Inquisitorius

The Inquisitorius, also known as the Inquisitorius Program, the Order of Inquisitors, the Inquisitor corps, the Imperial Inquisition, or simply Inquisition, was an organization of Force-sensitive operatives under the Galactic Empire. Inquisitors were tasked with hunting the remaining Jedi throughout the galaxy following the destruction of the Jedi Order, as well as other political dissidents, and retrieving Force-sensitive children as part of Project Harvester. Nicknamed "Red Blades," these dark side adepts were governed by Darth Vader and led by an individual known only as the Grand Inquisitor.
During the Great Jedi Purge, the Inquisitors came into conflict with numerous surviving and former Jedi and affiliated third parties. One of these groups was the Hidden Path, who ferried Jedi and other Force-sensitives through a network of safe havens and assisted Jedi like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Another group were the Spectres, a rebel cell that included Jedi survivor Kanan Jarrus and his apprentice, Ezra Bridger. Their pursuit of the Spectres also brought them into contact with the former Padawan Ahsoka Tano and the former Sith Lord Maul. By the time of the Galactic Civil War, the Empire considered the Jedi to be largely extinct, and the Inquisitorius were said to have vanished.
==Description==
===Organization===
====Recruitment and Induction====
Although the exact number of Inquisitors was kept secret, there may have been as many as nineteen.Star Wars: The Dark Side Savage SpiritsCrimson ClimbGhosts of Dathomir Induction into the Inquisitorius varied depending on the circumstances behind a candidate's recruitment. Some were offered a role in the Inquisitors, and some were tortured in order to be corrupted by the dark side, so that they would join the Inquisitorius. If these tactics didn't work on a potential Inquisitor, they were killed. Once, inducted into the ranks of the Inquisitorius, individuals embraced their new names which included a number along with Brother or Sister depending on their gender. By the Clone Wars, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious—publicly Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine at that time—had planted spies amongst the Jedi Temple to help find Jedi who could be turned into servants of the Sith.
Candidates who were subjected to torture as a means to break their wills were quickly situated, outfitted with their uniform/weapon, issued their numerical identifier, and enrolled as full fledged Inquisitors. Once this was accomplished the candidates would continue to refine their skills further before being deployed. Candidates who had voluntarily joined the organization were subjected to a more prolonged induction process consisting of a test of skill with a lightsaber by the Grand Inquisitor to deduce whether or not the candidate met the necessary skill requirement to join the organization and further observation thereafter as the candidate honed their skill and connection to the dark side. Once deemed ready by the Grand Inquisitor, the candidate would be assigned a mission befitting their particular skillset or knowledge or be coerced into competing against a fellow candidate for a spot within the program by way of a deathmatch. Should they pass their assigned test or mission, then they would be brought in as a full fledged Inquisitor, outfitted with their uniform, weapon, and issued their numerical identifier or be eliminated should they fail. After passing the Grand Inquisitor's initial test, the candidate was given a degree of leeway to get themselves acquainted with their new base of operations, set up their quarters, study dark side lore, and hone their skills.
====Status and command====
Darth Vader, as the Emperor's apprentice, oversaw the Inquisitorius and their operations at large. The Grand Inquisitor, who reported directly to Vader, was the leader of the group, and was responsible for leading their day-to-day operations. Despite the rest of the Inquisitors reporting to the Grand Inquisitor, there was a constant and inherent power struggle. This was allowed by Vader and Palpatine, who encouraged the Inquisitors to strive for superiority over one another.
Inquisitors commanded Purge Troopers, elite death squads originally comprised of the last generation of clones brought online after the Jedi Purge. Later groupings of Purge Troopers were picked from the Stormtrooper Corps. 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.Star Wars Rebels: Visual Guide: Epic Battles Any officer who came into contact with Force-sensitive beings was to immediately contact an Inquisitor to investigate the situation.
===Rivalries===
Over time, the existence of Inquisitorius and its members became a source of disdain and frustration for other branches of the Empire. Some Imperial officers disliked the interference of Inquisitors, such as Admiral Kassius Konstantine who had no tolerance for mystics. In another instance, some members of the Imperial Senate, like Daho Sejan, attempted a similar effort by using his political power to employ mercenaries to hunt down Jedi. Inquisitorius also contended with the Imperial Security Bureau; Commander Lank Denvik, a chief supervisor, began attempting to curry favor towards Emperor Palpatine and for priority in funding by focusing his efforts on hunting Jedi fugitives, like Cal Kestis and Cere Junda, using former Jedi Bode Akuna as a spy. In retaliation, Inquisitors and Darth Vader alike performed summary execution for such transgressions.
===Inquisitor mutuality===
The Inquisitors held a mutual relationship with each other. Many had to work together on occasions where they were up against bigger threats. The Thirteenth Sister and the Inquisitor Tualon Yaluna had a mutual friendship and always toasted to the death of every Jedi they hunted with a drink made on the planet of which they found them. However, being users of the dark side of the Force, the Inquisitors gradually grew to become more arrogant, self-centered, sadistic, cunning, manipulative, and power hungry; with a sense of competition and mistrust growing between them as they fought over any scraps of dark side lore, wealth, status, and adulation they could garner within their ranks. The Thirteenth Sister, formerly Iskat Akaris, would go on to comment that ambition within the Inquisitorius was encouraged and that stabbing a fellow Inquisitor in that back was to be expected within the organization.
Despite addressing one another as brother and sister; Inquisitors generally held a degree of animosity or general apathy towards one another; often rebuking or mocking each other. During the hunt for a suspected Jedi thought to be operating on Mon Cala, the Sixth Brother was insulted by his two subordinate Inquisitors, the Ninth Sister and Tenth Brother; both making fun of the fact that the former smelled like fish. Later on, the three aforementioned Inquisitors were caught up in a skirmish in Bel City when the Jedi Ferren Barr mind-tricked the Inquisitors' Purge Troopers into targeting them with Protocol 66, which resulted in the Tenth Brother being killed, to which both Sixth Brother and Ninth Sister reacted with general indifference despite working together. Further still, the Sixth Brother did not hesitate to betray the Ninth Sister by cutting off her leg and leaving her behind to stall the remainder of the Purge Troopers in order to ensure his own escape; this despite both working together not seconds before to clear a path of escape. The Sixth Brother later abandoned one of his missions to monitor and survey a suspected Force-sensitive child on Thabeska in favor of responding to a communications message about a confirmed Force-sensitive being and potential Jedi on Raada, hoping to obtain himself a promotion. A female Inquisitor trained her own apprentice to use against the other Inquisitors before she was betrayed and killed by her.Ghosts of Dathomir During the Fifth Brother's search for the Spectres, the Seventh Sister decided to intervene with his hunt to obtain the kill for herself.
===Psychology===
Being chosen as candidates for Induction into the Inquisitorius, naturally meant that Inquisitors demonstrated a level of affinity for the dark side and hence were prone to bouts of anger, rage, frustration, impulsiveness, and vanity, even during their tenure as members of the Jedi Order.
