War of the Throne

The War of the Throne was a series of internal power struggles that broke out in the Galactic Empire after the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY. The struggle was devastating for the Empire, resulting in the near-total collapse of the New Order's legitimate administrative apparatus and the loss of more than half of the Imperial military. It would also allow the New Republic to raise and become the dominant galactic power militarily, economically, and politically within four years after Endor. Although by the end of the war, Imperial officials were still the only effective administrators in vast regions of space, their fragmentation and the weakening of the central government made the New Republic a more influential force in the galaxy. It was named the War of the Throne because of multiple Imperial leaders and factions seeking to make themselves Emperor and rightful successors to Palpatine. The struggle was ultimately put to an end in 8 ABY, when a Prophet of the Dark Side, Aurelian, took the Imperial Throne and reunited many of the rival warlords.

Background
The power struggle had always been present in the Empire as Palpatine had actively fostered rivalries and allowed different Imperial Moffs, admirals, and advisors to serve as checks on each other's power. This hindered the functioning of the Imperial government but served to create an environment of distrust and paranoia that made the possibility of a coup against the Emperor unlikely. There was no legitimate heir appointed by the Emperor either, as he had secretly planned to continue ruling forever by transferring his essence through the dark side into different clone bodies. This ensured that once Palpatine died aboard the Second Death Star there was no mechanism within the Imperial state for transferring power to a successor.

Because of this, when news of Emperor Palpatine's death spread throughout the galaxy, many Moffs, fleet commanders, governors, and other Imperial leaders went rogue. They broke away and began carving out their pocket empires in Imperial territory. Some even vied for the Throne itself, and that conflict would paralyze the government on Imperial Center to such a degree that it prevented them from effectively taking action against the nascent New Republic. Instead of going on the attack the Imperial military turned its attention to the struggle of determining a successor to the Emperor. If the Imperial Navy had gone on the offensive immediately after Endor, historians estimated that it would have strangled the young Republic in its cradle, but the disorder in Imperial ranks prevented the military from bringing its full force to bear on the Rebels.

The late Emperor's close deputy and the chairman of the Imperial Ruling Council, Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, was in the most logical position to become a legitimate successor to Palpatine. Within days after Endor, the former advisor began positioning himself to take the role of "acting Emperor" in the wake of Palpatine's death. Most of the Ruling Council supported his candidacy for the Throne and as far as Imperial legal scholars were concerned, it was the closest bid for the Throne to being legitimate. However, as a palace courtier Pestage had no military forces of his own to speak of besides some CompForce troops under the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order, the Coruscant Guard, and some surviving members of the Emperor's Royal Guard. These effectively amounted to a security force and could not pose a challenge to the Grand Moffs, many of whom had not even heard of Pestage before and felt that a bureaucrat was not capable of handling the crisis or deserving of the coveted title of Emperor. Pestage also knew he could not fully count on the support of military leaders in the Core, who might leverage their position to gain the most from whichever warlord offered to buy their loyalty in return for support.

The most immediate threat to Pestage was Director of Imperial Intelligence, Ysanne Isard, who also believed that the weak bureaucrat was not charismatic or powerful enough to hold the Empire together. Three months after Endor, Isard decided to make her move, with the assets of Imperial Intelligence and some dissident military officers supporting her coup. But the coup attempt failed after Pestage was tipped off, and Intelligence's rival, COMPNOR, took the opportunity to retaliate in full force. Isard and her leading conspirators were rounded up by CompForce assault regiments and Coruscant Guard troopers overseen by the Imperial Security Bureau. They would soon be executed for treason after a summary trial. Intelligence was greatly weakened by the event, but it was not fully dissolved and would remain active.

