| Brendol Hux | |
|---|---|
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| Elder Brendol Hux - (Inspired By Brendan Gleeson) | |
Vital statistics
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| Position | First Officer for the (First Order) Commandant (Galactic Empire) |
| Age | Unknown |
| Status | Deceased |
Physical attributes
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| Height | 1.88 Meters |
| Weight | 90 Kilograms |
Brendol Hux served the Galactic Empire as an instructor of the Empire's youth. Prior to Hux's service to the Empire, he served as a junior officer within the Republic's Grand Army, helping to communicate tactics and strategy as determined by Jedi Generals. Some four years before the Galactic Civil War, he was the Commandant of the Arkanis Academy. Hux created the Commandant's Cadets, a secret society within his own academy, made up of handpicked cadets. After the death of Palpatine, he was trapped while the New Republic sieged Arkanis. However, Brendol managed to flee with aid from a bounty hunter Mercurial Swift, on the orders of Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, who'd made Brendol a member of the new Shadow Council. Hux eventually sired a son, Armitage, who would go on to become the General of the First Order.
Biography
Service to the Empire
During the Clone Wars, Brendol Hux was a junior officer in the Grand Army of the Republic who communicated tactics and strategies devised by the Jedi Generals of the Galactic Republic. Hux admired the combat prowess and dedication of the Republic's Clone Troopers and the Jedi Order, who'd been trained from youth to be molded into soldiers and elite warriors. Following the transformation of the Republic into a Galactic Empire, Brendol continued serving the Empire and was eventually sent to the Empire Academy on the world of Arkanis. To help run the Arkanis Academy, he employed the service of such droids as one designated DDM-38 or called DeeDee, which was charged with keeping the cadets in line.
Conceiving the Future of Warfare
Dissatisfied with the caliber of the Empire's Stormtroopers, who were normal human recruits, Hux conceived the idea of training recruits from birth who would be excellent soldiers and loyal servants of the Empire. Unable to find officers who would support his ideas, he'd decided to create his own loyal cadre of officers from among their cadets at the Academy. Eventually, Hux succeeded in creating a secret society known as the Commandant's Cadets which operated outside of the official Imperial hierarchy. To join Commandant's Cadets, prospective members had to kill another fellow cadet while making their deaths appear to be an accident. As a result, several of cadets were killed under suspicious circumstances during training exercises. Commandant's Cadets were given special privileges including being allowed to sit at a special table in the Academy's mess hall. About four years before the dawn of the Galactic Civil War, Hux had recruited at least ten Commandant's Cadets including Orman le Hivre and Rav Horan. Shortly later, their promising young Imperial Cadet from the planet Lothal named Zare Leonis was transferred to Arkanis Imperial Academy as his "reward" for his loyalty to the Empire. However, this was a ruse created by the Grand Inquisitor, who wanted to investigate his ties to the rebellion.
Forging Young Imperial Officers
In reality, Leonis was a secret rebellion sympathizer who had joined the Academy in order to find his sister Dhara Leonis, who had been forcibly inducted by the Grand Inquisitor into Project Harvester, which was based in Area Null, a secluded tower that was attached to the Arkanis Academy. Following Zare's arrival, he had identified Anya Razar as a prospective candidate for the Commandant's Cadets. Later, Razar was placed in charge of the five-member scouting mission during an exercise that included the Cadets Leonis, Penn Zarang, Tigard Manes, Chan Harra, and Xan Lanier, a low-performing Cadet who had been marked for death by the Commandant's Cadets. As part of this exercise, the Imperials cadets and the diplopod mounts had to navigate forward while under live-fire. During that exercise, Lanier was killed in an explosion that also claimed his and Leonis' diplopod mounts. Lanier's death was subsequently hushed up and Razar was formally inducted during into the Commandant's Cadets during a ceremony at Area Null. When Zare tried to follow Razar and the Commandant's Cadets into the tower, he was stopped by DeeDee, who issued him with demerits. After Anya Razar was inducted, Brendol convened the assembly at the banquet hall which was followed by dinner. During the dinner, Hux was visited by Grand Inquisitor, who spoke to Hux. Leonis observed their meeting and noted that the Imperials were arguing.
