First Order

"It is the task of the First Order to remove the disorder from our own existence, so that civilization may be returned to the stability that promotes progress. A stability that existed under the Empire, was reduced to anarchy by the Rebellion, was inherited in turn by the so-called Republic, and will be restored by us. Future historians will look upon this as the time when a strong hand brought the rule of law back to civilization."

- Kylo Ren expressing his views on recent events in galactic history and the goals of the First Order.

"The First Order is a remnant born of a war thirty years gone. Yes, they persist, yes, they continue, but by all accounts they do so barely. They are, at best, an ill-organized, poorly equipped, and badly funded group of loyalists who use propaganda and fear to inflate their strength and their importance."

- Major Lonno Deso of the Republic Navy's view on the First Order.

The First Order is the main antagonistic faction of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, first appearing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The First Order is a reactionary, 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 fallen Empire.

Early Foundation
"Through the ages I've seen evil take many forms. The Sith. The Empire. Today, it is the First Order."

- Maz Kanata For roughly a thousand years, the Galactic Republic maintained peace and stability within the galaxy, aided by the efforts of the monastic Jedi Order and the Republic Judicial Forces. With the believed extinction of the Sith—ancient enemies of the Jedi Order and the Republic—the ruling Dark Lord Darth Sidious secretly plotted to overthrow the Republic with the formation of his own Sith Empire.

Sidious, along with his apprentice Count Dooku, orchestrated a secessionist movement by fomenting political chaos across the galaxy. Sidious secretly commanded a rival galactic government known as the Confederacy of Independent Systems in the destructive three-year Clone Wars, while ensuring himself elected as the next Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. Gradually amassing far more emergency powers than would be ordinarily allowed, along with changing the Galactic Constitution, Sidious eventually issued the Proclamation of the New Order, officially transforming the thousand-year-old democracy into the Galactic Empire in an instant and installing himself as the first Galactic Emperor.

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 into the Imperial remnants. 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 and one Imperial remnant founded in the Core Worlds and Inner Rim. 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 and founded the two Imperial remnants one locked in the cold war and the other in the Queluhan Nebula.

Origins
"If an Empire cannot protect its Emperor then that Empire must be deemed a failure. It collapses not only because its central figure is gone, but because it must not be allowed to remain!"

- Emperor Sheev Palpatine, to Gallius Rax in regards to the Contingency.

Amongst the fleeing officers was Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, Brendol Hux, his son Armitage and several child soldiers. Meeting with the Emperor's flagship Executor-class Star Dreadnought Eclipse, Sloane and other surviving Imperial Forces regrouped. Upon discovering the Eclipse, Sloane ordered the Sentinel piloting the replica of Emperor's yacht Imperialis to bring the ship in and rejoin with the others. There, she intended to board and saw an opportunity to rebuild the Empire stronger and purer. As part of a contingency developed by Palpatine in the event of his demise, he commissioned the exploration of the Unknown Regions, where the Empire was to retreat and reestablish itself in the event of it's defeat. In addition to Contingency (which involved physical destruction of the Empire in the event of Palpatine's untimely death), secret bases, factories, shipyards and research laboratories were established in the Unknown Regions to act as a base for rebuilding the new Empire and it's war machine.

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. Eventually the First Order would fall under the control of Snoke, a powerful being strong in the dark side of the Force, who assumed the title of Supreme Leader, with absolute control over the new regime. Through currently unknown means Snoke engineered the takeover of the First Order from old Imperial veterans such as Hux and Sloane, however same was done in part by creating a new generation of Officers, trained and indoctrinated from birth in the ideology of the First Order, loyal to Snoke. He also managed to win over to his side Armitage Hux, the son of Brendol, who rose quickly through the ranks to General partly thanks to Snoke's favor, but also due to his own scheming, treachery and assassination of his rivals (including eventually his own father Brendol).

Rise of the First Order
"It's time to start over. That is our first order. To begin again. And to get it right, this time."

- Rae Sloane, to Brendol Hux. 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. To circumvent laws passed by the New Republic banning arms sales to the First Order, many companies simply spun off subsidiaries (BlasTech and Mer-Sonn created Sonn-Blas, for example) that operated in First Order space.

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. General Armitage Hux was eventually put in charge of the regime's most important military projects, including Starkiller Base, which converted an entire planet into a hyperspace superweapon capable of destroying entire star systems. The indigenous inhabitants of the planet were exterminated or entirely enslaved to prevent the repeat of the Battle of Endor. Other projects including experimental technologies developed by the old Empire under the Tarkin Initiative, such as active hyperspace tracking.

