First Order (Star Wars)
The First Order is a fictional military movement and rump state in the Star Wars franchise, introduced in the 2015 film The Force Awakens. It is formed following the fall of the Galactic Empire after the events of Return of the Jedi. Secretly guided by the resurrected Sith Lord Palpatine, the First Order aims to destroy the New Republic and rule the galaxy as an autocratic military dictatorship.
The First Order is the main antagonistic faction of the sequel trilogy, oppressing the pro-democracy Resistance. It is led by puppet ruler Supreme Leader Snoke until his overthrow by Kylo Ren, who assumes command until Palpatine's return. The organization also appears in various related media.
Depiction
Origins
According to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary, and the trilogy novel series Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig, after the Galactic Empire was defeated at Battle of Endor in 4 ABY in Return of the Jedi, thousands of worlds rose up to join the Rebel Alliance, and destroy the disorganized Empire, which had fallen victim to warlordism. The Alliance formally reorganized itself as the New Republic, and retook the Core Worlds, including the galactic capital, Coruscant. One year after Endor, the remaining Imperial fleet made one final, massive attempt at a counter-offensive which came to a climax at the planet Jakku, the biggest battle in the war since Endor. The Imperial counter-offensive was decisively defeated. The remaining Imperial forces were pushed back to a handful of sectors on the fringe of the Outer Rim, containing only a small fraction of the galaxy's population and industrial base. These sectors were a heavily fortified final redoubt, and the New Republic deemed that they posed too small a threat to justify the high cost in life that liberating them would require. The New Republic forced the Empire to accept the Galactic Concordance, a humiliating armistice agreement which imposed strict disarmament plans and punishing reparations on the remaining Imperials. The Aftermath trilogy establishes Imperial Admiral Rae Sloane, introduced as a captain in John Jackson Miller's 2014 novel A New Dawn, and Commandant Brendol Hux as the de facto founders of the First Order. Sloane, after achieving the rank of Grand Admiral, coined the term "First Order" as she establishes the reborn empire that will eventually take that name. She is additionally inferred as a future mentor figure for General Hux, who appears as a child in Empire's End.Over time, fugitives of the Old Empire reorganized themselves, becoming a firmly entrenched and isolationist hermit kingdom, which spent the next three decades instigating what would become a "cold war" against the New Republic, gradually rebuilding its military strength and secretly re-arming in violation of its armistice agreements. The First Order secretly was aggressively pushing into the Unknown Regions to seize new undeveloped worlds in order to supplement their resource base, as well as build new shipyards and industrial infrastructure far from the eyes of the New Republic.
The 2016 novel Star Wars: Bloodline explained how this faction officially reorganized into the "First Order", and that this final transition only occurred about six years before The Force Awakens. By that time, the New Republic Senate had become divided into two parties: the Populists led by Leia Organa, who wanted to decentralize authority, and the Centrists, who wanted power to remain concentrated in a strong central government. Many of the Centrists were former Imperials who admired the old Empire for bringing order to the galaxy, and who feared that without strong central control the New Republic would become as weak and ineffectual as the Old Republic. Ultimately, many Centrist worlds seceded from the New Republic to reunite with the holdout Imperial remnants on the fringe of the galaxy, and formally combined into a new government called "the First Order". First Order conspirators publicly revealed that Leia was in fact the daughter of Darth Vader, severely harming her political standing among the remaining Populists.
The vast majority of the New Republic's worlds remained intact, but with the exodus of the Centrists its Senate became dominated by the remaining Populists, who favored decentralization and demilitarization, not confrontation. Even after these events, most in the remaining Senate were happy to see the Centrists go, feeling that the new First Order still controlled far too few sectors of the galaxy to ever pose a serious threat to galactic peace. In their view, it was easier to just let the Centrist worlds peacefully leave of their own volition and rejoin the Imperial worlds rather than fight a war to keep them by force.
The new "First Order" came to be ruled by the mysterious Force-wielder known as Supreme Leader Snoke, who was secretly created by the resurrected Emperor Palpatine to control the First Order after purging its previous leadership. Through Snoke, Palpatine seduced Leia's own son Ben Solo to the dark side of the Force, who renamed himself "Kylo Ren". On his turn to the dark side, Ben/Kylo slaughtered most of his uncle Luke Skywalker's other Jedi apprentices and destroyed his new academy. Blaming himself, Luke fled into self-imposed exile to search for the ancient first Jedi Temple. Kylo Ren, meanwhile, took on a position as Snoke's right hand within the First Order's military.
