Anakin Skywalker was a legendary Human Jedi Knight who served the Galactic Republic in its final years, and later became Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. He was the son of Shmi Skywalker. Later in his life, he became the secret husband of Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo, and the father of the legendary Jedi Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo. He was also the grandfather of Ben Skywalker, and Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin Solo. He was the great-grandfather of Allana, and an ancestor of Nat, Kol, and Cade Skywalker.

Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious, was the last Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and the first Emperor of the Galactic Empire. He was a Dark Lord of the Sith who followed the Rule of Two and was considered by many to be the most powerful Sith Lord who ever existed.[5] Palpatine was able to establish his Empire by concocting a complex master plan, which involved starting the Clone Wars, a galaxy-wide conflict that cost billions of sentient lives. Palpatine himself headed both the Galactic Republic and, secretly, the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which allowed him to prolong the conflict in order to gain more executive powers from the Senate

Maul is kidnapped from his Jedi training by Sidious at an early age. Sidious orders Maul to forget what he had learned from the Jedi, and indoctrinates him in the ways of the dark side of the Force from youth. Maul has no memories of his homeworld of Iridonia, and is incapable of emotion aside from bloodlust and rage. Sidious molds him into an implacable killing machine, severely punishing any show of fear or mercy. Marked by Sith tattoos that cover his entire body, Maul is described as the ultimate tool of the dark side.

Sidious abandoned Maul on an isolated Outer Rim world, forcing him to survive alone while being hunted by hordes of assassin droids. After a month's time, his master returns and challenges him to a duel, which the weakened Maul quickly loses. Sidious then tells Maul that he has failed and is soon to be replaced. Overwhelmed by hatred, Maul nearly defeats his master. When Maul's emotions are finally spent, he prepares to die, only to be met with Sidious's satisfaction. By wanting to kill his own master, Maul has in fact passed the final test. His master proclaims him Darth Maul, Dark Lord of the Sith, and takes him to a new home on Coruscant.

He is born as Dessel on the planet Apatros, the son of a miner named Hurst. Hurst, an abusive alcoholic, blames the boy for the death of his wife in childbirth, and often calls him his "Bane". His father takes him into the mines at a young age, and the boy is bullied and abused well into adulthood. He is powerful in the dark side of the Force, and unconsciously uses this power to kill his hated father. The authorities did an autopsy, and said Hurst had died of natural causes. Years later Dessel will learn he killed his father with the Force.

After he kills a Republic Navy ensign in self-defense, Dessel flees Apatros and joins the armies of the Brotherhood of Darkness, a band of Sith Lords. His instinctive use of the Force (which he initially believes to be a myth) brings him to the attention of the Sith Lord Kopecz. Dessel is sent to the Brotherhood's Academy on Korriban to be trained in the ways of the dark side. Dessel (who renames himself Bane) becomes a star pupil after killing another student in cold blood. In particular, he attracts the attention of Sirak, the top student at the Korriban Academy.

After Bane realizes that he had indeed killed his father with the dark side, he subconsciously retreats from the Force, losing his power. Bane falls out of favor in the Academy, and is eventually refused any personalized training. Months later, in a vain attempt to reestablish himself, Bane challenges Sirak to a fight and is seriously injured in the ensuing duel.

Bane's training in and ascension to the Sith is detailed in both Path of Destruction and Jedi vs. Sith. As a student, he meets a new apprentice (and former Jedi) named Githany, who secretly plans to use him to bring down Sirak. Githany reestablishes his connection to the dark side by showing him in secret what the Sith Lords are teaching her. Most importantly, Bane studies tomes from the Golden Age of the Sith, and realizes that the new teachings of the Brotherhood of Darkness are incomplete.

Githany tells Bane that she intends to challenge Sirak, assuming that Bane would offer to assassinate him to spare her. However, Bane surprises her by revealing his intentions to destroy Sirak personally in the dueling ring, and that he had known all along she was using him. During the duel, he seriously wounds his opponent, but stops just short of killing him.

