A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE
When Emperor Palpatine declared his New Order, he announced that a thousand years of peace would begin that day—his galactic government would rival and perhaps eclipse that of the modern Republic. Citizens hailed Palpatine as a hero. Despite betrayal, injury, and years of exhaustion, the former senator from Naboo had done it. He had united the galaxy.
Among the first acts of the newly christened Emperor was a reshuffling of the political apparatus. The Commission for the Preservation of the Republic (COMPOR), a populist movement of loyalists during the war, was re-formed as the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR), a useful political tool wielded by newly appointed Imperial advisors with a gift for shaping public sentiment.
In the first few years of the Galactic Empire, civic pride boomed. The clone forces, having done their part, were quietly phased out and replaced by a volunteer army. Ironically, the fervent patriotism of the young produced a more uniform, malleable soldier than the genetic duplication of a single template. This was the height of Imperial military propaganda, where citizens across the Empire were encouraged to enlist in the Imperial Army or Navy. A galaxy-wide military, once believed unthinkable, was now essential to the character of the galaxy.
The shifting front lines of the Clone Wars and the victory of the Republic expanded the reach of Coruscant farther than ever before. The Galactic Empire encompassed distant territories, and evidence of the Imperial war machine could be found on even the most remote worlds.
Military recruitment messages leaned on tradition, honor, and security. They did not need to remind the citizens of the chaos of separatism, nor of the dangers of valuing the whims of the individual against the stability of the state. A citizen’s greatest potential could be unlocked by serving the military. A stormtrooper or fleet cadet knew his or her purpose.
Following his pronouncement of the Galactic Empire, Emperor Palpatine largely disappeared from public view. Official representatives spoke on his behalf more often than not, carrying out his decrees. It was not until the threat of the Rebellion became tangible that the Emperor emerged on the galactic stage.
During this time, the Emperor began to recede from public view. More often than not, crafted holograms or idealized portraitures of Palpatine in his prime became the “face” of the Emperor. The day-to-day governance of the Empire fell to his circle of advisors and military leaders within the Imperial Council. While the military branches of the Empire underwent exponential growth, the civilian trunk of the government followed a carefully crafted template formed by COMPNOR. A series of sub-Commissions began blueprinting what the ideal Imperial citizen would be like and what role he or she would play in the greater glory of the Empire.
The Coalition for Progress, a bureau within the Imperial government that included the Ministry of Information, was essential in shaping the public face of the benevolent Empire (what hindsight reveals to be a calculated deception). A battery of galaxy-wide Sector Monitors—civilian spy agencies—fed the Coalition torrents of information regarding cultural progress within the Empire. Groups within the government would act accordingly where “corrections” were required. SAGEducation (sub-adult group education) would create curricula determined to shape young citizens into patriots. Science groups would guide research and development into military applications. Surveillance agencies would equip the notorious Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) with evidence of disloyalty.
Of particular relevance to this work was the Art Group. This office reported on the suitability of artistic expression within the Empire and applied inflexible criteria that exemplified its austere tenets. In the early years following the Clone Wars, when Art agents had a particularly scathing report on a piece of art, they affixed a distinctive red holo-label to make clear their critique. This led to the underground term “drawing a scarlet,” a laudable achievement aspired to by many counterculture artists chafing under Imperial restrictions. Later, the Art Group was given the authority to call in the Imperial Security Bureau when violations were particularly egregious. The ISB had the ability to make chronically troublesome artists disappear without a trace.
Much of the government communication of this era was strictly transactional. The dissolving of moribund Republic offices and the rise of new Imperial counterparts led to much confusion among citizens of how to best access services. Instructions on how to attain proper documentation, how to present said documentation to security officers, and what the latest measures of galactic security entailed were packaged and transmitted with a crisp, officious tone of duty. Citizens were urged to join Imperial industrial ventures, all ultimately contributing to the growing military might.
Although military history partially records the role Darth Vader played as the Emperor’s emissary in the Imperial fleet, he was largely absent from Imperial propaganda. Vader and, by extension, the shadowy Inquisitorius were tools of the Emperor. Their agenda consisted of esoteric spiritual matters of an ancient religion, a brand of spirituality the Emperor ordered his underlings to keep from the public eye. To the uninitiated, it risked appearing too similar to the treacherous Jedi of old.
Steven Thomas
REPORT SEDITION (ORIGINAL VERSION)
Chrigeld Tinnine, COMPNOR
Cooperation and unity are presented in the immediate foreground of this image crafted shortly after the conclusion of the Clone Wars. To counter the war weariness of a public that had begun to question the icon of the clone trooper as savior, officials at the newly rechristened COMPNOR aimed to reclaim the image of the armored soldier as a force for good, a force for local stability. It was a short-lived period in Imperial messaging, as the reformed stormtrooper army would soon be recast in a more authoritative light.
Curiously, this image was not the final released to the public. The Republic cog seen here, below the defaced Imperial symbol, was replaced with the Separatist hex icon upon publication after careful review by COMPNOR, even though that enemy was decisively defeated. Imperial image-smiths did not want create a jarring transition from Republic to Empire in the immediate weeks following the Empire’s emergence.
Russell Walks
CARRY IDENTIFICATION
Artist Unknown
The Empire swept into power on a wave of goodwill and support from a fatigued populace yearning for safety. This allowed for the acceptance of restrictive and intrusive security measures. The standardization of identification among Imperial officials was an initiative accompanied by a massive communications campaign. Every possible government channel of communications exposed to the public carried reminders to keep identification updated. In this image, the small text carries the warning, “Failure to produce identification on demand is grounds for immediate Imperial adjudication.”
