We can all agree that we cannot leave our Empire in the hands of the buffoons like Pestage and Isard on Imperial Center. While they bicker, the Rebels are growing stronger and taking more territories. We must take matters into our own hands if the Empire is to survive.
—Petro Verkoris after the Battle of Endor
Petro Verkoris was a Human male officer in the Republic Navy during the Clone Wars and later a Moff in the Galactic Empire. A graduated of the Republic Navy War College, Verkoris served as a lieutenant during the early Clone Wars, and was later promoted to the rank of captain. He met with and became an acquaintance of Palpatine, who was then the Supreme Chancellor, and supported many of the man's political ideas. Verkoris took part in the Battle of Coruscant in 19 BBY, serving aboard the Star Destroyer Impavid and later helping capture the Confederate destroyer Prosperous. When Palpatine declared himself Emperor and transformed the Galactic Republic into the Empire, Verkoris became a staunch Imperial loyalist. He fought against the usurper General Gentis and his supporters when they launched a coup against Palpatine in 19 BBY. The Emperor rewarded him for his loyalty by making him the Moff of the Ryndellian sector.
After the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader at Endor in 4 ABY, Moff Verkoris initially remained loyal to the government on Coruscant. But in 5 ABY, after witnessing the bickering and infighting among the Imperial Ruling Council, he instead split off and formed his own faction, led by the League of Moffs. Verkoris declared himself to be the "High Moff" of the League, and stated that his goal was to not go rogue but preserve the Empire's Mid Rim territories under a New Order-abiding government. He mainly ignored any orders from the central government (based on Byss and later Ord Cantrell). Verkoris did not believe that the reborn Emperor from Byss was the same Palpatine that he met years ago on Coruscant as a young officer. In his view, the clone Emperor seemed to me mentally unstable and more corrupt.
After his death, former Royal Guardsman Carnor Jax became Emperor, and after his death, different members of the Imperial Ruling Council. High Moff Verkoris ignored all of them, viewing them to be incompetent bureaucrats and backstabbers. The League became the last vestige of the Galactic Empire established by Palpatine when the Ruling Council was taken into custody by the New Republic. They recognized this, and launched an offensive into League territory. Although his forces managed to put up a strong resistance, they eventually fell to the New Republic. Moff Verkoris himself led a final charge of stormtroopers from his palace and was gunned down, while the other Moffs of the League survived and were taken into custody. With the fall of the League, the last remnants of the loyalist Imperial government were gone. The loyalists would not be reunited until following year, by Admiral Natasi Daala.
Biography[]
Republic career[]
We've picked up a new group of signals. Enemy fighters, heading your way.
—Verkoris to Anakin Skywalker during the Blockade of Christophsis
Petro Verkoris was a Human male that was born at some point before the Clone Wars. His background (including his parents' identities and planet of origin) were unknown, due to all of that information in his Imperial files being erased after 4 ABY, as New Republic Intelligence later noted. But it was known that Verkoris joined the Republic Navy in 22 BBY, at the start of the Clone Wars—an intergalactic conflict between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic. He was given a brief training course on Anaxes, a planet home to one of the galaxy's oldest and most prestigious naval institutions, and then commissioned with the rank of lieutenant. Verkoris later mentioned to colleague that he served for the first two years of the war aboard the Venator-class Star Destroyer Resolute, under the command of Admiral Wullf Yularen and Anakin Skywalker, who was a Jedi General at the time. As a lieutenant aboard the Resolute, he fought in some of the war's earliest battles, including the Battle of Christophsis.
By 20 BBY, he was working with the Coruscant Defense Fleet, which was tasked with defending the galactic capital of Coruscant from any possible Separatist attacks. During a military parade near the Senate Building, Verkoris had met with then-Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. The two talked about the state of galactic affairs and the war, with the naval lieutenant leaving the discussion as a supporter of the Chancellor. He agreed with the Chancellor's view that many in Galactic Senate were corrupt, and the system would be more efficient if those individuals were removed from power. Verkoris later joined the Commission for the Protection of the Republic (COMPOR), a patriotic organization formed by Palpatine in 21 BBY. However, he was unable to take part in any of its activities due to his service in the Republic Navy. But after his conversation with the Chancellor, he came to view every problem the military had as caused by corrupt bureaucrats in the Senate or elsewhere. Verkoris truly believed that Palpatine could fix those problems.