Iskat Akaris for example was prone to fits of anger, frustration, and jealousy at the Jedi Council for keeping her bound to youngling training duties instead of allowing her to fight in the frontlines during the Clone Wars, expressing overconfidence in her own abilities. Likewise, the Grand Inquisitor expressed deep frustration, anger, and resentment towards Jocasta Nu for not allowing someone of his level of skill and power access to the full scope of the Temple Archives. Tualon Yaluna himself expressed heightened levels of rage and frustration at the prospect of going back towards the Jedi Temple without the slicer he and his team where tasked with recruiting, despite his efforts to be a model Jedi. Fifth Brother harbored a deep resentment towards the Jedi for making him serve the whims of greedy and corrupt politicians and allowing the Senate to strip-mine his homeworld of Artemesium for resources.Jedi: Battle Scars
After joining the Inquisitorius any negative traits the former Jedi turned Inquisitors had harbored only amplified in its potency and callousness. Many Inquisitors who voluntarily joined would see them adopt a more cold, apathetic, sociopathic, and egocentric demeanor, seeing their subordinate, be it a run of the mill Imperial grunt or lower ranking Inquisitors, as inferior beings compared to them. The Thirteenth Sister once commented that two Inquisitors who joined willingly, the Grand Inquisitor and Fifth Brother, had felt like themselves completely. Those Inquisitors which had been tortured prior to induction were even more sociopathic and held a greater proclivity for homicidal tendencies than those that had joined willingly. Iskat Akaris would describe one such Inquisitor, the Seventh Sister, as being "needlessly cruel, delighting in the pain of others". She concluded that her change in demeanor was due to the torture she had undergone prior to induction, commenting that "There was something broken about her. Something unnaturally jagged." Akaris would also go on to comment that the Empire "had shattered something inside her, when they turned her away from the Jedi, and what was left felt like a blade that ached for blood".
She similarly described the Eighth Brother as someone looking for any potential excuse to kill, exacerbating the Terrelian Jango Jumper's homicidal nature. The biggest example of the Torture's effective and corrupting nature was best illustrated by the changes undergone by the Inquisitor Tualon Yaluna who was considered to be calm, collected, disciplined, and reserved during his time as a Jedi Knight; but was changed for the worse following his torture and subsequent induction into the Inquisitorius. Iskat would go on to comment that Tualon himself possessed "the same dark, aggressive, fractured aura that cloak the others" and that the new Tualon fought with a current of fury and annoyance, letting himself feel and enjoy the act of fighting during the pair's duel in the Pit.
Aside from their cruel, manipulative, and arrogant personas; all Inquisitors shared one glaring similarity that bound them together in their mission - they all shared an unfettered hatred for the Jedi Order and its surviving members. For those members who felt actively wronged and betrayed by the Jedi, meeting them on the battlefield arose in them a sense of hatred and annoyance. This was expressed by the Fifth Brother to Jedi Knight Cal Kestis during their initial confrontation on Murkhana when he plainly told the Jedi that "Your words cannot annoy me any more than your existence does". Similarly, Inquisitors such as Iskat Akaris still intended to hunt down and kill Jedi on her own once she managed to escape the thumb of the Inquisitorius out of her own free will.
Those Inquisitors which had previously been tortured into servitude to the Empire also generally possessed deep animosity towards the former Order and its affiliates. Unlike those that had joined willingly however, their motivations for hating the Jedi are still mostly enigmatic even to the Inquisitors themselves. This was best illustrated by Tualon following his torture and subsequent brainwashing, explaining to Akaris how he only remembered tortured and then immediately after believing that the Jedi were evil and that he was supposed to stop them.
===Operations===
The individual with the title of Grand Inquisitor, such as the agent known simply as "the Grand Inquisitor," commanded Inquisitor operations under Vader. The Inquisitors' primary objective was to hunt down and turn to the dark side (if possible) or kill (if not) Jedi who had survived the initial stages of the Great Jedi Purge. As part of this task Inquisitors typically sought to capture, torture, and interrogate surviving Jedi as a means of acquiring information. Should the Jedi possess no valuable information and refuse to convert to the dark side, then they would be eliminated. This was shown during the Grand Inquisitor's hunt for Jedi Padawan Caleb Dume and his apprentice Ezra Bridger; with him emphasizing the point of capturing both Jedi fugitives alive to then ISB Agent Kallus; he also stated this fact to his platoon of Stormtroopers during his hunt for the Jedi on Fort Anaxes. Similarly, the Seventh Sister sought to capture Dume and used Bridger to lure him and the estranged Padawan Ahsoka Tano into a trap.Star Wars Rebels: The Visual Guide
Capture was not always of the modus operandi of all Inquisitors, and while some immediately sought to eliminate their respective targets first chance they got during their respective hunts, the Inquisitors' secondary objective was to prevent Force-sensitive children from falling into the hands of the remaining Jedi or using their skills against the Empire. As part of this strategy, an operation code-named Project Harvester was designed to identify cadets in Imperial academies across the galaxy who met the criteria that would identify them as Force-sensitive.Servants of the Empire: Rebel in the Ranks Should they be identified as such, the cadets would be abducted and taken into custody for experimentation and corruption. Individuals who refused to serve the Galactic Empire would then be eliminated.
As well as Imperial cadets, Project Harvester also targeted infants that were identified as Force-sensitive. One of the infants they took was the daughter of former Jedi Master Eeth Koth. The baby was given to the Nursemaids after being taken. Besides hunting Jedi, the Inquisitors were also known to pursue other Force-sensitive opponents of the Sith, like the renegade darksider Maul. The Inquisitor's hunt saw gradual success over time. Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin read reports from the Inquisitorius and saw that their hunt had rid the galaxy of most, if not all of the surviving Jedi. The success of their hunt was aided by their vast access to Imperial resources such as starships and combat personnel.
The Inquisitors' primary means of hunting Jedi was often by using the Jedi's own sense of righteousness and compassion against them by targeting civilians within the area in which a Jedi is suspected to reside in. This tactic was demonstrated by the Second Sister on Bracca during her hunt for Cal Kestis, where she threatened to have the whole lot of Scrapper Guild workers executed unless the Jedi revealed themselves to her and Ninth Sister. Similarly the Grand Inquisitor used an identical method during his hunt for Jedi Padawan Nari on Tatooine, where he threatened the safety of a bar owner whom the Padawan aided in the past to goad the Jedi into revealing himself. The Third Sister also employed a more extreme version of this tactic in which she threatened to cut off the hands of all civilians present in her area in order to prompt Obi-Wan Kenobi or Nari to reveal themselves; later she threatened to kill Owen Lars and his family to the same end before being stopped by Fifth Brother. Another method employed by Inquisitors to hunt Jedi was by using people or items of interest and significance to the Jedi being hunted to lure them into a pre-arranged trap.
This method was employed by the Grand Inquisitor when he release news of the survival and detainment of Jedi Master Luminara Unduli in the Stygeon system to lure in Padawan Caleb Dume and many other Jedi in to attempt a rescue. The Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother employed a similar tactic using Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger and Mandalorian demolitions expert Sabine Wren as bait to lure in Dume (renamed Kanan Jarrus) and Ahsoka Tano to an abandon medical station for a trap, unfortunately their plans were foiled by Lasat Captain Garazeb Orrelios. The Sixth Brother also used this tactic during his hunt for Tano by releasing news of his detainment of the rebel insurgent Kaeden Larte in order to lure her back to Raada for an ambush. The Third Sister employed this tactic by ordering the kidnapping of Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan to prompt Kenobi into coming to her rescue where she could ambush and detain him for Darth Vader. The Second Sister employed a variation of this strategy by revealing that she was studying a Zeffonian sarcophagus to Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis in order to lure him into her forces for an ambush.
