First Order

The First Order (21 ABY-35 ABY), or simply the Order, was a fascist neo-Imperialist military junta that plotted a return to power and sought to reclaim lost legacy. The First Order was ruled by a Supreme Leader from their mobile headquarters instead of a traditional planetary capital. A militaristic dictatorship that wished to remove disorder from existence and had a fanatical devotion to the totalitarian notions of order and a disdain for democracy. To this end, it became locked in a Cold War with the New Republic and spreading influence from beyond the confines of Unknown Regions, ending with the First Order staging an invasion of the galaxy, but were repelled by the Resistance and Jedi Order, causing the First Order to fall.

After the death of Darth Sidious, publicly known as Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine, in the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire fell and broke into various Imperial Remnants following the end of the Galactic Civil War. Spearheaded by Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax, some of the Imperial Military fled into unknown space during New Republic Era, which the Empire had secretly charted in the past. After blazing through ancient hyperspace trails, retreating Imperials met secret reinforcements, where Grand Admiral Rae Sloane intended to build a stronger and purer Empire. In the years after, Sloane's remnant forces formed the First Order.

Sloane and Commandant Brendol Hux were among the first leaders of the First Order. The fleets and armies that they secretly built comprised a vast and technologically superior military at the First Order's disposal. The First Order was more critical of the late regime, considering it the major reference point, but surpassed by their greater purity. Through Project Resurrection, the First Order conscripted children—thousands of whom were abducted from outlying star systems—and trained them as the new generation of stormtroopers. The First Order also undertook a major offensive to seize several hermetic kingdoms and their resources in the Unknown Regions. Eventually, the mysterious Snoke rose to power as Supreme Leader, who was in fact an artificial Strand-Cast that served as the proxy the revived Darth Sidious from the hidden world of Exegol. With its original leaders mostly sidelined, the First Order became subservient to the Sith Eternal cult that Sidious controlled and utilised for his plans to turn the First Order into a template for a resurgent Sith Empire. Much of the First Order, however, was unaware of the Sith's influence over their organization.

The First Order was publicly formed by the Centrist-aligned star systems that seceded from the New Republic as a result of instability in the Galactic Senate and refused to comply with the terms of the Galactic Concordance. Throughout the Cold War, the First Order and the New Republic existed in a state of tension with occasional skirmishes but no direct fighting. As the First Order became increasingly hostile toward the New Republic, former Senator Leia Organa founded the Resistance to monitor its activities. However, the Senate refused to take forceful military action against them, believing that they posed no credible threat. The First Order also began to search for Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, to prevent the rise of a new Jedi.

In 34 ABY, the galaxy fell into a state of crisis when the First Order fired its superweapon, Starkiller Base, at the Hosnian system, completely destroying the New Republic capital of Hosnian Prime. Although the Resistance succeeded in destroying the weapon during the Battle of Starkiller Base, they were unable to stop the First Order's invasion of the galaxy. During the Battle of Oetchi, Snoke was assassinated by his apprentice, the warlord Kylo Ren, who usurped the title of Supreme Leader. The First Order conquered much of the known galaxy under Ren's leadership, which was met with defiance and rebellion, to which Ren responded by enforcing a heavily brutal suppression of dissent.

In 35 ABY, Ren formed an alliance with Sidious after discovering the Final Order—a massive fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers built by the Sith Eternal—on Exegol. Sidious promised Ren control of his forces and the chance to succeed him as Galactic Emperor if he killed the Jedi apprentice Rey. However, Ren's ambition to rule the First Order as a true Empire ended when he renounced the dark side of the Force and returned to the light side as Ben Solo. Despite the loss of the Supreme Leader, Allegiant General Enric Pryde swore his allegiance to Sidious, who declared himself Emperor once more. However, his plans for the Sith resurrection were thwarted by Rey and Ben Solo during the Battle of Exegol, where the Emperor was ultimately destroyed along with his followers. Without the support of Sith reinforcements, the First Order failed to quell the uprising against its rule and ultimately collapsed in the wake of the Resistance's victory at Exegol, even though an entire generation consisting of countless officers and stormtroopers remained along with missing hubs of manufacturing and disinformation networks unaccounted for.

Text and facts from the “First Order” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.