Later in 19 BBY, the last year of the war, Verkoris fought in the Battle of Coruscant, which occurred when the Confederacy staged a massive attack on the Republic capital with the objective of capturing the Supreme Chancellor. The lieutenant was aboard the Star Destroyer Impavid during the battle, which was heavily damaged by a Separatist ship that exited hyperspace too close to them and crashed into the Star Destroyer. Under the leadership of Jedi General Saesee Tiin, he and the rest of the crew—mainly clone marines—abandoned the damaged ship. He donned a space suit and joined the rest of the marines as they took control of the Prosperous, a Confederate Providence-class carrier/destroyer. The captain of the Impavid had been killed earlier, so General Tiin promoted Verkoris and gave him command of the Prosperous. Under his command, the carrier/destroyer rejoined the battle on the Republic side. The CIS fleet was forced to retreat after another hour of fighting. Verkoris later noted that the incident with the Prosperous had been the apex of his naval career.
Under the New Order[]
You have served me well, Captain Verkoris. Your loyalty has not gone unnoticed.
—Emperor Palpatine to Verkoris
The Confederacy of Independent Systems collapsed not long after the Battle of Coruscant. General Grievous, the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies, was killed on Utapau by Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, while the Separatist Council was massacred on Mustafar by Anakin Skywalker (by then known as Darth Vader). Palpatine, meanwhile, had ordered all Jedi to be killed, claiming that they were part of a conspiracy against him, and reformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire. Verkoris remained loyal to the Empire, and was personally glad that the Republic was gone. He thought that now the inefficiency of the system, which was the result of the Republic's corruption, in his view, would now disappear. Palpatine carried out a purge of Republic Navy officers who did not accept his New Order, resulting in the deaths of many of the fleet's long-time veterans. Since Verkoris was loyal to Palpatine, the Emperor spared him from suffering such a fate.
Months into the creation of the Empire, a former Republic general—now Imperial general—named Gentis orchestrated a coup d'etat against Emperor Paplatine. As the headmaster of the Imperial Academy, he swayed cadets over to his side, and attempted to kill the Emperor. Verkoris remained loyal to Emperor Palpatine, however, and fought the usurpers with a number of loyalist stormtroopers on Coruscant. They held out in the Imperial Palace, and later hid in its depths when they thought that the Emperor was dead. But Palpatine survived, and eventually the Gentis coup conspirators were defeated and executed. Due to the vastness of the Imperial Palace and the loyalists' lack of communication with the outside world, several weeks passed before they emerged from the Palace depths and learned about the victory. For his loyalty (Verkoris ended up leading that group of loyalists), the Emperor gave him a new position: Verkoris became the Moff (regional governor) of a sector in the Mid Rim.

Admiral Relvar (center) and Moff Verkoris (left).
In the years following the coup, Moff Verkoris learned to become a regional leader, ruling his region with an iron fist. While he did strictly enforce laws and gave harsh punishments to criminals, Verkoris did not look down on members of the Imperial Military as expendables, unlike many other men of his rank. He made an effort to get to personally know the officers in the Ryndellian Sector Fleet, and took an active role in observing military maneuvers. The Moff also sought out talented officers serving in other units and did his best to get them transferred to his sector. He also gave different rewards to officers who he thought performed their duties exceptionally rare, and did not punish them for occasionally questioning his plans or ideas. In this way, Verkoris contrasted most other Imperial officials and gained the respect of his men, who were happy to finally not be punished for minor mistakes and given more freedom in their operations. Some of his subordinates theorized that this may have been because Verkoris was a former military man himself and understood what they had to go through.
A rising rebellion[]
An alliance of political malcontents and misguided young people. This should be over quickly.