When the Grand Inquisitor noticed Leonis looking at them, he ceased arguing with Hux. Following the dinner, the Grand Inquisitor had summoned Zare for a private meeting at the Commandant's balcony, with the consent of Hux. During the meeting, the Inquisitor warned Leonis that he was close to uncovering his secret connection to the Lothal rebels. Before he could interrogate Leonis further, he was recalled for a priority mission to Lothal which subsequently claimed his life. A few days later, Commandant Hux, with DeeDee's assistance, summoned the Academy's Empire Cadets to the cliff edge that overlooked a nearby beach. A nerf calf had strayed from Imperials Academy's grounds in order to search the beast forsalt only to be devoured by a sea monster. Hux took the opportunity to lecture their cadets about the value of training and asked them to come up with ideas on how to prevent some future incidents. When Tigard Manes suggested a gate, the Commandant responded that gates would delay those who had business on the sea and reminded their cadets that they could not wall themselves from all of the galaxy's dangers. He challenged the Empire cadets to come up with other ideas. When other cadets proposed drone monitors and shock fields, Commandant Hux rejected them. However, he did welcome Le Hivre's suggestion that they should allow a natural selection to eliminate those nerfs which had a taste salt.
Brendol Hux then asked their Imperial cadets if they could have come up to a more proactive solution that simply letting nature do its work. When Zare Leonis recommended buying salt for the nerfs, Brendol Hux had responded that coddling their weaknesses would prevent a development of a strong herd. After Zare contended that buying salt was better than dead nerfs, Brendol Hux took the opportunity to lecture the cadets that the best solution was training the nerfs to avoid the beach. Anya then pointed out that it was only the juvenile nerfs who craved salt. Hux reiterated that they had to train the nerf herd from young to avoid the beach. Having made his point, Hux then informed their cadets that they would be embarking on training exercise on the planet Sirpar the following day, which he had regarded as an ideal testing ground for officers. After the grueling three-day exercise on Sirpar, Le Hivre identified Zare as another candidate for the Imperial Commandant's Cadets and informed Hux. The conclusion of Sirpar training exercise had also coincided with the arrival of Chiron, an instructor of Lothal's Academy, who had been transferred following a shake-up in their Imperial Academy's leadership. Unknown to Hux, Chiron was sent by the Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin to investigate rumors that Hux had made a society out of official of command. Using his place as a Commandant's Cadet, Zare offered to help Chiron investigate.
Infiltration of the Rebel Alliance
After Zare Leonis learned that he had to kill another cadet named Penn Zarang in order to be Commandant's Cadet, he informed Chiron who helped stage Zarang's death. After burying a rotten side of nerf in "Zarang's" grave, the Lieutenant Chiron arranged for Zarang to go into hiding. The ruse satisfied Le Hivre and Anya, who subsequently informed Brendol. One evening, Hux invited Leonis to attend a formal dinner with the other Commandant's Cadets. During the dinner, Hux described his vision for the Empire and talked about how the Commandant's Cadets would bring it to fruition. Following the dinner, Hux announced that they would be initiating Leonis into the organization. The initiation ceremony was to take place at Area Null. Before they could enter, another group was exiting the ceremonial room. This group turned out to be former dissidents who had been enrolled in an Imperial re-education program known as Project Unity. One of those that participated was Beck Ollet, one of Zare's former classmates on Lothal and rebels sympathizer. He'd promptly identified Leonis as a rebel. As a result, Leonis was interrogated and subsequently confessed to working with Dev Morgan and his rebel cell. However, he withheld any intel about Chiron's investigation into the Commandant's Cadets. Zare was tried by a Imperial military tribunal with the Colonel Julyan, a instructor for the Galactic Empire, serving as judge and prosecutor.
