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- "Those were Imperial Guards, Lando. The Emperor's personal protectors—handpicked from the very best of his forces. Out of millions of soldiers, they are unsurpassed."
- ―Korin Pers, to Lando Calrissian
The Emperor's Royal Guard, also named the Imperial Royal Guard and Imperial Guard, alternatively identified as the Crimson Guard, and known under the Galactic Republic as the Red Guard, were the personal bodyguards to the Galactic Emperor and formerly the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. In addition to strict requirements of size, strength, intelligence, and loyalty, only the most skilled soldiers in the Imperial Military qualified for duty in the Royal Guard. The Imperial Royal Guard were also occasionally assigned to provide protection to members of the Imperial Ruling Council, such as Mas Amedda and Darth Vader.
The origins of the crimson-clad Royal Guard dated back to the time of the Separatist Crisis, when the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, in his public guise as Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, crafted an order of protectors, named the Red Guard, for the Office of the Chancellor, that stood apart from the cerulean-clad Senate Guard during the Galactic Republic's twilight. Over the course of the Clone Wars, the Red Guard gradually supplanted the Senate Guard and its elite sub-unit, the Senate Commandos, as the chancellor's bodyguards. By the end of the Clone Wars, Darth Sidious proclaimed himself Emperor of the Galactic Empire. As a result, Senate Guards were completely phased out of service and replaced by the chancellor's Red Guards, who were henceforth known as the Royal Guard.
Darth Sidious sealed himself away from the populace throughout his reign. On the rare occasions of his public appearances, he was always accompanied by members of the Royal Guard. In the decades that followed Sidious' death and the subsequent fall of the Empire at the Battle of Jakku, a new order of protectors was crafted by Supreme Leader Snoke of the First Order. Modeled on the Emperor's Royal Guard and Imperial Praetorian Guard, the Elite Praetorian Guard consisted of eight warriors who wore ornate crimson armor, wielded an array of melee weapons, and specialized in martial arts, such as Teräs Käsi. Likewise, the reborn Darth Sidious revived his employment of crimson-clad guardsmen through the Sovereign Protectors, selected from the finest Sith troopers the Sith Eternal had readied.
Description[]
Royal Guards wore red robes and armor, and were armed with force pikes.
The Emperor's Royal Guards were reputedly the most skilled warriors in the forces of the Galactic Empire; out of millions of soldiers, Darth Sidious' guards were unsurpassed in skill and status.[12] During the era of the Empire, the Royal Guard consisted of conscripts and at least one clone trooper.[3] The qualifications for joining the Guard's ranks included strength, intelligence, and loyalty.[13] Candidates for the Guard had to meet the basic height requirement of 1.83 meters.[1]
In addition to receiving advanced training in many forms of combat, Royal Guards were trained to be unquestionably loyal to their Emperor, Darth Sidious. The Emperor's word was considered law and his guards would obey his orders without question or hesitation, even if it meant killing one of their own. The Guards were also among the few beings in the galaxy whom the Emperor trusted with the knowledge of his secret identity as a Sith Lord, knowing they would speak of it to no one, not even among themselves.[3] Trainees would spar against each other in the The Squall. Their final test was a battle to the death before the Emperor.[14] Though their primary duty was to the Emperor, in some cases the Royal Guards were also at the disposal of his right hand, Darth Vader,[15] who acted as the Imperial Military's informal Commander-in-Chief,[16] and Grand Vizier Mas Amedda.[17] Other upper-level figures who made of use of the Royal Guards included General Jylia Shale,[7] as well as Grand Admiral Rae Sloane.[18] Due to their little movement, they were sometimes believed to have been droids instead of individuals.[11]
A Royal Guard with another set of equipment.
Despite the combat skills of the Royal Guard, the Emperor was confident in his Force powers to the extent that he did not believe he required a bodyguard unit. However, he found over the course of his reign that the crimson-clad guards served well to impress and intimidate those who saw them. Additionally, they served the purpose of defending the Emperor in situations where he did not wish to use his Force powers.[3] As such, he never felt inclined to dispense with them as a unit.[19] Sidious also made use of a droid model that resembled his Royal Guards, sending the droids to summon politicians he needed to meet with.[20]
History[]
Under the Republic[]
During the decline of the Galactic Republic, Sith Lord Darth Sidious, as Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, created[13] the Red Guard[21]—a cohort of personal elite bodyguards that stood apart from the rest of his forces, including the cerulean-clad members of the Senate Guard,[13] from which they were handpicked.[11] Over time, Palpatine came to favor his crimson-clad red guards over the blue guards of the Galactic Senate and even the elite Senate Commandos.[22] Armed with force pikes,[5] the red guards' flowing red robes and sleek, featureless scarlet masks blended in with the crimson-walled office of the chancellor.[13]
During the fall of the Republic, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine was protected by a cohort of crimson-clad guards, the Red Guard.