Despite being assigned to hunt and kill Jedi and other Force-sensitive targets, most of the Inquisitors could only contend with middle of the road to average Jedi Knights and Padawans on a one-on-one basis; but were not skilled enough to take on powerful Force-users on the level of most Jedi Master's or battle-hardened Jedi Knights on their own. Two working in tandem were defeated by Ahsoka Tano, and three combined were unable to overcome the former Sith Lord Darth Maul. This was compounded by the fact that there were a limited number of available Inquisitors which could be allocated to hunt a given Jedi target at any given time and the fact that Jedi who did survive multiple encounters with Inquisitors typically would refine their skills through further training or through the experience gleamed from their respective encounters as was the case with Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, and Cal Kestis. To counter this, the members of the Inquisitorius were assigned command of their own contingent of Purge Troopers, infantry units who were specifically trained to hunt down and kill Jedi either on their own or with the support of an Inquisitor.
In situations where such forces were in limited supply or absent, Inquisitors could take command of other Imperial forces, such as stormtroopers, to supplement their existing forces throughout the course of a hunt. Commonly such forces would be deployed to attempt to contain the targeted Jedi within the confines of their residing location by conducting patrols, interrogating the populace, and locking down transportation out of the planet, occasionally they would act as fire support for inquisitors when patrolling or aid in containing located Jedi within the confines of a settlement.
Some Inquisitors were deemed to be capable enough hunters on their own to be trusted to conduct solo hunts or operations, including as The Grand Inquisitor, Eighth Brother and a masked Inquisitor, with another Inquisitor being able to hunt down and kill four Jedi in the Anoat sector. The inquisitor that took Jerserra as her apprentice also operated alone. When possible, Inquisitors were known to be dispatched in teams of two or three on any given Jedi hunt, as was the case on Mon Cala where the Sixth Brother, Ninth Sister, and Tenth Brother along with Darth Vader where dispatched to deal with the Jedi Ferren Barr. In the case of the pursuit of Eeth Koth, Iskat was joined by the Fifth Brother and Tualon, alongside Darth Vader. During the Mantis crew's mission to obtain Eno Cordova's holocron, both the Second Sister and Ninth Sister worked in tandem to locate and kill Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis one of the crew members. After the Skirmish aboard a Republic medical station both the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister worked in tandem to kill the Jedi Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger and attempt to capture former Padawan Ahsoka Tano.
During the hunt for the Jedi Nari on Tatooine, the Grand Inquisitor, Fifth Brother and Third Sister were dispatched to deal with the situation. During the hunt for Obi Wan Kenobi on Daiyu the Grand Inquisitor, Fifth Brother, and Fourth Sister where dispatched to hunt him down much to the annoyance of the Third Sister, who seemingly wanted to earn Darth Vader's favor through the Jedi Master's capture. Later, the Third Sister, Fifth Brother and the Fourth Sister, alongside Darth Vader worked together to capture Kenobi after he was discovered on Mapuzo. Third Sister also served under Darth Vader as they led the attack on Jabiim before she went rogue.
===Equipment===
The Inquisitors wore black and grey bodysuits with armor and were equipped with crimson-bladed lightsabers,Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader's Castle 5 typically of the double-bladed spinning lightsaber model that were also capable of spinning in a helicopter-like motion for escape due to their ringed emitters. The Tenth Brother was an exception, possessing two separate shoto lightsabers. The Inquisitors also developed interrogation chairs to assist in their questioning of suspected rebels or Jedi.
For transport, the Inquisitorius fielded a transport known as the Scythe transport and numerous other starships, including Zeta-class shuttles like the Infernum and Sentinel-class landing craft. Inquisitors also flew the experimental TIE Advanced v1 line.Star Wars: The Rebel Files In their capacity as Imperial leaders who could take command of whatever resources they needed, Inquisitors could exert authority over vessels as large as Imperial-class Star Destroyers.
===Skills and training===
Consisting often of former Jedi, the Inquisitors were initially weak in the usage of the dark side of the Force and utilized the defensive fighting discipline common to most of the Jedi Order - which emphasized maintaining a strong defense and only moving to attack when there was no other recourse available. Darth Vader noticed this limitation when he began training them and sought to correct it by implementing a program of aggressive training, which he deemed would serve the emperor's purpose for the organization. The aggressive training regimen was described as being fear-based, dark, and abusive in nature. It was through this that the Inquisitor's fighting form was transformed from the passive defensive style of the Jedi into one of unrelenting offense. This aggressive fighting style aimed to quickly overpower surviving Jedi through the use of a relentless barrage of saber strikes to wear down their adversaries' defenses; broad slashes and sweeps to offset the Jedi own attacking momentum, and fast parrying counters to force their opponent back on the defensive. Their combat style also aimed at hampering the Jedi concentration and preventing them from falling back on their Force abilities by instilling fear and doubt through the use of direct threats to them and their allies or by reminding them of their failures, and insecurities. Strong emotions, pain, and exhaustion could hamper a Jedi's connection to the Force by making them feel cut off and isolated. While their combat style all but ensured that the Inquisitors could make short work of fledgling Jedi Padawans and ill-prepared Jedi Knights. Well-trained and seasoned lightsaber duelists on the level of most Jedi Masters or battle-hardened Knights still proved to be capable enough to contend with, if not defeat them outright as demonstrated by Ahsoka Tano and the former Sith Lord Darth Maul who were able to circumvent the Inquisitors tactics with relative ease.
Among one of lesson's imparted by Darth Vader's to the inquisitors during their first training sessions included teaching them loss, having expended several inquisitors of at least one of their limbs and the value of persistence. It was this very lesson that Ninth Sister would later comment to then Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis during their duel on top of the Origin Tree on Kashyyyk. Inquisitors were also summited to extensive torture and mutilation which helped to fuel their connection to the dark side; this was demonstrated by both the Second and Ninth Sister during their respective duels with then Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis as they both sought to make Kestis experience the same suffering they had undergone. Over time, the Inquisitors have become some of the most skilled and feared lightsaber fighters in the galaxy, though were deliberately trained to not surpass the prowess of a Sith Lord in both their understanding of the dark side and skill with a lightsaber.
Aside from their skills with a lightsaber, Inquisitors were trained in the use and application of dark side techniques such as mind probing or Force drain as was the case with the Second Sister, It also appears that some Inquisitors, such as the Seventh Sister are capable of using the Force directly to inflict pain upon a target as she demonstrated against Ezra Bridger during her interrogation of the young Padawan. They were also well-trained interrogators and trackers, who were capable of using the Force to detect another Force-sensitive's signature through vast distances or gather important information by reading the emotional responses of their adversaries when presented with an inquiry. 
Individually, Inquisitors ranged in skill sets and strengths, many of them having studied the records of the Jedi Order to familiarize themselves with their enemies' fighting techniques. Some inquisitors like the Fifth Brother and Ninth Sister were strong in the Force, able to sense emotions, Intentions, or the locations of their prey across the vast expanse of space. Inquisitors like the Seventh Sister and Second Sister had keen tactical minds that enabled them to coordinate and allocates their forces with greater efficiency while others such as Sixth Brother had keen deductive skills which enabled him to better predict the movement of their prey.
==History==
===Origins===
Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious knew there would be some Jedi who could survive his planned Great Jedi Purge through Order 66. He needed to ensure that he could not be usurped by the light side, so Sidious began to lay the seeds of the Inquisitorius Program years before he became Galactic Emperor. During the Clone Wars, he contracted the bounty hunter Cad Bane to kidnap several Force-sensitive children who would become Jedi younglings in the near future. At his private facility on Mustafar, the Dark Lord intended to put the children through a slave conditioning process, having foreseen he would have "an army" of Force-sensitive spies at his beck and call. Nevertheless, Darth Sidious' operation was prevented by the interference of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who rescued the children and escaped the ruined crashing base with them. Despite this setback, the Dark Lord simply established more facilities and altered more nanny droids, ensuring the continuation of his plan to use Mustafar to turn infants to his cause.
