Brendol Hux

**Brendol Hux** was a human male who served the Galactic Empire. Prior to his service in the Empire, Hux had served as a junior officer in the Grand Army of the Republic, communicating tactics and strategy as determined by Jedi Generals. Some time before the Battle of Yavin, he was the commandant of the Arkanis Academy, where he sired an illegitimate son Armitage. Hux created the Commandant's Cadets, a secret society within his academy, made up of handpicked cadets. After the Imperial defeat at Endor, he was trapped by the New Republic during the Siege of Arkanis. However, he escaped with the help of bounty hunter Mercurial Swift, on the orders of Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, who appointed him a member of the new Shadow Council.

A man who valued short term gains over long term goals, Brendol chafed under the long game played by the First Order. Once he had built the Stormtrooper Program to his specifications he lost direction, falling back to the same self-indulgent projects that got him banished to Arkanis Academy in the first place. This shift of focus would be his undoing, as it allowed others to take what he had begun and perfect it. He was killed by Phasma, under the orders of Brendol's own son.

## Biography

### Service to the Republic and the Empire

During the Clone Wars, Brendol Hux was a junior officer in the Grand Army of the Republic who communicated tactics and strategies devised by the Galactic Republic's Jedi Generals to their clone trooper soldiers. Brendol admired the combat prowess and dedication of the Republic's clone troopers and the Jedi Order, who had been trained from youth as soldiers and warriors. Following the transformation of the Republic into the Galactic Empire, Brendol continued serving the Imperial Military. Dissatisfied with the caliber of the Empire's stormtroopers, who were normal adult human recruits, Brendol conceived the idea of training stormtrooper recruits from birth who would be excellent soldiers and loyal servants of the Empire. His ideas were discovered and he was transferred to the Imperial Academy on Arkanis as punishment, to remove him and his radical 'regressive' ideas from Imperial politics. To help run the Academy, Brendol employed the services of a servant droid called DDM-38 or DeeDee, who was charged with keeping the cadets in line.

Brendol considered the posting to be a promotion, a chance to prove his ideas, however his fellow officers refused to take part in his 'projects' and threatened to report him if he went too far. Brendol decided to create his own allies, a loyal cadre of officers advanced from among the Imperial cadets at the Arkanis Academy. Eventually, Brendol succeeded in creating a secret society known as the Commandant's Cadets which operated outside of the official Imperial hierarchy. To join the Commandant's Cadets, prospective members had to kill a fellow cadet while making their deaths appear to be an accident. As a result, several cadets were killed under suspicious circumstances during training exercises. Commandant's Cadets were given special privileges including being allowed to sit at a special table in the Academy's mess hall. By four years before the Battle of Yavin, Brendol had recruited a dozen Commandant's Cadets.

During his tenure as Commandant, Brendol, despite being married to his wife Maratelle, sired an illegitimate child with a "kitchen woman," an Arkanan named Niamh Ruadhain. Early in life the child rejected the gender assigned at birth and declared himself male. As Brendol considered a bastard son more advantageous than a bastard daughter, he agreed to respect his son's gender and would have named the boy after himself. However, Niamh threatened to expose Brendol's 'indiscretions' to his superiors, who would have viewed Brendol's affair with a non-human with disdain, in order to allow her son to choose his own name. Brendol relented and the boy chose the name Armitage for himself. Resentful, Brendol would go on to abuse his son on several occasions, often emphasizing his disappointment through verbal and physical means.

### The Shadow Council

After the Battle of Endor, Arkanis was besieged by the newly-founded New Republic, the successor to the Rebel Alliance, and was in serious danger of being lost. However, Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, intent on rebuilding the Empire, ordered his de-facto subordinate Grand Admiral Rae Sloane to "rescue" the Commandant from the embattled planet. Rax planned to create a Shadow Council to replace the Imperial Ruling Council and to facilitate the resurgence of the Empire. Sloane then tasked bounty hunter Mercurial Swift to ensure Hux and his son made it off Arkanis safely, which he did.

