Commandant ' s Cadets The Commandant ' s Cadets was a secret student society found within the Galactic Empire ' s Arkanis Academy on the planet Arkanis . Created by the academy ' s leader , Commandant Brendol Hux , the organization was made up of cadets handpicked by Hux . Potential members were identified by their strong performance at the academy , but first had to pass a test to get in . History . Origins . The Commandant ' s Cadets was a secret society based at the Galactic Empire ' s Arkanis Academy , a senior Imperial Academy that specialized in officer training . The Arkanis Academy ' s Commandant Brendol Hux was a veteran of the Clone Wars who admired the combat prowess of the Galactic Republic ' s clone trooper s . He attributed their superior fighting qualities to the fact that they had been trained from birth as soldier s . However , the clone trooper s ' genetically identical nature made them vulnerable to Separatist biological agents and pathogens . As a result , the Emperor had opened the ranks of the Imperial Military to non - clone recruits . Since the non - clone recruits could not match the fighting quality of their clone trooper predecessors , Hux had conceived the idea of training non - clone recruits as stormtrooper s from birth . Over successive generations , Hux planned to cultivate an Imperial Military that had the same fighting qualities of the clone troopers but were immune to their genetic weaknesses . In Hux ' s view , these stormtroopers would be raised to view the Empire as their family . Unable to find officers within the Imperial Military who would support his ideas , Commandant Hux decided to " create " these officers by recruiting talented young cadets from the Arkanis Academy . As part of the induction test , prospective cadet s were required to kill a fellow cadet but to stage it as an accident . Cadets would be initiated at Area Null , a secluded tower within the Academy complex that hosted several secret Imperial operations . Challenges . By the time that Zare Leonis had arrived at the Arkanis Academy , the Commandant ' s Cadets had ten members including Orman le Hivre and Rav Horan . Unknown to everyone , Leonis was a rebel sympathizer who had infiltrated the Imperial Academy to find his missing sister Dhara Leonis . Upon trying to sit at a particular table during lunch , he was told that only members of the Commandant ' s Cadets could sit at a particular table and that membership required an invitation . Shortly afterwards , he spoke with a girl named Anya Razar , who hinted that she had been selected for membership and would soon be a member once she had passed a test . Leonis soon learned that this " test " was of a deadly nature when a " low - performing " cadet named Xan Lanier was killed during a live - fire exercise in the Academy . Razar had served as the commander of Leonis and Lanier ' s squad during that particular field exercise . Lanier ' s death was hushed up and Razar was shortly later inducted in to the Commandant ' s Cadet , making her the eleventh member . Later , Lieutenant Chiron , who had been Leonis ' s mentor at Lothal ' s Academy for Young Imperials , arrived at the Arkanis Academy to investigate reports that Commandant Hux was creating a group independent of the official Imperial chain of command . Leonis agreed to infiltrate the Commandant ' s Cadets . Shortly later , Leonis was invited to join the secret society but was stunned to learn that his task was to kill fellow cadet Penn Zarang during a field exercise , which would be reported as a weapons malfunction . He reported this information to Chiron , who arranged to fake Zarang ' s death so that Leonis could join the Commandant ' s Cadets . With the help of Zarang , Leonis and Chiron buried a side of nerf in Zarang ' s " grave " . Chiron also promised he would make arrangements to get Zarang transferred to a different Academy . The following day , Leonis managed to convince the other Commandant ' s Cadets that he had killed Zarang during the night and buried his body . Later that night , Leonis was invited to attend a formal dinner with Commandant Hux and the eleven other Cadets . During the dinner , Hux revealed the truth about the organization ' s ultimate purpose . Hux had served with the clone troopers during the time of the Galactic Republic and admired their combat prowess . Dissatisfied with the caliber of non - clone recruits , the Commandant wished to create soldiers that would be loyal to the Galactic Empire from birth . Before Leonis could formally be inducted as the twelfth member of the Commandant ' s Cadets , he was exposed as a traitor by his former friend Beck Ollet , who had been captured and inducted into Project Unity . Commandant Hux and the eleven other Commandant ' s Cadets later attended Leonis ' trial . While Colonel Julyan presided over the proceedings , the Cadets sat on a bench below the Colonel ' s dais . During the trial , Leonis pleaded guilty to various charges including fraudalent enlistment , treason , sedition , and conspiring to undermine the Empire . However , he withheld any information about Chiron ' s investigation into the Commandant ' s Cadets out of respect for his former mentor . Colonel Julyan formally expelled Leonis from Imperial service and sentenced him to death . As part of the sentence , the Commandant ' s Cadets stripped Leonis of his uniform and publicly turned their backs on him . Before Leonis could be executed , he and his sister Dhara were rescued by his girlfriend Merei Spanjaf and several members of the Spectres . Legacy . Since Chiron was killed during Leonis ' s escape , Commandant Hux was presumably able to continue his ideas . After the Empire signed the Galactic Concordance with the New Republic which ended the Galactic Civil War , Brendol Hux left the Arkanis Academy and fled to the Unknown Regions , where he and other like - minded officers established a military junta known as the First Order . Hux ' s ideas influenced the First Order military and were continued by his son , Armitage Hux , who became a general in the First Order . Under the direction of General Hux , the First Order ' s stormtroopers were trained from infancy and underwent vivid simulations and intense political indoctrination designed to create fearsome and deeply - loyal soldiers .