Commandant Hux, DeeDee, and their Commandant's Cadets attended these proceedings and watched as a cadet Zare Leonis acknowledged his involvement with the rebellion movement and pleaded guilty to various charges like fraudulent enlistment, aiding the Empire's enemies, sedition, and treason. Brendol and their Commandant's Cadets also listened to Leonis' speech denouncing the Empire but were unmoved by it. At the conclusion of the trial, a Colonel Julyan expelled Leonis from military service and sentenced him to death. However, Leonis and his sister Dhara escaped due to a rescue mission launched by Dev Morgan's rebel associates and Leonis' girlfriend Merei Spanjaf. At some time, Hux, despite his being married to his wife, Maratelle, sired an illegitimate son with a "kitchen woman", whom he'd named Armitage. After the Battle of Endor, Arkanis was besieged by the newly-founded New Republic, the successor to the Rebel Alliance that Leonis' allies had helped forge, and was in serious danger of being lost. However, a Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, intent on rebuilding the Empire, ordered his de-facto subordinate a Grand Admiral Rae Sloane to "rescue" the Commandant from the planet. Gallius planned to create a Shadow Council to replace the Ruling Council and facilitate the resurgence of the Empire. Sloane tasked bounty hunter Mercurial Swift to ensure Hux and his son made it off Arkanis safely, which he did.
Fall of Galactic Empire
Member of the Shadow Council
Swift brought Hux and his son to the Vulpinus Nebula, where Sloane commanded a sizeable Imperial fleet. Following his rescue, Brendol Hux attended a dinner aboard the Super Star Destroyer Ravager with the Grand Admiral Sloane, Grand Moff Randd, a General Hodnar Borrum, and an Imperial propagandist Ferric Obdur. When Rae Sloane spoke to him and said that she was glad they'd evacuated him from Arkanis, he responded that the Arkanis Academy was the work of his life which had produced the best cadets in the Empire. Randd reassured Hux that they'd be able to pick themselves up and able to fight back. When Hux interrupted Sloane by lamenting about the dark days facing their Empire, Sloane then responded by raising the subject of Hux's illegitimate son. Hux described Armitage as a weak-willed boy but insisted he had potential. Yet despite Brendol Hux's reassurances, the other delegates chuckled. After the Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax entered the room and announced that the Shadow Council would serve as his brain trust, Hux questioned the relevance of propaganda when the Empire needed people to serve it, ships to form its Navy, and vehicles on the ground. Rax then told the others he had established command over other fleets of the Empire in such locations like the Almagest Nebula, the Recluse's Nebula, the Ro-Loo Triangle, and the Inamorata Nebula. Hux had outlined a strategy to fight the Republic.
Following the disappearance of Grand Admiral Rae Sloane during the attack on the Republic capital Chandrila, Hux and his fellow Shadow Council members attended a meeting chaired by Gallius Rax. After Rax reassured the delegates that they would do everything to get Sloane back, Hux asked whether she was privy to the attack on Chandrila. Gallius, who had secretly ordered Sloane's assassination, lied that this was the case. Rax then informed the Shadow Council that he had ordered the Imperial fleets to travel to the desert planet of Jakku in the Western Reaches. Gallius Rax had then also proclaimed himself the Counselor to the Empire. In secret, Rax had planned to use the upcoming battle to eliminate the other Shadow Council members with the exception of Hux. For several months, the Imperial remnants on Jakku awaited their showdown with the New Republic. Though Norra Wexley and her team discovered Rax's Imperial armada, the New Republic delayed sending its military forces due to deadlock in the Galactic Senate. During this period, Brendol Hux had trained at least two dozen local orphans and children as Gallius Rax's personal guard of child soldiers. The children had been taken by Niima the Hutt, who had struck up an alliance with Gallius. Since Brendol Hux wasn't a member of either the Imperial Forces or Starfleet, he was not very popular with the other Imperial officers stationed on the world of Jakku.
Brendol Hux had both emotionally and physically mistreated his son Armitage, causing the boy to avoid his father. In the days leading up to the Battle of Jakku, Gallius Rax summoned Hux and inquired about the training progress of his latest recruits. When Brendol pleaded for more time, Rax told him to prove himself with a promise that he would tell him about the secret Contingency. When Hux expressed puzzlement, Gallius warned that his failure would be punished with being force to spend the rest of his days wandering the deserts of Jakku. In order to please Rax, Hux replied that he would do whatever Rax requested. Rax's child soldiers killed the propagandist Ferric Obdur aboard the Ravager. After Sloane and Brentin Lore Wexley had been captured, Hux brought Rax's child soldiers to a hangar where some of the Stormtroopers were present. Hux witnessed as Rax gave the order for the child soldiers to kill the troopers. After the massacre, Gallius announced that he was bringing about the destruction of the "Old Empire". Pleased with Hux's competence, Counselor Rax ordered Hux and the child soldiers to escort Sloane and Wexley to a tent to watch the Battle of Jakku. In the course of the Battle of Jakku, Hux, his son, the Adviser Yupe Tashu, and the young soldiers traveled on a transport to the Jakku Observatory, a secret site built by the late Galactic Emperor Palpatine himself even before the Empire had even existed.