The red-robed guards were formed prior to the Clone Wars[5] and were in place by 28 BBY,[9] with the newly-appointed Senator Padmé Amidala noting that they were a much more intimidating security force than the Senate Guard,[23] though Palpatine retained the service of the Senate Guard[24] and commandos during the early period of the pan-galactic conflict.[25] After Captain Faro Argyus of the Senate Commandos revealed himself to be a traitor, the Senate Guard's loyalty was put into question, and Palpatine took the opportunity to expand the Red Guard in the ensuing scandal. When Red Guards were out of uniform, they conducted official visits and covert operations in locations where the Supreme Chancellor was scheduled to visit. The Red Guard also scouted traveling locations, back up routes, handled logistics, and created evacuation plans. On Coruscant, such events may have required thousands of hours of work. The Guard also investigated credible threats against Palpatine, whether they be simply graffiti to HoloNet broadcasts.[11]
By 19 BBY, approximately three years after the First Battle of Geonosis,[26] the Red Guard and Coruscant Guard clone shock troopers had all but supplanted the Senate Guard as the chancellor's protectors.[27]
Serving the Emperor[]
On rare occasions the Emperor could be seen in public, but always in the presence of his Royal Guards.
At the War's end[28] in 19 BBY,[26] Darth Sidious appointed himself Galactic Emperor and reorganized the Republic into the Empire.[28] Under the regime, the Emperor continued to favor the Royal Guard, formerly the Chancellor's Red Guard, as his personal security force which, in turn, led to the dissolution of the Senate Guard.[1] During the first days of Sidious' reign, the bodyguards were responsible for Emperor Palpatine's security on Coruscant. Offworld, however, Emperor Palpatine was accompanied by a detachment of shock troopers of the Coruscant Guard.[28] During the Clone Wars, Sidious also secretly controlled the Thyrsus Sun Guard mercenary group, which fought for the Republic during the conflict. The Sun Guard helped to inspire his Royal Guard as Galactic Emperor.[29]
As the years passed, Sidious sealed himself away from the populace, having discarded his facade as a friendly kind-hearted politician[13] in order to embrace his true identity as a Sith Lord.[1] On rare occasions he would make a public appearance, but always in the company of the Royal Guard.[13] During the early years of the Empire, a division of the Royal Guard was stationed in the Inquisitorius Headquarters—a skyscraper located in the Industrial District of Coruscant—which served as a training facility for Emperor Palpatine's Jedi hunters known as the Inquisitors.[30] In 14 BBY,[26] several Royal Guards accompanied Darth Sidious and his apprentice, Darth Vader, to Ryloth where the Lords of the Sith sought to lure the Free Ryloth Movement out of hiding. Most of the guardsmen were killed when Vader's shuttle crash-landed in the planet's equatorial forest.[3]
A trio of light-armored Royal Guards served aboard the Chimaera.
Two guards, Sergeant Erstin Deez and a Captain who once served in the Grand Army of the Republic as a clone trooper, survived the crash along with Vader and his Sith Master, Sidious. The captain was later killed by lyleks, but Deez was able to survive long enough for Moff Delian Mors' stormtroopers to rescue the two Sith Lords.[3] A trio of Royal Guards, without their robes, were stationed aboard the Chimaera, flagship of the 7th Fleet led by Grand Admiral Thrawn, during the Liberation of Lothal. Emperor Palpatine commanded the men to kill Padawan Ezra Bridger, having failed to use the young Jedi in his plan to control the World Between Worlds. Using modified pikes with magnetic clamps to subdue their Force-sensitive target, the guards held Bridger still while a squad of stormtroopers attempted to shoot him. However, Bridger used the Force to hurl several boulders and rocks from a stolen piece of the Lothal Jedi Temple at his attackers, crushing them.[6]
Although the Emperor's safety was the primary responsibility of the Royal Guard,[1] Sidious did not make exclusive use of them, loaning them also to Vader. By 0 BBY,[31] two Royal Guards were stationed in Fortress Vader on Mustafar.[15] They acted as sentinels protecting Emperor Palpatine's apprentice, usually while he rested in his bacta tank.[15] During the Galactic Civil War, Royal Guards were often used in battle as assassins,[32] armed with force pikes, vibroblades, and many other concealed weapons.[3]
Stationed aboard the Imperialis, two Royal Guards were corrupted by the Mask of Lord Momin.
