Inquisitorius The Inquisitorius , also known as the Inquisitorius Program and the Order of Inquisitors , was an organization of Force - sensitive agents who worked for the Galactic Empire . Members of the Inquisitorius were known as Imperial Inquisitors , Inquisitors , Red Blades and sometimes even Jedi hunter s . They were tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi who had survived Order 66 at the end of the Clone Wars . In the years leading up to the Battle of Yavin , the Inquisitors came into conflict with the Spectres , a rebel cell that included the Jedi Purge survivor Kanan Jarrus and his Padawan Ezra Bridger . Their pursuit of the Spectres also brought them into contact with another Jedi Purge survivor , the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano , as well as the former Sith Lord Maul , who sought revenge against the Sith for casting him out and killing his brother and mother . Operations . The Inquisitors ' primary mission was to hunt down and kill surviving Jedi who had survived the Jedi Purge . A secondary mission was to identify and abduct Force - sensitive individuals including infants and Imperial cadet s . If these individuals would not serve the Galactic Empire , then they would be eliminated . The Inquisitors wore black and grey bodysuits with armor and were equipped with red double - bladed spinning lightsaber s , that were also capable of spinning in a helicopter - like motion for escape . Besides hunting Jedi , the Inquisitors were also known to pursue other Force - sensitive opponents of the Sith , like the renegade dark sider Maul . Organization . Although the exact number of Inquisitors was kept secret , there may have been as many as twelve . History . Serving the Sith . When the Clone Wars ended , Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine formed the Galactic Empire and declared the Jedi Order its enemy . Using Jedi Master Mace Windu ' s attempt to have him arrested as justification , the new Emperor activated Order 66 which had been hardwired into every single one of the Republic ' s clone trooper s and instructed them to kill their Jedi Commander s . The majority of the Jedi were killed by the clones but several managed to escape , especially after Jedi Master Obi - Wan Kenobi sent out a distress signal from the Jedi Temple , warning the survivors off . As such , several Jedi had survived the initial purge and gone into hiding . Fearing the threat the surviving Jedi posed to his rule , Palpatine created the Inquisitors to track down and eliminate the last remaining Jedi . The Inquisitors were trained by Darth Vader , the Emperor ' s apprentice , in the ways of the dark side of the Force and wielded double - bladed spinning lightsabers with a ringed emitter , allowing the blades to rotate . The Inquisitors were former Jedi , with the Grand Inquisitor having served as a Jedi Temple Guard . They also developed Interrogation chair s to assist in their questioning of suspected rebels or Jedi . Several of them also studied the records of the Jedi Order to familiarize themselves with their enemies ' fighting techniques , making them dangerous fighters . Due to the nature of their mission , Inquisitors had the power to commandeer any required Imperial Military forces , and all officers were to obey their orders . Any officer who came into contact with Force - sensitive beings was to immediately contact an Inquisitor to investigate the situation . Despite being assigned to hunt and kill Jedi and other Force - sensitive targets , the Inquisitors did not seem particularly powerful ; two working in tandem were defeated by Ahsoka Tano , and three combined did not overcome former Sith Lord Maul . Also , some Imperial officers disliked the interference of Inquisitors with some , such as Admiral Kassius Konstantine , dismissing them as ' mystics ' . The Inquisitors were heavily involved in efforts to prevent Force - sensitive children from falling into the hands of the remaining Jedi or from using their skills against the Empire . As part of this strategy , an operation , codenamed Project Harvester , was designed to identify cadet s in Imperial academies across the galaxy who met the criteria that would identify them as Force - sensitive . Should they be identified as such , the cadets would be abducted and taken into custody for unknown purposes , whilst their families and colleagues would be fed false information about their disappearance . Hunting the Jedi . Following the formation of the Empire , the Grand Inquisitor worked with Darth Vader on locating the Jedi Order ' s Chief Librarian , Jocasta Nu . During his research in the Archives , the Grand Inquisitor was confronted by Nu . At first the Grand Inquisitor planned to kill Nu but was prevented from doing so by Lord Vader . As Vader and the Grand Inquisitor argued , Nu was able to make her escape . About one year after the rise of the Empire , an Inquisitor known as the Sixth Brother was searching for Force - sensitive children . However , he later abandoned this task after receiving word of a Force - sensitive old enough to have received Jedi training was hiding in the Outer Rim and set out to hunt the individual in question , hoping to earn a promotion . The supposed Jedi was in fact former Padawan Tano , who had left the Jedi Order before the end of the Clone Wars after being wrongfully accused of treason . Laying a trap for Tano , the Sixth Brother battled her on the moon of Raada , but due to his lack of finesse and Tano ' s power , he was defeated and killed , with Tano taking his lightsaber crystals before fleeing the system . Shortly afterwards , the Grand Inquisitor arrived and , unaware of Tano ' s identity , decided to hunt her himself , but not before informing Vader . When rumors