First Order

The First Order is the main antagonistic faction of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, first appeared in ''Star Wars: The Force Avakens. ''The First Order is a military and political organization made up of the surviving remaining members and forces of the former Galactic Empire that were able to form together to create an organization bent on destroying the New Republic and restoring the former Empire.

The organization will appear once again as the main antagonistic faction of the sequels, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Episode IX.

Foundation
During the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire lost the Sith Lord Darth Sidious when Darth Vader redeemed himself and turned against the Sith Lord, throwing the Emperor down a Death Star shaft to his doom. Vader became Anakin Skywalker once again in the last moments of his life. The Battle of Endor ended in victory for the New Republic. Soon after Endor the Rebel Alliance formed a new galactic government called the New Republic.

Without the leadership of the two Sith Lords, the Empire began to dissolve. Just over a year after the Battle of Endor Republic and Imperial forces met over Jakku, and that battle ended in a decisive victory for the New Republic. The surviving Imperials, represented by Mas Amedda, were forced to sign the Galactic Concordance with the New Republic. Left unable to form an effective resistance against the New Republic many Imperials fled to the Unknown Regions to escape and regroup in hopes of restoring the former Empire.

Amongst the fleeing officers was Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, Brendol Hux, and his son Armitage. Meeting with the Emperor's Super Star Destroyer Eclipse, Sloane and other surviving Imperial Forces regrouped. Not long after that the First Order was born and would model itself from the principals of the former Empire and would appoint former Imperial Officers to lead the order.

Rise of the First Order
The First Order would soon continue to grow and prosper as the order saw more and more of the Empire's lost strength return. The former assistants to the late emperor would return and became members of the First Order and began carrying out the order's greatest military secrets. the First Order would later on begin to conduct mass militarization and growth and established multiple military bases, facilities, factories, and research centers to help speed up the growth of the order to help rebuild the strength of the former Empire to have a strong resistance against the New Republic. The First Order would later go on to expand greatly with new fleets of star destroyers and the colonization of multiple worlds and control over vast star systems and planets that were previously left unexplored. Eventually, the dark lord Supreme Leader Snoke and his appreantice, Kylo Ren, would come in and become members of the First Order and gradually took it over in the process with Snoke becoming the first Supreme Leader of the First Order.

Snoke was able to manipulate Kylo Ren into joining the Dark Side of the force and he eventually formed the Knights of Ren which would become the secret state religious body of the First Order. Snoke would then order a series of purges against any Jedi presence in territories controled by the First Order such as one purge where the Knights of Ren were sent to an unknown planet where they would slaughter countless future Jedi Knights being trained by Luke Skywalker in an attempt to prevent the re-establishment of the Jedi Order. The First Order remained unnoticed by the Galactic World for the first thirty years of its existence and the New Republic was reluctant to take any action even with the Chancellor going as far as to ignore them. Eventually however, the First Order began to violate Galactic Laws set up by the New Republic and soon, Leia Organa, along with many other senators who were concerned with the First Order, managed to fund and create the Resistance as a means of opposing them and soon war began between the two factions.

Height of the First Order
Thirty years after the Battle of Endor, the First Order has risen to power and is now at its height. The order has been able to construct the Starkiller base, an ice planet which also serves as a superweapon which can destroy entire star systems when fired. On the planet of Jakku, the First Order sends down a division of Stormtroopers lead by Kylo Ren down to the surface to capture Poe and find a map which would lead them to Luke Skywalker, whom the First Order has been searching for sometime now after he went into self-exile for his failure to stop the Knights of Ren from killing the late young future Jedi. they couldn't find the map, so they captured Poe and had the entire settlement burned to the ground which lead to a First Order Stormtrooper named Finn to free Poe and defect from the the order.

Notable Members

 * Supreme Leader Snoke - Founder and Supreme Leader
 * General Hux - Military Leader and Starkiller Base Commander
 * Kylo Ren - Leader of the Knights of Ren & Second-in-Command of Snoke
 * Captain Phasma - Stormtrooper Officer
 * Stormtroopers
 * FN-2199
 * FN-2187/Finn (defected)
 * TIE Fighter Pilots
 * Snowtroopers
 * Flametroopers

Trivia

 * In a feature run by Empire Online, J. J. Abrams revealed that The First Order's inspiration was taken from the urban legend of Nazis fleeing to Argentina after the conclusion of World War II and forming an organisation called ODESSA which have been the antagonists in various Spy Fiction novels with the idea that these antagonists are looking at making a resurgence, to continue the work started during their height of power.

Fictional

 * They have many broad similarities to the Imperial Remnant faction(s) from the original Expanded Universe novels - particularly the later Hand of Thrawn period novels when they had been pushed back to only a handful of backward sectors in the fringes of the Outer Rim. Both groups are forced by necessity to abandon the old Empire's expedient mentality in order to preserve their few remaining forces. Both groups abandoned many of the old Empire's prejudices along the way: the First Order has a lot more visible female and non-white human members.
 * The First Order are reminiscent of HYDRA from the Marvel Comics and its Cinematic Universe and the Millennium Organisation from the Helsing manga and anime, as all three organisations are based on ODESSA.

Historical

 * As a hermit state populated by fanatics, devoted to their Supreme Leader and who believe that the outside world is completely decadent whilst its conquest is inevitable, the First Order are also similar to North Korea.
 * Their combination of unbridled fanaticism and strict military hierarchy, usage of child soldiers and terror tactics, and their ultimate goal of rebuilding one of the most powerful empires in world history are eerily similar to modern Jihadi terrorist groups like al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Meanwhile, the fact that they're ruled by a religious figure who answers to the title of "Supreme Leader" brings to mind post-revolutionary Iran.
 * The first order are also similar to the Lord's Resistance Army, being a ruthless military junta that uses child soldiers and which is led by a spiritual leader although the First Order lacks the depravity of the LRA.