Cold war
Supreme Leader Snoke, through use of the dark side of the Force, was able to manipulate a young Ben Solo (later naming himself Kylo Ren) into joining the dark side of the force, and Kylo turned on his former Jedi Master and uncle, Luke Skywalker, destroying his temple, recruiting a dozen of his Jedi students to join him and slaughtering those who had fought, bringing Luke's plan to reestablish the Jedi Order to an end. Eventually Kylo formed the Knights of Ren (possible from the aforementioned ex students of Luke) which would become the secret state religious body of the First Order. It became forbidden on all First Order controlled worlds to even pronounce Kylo Ren's original name, presumably under penalty of death.

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.

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 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 led 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 massacred which lead to a First Order Stormtrooper named Finn to free Poe and defect from the First Order. After his defection, a unit of Stormtroopers were sent down tot he surface of Jakku where they eventually found out where Finn was and attacked both him and Rey along with BB-8.

New Galactic War
"Today is the end of the Republic! The end of a regime that acquiesces to disorder! At this very moment, in a system far from here the New Republic lies to the galaxy while secretly supporting the treachery of the loathsome Resistance. This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand, will bring an end to the Senate! To their cherished fleet! All remaining systems will bow to the First Order! And will remember this... as the last day of the Republic!"

- General Armitage Hux speech before the Hosnian Cataclysm. Sometime later, General Hux gave a speech to a large gathering of Stormtroopers and other military personnel on Starkiller Base where he announced the end of the New Republic, the destruction of the Resistance, and the conquest of the galaxy under the banner of the First Order. Seconds afterwards, the Starkiller fired its planet-shattering beam and it managed to target and successfully destroy the Hosnian system where the New Republic's capital and main fleet was based at the time. Not long afterwards, the Starkiller was found and was destroyed in a bombing run by Resistance X-wings led by Poe Dameron, but the First Order leadership managed to escape, regroup, and survive.

After Starkiller Base was destroyed, the personnel killed on the base were avenged when the Resistance fleet was found and was ambushed by the First Order Navy. The effort was spear-headed by General Hux, but was later usurped by Snoke due to his failures. During the attack, the Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix was destroyed, but the Resistance Navy was found and would be ambushed and destroyed one by one until only a few hundred remained alive and they evacuated to the planet of Crait to set up shop in an old Rebellion-era base.

While the fleet was being attacked, the New Republic began falling into disarray with the Core Worlds being weakened to the point that the First Order could conquer them within weeks and some Republic systems, most likely in the outer regions of New Republic territory, had already surrendered to the First Order, some of whom were already leaning towards the First Order due to a promise of order, others because of fear. Kylo Ren brought Rey to Snoke's throne room on board the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy, but he killed his master along with his guards and the Supremacy itself was severely damaged when the last Resistance cruiser was used to cripple the Supremacy and destroy twenty other Resurgent-class Star Destroyers escorting the Mega Destroyer via the hyperdrive.

Kylo Ren took over as Supreme Leader and he, along with Hux, lead the ground invasion of Crait where they attacked the Resistance forces on the planet with the intent on destroying them once and for all. Despite their best efforts though and most of the Resistance soldiers being killed, the remnants managed to escape and the First Order was left with the Resistance still active and an abandoned planet to annex into their territory. Despite the failed attempt at destroying the Resistance once and for all, the First Order has emerged as the new dominate galactic power as the New Republic is in disarray with some of its systems already surrendering and the major member worlds are said to be conquered within a matter of weeks.

Government
"The First Order is not the Empire. We are purer. We have been through the crucible and emerged stronger."

- Phasma about the First Order. The First Order is a military dictatorship similiar to that of the former Galactic Empire. The regime is lead by the Supreme Leader as its head of state and overall leader. Snoke was the first Supreme Leader as well as the founder of the First Order as a whole and ruled with an iron fist similiar to that of his spiritual predecessor, Palpatine, in how he governed his subjects and subordinates. Much like that of Darth Vader, Kylo Ren held a position of power that was outside the formal rank of the First Order military and this would lead to conflict between Kylo and other members of the First Order military hierarchy, primarily General Hux, whenever their objectives and agendas conflicted with each other. Force-Sensitives exist within the ranks of the First Order, but the regime lacks any Sith Lords and Inquisitors to deploy.

Much like the New Republic, the First Order lacks any official capital and uses a mobile headquarters instead. Starkiller Base served its purpose as the unofficial capital of the First Order due to it being used as the main base of operation by the leadership of the First Order prior to the destruction of the base at the hands of the Resistance. The Supremacy also served this purpose as it was the flagship of the First Order Navy and the personal base for Supreme Leader Snoke. After both were destroyed, the First Order remains active, but continues to lack a central capital and most likely has a rotation system in which they switch between various unofficial capitals like the New Republic does with their government.

The First Order Security Bureau acts as the intelligence agency of the First Order and helps reinforce the regime across the galaxy both within and beyond the Unknown Regions. One notable agent was Terex, a known crime lord and former Stormtrooper.