As the war carried on, Darth Sidious also kept an eye on Knights who had grievances with the Jedi High Council or the role the Jedi Order was playing in the conflict, with his spies amongst the Temple, such as Heezo, helping him find such candidates. The Sith Lord preyed on their weaknesses and secretly offered these select few the things their brethren had denied them in addition to a chance at surviving Order 66, so long as they gave him and the dark side of the Force their allegiance. When the war ended, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, the public persona Darth Sidious, seized the carefully-orchestrated opportunity to form the Galactic Empire and declare the Jedi Order its enemy. Using Jedi Master Mace Windu's attempt on his life as justification, Sidious gave the command to execute Order 66. However, Jedi who, in the words of the soon-to-be Grand Inquisitor, had seen through "the lies" of the Order were spared.
For example, the soon-to-be Thirteenth Sister, Iskat Akaris, was not killed on sight upon the execution of Order 66 as Sidious had noticed her grievances with the Jedi Order. Rather than fire on her, the clone trooper company with her surrounded her, and Sidious, via the holocommuniator used by Clone Captain Spider, offered her a chance to learn everything she had suppressed. After she agreed and was escorted away, Akaris' betrayal sent her fellow Jedi and friend Tualon Yaluna into a rage, in which he fought his clone troopers. Despite their initial attempts to kill him, the clones took him captive. He would also join the Inquisitorius after torture and being consumed by his rage. As the Dark Lord predicted, some Jedi survived the mass–killing, so he planned for his huntsmen to hound those who survived until the light of the Jedi Order was extinguished once and for all. Darth Sidious also turned Skywalker to the dark side to be his apprentice, giving him the name "Darth Vader." Whereas Skywalker had the potential to be a Sith in his eyes, Sidious had selected those who would become Inquisitors specifically because he felt they had no chance of becoming powerful enough to challenge him.
The vast 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 Temple, warning the survivors off. As such, several of them had survived the initial purge and gone into hiding. Fearing the threat the surviving Jedi posed to his rule, the recently-instated Emperor Darth Sidious created the Imperial Inquisition to track down and taint or eradicate the last of the Jedi Order.Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know In a similar vein to how Skywalker had fallen, the first grouping of Inquisitors were all former Jedi who had fallen to the dark sideDarth Vader (2017) 11 and sworn themselves to Sidious. As the Imperial Era continued, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi thought that not all Inquisitors were former Jedi, but he knew many were.
Many Imperial Inquisitors had joined the dark side due to intensive torture or corruption.The Star Wars Book Upon joining the ranks of the Inquisitorius, the Force-sensitives effectively lost their identities; they were given numerical designations to represent their entry into an organization that perverted everything the Jedi Order had had stood for. A Pau'an Jedi Temple Guard, who became "the Grand Inquisitor," had joined Sidious when the Dark Lord had promised him access to the Jedi Archives. The Ninth Sister was the former Jedi Knight Masana Tide. The Tenth Brother was former Jedi Master Prosset Dibs,Darth Vader (2017) 16 who had become suborned to the Sith at the end of the Clone Wars.
The Second Sister was former Jedi Padawan Trilla Suduri, who was captured shortly after Order 66 and tortured into giving into the dark side. Darth Vader soon discovered the program and was put in charge of them by Darth Sidious. The Sith Lord trained the Inquisitors in the ways of the dark side of the Force. As part of their tutelage, a number of Inquisitors had parts of their bodies severed by their master's lightsaber so that they would not forget the lesson of loss. After Lord Vader cut off Sixth Brother's left arm, the Grand Inquisitor began questioning his master's training techniques. The cyborg claimed he was intending to have the dark side adepts to abandon their tendency to fight defensively as former Jedi and adopt more offensive moves.
Later, the Fourth Sister recruited Barriss Offee to join the Inquisitorius and brought her to the under-construction Fortress Inquisitorius on the water moon Nur. There, Offee was trained by the Grand Inquisitor and became an Inquisitor after defeating fellow prospective Inquisitor Dante in combat. However, Barriss did not remain Inquisitor for long, as after being sent to eliminate a Jedi along with the Fourth Sister by the Grand Inquisitor, Barriss betrayed the Inquisitor by using the Force to push her off a mountain. Having realized the true nature of the Inquisitorius, Barriss returned to being a Jedi and returned to save the Jedi who were injured and left for dead by the Fourth Sister.
===Hunting the Jedi===
Following the formation of the Empire, the Grand Inquisitor worked closely with Lord Vader on locating the Jedi Order's Chief Librarian, Jocasta Nu. During his research in the Archives, the formed,Darth Vader (2017) 8 who held a personal dislike of said Jedi Master because she had been the one to refuse him access to the Archives' secrets, was confronted by Nu after he openly insulted the knowledge he was reading. At first the Grand Inquisitor planned to kill her but when he defeated her in combat, he was prevented from killing her by his master. As Vader and the Inquisitor argued, Nu was able to make her escape.Darth Vader (2017) 9 However, the Sith Lord was able to pursue the Jedi Master and killed her himself without the Grand Inquisitor's help.Darth Vader (2017) 10
Sometime later, the Ninth Sister accompanied Lord Vader to investigate reports of a possible Jedi in a cantina on Cabarria. The reports turned out to be false and the Sith Lord was attacked by three bounty hunters. The Dowutin Inquisitor refused to help Vader and when he overpowered his would-be assassins, they retreated and stole the Ninth Sister's speeder at gunpoint. Vader chased and captured them, questioning them of who they were hired by. The Dark Lord found out that the culprit had come from the top of the Imperial ranks and the Ninth Sister flew him back to Coruscant. However, when arriving at Coruscant their communications were deliberately jammed, stopping the Inquisitor from sending their clearance codes. This caused the Coruscant defenses to attack them and the Dark Lord pushed the Ninth Sister off the pilot chair to take control of the ship. They subsequently crashed onto Coruscant and Vader left the Ninth Sister with the ship.Darth Vader (2017) 12 Throughout the Imperial Era, the Inquisitors brought terror to the Jedi who had survived Order 66 and helped cement Imperial rule.
===Mission to Mon Cala===
About one year after the rise of the Empire, Sidious suspected a Jedi of influencing the deteriorating negotiations on Mon Cala. The Emperor therefore sent his apprentice and three Inquisitors to investigate this, accompanied by a death squad of elite clone Purge Troopers. Upon their arrival, Ambassador Telvar was assassinatedDarth Vader (2017) 13 and his superior, Governor Tarkin, sent down his forces to invade Mon Cala. Lord Vader and the Inquisitors Sixth Brother, Ninth Sister and Tenth Brother fought at Dac City and captured the king, Lee-Char. The Ninth Sister interrogated the monarch for the location of the Jedi but they were soon swept away by large waves generated by some of Mon Cala's large creatures.Darth Vader (2017) 14
The three Inquisitors survived the cataclysm and picked up Vader on an Imperial submarine. The Ninth Sister revealed to the Dark Lord that she had obtained the location of the Jedi and they made for the place.Darth Vader (2017) 15 Upon arriving there, they were met by the Jedi and his six disciples. The group scattered, except for one that shot at the submarine until Vader crushed his helmet. As they chased the rest of them, another sacrificed himself to slow them down. The Inquisitors and their master soon reached Bel City and made chase for the remaining of the group. However, Lord Vader received a request from Governor Tarkin for an assignment that requited him elsewhere which was the capture of Lee-Char and thus the end of the war on Mon Cala. He agreed and left his Inquisitors and their squad of clones to find the Jedi.