Bane leaves the academy, hoping to find the secrets of ancient Sith Masters in the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban. To his disappointment, however, he finds nothing. He returns to the academy to fill himself up from his starvation; there, Githany lures him to the archives, apparently intending to kill him. When the trap comes to fruition, however, Bane realizes that the trap is actually meant for Sirak. Githany kills Sirak's henchmen, and Bane defeats and kills his old nemesis in a lightsaber duel.

Bane takes the long-abandoned Sith title of Darth, leaves the Brotherhood, and travels to Rakata Prime. There, he discovers a Sith Holocron left behind by Darth Revan. Bane completes his training, learning numerous Sith techniques, including the "thought bomb" designed to kill all Force-sensitive beings in reach.

Bane then devises the "Rule of Two": Only two Sith Lords, a master and an apprentice, are allowed to exist at one time ("One to embody power and one to crave it.")

At this time, Kaan orders that all of the students on Korriban be made into Lords and brought to battle on Ruusan. Kaan sends Swordmaster Kas'im to bring him back to Ruusan to join the Brotherhood on pain of death. Upon meeting his former teacher, Bane considers taking him as an apprentice, but ultimately kills him after being refused.

Bane sends a staged message to Kaan asking to join the Brotherhood; Githany volunteers to kill Bane. Unknown to Githany, Bane had also sent the thought bomb, supposedly as a token of goodwill to the Brotherhood. Githany finds Bane, and pretends to accept his offer to join the Brotherhood. He is then rendered violently ill by poison Githany slipped him in a kiss. Barely alive, Bane eventually finds a healer named Caleb, and extorts his help by threatening his daughter. Caleb cures Bane of the poison and brings him back to health.

Bane returns to Ruusan, where Kaan agrees to follow his lead in battle. During meditation, Bane uses his own body and power as a focusing agent to unleash a wave of destruction upon the forests of Ruusan, where the Jedi's Army of light is hiding.

When the other Sith Lords mutiny, Bane goes to camp and orders the commander of the space forces to engage the Jedi fleet. Realizing he is facing defeat, Kaan retreats to underground caves with the other Sith Lords. When the thought bomb detonates, it destroys the Jedi and Sith armies. The thought bomb was eventually destroyed by Kyle Katarn, thousands of years later.

In both Jedi vs. Sith and the end of Path of Destruction, Bane meets a Force-sensitive young girl named Rain, who had been brought to Ruusan by the Jedi. When Rain's friend is accidentally killed by two Jedi troops, her anger draws on the dark side, snapping both of the soldiers' necks. When Bane happens upon this scene, he realizes he has found a worthy apprentice.

Once known as an "Emperor's Hand," Mara Jade functioned as one of Emperor Palpatine's elite personal assassins. She later became second-in-command to smuggling chief Talon Karrde, and afterwards married Luke Skywalker, a union through which she eventually received the rank of Jedi Master.

Nyna Calixte was a Human female who was a Moff on the Moff High Council of the new Galactic Empire around 137 ABY. Prior to the Sith-Imperial War, Calixte was using the persona of Morrigan Corde, Imperial Intelligence agent. While out in the field, she had a chance meeting with Kol Skywalker, a member of the Jedi Council. The pair fell in love, married and had a son, Cade. However, claiming that the Empire recalled her back into service, Calixte left her new family when Cade was still a toddler. Shortly afterward, she abandoned her Corde persona for approximately two decades.

Back in Imperial service under her own name, Calixte became the Director of Imperial Intelligence, and was later appointed a Moff. She entered into a marriage with fellow Moff Rulf Yage, and they had a daughter, Gunn. However, the marriage would prove to be short lived, and Calixte entered into an affair with another Moff, the more powerful Morlish Veed. When the Sith approached the Empire in 128 ABY offering to help in the Empire's war against the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, they did so through Calixte. She manipulated the other Moffs into accepting the Sith's offer, then plotted with Veed to place him on the Imperial throne. However, her plan was foiled when Darth Krayt claimed the throne for himself. In 137 ABY, she "reactivated" her Morrigan Corde persona to help keep Cade Skywalker from being turned to the dark side of the Force by the Sith.