Swift brought Hux and his son to the Vulpinus Nebula, where Sloane commanded a sizeable Imperial fleet. Following his rescue, Hux attended a dinner aboard the Super Star Destroyer *Ravager* with Grand Admiral Sloane, Grand Moff Randd, General Hodnar Borrum, and the Imperial propagandist Ferric Obdur. When Sloane spoke to him and said that she was glad they had evacuated him from Arkanis, he responded that the Arkanis Academy was his life work which produced the best cadets in the Empire. Randd reassured Hux that they would pick themselves up and fight back.

When Hux interrupted Sloane by lamenting about the dark days facing the Empire, Sloane responded by raising the subject of Hux's illegitimate son. Hux described Armitage as a weak-willed boy but insisted he had potential. Despite Hux's reassurances, the other delegates chuckled. After Fleet Admiral Rax entered the room and announced that the Shadow Council would serve as his brain trust, Hux questioned the relevance of propaganda when the Empire needed people, ships, and vehicles on the ground. Rax responded by revealing that he commanded other Imperial fleets in the Almagest, the Recluse's Nebula, the Ro-Loo Triangle, and the Inamorata nebulae. Hux then outlined his strategy to fight back against the New Republic.

Following the disappearance of Grand Admiral Sloane during the attack on the New Republic capital Chandrila, Hux and his fellow Shadow Council members attended a meeting chaired by Rax. After Rax reassured the delegates that they would do everything to get Sloane back, Hux asked whether she was privy to the attack on Chandrila. Rax, who had secretly ordered Sloane's assassination, lied that this was the case. Rax then informed the Shadow Council that he had ordered the Imperial fleets to travel to the desert planet of Jakku in the Western Reaches. He also proclaimed himself Counselor to the Empire. In secret, Rax planned to use the upcoming battle to eliminate the other Shadow Council members with the exception of Hux.

### Service to Counselor Rax

For several months, the Imperials on Jakku awaited their showdown with the New Republic. Though Norra Wexley and her team discovered Rax's Imperial armada, the New Republic delayed sending its military forces due to deadlock in the Galactic Senate. During that time, Brendol Hux trained two dozen local orphans and children as Gallius Rax's personal guard of child soldiers. These children, ages 5 to 14, had been orphans kidnapped off the streets by Niima the Hutt, who had struck up an alliance with Rax.

Since Hux was not a member of either the Imperial Army or Imperial Navy, he was unpopular with the other Imperials on Jakku. Hux also emotionally and physically mistreated his son Armitage, causing the boy to avoid his father. In the days leading up to the Battle of Jakku, Counselor Rax summoned Hux and inquired about the training progress of his new recruits. When Hux pleaded for more time, Rax told him to prove himself with the promise that he would tell him about the secret Contingency plan. When Hux expressed puzzlement, Rax warned that his failure would be punished with being forced to spend the rest of his days wandering the deserts of Jakku. In order to please Rax, Hux replied that he would do whatever Rax requested.

Rax's child soldiers assassinated the propagandist Ferric Obdur aboard the Ravager. After Sloane and the rebel Brentin Lore Wexley had been captured, Hux brought Rax's child soldiers to a hangar where several stormtroopers were present. Hux witnessed as Rax gave the order for the child soldiers to kill the stormtroopers. Following the massacre, Rax gifted the child soldiers to Hux's son Armitage, to be the boy's first command. Rax announced that he was bringing about the destruction of the "Old Empire." Pleased with events, Counselor Rax ordered Hux and the child soldiers to escort Sloane and Wexley to a tent to watch the Battle of Jakku.