The Inquisitors soon found the Jedi and his last two disciples. The Sixth Brother cut down one of the disciples and they surrounded the other two. The Jedi then stepped forward and faced them, revealing their names from when they were Jedi. The Ninth Sister confronted the Jedi, identifying him as a Padawan named Ferren Barr. Barr ignored her and told them that they were still truly Jedi, acknowledging the clones and their role in Order 66. He then used the Force to take the helmets off the Purge Troopers and saw that they were newer clones that were commissioned after Order 66. Knowing they had not had their inhibitor chips activated, he used a mind trick on them, saying "execute Order 66."
The trick worked and the Purge Troopers turned on their three superiors. They quickly succeeded in gunning down the Tenth Brother, although the Sixth Brother and Ninth Sister were able to deflect their shots. Barr and his last disciple, Verla, then leaped over the battle and escaped. Keen to intercept them, the Sixth Brother and Ninth Sister used their combined powers to Force push the troopers to the side. However, the Sixth Brother betrayed Ninth Sister, cutting her leg off and leaving her to fend off the last of the troopers alone. After his escape, the Sixth Brother took a boat away with three stormtroopers. Despite the loss of her right leg, Ninth Sister survived and replaced the missing limb with a prosthetic one.
===Search for Ahsoka Tano===
====First encounter====
Shortly after the mission to Mon Cala, the Sixth Brother was searching for a possibly Force-sensitive child on Thabeska. However, he later abandoned this task after receiving word that a Force-attuned being who received some level of 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 Tano, who was hiding on Thabeska and the agricultural moon of Raada since Order 66 and the siege of Mandalore. She built up a resistance group on Raada. After a failed assault on the nearby Imperial Base, Ahsoka returned to Thabeska. When Hedala Fardi, the Force-sensitive child, told Ahsoka of "a shadow" that had come, the former Padawan went back to Raada, where The Sixth Brother had killed the entirety of the resistance group, with only Ahsoka's friend Kaeden Larte and her sister alive.Ahsoka
The Sixth Brother then took Kaedan, who had become close to Tano. The Sixth Brother used Kaeden to lay a trap for Tano and she revealed herself to him. The Sixth Brother then battled her, but the former Padawan was able to identify his offensive fighting style and took advantage of it. Tano then reached out to his lightsaber's kyber crystals and they detonated the lightsaber, killing the Sixth Brother. Tano took his lightsaber crystals and fled the system with the rest of the citizens from Raada's sole settlement. Shortly afterwards, the Grand Inquisitor arrived and, unaware of the culprit's identity, decided to hunt her himself, but not before informing Lord Vader.
====Second encounter====
At another point during the Imperial Era, the Eleventh Brother was tipped off by a villager about Tano's presence in a village, and arrived in the settlement to investigate. Upon not finding his target there, he slaughtered the entire village but the informant who alerted him of Tano's presence, and an old man. Holding the two hostage in the village center as it burned, the Inquisitor circled the two farmers and intimidated them with his doubled-bladed spinning lightsaber. When the informant claimed that he should be rewarded for his effort, the Inquisitor accused him of lying and claimed that it would not win him Imperial favor.
When Tano returned to the village from a produce delivery alongside the informant's sister, the two found the village in flames and the Inquisitor tormenting the two farmers. Upon spotting Tano, the informant told the Inquisitor that he had been telling the truth. The Inquisitor acknowledged this, and attempted to "reward" the informant by killing him, but Tano used telekinesis to pull the man away from the Inquisitor, and cause his lightsaber to miss its target. Intrigued, the Inquisitor recognized Tano and gloated that he would be rewarded for her death. He attempted to kill Tano, but she dodged his blows before grabbing his lightsaber and deactivating it. She then wrenched the weapon out of his hands and decapitated him with it.
===Hunt for Eeth Koth===
Sometime after his hunt on Chandar's Folly,Darth Vader (2017) 18 Lord Vader took three Inquisitors to a planet to hunt down former Jedi Master Eeth Koth. He entered his house and interrupted the latter as his daughter was just born. Koth attempted to negotiate his way out of the situation but Vader made it clear he wasn't compliant and Koth attacked him, telling his wife, Mira, to run with their daughter. The two took the fight outside and the Sith Lord threw him across the ground and told his Inquisitors to find the newborn and capture it. The Fifth Brother asked of what they should do about the mother and their master informed him that she was irrelevant.
The three Inquisitors made haste into the city and the Fifth Brother suggested they split up. The other two agreed and they began searching in the city. The Thirteenth Sister decided to reach out into the Force to see if the infant made any ripples, as it was Force-sensitive. Her attempt was successful and she managed to stop Mira and her child before they could reach her father's shuttle. Mira begged her to let her go, appealing to her woman to woman. Iskat told her to go and she ran into the shuttle. The Fifth Brother then arrived and was shocked by what she had just done. Tualon Yaluna arrived as well and told her that their master would not take this lightly. However, Iskat wasn't finished yet and as the shuttle ascended, she used the Force to pull the baby from her mother's arms.
Tualon asked Iskat why she had to do it the way she did. She explained that since Mira appealed to her woman to woman, she decided to let her trust her before snatching her baby and thus her soul, as she would never trust another woman, and likely another person, again. The three Inquisitors returned to the Sith Lord, who was gradually beating his Jedi opponent in the duel. Koth saw the baby in Iskat's hands and, using his shock as a distraction, Vader cut him down. The group returned to the Coruscant tower on their Zeta-class shuttle and gave the baby to a pair of nursemaids. The Sith Lord then asked the Grand Inquisitor about their next target. Vader was brought by his underling to see the list of the final confirmed Jedi survivors. There, he explained to Vader that they had hidden well and he concluded that they must wait until one of them made a mistake in order to find them.
===Rogue Inquisitors===	
The Fifth Brother notified the Sith Lord of Iskat's actions during their hunt and Vader surmised she turned traitor, especially as he suspected her and Tualon of having developed feelings for each other. Later on, Iskat and Tualon were toasting to Eeth Koth's death with a drink that came from the planet where they had found him. Iskat then brought up the Sith Lord and asked of what he would do when all the Jedi were finally dead. Tualon told her he would find his way around it, saying he would always find something to kill. At that moment, Vader interrupted their conversation, igniting his lightsaber. The Grand Inquisitor asked if this was a test, which the Dark Lord coldly denied. Vader attempted to kill Iskat, but Tualon halted him with his lightsaber and Vader confirmed his suspicions that the two had an attachment. Iskat ran away and the Dark Lord threw the other into the wall. He asked Vader why he attacked Iskat and he told him that it didn't matter because he had done it too. Tualon ran and joined Iskat as she escaped the Coruscant Tower.
The Sith Lord made chase for the rogue Inquisitors and took a speeder into Coruscant. The pair planned on killing Vader in order for them to be free from his presence in the galaxy. They therefore attacked his speeder and he jumped to other speeders as they cut those down as well with their lightsabers. The pair then resorted to throwing speeders at their pursuer but he either threw them back or cut them down. However, the rogue Inquisitors eventually managed to topple a statue onto the Sith Lord and he fell onto a balcony, temporarily immobilized. They attempted to finish him off but Vader used the Force to freeze them in mid air. The rogue Inquisitors turned to one another to spill out their last words and the Sith Lord made their lightsabers activate to stab the pair and kill them at the same time. Sidious later asked Vader why he suspected the two of treachery and he explained to his master of their attachment and how Iskat briefly let Eeth Koth's child escape. Nonetheless, the Emperor was displeased with his apprentice's rampage that killed Senator Maklooq, who was important to his master plan and had the Inquisitorius relocated to Nur but was happy to hear Eeth was dead.
