Star Wars has a new ‘Old Man of the Empire’ in Kabam’s Uprising

Governor Adelhard understands the dangers of democracy, the chaos and corruption that came during The Old Republic. He believes in the Galactic Empire, in the order for which it stands. Even after the Emperor’s death.

In Star Wars: Uprising and in the new canon that mobile and online game publisher Kabam is helping to create, he’s the new Gilad Pellaeon, the new “Old Man of the Empire.” And like Pelleon, who fought for decades in the old Star Wars Expanded Universe to preserve what remained of The New Order, Adelhard doing his best to ensure the Empire has a future. Even if it’s in just one backwater sector in the Outer Rim of the galaxy.

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“Adelhard is a traditionalist and a true believer in the Emperor,” said Daniel Erickson, the director for Star Wars: Uprising.

Lockdown

Adelhard is the man behind the Iron Blockade in the Anoat Sector, the home of Hoth and Cloud City. He shut down all of the hyperspace lanes into and out of this region of space. Since it’s perilous to try to find your own way in hyperspace (unless you’re a Jedi, it’s almost suicide to try), he’s been able to control what comes into Anoat. Adelhard is keeping the news that the Emperor is dead from his citizens, and he’s taking some extraordinary measures to do so.

“When word of the Emperor’s death comes along, Governor Adelhard shuts the sector down. That means nobody who is at the the battle comes back,” Erickson said. “They’re transferred to other places. Any of the actual ships from Adelhard’s fleets do not come back from the Battle of Endor.”

This lockdown includes information. He announces that the Empire won at Endor, routing the Rebellion with the second Death Star and pushing the Alliance back on all fronts. He’s also created a special force of soldiers, the Purge Troopers, to clamp down on any sedition — including news of the Emperor’s death. Even most of Adelhard’s troops and officers don’t know that the Emperor is dead.

“[The Purge Troopers] are specially made Stormtroopers who come through to hunt down people who are spreading this message [that the Emperor is dead],” Erickson said. “So the Stormtroopers are very much at this point ‘business as usual,’ with an uptick of ‘we’re winning this, but we’re fighting a fierce terrorist threat in our own space.'”

Several factions are fighting Adelhard’s yoke (and this is where the player character comes into Star Wars: Uprising).

A loyal soldier

Adelhard came up through the Stormtrooper corps, and these soldiers are fanatically loyal to the Emperor. It’s this loyalty to Palpatine and the throne he represents that means everything to the governor.

“Adelhard is a traditionalist and a true believer in the Emperor,” Erickson said. “If you asked him what his long-term plan was, he absolutely believes that the powers-that-be that make these decisions in the Empire will eventually figure out who the new Emperor is going to be and that Emperor will do a full transfer of power. Until that time, he is keeping the Empire alive.”

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If you think about the crop of villains that followed in the wake of the Rebel Alliance’s victory at Endor in the old Expanded Universe lore (it goes by the name of “Legends” now), Adelhard differs from just about each and every one. He’s no warlord carving out his own empire, as Zsinj does after Palpatine’s death. Unlike Isard, the head of Imperial Intelligence who takes the throne in the EU, Adelhard doesn’t want to rule the Empire.

“It would never occur to Adelhard to grab that seat. He is a soldier of the Emperor and of the Empire as represented by the man,” Erickson said.

Like Pellaeon, who only wants to serve the Empire, Adelhard also wants to preserve The New Order. Both lived through the chaos and corruption of The Old Republic, and neither wants to see that return.

“[Adelhard] is a traditionalist in the fact that he believes in the Empire and what it stands for. The Empire is very new. One of the things we lose sight of when talking about the Empire is the fact that it’s 30 years old. It’s an incredibly, incredibly brief peace,” Erickson said. “Adelhard doesn’t have incredibly strong concerns of the shape of it. What his dedication to is the belief that there has to be an Emperor, there has to be a man who is answerable to none of the politics, none of the local concerns, that it can only be one individual rule in any place, whether it be a system or a sector or a planet or a city, that can actually get things done.

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Adelhard views democracy, Erickson said, as “a route by which people create chaos and greed.” And for Adelhard, death isn’t his fear: It’s a galaxy where the Rebels rule.