Imperial History

Before the Republic, there was chaos. Chaos existed within the void between worlds. This chaos bred warlords and crime lords. It was an era where figures like Xim the Despot and Hutts ruled the galaxy with totally impunity, it was the dark age of the Galaxy. But twenty-five millennia ago, a light glimmered and shined amidst the darkness. Twenty five thousand years ago disorder was made into order, injustice into justice and inefficiency into efficiency with the establishment of the first true Galactic power, the Galactic Republic.

With worlds cooperating with each other, a governmental bureaucracy was put into place and thousands of member worlds elected senators, officials and administrators. Laws were codified and a justice system put into action. Criminals were punished and victims and potential victims, protected. Inter-world transportation and communications systems were developed on a wider scale then ever before. Learning institutions became far more accessible, the arts and sciences flourished and advanced at an astounding rate. It was an exciting time, what once was thousands became unified as one and thus order reigned.

As time moved on, the Jedi Order established itself as a power on the Galactic scene. The Jedi were a small group of likeminded individuals that claimed to have the ability to manipulate an element of energy they simply referred to as "the Force" and with it accomplished amazing feats less civilized peoples would have interpreted as magic. With the trappings of justice, honor and peace these self proclaimed mediators and advocates became the violent, brutal and repressive foot soldiers for an increasingly corrupt Senate. Their words sounded good, but all they served was their own agenda.

The power of the Jedi Order reached its peak four thousand years ago. Up to that point, the Galactic Republic believed itself the only galactic presence. Soon, however, they encountered the Sith Empire. Exiled members of the Jedi Order and their descendants dominated the Sith Empire. Also controlling the mystical "Force," they believed that emotion was the way to truth, whether it was love or hate, good or bad, positive or negative and that truth was the way to power. The Jedi in contrast believed that objectivity was the only way to true power and that one could only become objective by rejecting all emotion.

Fearing the loss of their political and moral superiority over the masses, the Senate and their goons, the Jedi Order, decried the Sith Empire as blatantly evil, an evil people who use the Force in evil ways, to achieve evil means. Once the masses of the Galactic Republic were sufficiently convinced of this, the Republic, through their hired killers the Jedi Knights, embarked on a campaign of genocide, spinning it as a holy crusade, a war to rid the galaxy evil. The people of the Sith Empire suffered because they were a different people, they lived differently and thus became threat to the status quo of the Galactic Republic.

In what came to be known as the Sith Wars millions of innocents died, entire systems were wiped out of the galaxy and from the annals of history forever. Many scholars loyal to the New Order have labeled the Sith Wars the beginning of the fall of the Galactic Republic. In next four millennia, the Senate degraded further. It succumbed to over-inflation, internal strife, greed and special interests. What once stood for order, came to stand for disorder, what once stood for justice came to stand for injustice and what once stood for efficiency came to stand for inefficiency. It had come full circle and once again chaos reigned.

Out of the Clone Wars came a savior. From seemingly nowhere came a leader, an inspiration, and a vision. An undistinguished Senator from a little known world was elected as Supreme Chancellor, a compromise candidate between the ranking partisan groups of the Senate. A threat to no one they thought. A weak man and an even weaker leader who do nothing more than maintain the status quo, which was the desired goal of the bureaucracy. They soon came to realize their mistake as this formerly unknown became one of the most powerful and forceful leaders the Galactic Republic ever saw.

Supreme Chancellor Palapatine took the opportunity of the succession war to declare martial law. The seeds for the New Order had been planted. Ultimately successful in the clone wars, he had the peoples favor when he declared himself Emperor of the known Galaxy. As the Galactic Republic gradually morphed into what would become the Galactic Empire, order once again replaced disorder, justice replaced injustice and efficiency replaced inefficiency. Order triumphed over chaos through Emperor Palpatine's driving will and his overwhelming vision.

For two full decades he maintained his Empire. He hunted down the Jedi and killed them nearly to the last man, constructed massive fleets, commissioned and maintained the Grand Army of the Republic, gained and held thousands of worlds. In every conceivable way, he literally built an Empire.

As order had been established, the Empire created and the utterly corrupt Senate weakened to a purely advisory role, native dissident groups sprung up all over the Galaxy. They were driven by senatorial figures whose power base had been stolen away when the Senate's power ended and nihilists who didn't appreciate the rules of civilized society. They gained power among the people much the same way as the Jedi before them, with a grass roots campaign of half-truths and outright lies. They painted order itself as oppressive and decried the Emperor himself as evil. In this way they gained a large following.

They were not much of a concern until they organized themselves and started being referred to as the Rebel Alliance. Their efforts became more cohesive and their actions more deadly. More innocents were killed in the cross fire of the self proclaimed freedom fighters, their actions bolstered by traitorous Senators who fled the Empire before their arrests as the Throne dissolved the corrupt Imperial Senate. Recently our lord, Emperor Palpatine, was assassinated in the destruction of the Death Star battle platform while seeking out the Rebel base. Succession has fallen upon a man hand picked by Palpatine himself, while he was alive. Grand Moff Karl von Roma, eldest child of former Moff Georg von Roma, a close associate of Palpatine and longtime supporter of the New Order.

A strong man cultivated by his family to rule, he has had an immaculate military and civil record with the Galactic Empire, a large, loyal following, experience, competency, determination and the blessing of Emperor Palpatine himself. The Grand Moff was simply the logical choice. Emperor Palpatine will always be remembered as the founder of the New Order, but Karl von Roma will become known as the man who defeated the rebellion, ended the Galactic Civil War, fortified the New Order and assured the continuation of the Galactic Empire for another twenty five thousand years.

Long live Emperor Karl von Roma and long last the Empire.