Imperial messaging of this era struck a tenuous balance in depicting stormtroopers as heroes and punishers. To be on the right side of Imperial law was the gateway to prosperity and assurance. To brook violations through inattentiveness or worse was to invite the full weight of the Galactic Empire and its reprisals.
Steven Thomas
NOTHING BEATS AN ACADEMY EDUCATION
Artist Unknown
The rise of the Imperial war machine saw a great transformation and homogenization of regional military training institutions. In the time of the Republic, there was no unified military protecting the galaxy. Instead, systems, sectors, and regions protected their own interests by training soldiers to be local defenders at academies of varying scope steeped in tradition. When the Imperial armed forces shifted from clone-based personnel to volunteer citizens, regional governors revamped the historic academies implementing rigidly standardized programs. Gone were the flags, braids, baldrics, swords, and other regalia of tradition. They were replaced with a uniform look embodied by the stormtrooper.
Russell Walks
STRENGTH & OBEDIENCE
Resinu Santhe-Caltra
Kuat Drive Yards reaped enormous profits by becoming the preeminent shipbuilders of the Imperial Navy. The collusion of industry and military power led to the dagger-shaped capital ships of the Empire becoming the very symbol of galactic might. The admiralty of the Empire pushed this agenda, much to the chagrin of Imperial Starfighter Corps. Historians believe the flaws inherent in the TIE designs were allowed to remain in order to keep the fighter-craft dependent on the capital-scale carrier ships, lest the Star Destroyer lose its position as the symbolic spear point of the Empire.
Eric Tan
RISE
Coba Dunivee
As the Empire expanded into the Outer Rim, it spread its authority and control over the frontier systems. In doing so, it adopted specific language to appeal to new recruits. The lawlessness of the Outer Rim, a result of Republic indifference, led to the victimization of remote settlers by criminal elements. The Empire offered order and a chance for retribution. To the disaffected youths feeling an unsettling lack of control over their fates, the Empire offered an intoxicating brand of power. There was unity and strength within the Imperial ranks. These messages promised potential fulfillment through military service. The opportunity to not be afraid but rather instill fear proved incredibly alluring to an aimless generation.
Velvet Engine
WE FIGHT, WE WIN
Stassen Bine
After a few years of the helmeted stormtrooper being the anonymous face of Imperial might, the artists of the information ministries began experimenting with using individualized faces to celebrate the armed forces. However, concern from the upper echelons of the military squashed attempts to lionize specific officers, feeling that aggrandizing any one soldier above others would bode ill for morale, and run counter to the notion of Imperial identity through uniformity.
The compromise was a holographic composite of over five thousand faces from the Imperial military rosters. These images immortalized an idealized aggregate. The psychological underpinning of Imperial training, which deemphasized the individual, worked in conjunction with this approach. Imperial servicemembers could look up at such a poster and see themselves, regardless of any physical differences.
Amy Beth Christenson
IF THE HEADGEAR FITS
Coba Dunivee
With a military expanding to include fresh recruits taken from new member worlds, the Galactic Empire emphasized service and glory. Republic messaging had never been able to capitalize on classic language and icons of military recruitment banners from years past. The Empire, in contrast, took full advantage of the surge of patriotism across the galaxy.
This example is lighter than most, aimed at young recruits in the Outer Rim worlds who would likely be captivated by the sleek designs and modern military technology of the Empire. Pictured here are the head coverings of an Imperial line officer, stormtrooper, TIE fighter pilot, assault driver, scout trooper, and cold assault stormtrooper. Whereas some posters used a singular soldier as a show of strength, this one favored multiple examples to suggest a diverse array of opportunity within the Imperial military.
Eric Tan
JOIN
Coba Dunivee, COMPNOR
Imperial propagandists within COMPNOR built upon the symbols and messages carefully engineered during the Clone Wars to accelerate the vast military expansion decreed by the Emperor. This piece resembles the gallant images of clone troopers made popular in the last great war, but adds a new and unprecedented message. For all the hero-building and mythologizing of the clones among the Republic populace, they were always an abstraction in the public’s mind, for their ranks were exclusively made up of a single genetic template. Now, a galactic citizen could become that hero once the cloning operations were suspended. Many youths, inspired by clone heroism, longed to fill their armor and do their part directly rather than through the purchase of bonds, the reporting of treason, or the rationing of supplies.
Pat Presley
SIENAR FLEET SYSTEMS MURAL
Saespo Choffrey, Sienar Fleet Systems
To meet the demands of the Imperial Navy, defense contractors such as Sienar Fleet Systems expanded their factory operations to worlds across the Empire’s frontier. The Outer Rim was a massive source of labor waiting to be exploited. In the farthest reaches of the borderlands, unscrupulous Sienar taskmasters created appalling working conditions to meet the unreasonable output quotas of TIE fightercraft and related technologies. Such toil was often masked by depictions of goodwill in enormous murals. When Sienar Fleet Systems arrived on a new world and dominated a population center, such images would accompany them.
This particular example hails from Lothal, a mineral-rich world in a backrocket sector of the Outer Rim. It has undergone updating to reflect the evolving skyline of the Capital City, with the huge factory dome as the civic center. Versions of this mural, with Aurebesh and High Galactic copy executions and other variations, could be found in the outlying neighborhoods and residential districts of the city.