator and Rebel leader Mon
Mothma would be elected as First Chancellor of the New Republic, establishing the capital
on Chandrila, her homeworld. Luke Skywalker, last of the Jedi, was now
responsible for the fate of the Jedi Order and so began training a new generation of
Force Sensitives.