===Further events===
====Hunt in the Anoat sector====
An Inquisitor was dispatched by the Empire to deal with a small group of surviving Jedi who had recently been discovered in a Jedi shrine on Anoat. The Imperial operative went there to find the Jedi Mususiel, who stayed to save the others. The Inquisitor killed her and tracked the others to Mataou, where the agent pursued one of the others, named Zubain Ankonori, and slew him. The last two Jedi, Nuhj and Khandra, fled to Embertown on the planet Burnin Konn, but the Inquisitor soon followed and attacked them in a chromium mine near Wickridge. The Inquisitor slew them and their belongings were stored in an Imperial vault on Nar Hypa.
====Training Jerserra====
At one point, a female Inquisitor was on Dathomir when she encountered Jerserra, a Dathomirian from the Nardithi Nightsisters, a sect of the Nightsisters. She took in Jerserra as her secret apprentice and spent a number of years training her in combat and lightsaber combat. The Inquisitor hoped to use Jerserra against the other Inquisitors but Jerserra eventually came to believe her abilities outmatched her Master's, and before long, the Inquisitor was slain by Jerserra, who covered up her murder and took her lightsaber as her own.
===Hunting Cal Kestis===
====Quest for Eno Cordova's holocron====
The Second Sister and the Ninth Sister were sent by the Empire to hunt Cal Kestis, a Padawan who was discovered on Bracca after an Imperial viper probe droid witnessed him using the Force to save his friend Prauf. The Second Sister ordered a group of Bracca Scrappers, including Kestis and his friend Prauf, to reveal who the secret Jedi was. Prauf came forward to confess as the Jedi, but the Second Sister killed him on the spot, to where Kestis revealed his lightsaber in anger. Kestis was rescued by the Stinger Mantis crew and joined with former Jedi Knight Cere Junda on a secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order, using a holocron that contained a list of Force-sensitive children. The Second sister discovered the tomb of Mitkrull and after revealing her identity, set a trap for Kestis, which he escaped from. The Grand Inquisitor became aware of the fact that Kestis helped the rebel group known as the Partisans attack an Imperial refinery on Kashyyyk. The Ninth Sister told the Grand Inquisitor that Kestis would not return to the planet, although she was mistaken. Kestis defeated the Ninth Sister after she fought him atop the Origin Tree on Kashyyyk. Kestis cut off the Inquisitor's right hand and pushed her from the tree. Ninth Sister survived and replaced her missing hand with a prosthetic one. The Second Sister was killed by the disappointed Lord Vader during the mission to Nur after she began to reconcile with Junda, her former Jedi master, who apologized for letting her fall to the dark side and become an Inquisitor. Kestis, Junda, and the Mantis crew escaped the Fortress Inquisitorius, and Kestis subsequently destroyed the holocron to prevent the Empire from obtaining it, entrusting the fates of the children to the Force.
====The search for the Shroud====
Between 12 BBY and 11 BBY, the Grand Inquisitor assigned the Fifth Brother the task of retrieving the Shroud, a technology with great potential, capable of helping even in the hunt for the remaining Jedi. Around that time, Chellwinark Frethylrin deserted the Empire, calling upon the crew of the Stinger Mantis, and offering them valuable information about the Shroud exchange for their protection. During the incident, they came into the path of the Fifth Brother.
On Murkhana, the Fifth Brother dueled Kestis and Cere Junda. Junda tried to bring the Inquisitor back to the light side, but determined to prove he didn't have the same weaknesses that led to the Second Sister's defeat, the Fifth Brother refused his offer of redemption. Junda disassembled the Fifth Brother's lightsaber using the Force, but the Jedi's reluctance to intervene provided an opening. The Fifth Brother used the Force to retrieve Junda's lightsaber and attempted to strike down an incapacitated Kestis. The Mantis pilot, Captain Greez Dritus, threw himself into the Inquistor's path, sacrificing an arm and saving his friend.
The Fifth Brother pursued the Mantis crew, with the Empire having placed a tracking device on Irei. On Hosnian Prime, the Inquisitor killed Qeris Lar and prepared to fight Kestis and the Nightsister Merrin. Merrin reanimated Qeris' corpse, which successfully distracted the Fifth Brother.
====Confrontation with Kestis in the capital of the Empire====
In 9 BBY, the Ninth Sister faced Kestis again on Coruscant, a confrontation she began to dream about after Kashyyyk. Kestis pretended to be captured in order to be taken to Imperial Senator Daho Sejan. Kestis knew that Sejan had military information in his private starship, information he intended to deliver to Partisan Saw Gerrera. After facing the senator's defenses, Kestis and his team got the information. The Ninth Sister appeared next and eliminated some members of Kestis' team, as well as Senator Sejan, who in the Inquisitor's words, had committed the crime of harboring a traitor.
When the Inquisitor and Kestis were about to face each other, the two ended up being separated by the chaos of the battle. However, the Inquisitor found Kestis again shortly afterwards, and the duel between the two began. Due to the fact that Kestis had become an extremely important target for the Empire, the Ninth Sister saw the duel as a great opportunity, as according to her, Kestis' death would make her a legend. During the duel, the Ninth Sister, with her remarkable ability to sense the emotions of others, sensed that Kestis was suffering from the guilt he felt for leading his allies to their deaths in the fight against the Empire. The Ninth Sister was defeated when Kestis decapitated her, ending the Inquisitor's life and, in Kestis' words, freeing her from the fact that she betrayed the Jedi Order.
===Search for Nari===
In 9 BBY,Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi to 9 BBY. the Grand Inquisitor, the Fifth Brother, and the mysterious Third Sister—who was also known by the name "Reva"—visited Tatooine in search of Nari, a Jedi in hiding on the planet, interrogating and threatening several patrons of a cantina regarding the Jedi's location. Reva encountered the moisture farmer Owen Lars during the search for the Jedi, threatening the moisture farmer. The Inquisitors' hunt ended successfully, leading to Nari being found and killed.
===Hunting Obi-Wan Kenobi===
Shorty afterward the Inquisitors, joined by the Fourth Sister, were involved a search for Master Kenobi on the planet Daiyu, leading to an Imperial garrison being deployed at the behest of the Grand Inquisitor, Reva issuing a bounty on the Jedi, and the city being locked down. Later, during a confrontation at an automated cargo port, Reva betrayed the Grand Inquisitor, stabbing him in the stomach with her lightsaber after he tried to deal with Kenobi personally and take credit for the hunt. After attacking the Grand Inquisitor, Reva tried to reach Kenobi, but he narrowly escaped along with the young Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan and daughter of Imperial Senator Bail Organa, who was kidnapped at the behest of the Third Sister to try to attract Kenobi due to the fact that Obi-Wan and Bail were once close. The Third Sister reported that the Grand Inquisitor was killed by Kenobi.