During the Battle of Jakku, Hux, his son Armitage, the Adviser Yupe Tashu, and the child soldiers traveled on a transport to the Jakku Observatory, a secret site which contained a replica of the late Emperor's luxury yacht *Imperialis*, a computerized map of the Unknown Regions, and a deep borehole which led to Jakku's core. Prior to his death, the late Emperor had tasked Gallius Rax with carrying out the Contingency plan to destroy the Empire should it outlive him. Rax planned to take Hux and several other select Imperials into the Unknown Regions to rebuild the Empire.

### Into the Unknown Regions

Upon disembarking, Rax told Hux to take his son and the child soldiers aboard the *Imperialis* while he and Tashu went to trigger Jakku's destruction. When Hux tried to question him, Rax told him to trust in him. Rax ultimately killed Tashu before being killed by Sloane with the help of the rebels Norra Wexley and her husband Brentin Lore Wexley. Sloane managed to stop Jakku's self-destruction before fleeing aboard the *Imperialis* with the Huxes and the child soldiers. At the urging of the dying Rax, Sloane had decided to venture into the Unknown Regions to rebuild a more resilient version of the Empire.

Using a series of safe coordinates stored inside a dataspike, the *Imperialis* traveled through the Unknown Regions for several months. During the journey, Grand Admiral Sloane befriended Hux's son Armitage and promised to protect the boy from his abusive father. Sloane found a despondent Brendol in his room and showed him Rax's bloody cape and the data spike containing the map coordinates. Despite their mutual animosity, Sloane wanted to forge an alliance so that they could rebuild the Empire. Hux tried to strangle Sloane but the Grand Admiral was an experienced martial artist and beat him into submission. Using the threat of physical force, Sloane then ordered Hux to work for her. She also warned him to stop mistreating Armitage and to teach him everything he knew about the Empire. After blubbering, Hux submitted.

In retaliation for what he saw as his son's 'defection', Brendol determined which of the child soldiers were most loyal to him and pulled one from Armitage's command. This desert-adapted boy, designated CD-0922, was offered the opportunity to become Brendol's personal honor guard, the same offer Brendol believed Sloane had made to his own son.

For the rest of the journey, Brendol bided his time by training his son and the child soldiers in combat. During that time, Hux trimmed his hair and beard and lost some of his excess weight. Several months after the Battle of Jakku, the *Imperialis* rendezvoused with the Super Star Destroyer *Eclipse*, which Rax had sent earlier into the Unknown Regions as part of the Contingency. As they approached the *Eclipse*, Hux expressed his support for Sloane's plan to rebuild the Empire and remarked "glory be to Grand Admiral Sloane." Sloane responded by corrected him that glory only went to the Empire.

In Rax's absence, Grand Vizier Mas Amedda sued for peace and signed the Galactic Concordance with the New Republic, officially dissolving the Empire and ending the Galactic Civil War. With the Empire reduced to a remnant hemmed in by harsh war reparations and strict disarmament treaties, the New Republic turned its attention to reshaping the galactic order.

### The First Order

Brendol Hux and Armitage joined the Imperial exodus that fled the known galaxy into the Unknown Regions. In exile, the elder Hux raised his son on stories of great Imperials and how the Empire had saved the galaxy from the violence of the Clone Wars.

Brendol resented Sloane's leadership and found allies among those who also chafed under her ideals, most notably Admiral Brooks, General Enric Pryde, and Colonel duLandis. They found Sloane's insistence on using treaty and diplomacy to gain and maintain alliances repugnant and fantasized about a return to the conquest of the Empire. The reality of the First Order's situation, that they were a collection of nomadic ships all operating under the protection of the *Eclipse* at the mercy of the Unknown Regions, never prevented Brendol and his allies from resenting Sloane's leadership. Brendol's personal situation improved after Sloane was forced into retirement by Supreme Leader Snoke and his resentment was, if not encouraged, then at least allowed to continue unabated. Such free reign allowed Brendol and his allies to take advantage of the lack of oversight, embezzling supplies for their own use, shirking necessary duties by handing them off to their designated seconds, indulging in unsanctioned projects, and undermining the efforts of those who sought to keep them in line.

