Transcription
Standed attention, initiate, and welcome to the academy. When it comes to militaries, one of the most natural questions that arises is who is the best of the best. In our recent datacrons, we've been going over the most elite classes of stormtroopers in the Empire, as well as plan to make a video on the most deadly classes of clone troopers in the Republic. Well, now we have decided to move up in the food chain and go about as high as we can go in the Imperial chain of command without hitting Vader or the Emperor himself. Today we wanted to talk all about the different variants and types of the Emperor's royal guard. We did a holocron some time ago about the royal guards themselves, but we wanted to go through and specifically detail the different kinds of guards that were available to the Emperor. Most of these that we find come from the Force Unleash game, as Galen Merrick encountered quite a few of these variants on his quest against the Empire. So, for this holocron, we are going to go over each of the five royal guard types, detailing their class, strength, skills, equipment, and overall effectiveness. And then by the end, maybe we'll have an idea of who was truly the greatest royal guard.
To begin, we are going to do a quick review of the standard royal guards themselves. The Emperor's Royal Guard, also known as the Red Guard, are selected from the finest specimens in the Stormtrooper Corps and from other fine warriors. Around 43 of these troopers at a time are whisked away to a tough training camp on the planet of Yinshore. Here they are drilled day and night while being indoctrinated with complete and total loyalty to their emperor. At the end of their training, the finest from among them would be chosen by process of elimination until there were but two candidates left. These trainees would be forced to fight each other in front of the emperor and execute the loser. From 43 candidates at a time, only one would ever be chosen from among them to ensure that the emperor had nothing but the absolute best. Each of these trainees are honed in the ways of Achani and Teras Kaz, both of which are unique martial arts that are specifically designed to combat force sensitives. In fact, practitioners of these fighting styles get so adept at it that they actually demonstrate the physical feats of those who are forces sensitive despite them not being able to touch the force. In open combat, there were a couple of times where a single red guard turned the entire tide of a battle and sent a whole army running.
The Emperor's Royal Guard had a very specific kit that served them well whilst protecting their emperor. Their armor in itself is no accident in design, and it was directly derivative of the armor worn by the Suns, specifically of the Thyrus system. This was meant to invoke fear and train combatants as the Sunuards themselves had a legendary reputation and a reputation as fierce warriors who rivaled even the Mandalorian. Their armor was far more durable than typical Imperial armor. And though they wore a ceremonial cloak over it, this did not hamper their movement and was mostly used to conceal the rest of their kit and armor beneath it. The primary weapon that many will see being carried around by the royal guard would be the force pike. For those who don't know, a force pike is a meter long pole attached to a hilt. The tip of the pike was a viroedged head with a stun function that could knock a full-grown Wookie unconscious, doing so by using a concentrated nerve impulse similar to that feature in the stun setting of a blaster rifle. At its lowest setting, the spear would deliver excruciating electrical shots. Higher settings could result in paralysis and even death. And at maximum setting, it could slice through everything from flesh and bone to thin duracill plating. Beneath their robes, they carried a heavy blaster pistol, a light repeating blaster, and a viro sword along with a couple of grenades. In certain scenarios, some red guards also include arc casters and microhoming launchers to their kits. Red guards also had with them a set of armor similar to that of a stormtrooper, though colored red. This was in case they were sent out into open combat along with other stormtroopers for whatever reason. As you can tell, royal guards were absolutely no joke, and their effectiveness is proven by the very fact that they are the ones protecting the Emperor himself.
Now that we got that out of the way, let's dive into their variants. Starting with the Imperial Senate Guard, the originals, these men wear armor similar to that of the Royal Guard, but colored blue instead of red. These guards are different from the blue Senate Guards as seen in the Clone Wars, as they are much more finely trained. They were trained solely in melee combat and equipped with Corttosis staffs. Additionally, these guards also carried personal energy shields that were powerful enough to deflect lightsabers. Publicly, the Senate guard's duties were just that, to protect the Senate building, as well as provide personal safety for high-ranking Imperial officers. However, they did have many secret duties which included assassination and even hunting Jedi on Coruscant at some points. We see this in the Force Unleashed as many Senate guards were on Cloud City hunting for Jedi General Ram Cota. However, they were put down by Stariller shortly afterwards. I would like to point out that we don't see a whole lot of these Senate guards, mostly because they were in Legends continuity, and in the current cannon, death troopers are the ones that usually escort high-ranking Imperial officers and senators. Their effectiveness was somewhat underwhelming, as it isn't clear to us if they actually came from the same trainees as the Red Royal Guards did, although I would hypothesize that they did not. These guards didn't seem to see much use as there were already several other Imperial divisions that are devoting to hunted force sensitives.