Along with Darth Vader, the Inquisitors pursued Kenobi to Mapuzo, where despite Kenobi's escape, the Third Sister captured Organa and took her to the Inquisitorius Fortress on Nur. Kenobi rescued Leia, and although Vader intended to kill the Third Sister for her failure, she revealed that she had placed a tracker on Organa's droid, which caused Vader to spare her. The Third Sister was later promoted to Grand Inquisitor and led the attack on the planet Jabiim in search of Kenobi, who at the time was with members of the Hidden Path, a network created to help the Force-sensitive hide from the Empire. Although Kenobi surrendered after offering some resistance and Vader was on his way, Obi-Wan convinced the Inquisitor to facilitate his escape with the others. The Third Sister was never truly committed to the Inquisitorius. She joined the Inquisitors and showed interest in hunting down Kenobi, a target of great interest to Vader, to get close to Vader and wait for the right moment to kill him. Her motive was revenge, for murdering her friends in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant after Order 66 was issued during the siege of the Jedi Temple. Reva attacked Vader when he arrived; however, the Sith Lord defeated her with relative ease and stabbed her. Vader revealed that he knew of Reva's true intentions, and the Grand Inquisitor, who had survived, arrived to take revenge on Reva, who was left for dead.
However, Reva survived, and discovered that Vader had a son, Luke Skywalker. Still determined to avenge her dead friends, Reva went to Tatooine in search of the child. Although she faced resistance from Luke's uncle and aunt, Owen and Beru Lars, the former Inquisitor got to Luke, but she was unable to bring herself kill him. Although she believed she failed her friends, Kenobi, who returned victorious from a confrontation with Vader, said that by showing mercy, she honored them. After the recent events, Kenobi stated that the two were free. 
===Hunting the Spectres===
When rumors emerged of a Jedi leading a rebel cell on the planet Lothal reached the ears of the Empire, Lord Vader assigned the Grand Inquisitor to take care of the problem. After several encounters, the operative succeeded in capturing Jarrus, but was defeated by the latter in a lightsaber duel during a rescue staged by the rebels and Jarrus' Padawan, Ezra Bridger. Rather than face the Sith Lord's punishment for his failure, the Grand Inquisitor killed himself. In the aftermath, the Seventh Sister became a vital commander among the ranks of the Inquisitorius.Star Wars: The Lightsaber Collection
During a skirmish with Phoenix Cell, Vader learned Tano was alive. Upon learning this news, the Emperor ordered his apprentice to dispatch another Inquisitor to hunt the rebels down.Star Wars Rebels: The Siege of Lothal As a slight alteration of the sovereign's commands, two Inquisitors—the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister—were appointed to do so. They 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 but it also opened new opportunities to increase their own station by 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 competing 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,Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded states that Leia Organa was 16 years old during her mission on Lothal. Since Star Wars: Galactic Atlas establishes that Organa was born in 19 BBY, the mission must take place in 3 BBY. Dawn of Rebellion dates the attack on Phoenix Squadron to three years before the Battle of Yavin, or 3 BBY according to Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dating system. As this duel takes place between these two events, it must also take place in 3 BBY. 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 operatives were attacked by ghostly apparitions of the Jedi Temple Guards. One of these apparitions was the old Grand Inquisitor. The Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister survived the encounter and reported to Lord Vader, who vowed to put an end to the Jedi threat.
===Crossover at Malachor===
Sometime after the events of the Lothal Jedi Temple, Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka traveled to Malachor, following a hint given by Grand 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 castaway Sith Lord Maul. 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 the Inquisitors were forced to retreat. While attempting to plant the Sith holocron in the Sith temple's obelisk, they encountered the Imperial operatives yet again. Maul began Force choking the Seventh Sister and urged Bridger to strike her down. When Bridger could not bring himself to do it, Maul then threw his lightsaber at her, killing her instantly. The duo then found Tano and Jarrus once more fighting the Fifth and Eighth Brothers. After the Togruta destroyed the Fifth Brother's lightsaber, the Zabrak warrior made quick work of him with a fatal slash to the gut. During this time, Jarrus had also managed to slice the Eighth Brother's lightsaber. Cornered and outnumbered, the Inquisitor attempted to escape by using his lightsaber to hover away but the lightsaber malfunctioned in flight and sent the Eighth Brother plummeting to his death at the base of the temple below.
===Disappearance===
In 2 BBY,Dawn of Rebellion dates the events of Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow seventeen years after the end of the Clone Wars, which Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dates to 19 BBY; therefore, the events of Steps Into Shadow must take place in 2 BBY. around six months after the incident on Malachor, Governor Tarkin agreed to have Grand Admiral Thrawn finish what Lord Vader and his Inquisitors had started. The Chiss pursued the rebels until his defeat at the Liberation of Lothal.
Another Inquisitor was the Third Brother, whose actions and fate were mysteries to those unfamiliar with him, with the same being true for those unfamiliar with the Third Sister. The Fourth Sister continue to serve the Inquisitorius, where she found Offee and stabbed her, but found herself lost in a cave. With the help of Offee, she navigated out of the cave while carrying Offee's body. She also had an unknown fate, although her armor would fall into the hands of rebel Commander Lina Graf, who employed it to impersonate her on at least one occasion.
In 0 BBY,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas the Jedi Order was largely thought to be extinct by the Empire, and once their objective of wiping out these Force-wielders was completed, the Inquisitors themselves vanished as well. At a meeting aboard the first Death Star, Governor Tarkin expressed his belief that Lord Vader was the last practitioner of what he termed their religion after believing there was no way Kenobi was still alive. By this time, the Emperor deemed the Inquisitorius' purpose obsolete as they outlived their usefulness.Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith The reasons for the disappearance of the Inquisitorius was relatively unclear to the greater galaxy. It was speculated by historian Beaumont Kin that the lack of viable Force users to draw from meant that the Inquisitors just eventually died out. But Kin thought this fate unlikely, instead highlighting Palpatine's own words in referring to the group as "obsolete" which brought forth the possibility that Palpatine simply killed them off partly due to the lack of viable Jedi targets by that point, as well as Vader likely seeing how the Inquisitors could threaten his personal plans, thus pushing Vader to swiftly deal with such threats in haste.Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire An Inquisitor named Marrok, however, would be active after the Empire's fall but joined his fallen brother and sisters when he was defeated by Tano.
===Legacy===
====The Grand Inquisitor's damnation====
Although the Inquisitorius disappeared from the galaxy, its actions were still felt for decades to come. Verla, who escaped the Inquisitors' attack on Mon Cala, came to fear the dark siders and fled into exile on the planet Serelia, where she became a fisherwoman. When she was sought out by Lord Vader’s son aspiring Jedi Luke Skywalker in 3 ABY,The events of Star Wars 5 take place in 3 ABY according to Star Wars: Timelines. she initially ran from the boy, believing him to be a pawn of the Inquisitorius. Later, she explained to Skywalker that Vader and his minions had hunted down and destroyed the Jedi in the Great Purge, leaving her to believe that anyone who aspired to be a Jedi was nothing more than a fool. Despite her warnings, however, Skywalker insisted on continuing the Jedi path, and on Verla's instruction traveled to Tempes in the Outer Rim, searching to replace the lightsaber he had lost in a duel with Vader.Star Wars (2020) 6
On Tempes, the trainee discovered a horrifying secret: the spirit of the Grand Inquisitor haunted an ancient Jedi outpost. Despite his death above Mustafar, the Inquisitor's indentured servitude to the Sith did not end with death. Lord Vader prevented the Grand Inquisitor's spirit from disappearing and bound him to reside on Tempes, where he sat for years to protect the outpost from people seeking the Jedi artifacts. The spirit battled the Jedi. The ensuing duel ended when Skywalker disarmed the Grand Inquisitor by cutting off his hand and hitting him in the chest, making the spirit disappear. Sometime after Skywalker's departure, Vader, who felt the confrontation between Skywalker and the Inquisitor through the Force, arrived at the outpost. The spirit confessed the boy was too strong and tried to convince Vader to free him from his curse. The Sith Lord, however, was dissatisfied the Inquisitor let the young man escape and ordered his underling to continue. As for Skywalker, he eventually went on to destroy the Sith and reforge the Jedi Order when he saved his father.