Exodus into the Unknown
Collapse of the Galactic Empire
Within the Jakku Observatory lay a replica of the late Emperor Palpatine's luxury yacht Imperialis, an computerized map of the Unknown Regions, and a deep borehole which led to Jakku's core. Prior to his own death, Palpatine had tasked Gallius Rax with carrying out the Contingency plan to destroy the Empire should it outlive him. Rax planned to take Hux and several other select Imperials into the Unknown Regions to rebuild the Empire. Upon disembarking, Rax told Hux to take his son and the child soldiers aboard the Imperialis while he and Yupe Tashu went to start the planet's destruction. When Hux tried to question him, Rax told him to trust in him. Rax ultimately killed Tashu before he was killed by Sloane with the help of the rebels Norra Wexley and her husband Brentin Lore Wexley. Rae Sloane was able to stop Jakku self-destruct mechanism before fleeing aboard the Imperialis with the Huxes and the child soldiers. At the urging of a dying Rax, Sloane had decided to venture into the Unknown Regions to rebuild a more resilient version of the Empire. Using a series of safe coordinates stored inside a dataspike, the Imperialis traveled through the Unknown Regions space for the next several months. During the journey, Grand Admiral Sloane befriended Hux's son and promised to protect him from his father. Rae found Brendol in his room and showed him Gallius's bloody cape and the data with the map coordinates.
Despite their mutual animosity, Sloane wanted to forge an alliance so that they could rebuild the Empire. Brendol tried to strangle Sloane but the Grand Admiral was an experienced martial artist and beat him into submission. Using a threat of physical force, Sloane then ordered Hux to work for her. She also warned him to stop mistreating Armitage and to teach him everything he knew about the Empire. After blubbering, Hux nodded his head. For the rest of their journey, Brendol bid his time by training his son and Rax's child soldiers in combat. During that time, Hux trimmed his hair and bear and lost some of his excess weight. Several months after the Battle of Jakku, the Imperialis had made it far enough into the Unknown Regions to rendezvoused with the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse, which Rax had sent earlier into the Unknown Regions as part of the Contingency. As they approached the Eclipse, Hux expressed his support for the Grand Admiral Sloane's plan to rebuild the Empire and remarked "glory be to Grand Admiral Sloane". Rae responded by corrected him that glory only went to the Empire. With the Galactic Empire reduced to a remnant hemmed in by harsh war reparations and disarmament treaties, the New Republic turned its attention to reshaping galactic order. In exile, a elder Hux raised Armitage Hux on stories of great Imperials and how the Empire had saved the galaxy from the violence of a Clone Wars.
Constructing a First Order Army
Following the signing of the Galactic Concordance, many on Arkanis speculated on the circumstances of Brendol Hux's disappearance. While some claimed that he had given up, others such as the secret First Order sympathizer and a New Republic Senator Lady Carise Sindian believed that a hero of the Empire would not have surrendered so abjectly. While her First Order handlers had not disclosed Hux's true fate, she'd believed that he was somehow aiding them. Sometime after Captain Phasma's recruitment and Brendol Hux's return from his shipwreck on the planet Parnassos, Phasma and Armitage Hux met and conspired to assassinate Brendol. Both of them had agreed that the time had come for Brendol to die, and Hux left the actual killing up to Phasma with his only instruction being that she make it untraceable. Phasma went on to kill Brendol with the toxin from the bite of a Parnassos beetle. Eventually, their First Order had risen from the ashes of the defeated Empire. Armitage Hux, having grown up hearing his father's stories about how the Empire saved the galaxy from the chaos of the Clone Wars, followed in his footsteps and became a general within its ranks. a General Armitage Hux adopted his father's practices to ruthlessly train a new generation of specially-bred Stormtroopers to help vanquish all their enemies within the New Republic and then restore what Hux had viewed as order to a chaotic galaxy.