There is also a subsect of the Senate guards that were known as Senate Sentinels. I find their name to be cruel irony as their sole purpose was protecting the Jedi Temple from looters during the days of the Empire in 2BBY. They wore robes and helmets similar to that of the Senate Guards, but colored a slate gray and had a different looking face plate. They wielded force pikes that could effectively block a Jedi's lightsaber, which was essential for this task. For a long time, Senate Sentinels were thought to be cyborgs due to their robotic nature of their voices, but this hasn't been confirmed or denied.
One of the finest Royal Guard variants on this entire list would be the Imperial Sovereign Protector. These elite guardsmen were distinguished by black accents to their typical all red uniforms. Their cloaks didn't cover their bodies, but they wore black capes instead. Sometimes they were completely covered in black cloaks and used scythelike force pikes as their weapon. These intimidating guard variants were led mostly by a champion picked by the emperor and they directly answered to the emperor alone. Only the best of the elite emperor's royal guard was specifically chosen to become a sovereign protector. They endured years of selection procedures and training aimed at achieving perfection in soldiering. Extreme standards were set for their condition far beyond that of even a typical royal guard, which was peak human form already. Their combat training included the use of heavy blaster pistols and the deadly double viro blade. In fact, what made them so deadly is the fact that they each had some force sensitivity with them in which to work with. And some were actually so well trained in the ways of the dark side that they could have potentially qualified for a dark Jedi position. Sovereign protectors were sent out on vital missions by the emperor himself, although someone stayed behind to protect him.
On this subject of force sensitivity, we will certainly talk about the Emperor Shadow Guards. Clad in an all black version of the Royal Guard uniform. The Shadow Guard was selected from the Red Guard if they proved to be strong in the Force. These men wielded saber-pikes, which were long spear-like weapons tipped with a lightsaber blade. Each of them were trained specifically by Darth Vader with the primary mission of hunting Jedi. They were silent and enigmatic warriors that received orders directly from Palpatine. The Shadow Guards commanded a great level of respect within the Empire's ranks and often led squads of stormtroopers into battle against the Emperor's most hated foes. They also demonstrated a great deal of competency in the dark side, able to use advanced force techniques such as even force lightning. A while back, we did a video all about the comparison between the Shadow Guards and the Inquisitors. And the Shadow Guard actually won by a landslide. Although they are legends and the Inquisitors are canon. I liken my own head cannon to think that they were assembled after the Inquisitors ultimately failed. What if hypothetically after all of the Inquisitors died out, Palpatine acknowledged how disappointing they were and reorganized the Inquisition into the Shadow Guard? So they were loyal, powerful, and above all competent.
The final guard type we are going to talk about is one that I find to be incredibly fascinating, and this is the Saber Guard. These guys were not trained on Ginchor like the others, but rather were cloned and trained at a top secret facility on Kamino. They were known to have some degree of force potential and as the name suggests, utilize two red lightsabers. Their armor is the most different from all of the other royal guard types and one that is the most stylish. They sport a black tunic overlaid with gold colored armor pieces. These pieces were resistant to lightsabers. Their helmet resembled that of a regular guard's but is T-shaped and glowing white. Unlike the others, they don't sport any sort of cape or cloak with their uniform. Although Saber Guards were much less skilled in the force than Galen Merik, they were able to erect a force barrier around themselves to shield against his force attacks. Saber guards were highly effective in how they executed their maneuvers and were able to easily overwhelm a rebel ship and gain control of it. However, [music] they proved to be almost ineffective against Galen.
Unfortunately, our only point of reference for judging many of the Imperial Royal Guard variants is Stariller himself, since we only see several of them in the Force Unleash games. Having said that, their abilities are undeniably impressive, and we hope that you think so as well. But now, my friends and acolytes, what do you think of the Royal Guards and all of the different variants that we discussed today? Which one is your favorite? And who of them is the most powerful? If you like this type of series of us going over elite classes, be sure to like the video as well as let us know down below. And as always, my friends, may the force be with you, and I hope that you're having a wonderful day.