====Surviving remnants====
Despite the Inquisitorius being disbanded during the reign of the Empire, Marrok was active in the era of the New Republic. Marrok became a mercenary for Morgan Elsbeth and came into conflict with Tano during the search for Bridger, dueling her during a mission to Corellia and later engaging her from the cockpit of his Fiend fighter in a dogfight in the Denab system. In the subsequent Incident on Seatos, Marrok met his end at the hands of Tano, with her final lightsaber strike breaking through his armor and causing him to explode into a green mist. Shortly after, Elsbeth still had access to the Inquisitorial database and used it to follow through with Thrawn's order to know everything about Tano.
====Late New Republic Era====
Around thirtyIn Force Collector, Nabrun Leids states that he witnessed Obi-Wan Kenobi wield his lightsaber at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina about thirty years before. Since the events at the cantina are set in 0 BBY according to Star Wars: Galactic Atlas, Force Collector takes place around 30 ABY. years after the Battle of Yavin, the Inquisitors and their history, much like the Jedi they hunted, was little-known. By this time the antiques collector Dok-Ondar acquired a broken lightsaber that once belonged to the Grand Inquisitor. When Karr Nuq Sin, a Force-sensitive teenager seeking to understand his connection with the Force and the ways of the Jedi, visited Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities hoping to find Jedi artifacts, Dok-Ondar showed him the weapon. He explained the mission of the Inquisitors to Nuq Sin and the boy had never heard of them or the fact that the Jedi were hunted down after the Clone Wars. When Nuq Sin, who possessed the Force power of psychometry, touched the two broken pieces of the lightsaber he experienced two visions simultaneously: one of his former Jedi Padawan great-grandfather Naq Med fighting the Grand Inquisitor and another of the Grand Inquisitor fighting and killing a different Jedi. The overlapping visions gave Nuq Sin, who strongly resembled his relative, the impression that he had witnessed his future self kill a Jedi. The visions caused him to doubt whether he was meant to become a Jedi and fear that in his future the defunct Inquisitorius would be resurrected and he would become one of its constituents.
The First Order, the government that rose from the ashes of the Empire following its fall 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 Imperial Inquisition, to painfully extract information from their prisoners.Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary Around the time of the war between the First Order and the Resistance, Master Skywalker wrote a book chronicling what he knew of the history of the Jedi Order. In the book, Skywalker included a brief history of the Inquisitorius and their mission of hunting the Jedi, identified several of them by the names they bore as Inquisitors and noted that once the Jedi were considered extinct, the Inquisitors themselves vanished. He also wrote about the signature double-bladed spinning lightsabers used by the Imperial operatives.
The Knights of Ren were a band of dark side warriors who had once acted as independent agents away from the eye of the Sith during the Galactic Civil War.Crimson Reign 1 To try and prove themselves to the Sith and not be destroyed, the Knights submitted Sidious and Vader in the aftermath of the Battle at Amaxine StationHidden Empire 5 and served the resurrected Sidious in secret after his death at the Battle of Endor. Keeping their allegiance to Sidious secret,Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition they would do the bidding of Vader's grandson Kylo Ren during the age of the New Republic. They would have been prime candidates to become Inquisitors if they could have been tamed.Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary
==List of members==
Member	Member 	Tenure 	Notes
 	The Grand Inquisitor 	19 BBYStar Wars: Timelines dates the events of Darth Vader (2017) 6, which depicts the The Grand Inquisitor, Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, Seventh Sister, Eighth Brother, and Ninth Sister as Inquisitors, to 19 BBY.–4 BBYStar Wars: Timelines	Leader of the Inquisitorius. Fell to his death after a duel with Kanan Jarrus
 	First Brother 	c. 19 BBY"Devoted" takes place during and after Operation: Knightfall, which Star Wars: Timelines dates to 19 BBY.— 	Survived the Galactic Civil War and became a mercenary. Killed by Ahsoka Tano
 	Second Sister 	—14 BBY 	Tortured into becoming an Inquisitor. Killed by Darth Vader
 	Third Brother 	 	Fate remained secret
 	Third Sister 	—9 BBY 	Briefly served as Grand Inquisitor. Abandoned the Inquisitorius
 	Fourth Sister 	19 BBY– 	Fate remained secret
 	Fifth Brother 	19 BBY–3 BBY 	Killed by Maul
 	Sixth Brother 	19 BBY–18 BBY 	Killed by Ahsoka Tano
 	Seventh Sister 	19 BBY–3 BBY 	Killed by Maul
 	Eighth Brother 	19 BBY–3 BBY 	Fell to his death
 	Ninth Sister 	19 BBY–9 BBY 	Killed by Cal Kestis
 	Tenth Brother 	19 BBY–18 BBYStar Wars: Timelines dates the events of Darth Vader (2017) 13, which depicts the Tenth Brother's death, to 18 BBY. 	Killed by Purge Troopers manipulated into executing Order 66 against the Inquisitors by Ferren Barr
 	Eleventh BrotherStar Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy	c. 19 BBY – Between 18 BBY and 5 BBY 	Killed by Ahsoka Tano
 	Thirteenth Sister 	19 BBY–14 BBYStar Wars: Timelines dates the death of the Thirteenth Sister and Tualon Yaluna to 14 BBY. 	Killed by Darth Vader
 	Tualon Yaluna 	19 BBY–14 BBY 	Killed by Darth Vader
 	Barriss Offee 	c. 19 BBY— 	Abandoned the Inquisitorius
 	An Inquisitor 	c. 19 BBY — 	
 	Another Inquisitor 	—Between 19 BBY and 12 BBY 	Killed by a Jedi Temple's defenses
 	Unidentified female Inquisitor 	—Between 18 BBY and 5 ABY 	Killed by her apprentice Jerserra
===Prospective members===
Member	Member	Tenure	Notes
 	Ahmar 	 	Killed by the Grand Inquisitor while attempting to escape Fortress Inquisitorius
 	Dante 	 	Killed by Barriss Offee before he could join the Inquisitorius
==Behind the scenes==
===Development===
The Inquisitors first appeared within the current Star Wars canon in the 2014 animated television series Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitorius previously existed in the Star Wars Legends continuity and were originally created for The Star Wars Sourcebook, a 1987 sourcebook for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game written by Bill Slavicsek and Curtis Smith.The Star Wars Sourcebook The Imperial Inquisition has its roots in the Spanish Inquisition of real life.
At Dragon Con 2018, Rebels writer Henry Gilroy explained that in choosing former Jedi to join the Inquisitorius, Palpatine kept an eye on aggressive and selfish Jedi and those who could possibly be turned into Inquisitors. An example would later be directly depicted by Palpatine's interaction with and manipulation of Iskat Akaris in the 2023 novel Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah S. Dawson.
===List of non-canon members===
Member	Member 	Tenure 	Notes
 	An Inquisitor 	—Between 18 BBY and 5 ABY	Killed by Rugal
 	Another Inquisitor	—Between 18 BBY and 5 ABY	Killed by T0-B1
==Appearances==
===Non-canon appearances===
*Angry Birds Star Wars II
*LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens 
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*LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga 
*Visions: T0-B1: The Droid Who Became a Jedi
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==Sources==
===Non-canon sources===
*The Art of Star Wars: Visions
==Notes and references==
==External links==
* 
Category:Dark side organizations
Category:Galactic Empire organizations
Category:Jedi hunters
Category:Law enforcement