emerged of a Jedi leading a rebel cell on the planet Lothal reached the ear s of the Empire , Vader sent the Grand Inquisitor to take care of the problem . After several encounters , the Grand Inquisitor succeeded in capturing Jarrus , but was defeated by the latter in a lightsaber duel during a rescue staged by the rebels and Jarrus ' s Padawan , Ezra Bridger . Rather than face his Master ' s punishment for his failure , the Grand Inquisitor killed himself . During a skirmish with Phoenix Cell , Vader learned that Tano , who had been his apprentice during the Clone Wars , was still alive . Upon learning of this news , the Emperor ordered Vader to dispatch another Inquisitor to hunt the rebels down . The Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister , were assigned to do so and confronted several crew members of the " Ghost " during a skirmish aboard an abandoned Republic medical station . Due to Garazeb Orrelios ' quick - thinking , the rebels managed to escape the Inquisitors aboard the " Phantom " . The death of the Grand Inquisitor was a great surprise for the other Inquisitors who saw new opportunities in hunting down the ones responsible . In addition to the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother , several other Inquisitors began to scour the galaxy searching for the two Jedi who had defeated their leader , all of them hoping to advance their own position within the Inquisitorius . While intercepting transmissions from Mustafar , Tano discovered that the Inquisitors ' second mission was to kidnap Force - sensitive children . Meanwhile , the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother kidnapped the infants Alora and Pypey above the planets Chandel and on Takobo respectively . This brought them into contact with the crew of the " Ghost " and Ahsoka , who soundly defeated them in combat . Later , the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother took part in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the rebels in Garel City . Three years before the Battle of Yavin , the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister spent several months pursuing Jarrus and Bridger . On one occasion , they managed to track the Jedi to the planet Oosalon where they fought with them . Despite their efforts , the Jedi managed to escape and regroup with the Spectres . Later , the Inquisitors followed Jarrus , Bridger , and Tano to the Lothal Jedi Temple . After forcing their way into the temple , the two Inquisitors were attacked by ghostly apparitions of the Jedi Temple Guards . One of these apparitions was the former Grand Inquisitor . The Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister survived the encounter and reported to Vader , who vowed to put an end to the Jedi threat . Mission to Malachor . Some time after the events of the Lothal Jedi Temple , Kanan , Ezra and Ahsoka traveled to Malachor , following a hint given by Jedi Master Yoda . When they arrived there , the Eighth Brother , who was already there hunting an individual known as the shadow , attacked them . Soon after , Bridger became separated from the others and encountered the former Sith apprentice . As this was happening , Tano and Jarrus chased and captured the Eighth Brother , who unbeknownst to them sent a distress signal to his fellow Inquisitors , the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister . Maul and Bridger together entered the Sith temple on Malachor and retrieved the Sith holocron inside . Shortly later , they found the Fifth Brother , Seventh Sister and Eighth Brother dueling Tano and Jarrus . Maul and Bridger intervened and forced the Inquisitors to retreat . While attempting to plant the Sith holocron in the Sith temple ' s obelisk , they encountered the Inquisitors once again . Maul began Force choking the Seventh Sister and urged Brider to strike her down . When Bridger could not bring himself to do it , Maul then slung his lightsaber at her , killing her instantly . Maul and Bridger then found Tano and Jarrus once more fighting the Fifth and Eighth Brothers . After Tano destroyed the Fifth Brother ' s lightsaber , Maul made quick work of him with a fatal slash to the gut . Jarrus sliced the Eighth Brother ' s lightsaber . Cornered and outnumbered , the Eighth Brother attempted to escape by using his lightsaber to hover away from his three adversaries . This did not work , as the lightsaber malfunctioned in flight and sent the Eighth Brother plummeting to his death at the base of the temple below . End of the hunt . Approximately three years after the incident on Malachor , the Jedi Order was largely thought to be completely extinct by the Empire , rendering the Inquisitorius useless . Eventually , it ceased to exist entirely . At a meeting aboard the first Death Star , Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin confidently expressed his belief that the Force itself had disappeared from the galaxy , and that Vader was the only living practitioner of what he termed " the ancient religion " . Legacy . The First Order , the faction that rose from the ashes of the Empire following its fragmentation after the New Republic ' s victory at the Battle of Jakku and the subsequent signing of the Galactic Concordance , used interrogation chairs , based on those used by the Inquisitorius , to extract information from their prisoner s . Behind the scenes . Inquisitors were originally created for " The Star Wars Sourcebook " , a 1987 sourcebook for " a " written by Bill Slavicsek and Curtis Smith . Their role was expanded upon in many sources that are now labeled " Star Wars " Legends , and thus not part of official canon . However , the Inquisitors were canonized by their inclusion in the animated television series " Star Wars Rebels " .