As the War of the Throne was getting underway on Imperial Center, the New Republic taken advantage of the Empire's inaction and paralysis by liberating large swaths of territory. The Western Reaches had been been mostly cleared out of an Imperial presence, with the remaining forces in the region being forced back to around Eriadu and the surrounding systems. Although Pestage had appointed Admiral Malek Zaarin as Supreme Commander of Imperial Forces, the Grand Vizier's orders to organise defenses against New Republic attacks limited his possible actions. With that a path into the southern Core and the heart of the Empire had been paved. A New Republic task force under Fleet Admiral Ackbar's personal command made its way into the Core along the Hydian Way and besieged Coruscant itself. At this stage, under pressure from the military, Pestage resigned as the Imperial Ruling Council abandoned the capital, fleeing to the resort world of Ord Cantrell in the Outer Rim.

Imperial Center itself fell as the Imperial Home Fleet had been weakened by defections to warlords and low morale, and while the ground campaign would last longer, the uprising by countless Coruscanti citizens would assist in the New Republic liberation. Many Imperial Army conscripts also turned on their commanders, while some New Order loyalists like the CompForce troops fought to the end and proved to be a major irritant for the New Republic ground forces. The fall of Imperial Center (or liberation of Coruscant in New Republic histories) would be the first major blow to the Empire's hegemony.

Countdown to collapse
After the Ruling Council reconvened on Ord Cantrell along with the rest of the Empire's legitimate central authority that fled the capital, Pestage was forced to resign but remained active on the Council. Soon they appointed General Lord Josef Picutorion, a member of the influential from the  sector, as the new Emperor in return for using his resources to retake the Imperial throne world. The fact that Picutorion was not only a general but a scion of an ancient noble house also gave him the appearance of legitimacy. The respected general and nobleman amassed a large fleet with the goal of retaking the capital, believing that Pestage's strategy of defense was responsible for the New Republic's gains. But "Emperor" Picutorion's reign would be short, as his mission to retake Coruscant would not last long.

The large armada under Picutorion's command, dubbed the Emperor's Revenge Fleet, included 60 Star Destroyers and hundreds of smaller warships. But as it ventured towards the capital but would become bogged down with infighting between its commanders. A dispute between Picutorion and that of a fellow officer, Admiral Jacinth Verus, broke out over which of them should command the fleet, since Picutorian was an Army officer. The fight escalated into open warfare while the Emperor's Revenge Fleet had a stopover at Bilbringi Shipyards to resupply, and led to the deaths of both the general and the admiral.

The New Republic, which had assembled a defensive task force under Admirals and, was informed about this and launched an attack. Because of the situation, the Emperor's Revenge Fleet was unable to respond effectively from to the state of confusion and was decimated by the New Republic, along with the shipyards. The formerly grand armada was forced to retreat within hours and limped back to Denon. With Picutorion's death in early 5 ABY, he was replaced by the Dark Jedi and former Emperor's Hand, Lothian Rauthuellir. The Ruling Council believed that one of Palpatine's darksiders may be more effective in keeping the Empire from further fragmentation and infighting than a regular leader. Rauthuellir had also used his command of the dark side to "persuade" the Council into accepting him as the new Emperor.

One of the few Dark Side Adepts who remained in the Empire proper and hadn't disappeared in the months after Endor, Rauthuellir intended to create what remained of the Empire into a dark side theocracy. To this end he began purging the Imperial hierarchy of undesirables. He also planned a war of unification against the different warlord states that had emerged since the death of Palpatine. However, Rauthuellir would be assassinated weeks after his coronation, with several other Dark Jedi who intended to take the Throne thought to be behind the incident. In the wake of this one of the conspirators, Robeir Valistor, took power and was quick to call himself Emperor. He also threatened to execute anyone who did not follow him, but by that point much of the Ruling Council, Moffs, and military officers had realized that trusting the Empire to random Dark Jedi had been a mistake.

Valistor was killed in a plot organised by Grand Moff Dolgan Cheydmark and Imperial Intelligence Director Tedryn Aracham (Isard's successor). Known as a war hero and having been awarded the title by Emperor Palpatine himself, Cheydmark had made a deal with Aracham and some Councillors to create a "unity government" and set about turning the situation around after a series of failed leaders.