—Moff Verkoris on the Rebel Alliance
The year 2 BBY saw the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, which was an organization of dissidents and rebels that aimed at toppling the Galactic Empire. Moff Verkoris, who kept his sector tightly control but did allow some freedoms to keep people from rising up, did not understand why the Rebellion was created. He viewed it as another Confederacy of Independent Systems that needed to be crushed. When the Rebels destroyed the Death Star battle station at the Battle of Yavin, Verkoris was shocked at their capability to destroy what was perceived by many to be an invincible super-weapon. He was not particularly friends with Grand Moff Tarkin, having only met him on a few occasions, mostly during meetings at the Imperial Palace, but Verkoris realized that he had underestimated the Rebellion. It was a threat that needed to be taken seriously. He had the Ryndellian sector fleet run more drills in preparation for possible Rebel attacks, and issued harsh and quick punishments for people suspected of being members of the Alliance.
But no attack ever came. The sector was not important enough to warrant an Alliance attack, and only a few Rebel agents were caught within it. The Moff was pleased, thinking that it was his effective leadership that caused the lack of Rebel activity among the population of the sector. Also around that time, he became close friends with several officers under his command. Those included General Kalder, the commander of the Imperial garrison on Ryndellia, and Admiral Malin Relvar, the commanding officer of the sector fleet. Kalder would go on to become the Moff's right hand man. In 3 ABY, he held a military parade on his capital world, Ryndellia, upon hearing of the victory over the Rebellion at the Battle of Hoth. He believed that the war was only months away from being over, with a total victory for the Empire.
Post-Endor[]
Damn Pestage, damn Isard, damn them all! The Empire will collapse if fools like them remain in power!
—Moff Verkoris to Admiral Relvar and General Kalder in 4 ABY
In 4 ABY, the Emperor and Darth Vader perished aboard the second Death Star at Endor. It was originally meant to be a trap for the Rebellion, but the battle ended up in their favor. The death of the Emperor shocked the whole Empire. Moff Verkoris was at first not willing to believe, and after finding out from Coruscant that it was indeed true, he became enraged at the Rebels. The Moff wanted to launch an offensive immediately, but Grand Vizier Sate Pestage—Palpatine's long-time secretary—took power on Coruscant. He demanded that all Imperial forces go on the defensive even though they still held the numerical and technological advantage. This was the first sign of the incompetence on part of the Coruscant government that Verkoris witnessed. And it would not be the last. He was glad when he heard that Pestage was removed from power by the Tribunal of General Paltr Carvin, but Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard soon usurped their power. Carvin was arrested while his advisers were killed.
Verkoris became worried and saddened as he saw the Empire fall apart around him. Many officers, including Admiral Blitzer Harrsk, General Sander Delvardus, Grand Moff Zsinj, and others went rogue. They became warlords, taking parts of the Empire's territory and claiming it as their own. His sector remained secure, as most of his men were loyal to the Empire and, perhaps more importantly, loyal personally to Moff Verkoris himself. And Verkoris tried to remain loyal to the Empire even as it dwindled in the face of Rebel offensives (now called the New Republic). After hearing about the rise and fall of Trioculus and his Central Committee of Grand Moffs in 5 ABY, Verkoris had an idea for how to preserve Imperial rule and unity in the region. The Moff realized he would need to put his plan into action when he heard that Coruscant fell to the New Republic in 6 ABY.
The League of Moffs[]
I do not claim to be a new Emperor, nor do I have any aspirations of claiming the throne. I am the caretaker, the guide of the Empire. A sort of regent.
—High Moff Verkoris

Moff conference, from right to left: Rymar Dorne, Ralan Mereel, Damarus Moriden, Jendon Adamek, and Verkoris.
In 6.5 ABY, he sent out messages to the Moffs of the nearby Alui, Far Xandil, Vendusii, and the Iskin sectors. Verkoris requested a meeting with them over a "topic that will benefit everyone." The Moffs answered and gathered at his palace on Ryndellia for a conference. Verkoris told them that the state of the Empire (or what remained of it by then) was very poor, and they would need to band together to not be annexed by the New Republic or by warlords. The Moffs gathered there all agreed, and decided to create a unified loyalist faction for their own protection. The new group came to be known as the League of Moffs, and unified the holding of the five Imperial leaders into one loyalist faction. All of the Moffs contributed to its military, which was built up to a large strength. Moff Jendon Adamek contributed a recently-completed Executor-class Star Dreadnought, the Compellor, which became the High Moff's personal vessel. In return, Adamek became the deputy head of the League.
