Nearly a decade after first hearing about him, we finally have our first look at Gallius Rax.
It comes from one of the variant covers released for the upcoming comic Star Wars: Battle of Jakku – Republic Under Siege #4 (available December 11, 2024), which shows Rax commanding a battlefield. It surely won’t be long before we see more of him in this comic series, either, as it is exploring the final year of the Galactic Civil War, taking place in-between the Battle of Endor and the Battle of Jakku.
In that year-long gap, the Empire continues to fight against the New Republic, but without Emperor Palpatine to command the efforts. So who is the one leading the charge? Enter Gallius Rax.
First introduced in the Aftermath books (written by Chuck Wendig), Rax was personally selected by Palpatine as a close ally and aide. In the power vacuum after Palpatine’s death, Rax became Counselor of the Galactic Empire, leading the Shadow Council through Grand Admiral Rae Sloane. Through this, though he operated mostly behind the scenes, Rax was the military and governmental leader of the Imperial remnants. While Rax was cloaked in mystery and intrigue, his true purposes were even more secretive. It was Palpatine’s design that an Empire that couldn’t keep its Emperor alive didn’t deserve to carry on, so he developed a Contingency plan that would be put into place upon his death, essentially destroying the remnants of his regime so that it could be rebuilt, stronger, in the shadows.
Rax was one of very few who knew of this plan, given his role as a close advisor and ally to Palpatine, and thus upon the Emperor’s death Rax took control of Imperial leadership so that he could begin the Contingency. He began this by putting Operation: Cinder into play, an order to destroy key Imperial worlds, like Naboo. He orchestrated the deaths of some key Imperial leaders, manipulated some key Imperial defeats, and ultimately, a year after the Battle of Endor, called the remaining Imperial forces to Jakku (Rax’s homeworld) for a final battle. His plan, as the final stage of Palpatine’s Contingency, was to lure the New Republic forces there in order to destroy both Imperial and New Republic forces through the destruction of the planet. His plan was to save only the best of his troops to retreat to the Unknown Regions to begin again.
This final piece was ultimately thwarted by Sloane, who killed Rax before she retreated into the Unknown Regions with the Imperial remnants after their defeat at Jakku, where she would help to form the First Order in the shadows. Only after Rax’s death was Imperial Grand Vizier Mas Amedda able to officially surrender to the New Republic, ending the Galactic Civil War.
I’m guessing that this comic series will explore a lot of these key points, if not every single detail, so we’ll surely be seeing more of Gallius Rax moving forward. But it’s notable that, for the first time, we actually get to see what he looks like!
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