Emperor's Hand

An Emperor's Hand, or Hand of the Emperor, was a special operative recruited, trained, and employed by Emperor Palpatine to perform missions that were impossible, secret, or both. More often than not they were Force-sensitive individuals.
==History==
Prior to his ascent to Galactic Emperor, Palpatine used a number of assassins, spies, and operatives to achieve his objectives as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. It was his use of his first apprentice Darth Maul, trained specifically to kill Jedi, who proved effective at handling other tasks, that convinced him of the usefulness of extremely loyal, effective, and secretive agents. Thus he began developing the Emperor's Hands to create a group that were operatives, not apprentices.
During his reign, Sidious used the Emperor's Hands to kill enemies where his more obvious tools, such as Darth Vader or the Imperial military, would be either ineffective, too public, or otherwise inappropriate. Common targets included rogue governors, traitorous commanders, rebellious leaders, or other internal or external concerns. In the early years of the Galactic Empire, Sidious sent the Second Sister to recruit a young Mara Jade as one of his agents, but was thwarted by the intervention of then-Jedi Knight Jarik Shan, who rescued her from the Inquisitor.
Following the death of Darth Sidious at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, many former Emperor's Hands went on to become independent menaces to the Alliance to Restore the Republic and New Republic.
==Appearances==
Category:Organizations
Category:Galactic Empire
Category:Antagonists
Category:Group
Category:Emperor's Hand