Brendol subsequently rose to the position of General in the First Order Army. Brendol also ran the First Order's stormtrooper training program and recruited children to train for the First Order. Brendol gifted CD-0922 with a name, Cardinal, the rank of captain, and a personalized suit of red armor. In private, Brendol even served him a glass of water, something at odds with First Order protocol and an action that meant something deeply personal to the desert-adapted trooper. Cardinal's trust thus gained, Brendol appointed Cardinal to be his own designated second and thus began to rely on him.

#### The RX Cadre

With his promotion, Brendol allowed Cardinal to form his own legion. Cardinal chose stormtroopers who excelled in their fields while chafing under the restriction of Brendol's standard training. These troopers became the RX Cadre, all of their designations being changed to reflect their reassignment. Cardinal was allowed to train these soldiers as he saw fit, Brendol watching closely and adapting the methods that worked to the broader stormtrooper corps. When Cardinal questioned Brendol about his ideas being used, Brendol assured the trooper that it was best for the program, that Brendol's name attached to these new methods would see them enacted and embraced much easier than if it were known they'd come from him.

Fitted with black armor of Cardinal's design called 'raid armor', the RX Cadre was trained as a group of specialists to accompany Cardinal on scouting and infiltration missions meant to benefit the First Order. Over time their missions began to focus on the dismantling of slavery rings along the Outer Rim of the galaxy. The children liberated from these slavers were incorporated into the Stormtrooper Program where they excelled under the promise of regular food and shelter and the opportunity to take vengeance upon the system that had hurt them.

Brendol grew to resent the growing independence that Cardinal began to show. Outside of Brendol's constant influence, Cardinal grew careless at hiding his desert-adapted nature. One failed mission of the RX Cadre resulted in a rough landing in a snowy environment, leaving the RX Cadre to keep their mesothermic commander from succumbing to the cold and entering a state of torpor. Brendol led the recovery mission and found Cardinal nearly insensate with cold, his own troopers stripped down to keep him warm with their own bodies. This event was what convinced Brendol; he needed strip Cardinal of his legion. The opportunity came when he was introduced to Doctor Calla Katsuo, an obvious Grysk spy.

#### The Hive

> You have impressed me with your inventiveness, with your skills for improvisation, for your resiliency in the face of all sane odds. You have proven yourselves to be valuable assets to the Order. And for that, each and every one of you will be reconditioned.
>
> Brendol Hux announcing the dissolution of the RX Cadre

Dr. Katsuo intrigued Brendol both personally and professionally. He extended her an offer of protection in exchange for certain favors. She gave him access to knowledge of Grysk technology and tactics. The primary control implants of Grysk Client hives intrigued Brendol and with Pryde's urging he began to consider their use in the First Order. Armitage had taken control of the Stormtrooper Conditioning and Brendol feared what might happen if he lost command of the Stormtroopers as a whole. While Cardinal had remained loyal, he mistrusted his own son and asked Dr. Katsuo to look into what Armitage might manage to accomplish with the Conditioning.

The incident on the *Eclipse* provided Brendol with the opportunity to publicly blame the RX Cadre and demand their reconditioning. In addition to stripping Cardinal of his legion to put him back into his place, any stormtrooper strong enough to resist reconditioning would be handed over to Dr. Katsuo to begin creating the experimental hive. The first few subjects died in agony, unable to handle the implantation process. Dr. Katsuo demanded changes to the process and survivors began to emerge from the process, with Cardinal forced to watch and attend to the forming hive as he represented something familiar to the stormtroopers, to ground them in reality. Cardinal resented this, watching his legion twisted into insanity before his eyes broke him. His point made, Brendol had Cardinal transferred to the *Absolution* to regain control over the Stormtrooper Program. The Expeditionary Squads were created from the resulting hive.

