Trioculus affair

The Trioculus affair was a conflict pitting the Alliance to Restore the Republic against the splinter faction of the Galactic Empire led by Trioculus, which took place in the year 5 ABY. Unbeknownst to both sides, the whole conflict had been orchestrated from afar by Darth Sidious, who wanted to keep the Republic away from his secret rebirth in the Deep Core of the galaxy, as well as to retrieve the right hand glove of Darth Vader to hasten his revival. By exciting Trioculus' crave for power, Sidious also led him on a quest for the Lost City of the Jedi and ancient Sith amulets.
==Prelude==
==="Sons" of the Emperor===
In the legends of the Prophets of the Dark Side, the will of the Force produced a three-eyed individual with undeniable power and magnetism once every millennium. Experiments supervised by Sly Moore, an advisor to Galactic Republic Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, involved radical scientific experiments exploring the quintessence of life into a Bordali woman named Niobi. The experiments resulted in harmful mutations that were eventually eliminated by the scientists until the only remaining mutation was a third eye, present in Niobi's son Trioculus, whose additional eye had hypnotic qualities. Moore also supervised experiments conducted by Mammon Hoole and Borborygmus Gog to spontaneously create life, and disappeared after developing an interest in a technique that involved using the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to fertilize a zygote in a fertile female.
Moore disappeared from public view and was rumoured to have died giving birth to a nameless mutant, who was spirited away by Emperor's Hand Sarcev Quest. Niobi and Trioculus were deported to work the spice mines of the planet Kessel, where Trioculus sought refuge from constant bullying by studying literature and warfare, with academic support from Lord Overseer Reskell Twane. The young mutant became a fervent devotee of the Galactic Empire, the fascist state that Palpatine had reorganized the Republic into in accordance with the Sith Grand Plan. After Trioculus exposed a Rebel cell in his village, he attracted the attention and friendship of sector Grand Moff Bertroff Hissa, and rose to the position of Supreme Slavelord after Twane transferred to another position. Trioculus continued to remember Moore while on Kessel, particularly her unofficial title of "Queen of the Empire."
Palpatine did have a biological son, another three-eyed mutant named Triclops, who was banished on the day of his birth. Triclops grew up in Imperial insane asylums, and was emotionally and physically scarred by shock therapy and dark side energies. He managed to fall in love with a Jedi nurse, Kendalina, who bore him a son named Ken, who was taken by a Jedi Master to the underground Lost City of the Jedi on the moon Yavin 4. Triclops was later sent to work in the Kessel spice mines, where he came under Trioculus's domination.
In 4 ABY, Alliance hero Leia Organa killed the crime lord Jabba the Hutt on the planet Tatooine. On Kessel sometime afterwards, a riot among the slaves led to Twane's capture at the hands of corrupt administrator Moruth Doole, who offered him to Trioculus in exchange for control of the Supreme Slavelord's territory. Trioculus sought Hissa's advice, and was told that a loyal Imperial did not take give in to threats. Trioculus listened and no regrets when his surrogate father was fed spice grubs and frozen in carbonite, giving Hissa a positive impression of Trioculus's resolve.
===The fate of the Empire===
In life, Darth Vader, Palpatine's Sith apprentice, wore a right-handed glove fashioned around a powerful and indestructible Sith amulet that had once belonged to the Dark Lord of the Sith Skere Kaan. In 4 ABY, during the Battle of Endor between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, Vader's right hand was amputated in a lightsaber duel aboard the Death Star II by his Jedi son Luke Skywalker. Vader was redeemed to the light side of the Force afterwards and killed Emperor Palpatine by throwing him down the battle station's reactor shaft. Exposed to Palpatine's force lightning, Vader died in his son's arms and the Death Star II exploded thanks to an Alliance assault. His detached glove survived the explosion and was sucked into a black hole and deposited on the aquatic world of Dac. The tide in the ongoing Galactic Civil War shifted heavily into the favor of the Rebel Alliance, who were reformed into the New Republic, although many still thought of the new faction as the Alliance.
Various squabbling Imperial warlords arose to compete for power with the loss of Palpatine. In an attempt to control the galactic populace's newfound desire for freedom of speech, acting Imperial-sovereign Sate Pestage approached former prophet of the Dark Side and HoloNet propaganda producer Cronal to introduce the Church of the Dark Side as a new state religion. As the real prophets, including Supreme Prophet Kadann, had fled to Bosthirda after a falling out with Palpatine, Cronal populated the church with Imperial spies and actors, with the Bimm thespian Rajah Ubooki disguised as Kadann. The false prophets made regular HoloNet broadcasts from their headquarters in Space Station Scardia, with "Kadann" declaring cryptic prophecies in non-rhyming quatrains. The prophecies captured the imagination of the Imperial populace to the point that they would only accept one with the dark blessing of the church as their new emperor.
===The new emperor's new glove===
Pestage informed Ubooki about Vader's glove, which was rumored to have survived and disappeared through the Endor Gate wormhole. The remaining Imperial factions spent significant resources attempting to locate the glove, a fact noticed by the Senate Planetary Intelligence Network (SPIN), a New Republic spy ring established by Chief of State Mon Mothma. SPIN operatives doubted that the glove had supernatural powers, but they were tasked with locating it if possible on the off chance that such rumors were true. Ubooki prophesied that a new Emperor would take the throne, wearing the glove of Darth Vader, which he desired as a trinket. Pestage's true motivation in locating the glove was to aid the recovery of Palpatine, whose spirit had returned from chaos and entered a clone body on the planetThe Essential Atlas Byss. Pestage hoped that the amulet in the glove could amplify Palpatine's dark powers and speed up his return to galactic dominace.
Rumors about Palpatine's son had persisted for years, rumored to be three-eyed or the son of one of his concubines. In 5 ABY, one year after Endor, the Central Committee of Grand Moffs, led by Hissa, decided to move against Imperial Intelligence Director Ysanne Isard by declaring their own candidate for Emperor. Hissa, having seen Trioculus's mettle earlier, asked the mutant if he would capitalize on the rumors about Palpatine's son and perform the role. Immediately after Vader's glove entered public consciousness, the Moffs prepared to hold a coronation ceremony in Kessendra, a city on Kessel, where they would reveal Trioculus as their new emperor, claiming him as Palpatine's son. SPIN received word of the coronation and of Kadann's prophecy, and so prepared to send Skywalker's droids C-3PO and R2-D2 to spy on the proceedings, who were disguised as mining droids.
==The affair==
===Trioculus's coronation===
After attending a briefing on their mission on Yavin 4, the droids were transported to Kessel by Han Solo and Lando Calrissian on the Millennium Falcon.
==Aftermath==
Isard had the Moffs involved in the affair executed, and her dominance of the remainder of the Empire became stronger than ever.
==Appearances==
*The Glove of Darth Vader 
*The Lost City of the Jedi
*Zorba the Hutt's Revenge
*Mission from Mount Yoda
*Queen of the Empire
*Prophets of the Dark Side
==Sources==
*The New Essential Guide to Characters
*The New Essential Chronology 
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==Notes and references==
Category:Galactic Civil War campaigns