With her political standing severely weakened, and the New Republic Senate gridlocked and unwilling to recognize the First Order's military build-up, Leia Organa decided to withdraw and form her own small private army, known as the Resistance, to fight the First Order within its own borders. She was joined by other members of the former Rebel Alliance such as Admiral Ackbar. Publicly the New Republic continued to disavow direct association with the Resistance to maintain plausible deniability, and though the majority of the Senate did not want to intervene against the First Order, several Senators privately channeled funds and resources to the Resistance. This state of affairs continued on for the next six years until the events of The Force Awakens. Comic book writer Charles Soule, creator of the 2015 Marvel Comics series Star Wars: Poe Dameron, explained that immediately prior to the events of The Force Awakens, "The New Republic and the First Order are in a position of détente, and while there have been a few small skirmishes between the Resistance and the First Order, it's very much a sort of cold war."
Military
The First Order's handful of sectors simply do not possess the galaxy-wide resources the old Empire used to be able to draw upon, and in addition the armistice treaties with the New Republic put strict limitations on how many ships it could physically build. Therefore, unlike the old Galactic Empire's swarm tactics, the First Order's military has had to adapt to a more "quality over quantity" philosophy, making efficient use of what few resources it has. Culturally, the Galactic Empire's Sith-influenced philosophies have been incorporated and streamlined. Its military is built upon "survival of the fittest"; if one soldier cannot fulfil their duty and dies serving the First Order, then so be it. The Order can only become stronger by culling the weak from their ranks.A major plot point in The Last Jedi is that the First Order has developed new "hyperspace tracking" technology, allowing them to continue to chase enemy vessels through hyperspace from one jump to the next. This technology was first mentioned in passing in Rogue One as another research project the Empire was starting to develop almost forty years before. However, it appears that such technology existed at the time of A New Hope, as Darth Vader was able to track the Tantive IV from Scarif to Tatooine even through hyperspace.
Starfleet
;Star DestroyersThe First Order lacked the resources to build and crew thousands of Star Destroyers. While its fleet is a fraction of the size of the Imperial fleet at its height, on a one-for-one basis its new ships are much more powerful. In addition, they boast thirty years' worth of advances in military technologies compared to the old Empire. As a result, the First Order now deploys starships such as the new Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, nearly twice as large as the old Imperial-class Star Destroyer which it replaced as the mainstay of the First Order fleet. With a naval doctrine that accepted the renewed importance of starfighters within their overall strategy, the Resurgent-class adopted the carrier-centric designs of the Galactic Republic's Venator-class Star Destroyer.
;TIE pilot corps
The First Order's TIE fighters, designated TIE/fo, are more advanced than the old Empire's TIE/ln model, and show greater concern for unit stamina and survivability. The First Order's Special Forces use a more heavily armed two-man TIE/sf variant. Visually, their color scheme is reversed from the old Imperial design: the Empire's TIE fighters have black solar panels on a light grey metal body frame, while the First Order TIE fighters have white solar panels on a dark metal frame.
The Last Jedi also introduces a new starfighter element to the First Order fleet, the TIE silencer superiority fighter. Much as TIE interceptors were the next generation fighter starting to phase out the original Imperial TIE fighters, TIE silencers are heavily inspired by the Empire's TIE Defender and assigned only to the most elite units. Visually they somewhat resemble a cross between a TIE interceptor and Darth Vader's TIE Advanced x1 prototype, being wider and more elongated, while boasting heavier weapons and shields to be able to face X-wings head-on. Their technical designation is "TIE/vn". Kylo Ren pilots his own personal TIE silencer in The Last Jedi, which he uses to assault the Resistance ship, the MC85 Star Cruiser Raddus.
In The Rise of Skywalker, another new TIE is introduced, the TIE whisper. This model comes in two variants, with either solar collectors resembling those of a TIE interceptor or those of a TIE fighter. The latter model is introduced during Poe Dameron's mission to the Sinta Glacier Colony, while Kylo Ren uses former as his personal craft in The Rise of Skywalker, using two ships in his pursuit of both Palpatine and Rey; both ships used are destroyed by Rey.
Other Star Wars media depicts more TIE variants in use by the First Order. Star Wars Resistance introduces a TIE interceptor variant designated TIE/ba, known as the TIE Baron. The series also introduces a TIE bomber variant designated TIE/se. The older TIE/sa bomber previously used by the Galactic Empire also saw service and was designated the First Order bomber. Other variants include the TIE/es assault shuttle, and a variant of the TIE/rb "Brute" heavy starfighter used previously by the Empire.
;Troop Transports
For space to surface delivery, the First Order is also seen deploying several standard troop transports. Elite units and high value command personnel such as Kylo Ren use the Upsilon-class command shuttle, a stylistic evolution of the old Imperial Lambda-class T-4a shuttle.
;Dreadnoughts
The Last Jedi introduces several more ships of the First Order. Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnoughts are larger but rarer than Resurgent-class Star Destroyers, used as orbital bombardment platforms which can functionally wipe out entire planets' population centers. Dwarfing even these other vessels are Supreme Leader Snoke's personal flagship and mobile capital, the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy: a wing-shaped vessel wider than it is long, the size of a small country. The Supremacy measures 60 kilometers at its greatest width—equal to about 18 Resurgent-class Star Destroyers lined up end to end.