Foreign Affairs
"When Major Vonreg and Commander Pyre first proposed the idea of collaborating with pirates, I was skeptical. Since then, you have done little to prove me wrong."

- Captain Phasma to Kragan Gorr. Due to the terms of the Galactic Concordance on the defeated remnants of the Galactic Empire, the First Order denounced the New Republic as an illegitimate government and fled to the Unknown Regions where they plotted how to undermine the new galactic government. During its early years, the First Order operated in deep secrecy and slowly rebuilt supported only by a select few group of people. As it rearmed and violated the Galactic Concordance, reports of its activities by the Senate Intelligence Committee were leaked, but the New Republic and its Senate did nothing. Seeking to make sure the New Republic didn't take any action against them, the First Order made deals with the Corporate Sector to influence members of the Galactic Senate such as Senator Erudo Ro-Kiintor to prevent the senate from imposing sanctions on the First Order and expanding the size and strength of the New Republic Defense Fleet.

As the First Order grew, it used diplomacy and established diplomatic connections with various groups, organizations and independent governments to grow its influence. It managed to secure deals with the Corporate Sector Authority and secured funding and support from the organization. The First Order managed to secure support and informants from sympathetic beings such as Imanuel Doza, a former Imperial Officer, and various different criminal organizations such as Warbird Gang on Castilion. After thirty years of subverting the New Republic, the First Order attacked them by destroying their capital of Hosnian Prime and invading their territories while the government was destroyed. The First Order also secured deals and agreements with various arms companies that later manufactured the starships and weapons they'd use in their campaigns of conquest.

Military
"They're flying state-of-the-art TIEs, they're using commando boarding parties and latest-generation attack shuttles in clear violation of the Galactic Concordance."

- Poe Dameron on the strength of the First Order military. The First Order military is the armed wing of the regime as well as its most important and dominant aspect. Formed from fleeing Imperials seeking to escape the New Republic and the Galactic Concordance, the First Order would eventually rebuild itself over the course of thirty years after the end of the Galactic Civil War through Project Resurrection, a rearmaments program which saw the rapid growth and expansion of the First Order military through secret deals and the abduction of children to conscript into their own ranks. The First Order soon grew and conquered much of the Unknown Regions and managed to secure deals with major arms companies such as BlasTech Industries and Merr-Sonn Munitions. Both companies, seeking to support the First Order and avoid being caught due to supporting them being a criminal offense, created a subsidiary called Sonn-Blas Corporation within First Order space and armed the order with its weapons.

Years of expansion has allowed the First Order to establish arms factories and produce state of the art weapons from TIE fighters to blasters and other weapons. The Sinear-Jaemus Fleet Systems company created many of the ships and starfighters the First Order uses such as the Upsilon-class command shuttle, TIE/fo space superiority fighters and many others. Kuat-Entralla Engineering helped create and develop the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer for the First Order Navy which had both heavy firepower and invoked the fearful image of their predecessor, the Imperial-class Star Destroyer. One of the largest ships ever fielded by the First Order was the Supremacy, a Mega-class Star Dreadnought that served as their mobile capital and flagship of Supreme Leader Snoke before his downfall and death.

Just like their predecessors, the First Order fields a large army comprised of stormtroopers that formed the backbone of its army and the First Order Stormtrooper Corps. First Order Stormtroopers were usually either conscripts from when they were taken as kids and raised to fight or enlisted men from member worlds and go through tough and rigorous training with consistant standards and trained in the art of counter-insurgency tactics and improvisation. Many different variants exist such as heavy assault troopers, snowtroopers, and riot control troopers with different types appearing per every ten regular stormtroopers in a First Order Army unit. First Order Stormtroopers are highly trained, high quality professional soldiers that are battle-hardened warriors and have higher quality compared to their Imperial predecessors, especially since they lack the numerical advantage the Imperial Stormtroopers had. Since many of the stormtroopers were trained from infancy, they remain fierce and formidable warriors on the frontlines.

One of the many planets under First Order control is the snowy planet of Starkiller Base, a planet-sized superweapon capable of destroying entire star systems, was used as a major training ground and station for countless stormtroopers and other First Order personnel. The base was lead by an unofficial triumvirate comprised of General Hux, Kylo Ren, and Captain Phasma prior to its destruction by the Resistance. Despite its loss, the First Order had formed a massive army from decades of secret buildup and its size and scale shocked the New Republic who believed that the First Order's military was made up only of local planetary defense forces and ceremonial guards. Since the Resistance monitored their activities, they believed that the First Order was hiding more weapons than were known such as the Mega-class Star Dreadnought and the Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought.