Brendol and Pryde consulted with Admiral Brooks, offering to bring him into the program but Brooks refused. Brendol and Pryde dismissed their long-time ally, instead consulting with Dr. Katsuo as the new hive developed. Upon Dr. Katsuo's suggestion the hive was expanded, squad-wide disciplinary issues being invented and entire squads being slated for reconditioning. JN Squad 1, PK Squad 1, TK Squad Null, and KM Squad 6 were all chosen by Pryde to be reconditioned. Those who resisted the reconditioning were taken for the program. This brought the numbers in the Expeditionary Squads to 60, enough for three squads. These three squads were trained using Cardinal's own methods, quickly surpassing anything Brendol or Pryde had ever considered possible for a Stormtrooper.

### Mission to Parnassos

With Cardinal's RX Cadre no longer being sent on missions to acquire children for the Stormtrooper Program, Brendol began to take such missions himself. On one such mission to Parnassos, Brendol's starship was shot down by Parnassos' automated defense system. Brendol, his droid DDM-38, and three stormtroopers PT-2445 "Pete," LE-2003 "Elli," and HF-0518 "Huff" managed to land in an escape pod on the lands of the Claw clan. Brendol's ship crashed a considerable distance away. Four other stormtroopers escaped in a second pod but lost contact with Brendol's group.

After landing, Brendol and his party were captured by the Claw clan, who were led by the Dug Balder. Back at the Claw clan's home, Brendol told the Claws through his interpreter droid that he had been traveling the galaxy scouring worlds like theirs on the hunt for warriors. Noting the poverty and squalor of the locals, Brendol offered to give whoever who would help him and his men retrieve their ship a place in the First Order; promising that they would live in wealth and glory.

#### Phasma of Scyre

Before the Claws could consider his offer, a masked female warrior named Phasma claimed that she was the greatest warrior on Parnassos and offered to help Brendol find his ship. Phasma was a member of the Scyres, a rival clan. When Balder objected to her presence, Phasma stabbed him to death. During the ensuing skirmish between the Claws and Sycres, Phasma convinced Brendol and his troopers to escape with her back to the Scyre territory.

During the journey, Brendol educated Phasma about the First Order. Brendol also learnt from Phasma that Parnassos had suffered a calamity which had devastated the planet and reduced its population to a primitive subsistence-culture. Regarding Brendol as her ticket offworld from her devastated homeworld, Phasma resolved to help him reach his starship.

At the Scyre stronghold Nautilus, Brendol and Phasma received a cold reception from Phasma's older brother Keldo, the leader of the Scyres who was unhappy that his sister had broken their truce with the Claws. Keldo dismissed Phasma's plan to help Brendol and his troopers reach their ship. He also questioned the First Order's might by pointing out that Brendol's people had been unable to disable the orbital defense system. Unable to reason with Keldo, Phasma, Brendol, his stormtroopers, and four of Phasma's most loyal warriors Gosta, Torben, Carr, and Siv stole the clan's tools and food supplies and departed the Nautilus under cover of night.

#### A Perilous Journey

After departing the Nautilus, Siv and her fellow warriors taught Brendol about detraxors, machines used to extract nutrients from the bodies of the deceased and convert them into a healing paste. Brendol expressed revulsion at the thought of harvesting the bodies of the dead for such purposes. He informed his Scyre hosts that the First Order obtained their food and medical supplies through merchants but avoided going into detail.

The group climbed over a high mountain onto a sandy plain covered with volcanic ash. During the journey, Carr was bitten in the hand by a venomous gold and green beetle. Over the next several days, Carr's condition progressively deteriorated before his body disintegrated. His corpse was swarmed by insects which consumed everything, leaving behind only shriveled useless organs and translucent bones licked clean.

Over the course of their journey, Brendol and Phasma's party fought off two attacks, one by raiders riding large lizards and one by a pack of skinwolves, mutated canine predators. During the skinwolves' attack, Brendol was bitten in the arm by a skinwolf. As the group made camp, Brendol complimented Phasma for her skills as a warrior and told her that she was a worthy candidate for the First Order's training program.