As the Imperial Civil War heated up in 7 ABY, with the emergence of the powerful Warlord Zsinj, Verkoris made an effort to recruit as many talented officers and soldiers as he could from the loyalist Empire and other warlords. His subordinate, Admiral Relvar, became the commander of the united fleet of the League, while General Kalder became the commander of their ground forces. An Imperial ace starfighter pilot who was awarded the title-rank Tan by the Emperor himself, Major Civ Darklancer, became the commander of their starfighter corps. It mainly consisted of the 408th Imperial Fighter Wing, as well as some independent squadrons. Colonel Grage Leerdon of the Stormtrooper Corps became the chief of their stormtrooper detachments, while a Defel named Jareen who served in the local Imperial Security Bureau office on Ryndellia became their head of internal security. Verkoris personally selected from the candidates for the different positions. By 8 ABY, the year that saw the fall of Zsinj, he had amassed a formidable military. The 650th Legion, a stormtrooper unit under Colonel Leerdon's direct command, became known as "Verkoris' Fist" for being the High Moff's main shock unit.
Meanwhile, the year 9 ABY saw the emergence of Grand Admiral Thrawn, a Chiss officer of the Imperial Navy. The red-eyed Grand Admiral proved to be a tactical mastermind and was able to push back the New Republic. High Moff Verkoris, seeing the potential for completely defeating the Republic, began providing him financial aid and equipment. He did not want to commit his full forces to the Grand Admiral's fleet because the League of Moffs' sectors would then be left unprotected. Thrawn was killed later that year, betrayed by his bodyguard. However, months later, a new power emerged from the Deep Core—the reborn Emperor Palpatine. As the League would later find out, the Emperor used a dark side technique to transfer his spirit into a clone body. However, after witnessing some of Palpatine's early attacks against the New Republic, the High Moff was horrified. The mass decimation caused by the reborn Emperor to both New Republic and Imperial forces convinced Verkoris that the reborn Emperor was insane. His usage of the highly destructive machines like the World Devastators and the Galaxy Gun, combined with his encouragement of open conflicts among the Empire's own forces (he called it "culling the weak") discredited him in the eyes of the League.
However, the cloned Emperor did not last very long. One of his own guardsmen, Carnor Jax, plotted with the Imperial Ruling Council to sabotage the Emperor's clone bodies. After he died on Onderon, he was unable to return to the living again and the Byss regime collapsed. Jax proclaimed himself Emperor, something which Verkoris considered recognizing in time (he wanted to see what kind of leader Jax would show himself to be). But Jax was murdered by another guardsman, Kir Kanos, shortly afterwards. The heads of the Ruling Council picked off one by one by a Yuuzhan Vong agent named Nom Anor (but the councilors assumed that it was Kanos). Verkoris and the League of Moffs decided against opening relations with the Ruling Council. After the death of its final leader, Xandel Carivus, most of the councilmen were taken into New Republic custody. The High Moff was partly glad that the "annoying bureaucrats" were arrested, but at the same time, he was disappointed that one of the last vestiges of Imperial central authority collapsed.
Final campaign[]
This will be just like the Zsinj campaign."
"That's what I was afraid of.
—Wedge Antilles and Han Solo, shortly before the attack on the League

Verkoris' flagship, the Compellor.
With the fall of the Ruling Council, the League of Moffs became the last loyalist Imperial authority. Most other remaining leaders were warlords loyal only to themselves. The League was not large or powerful enough to gain recognition as the successor of the Ruling Council in the eyes of the warlords initially, but many Imperials who did not want to join renegades like Harrsk and Treuten Teradoc joined the League's military. The already quite formidable military amassed by the High Moff swelled to even greater strength. Verkoris correctly assumed that it was only a matter of weeks, or perhaps days even, before the New Republic Council noticed his faction and came to destroy it. Due to this threat, he ordered the military to begin running military drills in the sectors controlled by the League, and began turning the sector capitals into fortress worlds. The High Moff's estimates proved correct when, about three weeks after the death of Carivus, New Republic Intelligence operatives were captured by his men near the border with neutral space. Since Verkoris felt ready by then to take on the New Republic and fight it to a standstill, he had the operatives executed.