Following the Battle of Yavin, two Royal Guards were stationed aboard Emperor Palpatine's luxury yacht Imperialis while it was undergoing a refit at Sienar Fleet Systems' Orbital Shipyard CC-24 above the planet Castell.[33] They guarded the vessel's central chamber which stored several Sith artifacts including the mask of Lord Momin.[34] After Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian and his companions stole the Imperialis, one of the Royal Guards stabbed Lobot with a vibroblade,[33] but he survived. The guards were then killed by the alien clone warriors Aleksin and Pavol. Korin Pers discovered that the guards were corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force, as they were guarding the Mask of Lord Momin.[12] In the same year, a special variant was in service of Commander Karbin featuring a distinctive look. These variants wore armor fitted for combat in the front lines.[35]
During the secret war against the Sith[2] between 3 ABY and 4 ABY,[36] Jedi hunter Ochi was employed by Lady Qi'ra of Crimson Dawn to assassinate members of the Royal Guard in order to cause disruption in the Empire. Ochi and a courier droid travelled to Coruscant and bought poison that would activate at a specific time. The droid used to poison the guard's breakfast but discovered that one of the Royal Guards, Erstin Deez was not present. Ochi took it upon himself to assassinate Deez. Afterwards while the Royal Guards were with Emperor Palpatine at his throne room in the Imperial Palace, all of them dropped dead due to the poison.[2]
Sometime after the deaths of those Royal Guards, two others stood behind Darth Sidious after he summoned Vader to the Imperial Palace as he concluded there was a new enemy of the Sith. When Director Barsha of the Imperial Security Bureau was summoned to the throne room, he revealed Crimson Dawn orchestrated the ongoing Syndicate War. As Vader and Sidious walked through the palace and discussed Crimson Dawn's influence over the other recent activities such as the betrayal of the Grand Hutt Council, the theft of the Screaming Key from Vader’s Fortress by the Knights of Ren, and the defeat of Commander Ellian Zahra’s Hunter Fleet and her inability to finally destroy the Alliance to Restore the Republic, a force of Royal Guards accompanied them as protection. Stopping in the hall along with the two Sith Lords, the Royal Guards remained as Vader revealed that Qi'ra, during their duel aboard on the Crimson Dawn flagship Vermillion, had combat training that reminded him of Sidious' techniques, leading both to conclude she was trained by his first apprentice, Darth Maul. In response, the two men ordered the Imperial Military to track down the Vermillion.[37]
Royal Guards escorted Emperor Palpatine to the Death Star II, where their sovereign would die.
To finally destroy Crimson Dawn, Royal Guards later fought alongside death troopers and the two Sith Lords in the Battle at Amaxine Station.[38] In 4 ABY,[26] several Royal Guards accompanied Emperor Palpatine to the second Death Star orbiting the forest moon of Endor. Prior to the arrival of the Rebel Alliance, Emperor Palpatine dismissed the Guards from his throne room, leaving him alone with Vader and the latter's son Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. As a result, the Royal Guards were not present to protect Emperor Palpatine when his apprentice turned against him in a last-ditch effort to save his son's life. With the deaths of Palpatine and Vader, coupled with the victory of the Alliance, the Battle of Endor was a turning point that marked the beginning of the end for the Empire.[39]
Royal Guards were stationed at the Palpatine Archive in the Coruscant system, and attempted to stop the thieving Calrissian and Jaxxon, who were after the Totem of Saglanost shortly after the Empire's debacle at Endor.[8]
Decline[]
A Royal Guard fought and died on Jakku, the site of the last battle of the Galactic Civil War.