Imperial rebirth
In the two years since the Battle of Endor, the Empire had been reduced from the dominant galactic government to one of several competing great powers, most of its territory confined to the northern Outer and Mid Rims with some other scattered holdings throughout the galaxy. Imperial citizens lived in poverty and confusion as one leader was replaced by another, and military morale was on the edge of total collapse. More worlds were joining the New Republic every day. But events starting from early 6 ABY would see the situation for the Empire begin to improve. Military successes during the Rim Offensive extended the reach of Imperial control as far south as Bilbringi and put the Imperial Navy on the approaches to Coruscant, the Republic capital. Overseen by Grand Moff and Warlord Cheydmark, working together with a number of other military commanders, the Rim Offensive was the most successful Imperial operation since the death of Palpatine. Cheydmark's stable leadership also attracted other Imperial units and regional governors, bringing more forces back under the Imperial banner and allowing the Grand Moff to bring back vitality to the New Order. Several major corporations and many noble houses also reaffirmed their allegiance to the Galactic Empire.

But the Grand Moff did not particularly seek the Throne and saw himself as more of a steward rather than an Emperor. Perhaps because of this, in late 6 ABY, he negotiated with a Prophet of the Dark Side, Aurelian, and agreed to make him Emperor. The Prophets, officially called the Secret Order of the Emperor, had remained in isolation to see how events would play out and emerged as the Empire began regaining its strength. Unbeknownst to the Ruling Council, the Prophets had been working behind the scenes to undermine the New Republic's diplomacy and prevent important corporations and planets from leaving the Empire. Aurelian, an ambitious Prophet, had overseen the effort and expected to be compensated for it, believing he was the strong leader that could restore the Empire as the rightful Emperor.

After Aurelian's coronation on Ord Cantrell, he gave a speech lionising the Empire and promised to fully restore the New Order to its former glory. He also revealed the Secret Order's existence to the Imperial Ruling Council and military commanders, sanctioning it as the Emperor's official agents. Several Prophets joined Aurelian and would become a "Dark Side Elite" to enforce the Emperor's will. These included Thamien Osbourne, Marius Calathen, Anatoli Seerdon, and Lucan Wintrel. Being extremely charismatic, strong in the dark side, and a brilliant strategist, the new Emperor Aurelian initiated reforms in the early months of his reign to rebuild the depleted Imperial Military. Shortly after this he also launched a campaign, with the help of the Prophets, to reunite the remaining Imperial warlords back under the central authority of the Galactic Empire.

Among these efforts was beginning construction of the Death Star III project in the remote of the Outer Rim, deep inside Imperial territory, as both a powerful new weapon as well as a symbol of the Empire's new strength. In the five months after his coronation as Emperor, Aurelian would continue gathering resources, building hundreds of new warships, recruiting millions of new soldiers, and undertaking other projects to revitalize the Imperial war machine in preparation for his planned assault on the New Republic.

Effects
The coronation of Aurelian as Emperor was accepted by many historians later as the event that marked the end of the War of the Throne. Although the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor was the symbolic "beginning of the end" for the Galactic Empire, it was the subsequent power struggles that ensued over his succession that led the Imperial remnants to being reduced to a handful of sectors in the Outer Rim. Pitting Imperial against Imperial, a series of weak leaders combined with warlords breaking off from the Empire led to its not being able to resist New Republic military campaigns or focus on its true enemy. By 7 ABY the New Republic controlled about half of the galaxy, maturing into the the new galactic government, while what was left of the Empire's central authority controlled slightly under a quarter, or about 35 percent when combined with remaining independent Imperial warlords.

While the War of the Throne was considered over by early 8 ABY at the start of Operation Ragnarok, it was not the first internal power struggle that would befall the Empire.