Jagged Fel, known as Jag to his friends, was an ace pilot who, much like his father, General Baron Soontir Fel, was dedicated to a life of military service and later became the head of state of the Imperial Remnant. Raised by his father and mother, Syal Antilles Fel, Jagged Fel was brought up in the Unknown Regions among the strict and dutiful Chiss of the Empire of the Hand. Fel entered a military academy in his very early teens and had attained the rank of colonel and command of three squadrons of Clawcraft by age eighteen. At that same age, he had also lost two of his five siblings to battle against the myriad threats of the Unknown Regions. When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy, Fel's father sent him to aid the New Republic in holding them back. Fel served at the Battle of Ithor, where he made the acquaintance of a young pilot named Jaina Solo and met his uncle, Wedge Antilles, for the first time.

Soontir Fel was considered among the best starfighter pilots in the galaxy, becoming an Imperial hero, but his journey to those heights was anything but easy. Born on Corellia to a farming family, Fel developed his piloting skills over the fields before gaining entrance to the Imperial Academy and beginning a career as a TIE fighter pilot. He served dutifully, demonstrating a strong sense of responsibility for his men. After a series of events out of his control tarnished his career, Fel was exiled to the lackluster 181st Imperial Fighter Wing, which he revived, eventually gaining its command and the title of Baron of the Empire, winning Fel a reputation as the Empire's most deadly pilot and the 181st as its most elite starfighter unit. During that time, Fel met and married the famous actress Wynssa Starflare, who he discovered was actually the sister of Rebel ace Wedge Antilles.

Antares Draco was the leader of the Imperial Knights during the reign of the Fel Empire by 137 ABY. Draco was known to be a formidable lightsaber duelist and an ace pilot, and was loyal to Emperor Roan Fel, who had been his master.

His most trusted friend was Ganner Krieg, a fellow Imperial Knight.

Kendal Ozzel was a Human male admiral who served in the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War, and was considered by many Imperial personnel to be inept, clumsy, and stupid. Ozzel came from a wealthy landowning family on Carida, and his last name would aid him in his quest to gain power. After his graduating from the Coruscant Naval Academy, he served as an instructor there before becoming captain of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Reprisal, the largest ship in the Shelsha sector, from which he oversaw the Teardrop massacre, a slaughter of innocent civilians accused of being Rebel sympathizers. The incident, followed by the murder of Imperial Security Bureau Major Drelfin by stormtrooper Daric LaRone, prompted a group of troops under LaRone to desert from the Imperial Military and flee the Star Destroyer. At the same time, Emperor's Hand Mara Jade arrived aboard the Reprisal as part of an investigation on the BloodScars pirate group. Ozzel believed that Jade was investigating the desertion of LaRone and his stormtroopers, and he conspired with Colonel Vak Somoril to kill her in order to prevent the incident from hurting his chances at becoming an admiral.

Ozzel took the Reprisal to the Gepparin system and ordered a bombardment of Gepparin, the home of the BloodScars' base, in which Jade was located. Although the attack failed to kill Jade, Ozzel did achieve his goal of rising through the ranks. Ironically, he did not become an admiral due to his loyalty or skills, but his apparent disloyalty. Jade did not trust Ozzel, so she advised Darth Vader to keep him under close supervision. Vader took Jade's advise, and Ozzel was promoted to admiral, succeeding Amise Griff as the commander of Vader's flagship, the Star Dreadnought Executor, at the forefront of Death Squadron. Ozzel would serve under Vader for approximately three years. He saw command of the Executor as a path to attaining more power, and he believed that he would be able to control the universe with the Super Star Destroyer.

Ozzel's searches for the Rebels' hidden headquarters were unproductive and only served to agitate Vader. His overconfidence in his abilities ultimately led to his death before the Battle of Hoth. In preparation for the battle, he had Death Squadron emerge from hyperspace too close to the planet Hoth, alerting the Rebels to the Imperials' presence. He had at last succeeded in finding the Rebels' headquarters, but he had made a fatal error that allowed the Rebellion the time needed to raise their planetary shield and evacuate Echo Base. Vader, having had enough of the admiral's failures, telekinetically executed Ozzel for the blunder shortly thereafter, promoting Captain Firmus Piett to fill the vacancy.