The Royal Guard continued to serve the Empire, acting as bodyguards for several high-ranking Imperial officers such as General Jylia Shale and Grand Admiral Rae Sloane. Two Royal Guards acted as Shale's security detail at the emergency summit on Akiva;[7] another two Guards escorted Sloane to the New Republic capital Chandrila[18] in 5 ABY,[40] where the Grand Admiral sought to negotiate an end to hostilities between the Empire and the Republic. To Sloane's surprise, the Empire's overtures of peace were a ruse for launching a surprise attack on Chandrila, orchestrated by Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax. During the attack, Sloane's Royal Guards attacked and killed several New Republic Senate Guards who escorted the Imperial entourage to the peace summit.[18]
Shortly after the attack on Chandrila, a the Empire rallied to the barren world of Jakku under Rax's leadership as Counselor to the Empire.[41] One of the soldiers in Rax's army was a Royal Guard, who ultimately perished during the Battle of Jakku. The Royal Guard who fell at Jakku was survived by his sister, Arliz Hadrassian, an Agent of the Imperial Security Bureau.[42]
Legacy[]
Around 9 ABY,[43] the Shadow Council, the ruling body of the Imperial Remnants,[44] directed a unit of elite warriors known as the Imperial Praetorian Guard, whose red gear was a deliberate callback to the Emperor's Royal Guard.[45] However, they also possessed helmets with a design similar to Mandalorian armor.[44] During the Cold War between the Resistance and the First Order, Agent Terex of the First Order Security Bureau had possession of a Royal Guard helmet aboard the Carrion Spike that was displayed next to the helmets of a shoretrooper, an AT-AT pilot, a death trooper, and others, along with a custom set of armor.[46] By 28 ABY,[26] Hadrassian sold her brother's Royal Guard helmet to Senator Ransolm Casterfo, due to having pro-Imperial views.[42]
Inspired by the Emperor's Royal Guard, the Elite Praetorian Guard served as personal bodyguards of Supreme Leader Snoke.
The legacy of the Emperor's Royal Guard inspired the formation of the Elite Praetorian Guard, whose armor[47] also resembled the Imperial Praetorian Guard.[44] Like the Royal Guards who guarded Sidious during his reign, the Praetorians functioned as the bodyguards of Supreme Leader Snoke, ruler of the First Order. Consisting of eight sentinels trained to protect Supreme Leader Snoke from any threat, the Praetorians were equipped with various melee weapons and ornate crimson armor deliberately echoing the equipment used by the Royal Guard.[47] In 34 ABY, the Praetorians attacked Rey and Kylo Ren after the latter assassinated Snoke, resulting in a battle in which all eight guards were killed by the Master of the Knights of Ren and his new Jedi ally, allowing the former to become the new Supreme Leader.[48]
By 35 ABY,[49] when Darth Sidious resurfaced on the hideen Sith world Exegol, the Sovereign Protector took the role as the Emperor's Royal Guard.[50] The rank of these sentinels was solely bestowed upon the most proficient of Sith troopers, zealous soldiers brought up by the Sith Eternal[50] to help impose the Sith Lord's vision of a New Sith Empire. When Rey and Ben confronted Sidious during the Battle of Exegol, the Sovereign Protectors attempted to protect their master, but were killed by the two Jedi.[51]
Equipment[]
- "What's your name? And why do you wear that…suit?"
"My name is Sergeant, and it's my honor to wear this armor." - ―Ryloth resident Drua questions Royal Guard Erstin Deez
A Royal Guard wielding an electrostaff
Royal Guards were completely covered in flowing blood-red robes and featureless scarlet masks that concealed their faces.[28] There existed a variant of the uniform that lacked the robes and ceremonial helmet in favor of light armor, utilized by guards aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera[6] and the guards accompanying the Emperor during the battle at the Amaxine Space Station.[38] They wielded electrostaffs[52] and force pikes, a staff-like weapon[53] with a vibro-edged head.[54] Additionally, their robes hid a heavy blaster pistol, a vibroblade, and various other weaponry.[3]
When on the battlefield, Royal Guards would abandon their traditional weapons in favor of an arsenal better suited for combat, including the T-21 light repeating blaster, Smart Rocket, and the homing shot.[55]
Behind the scenes[]
The Guard first appeared in the 1983 movie Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Their design came from sketches by Nilo Rodis-Jamero. The conceptual drawings varied from centurion-like warriors to priest-like monks, but a common thread tying those designs together was the deep red hue.[56]
In the 2016 video game LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, during the prologue's adaptation of Return of the Jedi, the Royal Guards were not dismissed by the Emperor, and instead actively defended the Sith when Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader turned against him. However, the Royal Guardsmen were ultimately no match for the two, allowing for the literal overthrowing of the Sith, afterwhich the Guards witnessed the redeemed Vader, who had sustained much injuries during the battle, express love in his final moments to his Jedi son, during which one Guard collapsed into tears to the emotional exchange, much to the annoyance of Luke Skywalker, as the other Guardsmen gave psychological support.[57]
Appearances[]
Non-canon appearances[]
LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures — "Escape from Coruscant"- LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures — "Return of the Return of the Jedi"
LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales — "Crisis on Coruscant" (In flashback(s))- LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
"Corellian Run" — LEGO Star Wars 58