Judiciary
The First Order is governed as an authoritarian military junta and as a result have strict laws that are met with harsh punishments for those who break them. The First Order is merciless towards anyone accused of the act of treason and is met with the death penalty via public execution. Loyalty among the troopers is key for the First Order and will punish anyone for even the slightest breach of loyalty every day. Those responsible for public executions come from those in the Stormtrooper Corps and the executioners are rotated constantly and are random unlike standardized execution troopers that the Galactic Empire had. Stormtroopers who are chosen for public executions are picked at random and have their identifies kept anonymous. Executioner troopers have stormtrooper armor with black markings and carry laser axes for executions.

It's unknown what other laws exist within the First Order's borders, but they're most likely strict and other harsh punishments exist for those who break them beyond execution. Riot Control Stormtroopers act as the law enforcement branch of the First Order and are stationed on worlds under the order's control to maintain law and order on the worlds and keep them in line. They're given F-11D Blaster Rifles, like regular troopers, and only use them if riots grow out of control. They also have regular non-lethal weapons like shields and batons.

Science and Technology
"Miniaturized Death Star tech. It'll crack that door open like an egg."

- Finn describing the superlaser siege cannon. Just like their predecessors in the Galactic Empire, the First Order is a highly advanced society with state of the art technology. The First Order continued weapons development and research into dark energy translations and hyperspace tunneling, the latter of which was also done under the Empire prior to their collapse. Starkiller Base was one of the proudest achievements of the First Order due to the sheer power and technological advancement the base had and was a testament to the First Order's technological capabilities. Starkiller Base was powered by quintessence, a form of dark energy, that kept the superweapon mobile and functioning and it was capable of draining energy from nearby stars so it could have the power to destroy entire star systems. Another advanced weapon that the First Order has is the superlaser siege cannons with a range of 200 meters and being made from miniaturized Death Star technology, though this weapon did require support due to its power and had a tracer beam to support its accuracy. It was used during the Battle of Crait and blew open the large blast door on the abandoned Alliance Base used by the surviving remnants of the Resistance.

Members

 * Snoke - Founder / First Supreme Leader / Owner of the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy (deceased)
 * Kylo Ren - Second Supreme Leader / Master of the Knights of Ren / Commanding Officer of the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer / Former Apprentice of Snoke
 * Armitage Hux - General / Supreme Commander of the First Order military / Commanding Officer of the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer / Former Commanding Officer of Starkiller Base
 * Brendol Hux - General / Head of the First Order's Stormtrooper training program (deceased)
 * Phasma - Stormtrooper Captain / Supreme Commander of the First Order Stormtrooper Corps / Commanding Officer of the FN Corps / Commanding Officer of the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer (deceased)
 * Pyre - Stormtrooper Commander / Commanding Officer of the Colossus Garrison
 * Elrik Vonreg - Major Baron / TIE Fighter Pilot / Commanding Officer of the Colossus Garrison (deceased)
 * Terex - Agent of the First Order Security Bureau / Former Stormtrooper of the Galactic Empire
 * Tierny - Agent of the First Order Security Bureau / Commanding Officer of the Colossus Garrison
 * Tamara Ryvora - Recruit
 * Pryde - Allegiant General
 * Lady Carise Sindian - Senator of Arkanis / Member of the Elder Houses (secretly)
 * Gideon Hask - Commander / Owner of the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Retribution (deceased)
 * Rae Sloane - Grand Admiral
 * Datoo - Colonel on Starkiller Base (missing in action)
 * Mandetat - Technician on Starkiller Base (missing in action)
 * Rodinon - Lieutenant on Starkiller Base (missing in action)
 * Wanten - Stormtrooper Commander on Starkiller Base (deceased)
 * Kaplan - Colonel on the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer
 * Thanisson - Petty Officer on the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer
 * Goneril - Adjutant on the Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix (deceased)
 * Suday Bascus - Warrant Officer on the Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix (deceased)
 * Moden Canady - Captain of the Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix (deceased)
 * Edison Peavey - Captain of the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer

Trivia

 * 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.
 * In contrast to the Empire, the First Order employs a different military strategy emphasizing quality over quantity.
 * The First Order are reminiscent of HYDRA from the Marvel Comics and its Cinematic Universe and the Millennium Organisation from the Hellsing manga and anime, as all three organisations are based on ODESSA.
 * The First Order Emblem is vaguely similar to that of Imperial Japan during World War II, although it is black on red as opposed to red on white.
 * 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, despite it's evil nature, lacks the depravity of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State however.
 * 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.
 * The First Order also bear some resemblance to the The Brotherhood of Nod in the Command & Conquer videogame series in their authoritarian political ideology, ruthlessness, use of terror tactics and weapons of mass destruction, and blind quasi-religious obedience to their Supreme Leader. Also, like the Brotherhood, the First Order appears to be a hybrid between a nation state, a multinational corporation, and a religious cult rolled into one.

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