#### Recovering at Con Star

Brendol hid his injury for a time until infection set in and he grew ill. Before Brendol's condition could deteriorate further, the group came across a protocol droid TB-3 which led them to the Con Star Mining Corporation's Terpsichore Station, the company's main mining facility on Parnassos. Mistaking Brendol and his companions for the company's human employees, TB-3 gave them lodging for the night and arranged for Brendol to be treated at the station's medbay.

Since neither Brendol's troopers nor Phasma's warriors had the funds to pay for Brendol's medical bills, the group was forced to work as indentured miners by the malfunctioning Con Star droids. During a rest break, Brendol and Phasma devised a plan to break into the control room and disable the droids. After two working shifts, the group managed to breach the control room and achieve their objectives. While Siv felt sorry for the droids, Brendol blamed the droids' erratic behavior on a lack of regular maintenance.

The group then departed Terpsichore Station in a Ground assault vehicle (GAV) while Brendol's stormtroopers rode speeder bikes. With little sense of direction, Phasma convinced Brendol to trust her and they traveled towards Arratu Station, which was home to a lush and seemingly thriving settlement. On the way, the group's convoy crashed into a ditch filled with spikes and they were captured by several armed warriors calling themselves the Arratu. The stormtrooper Elli was grievously injured when her bike crashed into the ditch.

#### Captives of Arratu

Brendol and his traveling companions were imprisoned in Arratu Station's prison. From the guard, Vrod, Brendol and the others learnt that the former mining station had become a city ruled by a tiny wealthy elite and impoverished commoners. The city's ruler, known as the Arratu, staged gladiatorial fights in an arena to entertain the population. Brendol and the others were forced take part in these fights.

Before leaving their cell, Brendol allowed Phasma to strip the comatose Elli of her stormtrooper armor. They abandoned the dying stormtrooper to the starving prisoners, knowing full well that the prisoners would kill her and cannibalize her corpse. During the first fight, Phasma and Torben managed to win over the Arratu by defeating his champion Wranderous and several skin-wolves. As a reward, the Arratu gave the prisoners better living quarters and access to food.

On the second day, Phasma, Torben and Siv managed to kill Wranderous. Phasma also killed the Arratu and Vrod, creating a leadership vacuum. Taking advantage of the chaos, Brendol, Phasma, and the others escaped Arratu in a GAV. Following their escape, Brendol privately chastised Phasma for her decision to travel towards Arratu. However, he also saw that Phasma had potential as a leader and trainer and counseled her to submit to authority in order to reach the top.

#### Back to the Stars

Continuing their journey, Brendol and the group encountered the Gand Churkk, who was completely covered in Parnassos beetles. From Chukk, they learned that Brendol's ship had crashed in the radioactive "dead lands". Shortly later, Phasma's brother Keldo and several Scyre and Claw warriors caught up with the group.

A fierce battle ensued with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Brendol lost his two remaining stormtroopers Pete and Huff while Torben and Gosta also perished in the fighting. Phasma killed her estranged brother following a verbal altercation. Despite the casualties, Brendol and the others managed to reach the crashed ship. There, Brendol managed to contact the First Order for help.

Brendol's son Armitage soon arrived with a Star Destroyer and an Atmospheric Assault Lander. Phasma accompanied Brendol into the First Order and brought Frey, a five-year old girl who was the sole Scyre child. Phasma believed that Frey would make a good soldier. However, Phasma blocked Siv from coming because she had disobeyed her orders to kill Wranderous. Phasma abandoned Siv to die in the "dead lands" but she and her unborn child found shelter at Calliope Station.

### A New Protege

> With Brendol as her champion, she was welcomed into the First Order. I trained her, as he asked, and then they gave her a captain's cape of her own, and suddenly my own cape didn't mean as much. Brendol gave me this armor, and a year later, she was wearing her chrome armor. I still don't know how or where she got it. Brendol claimed he didn't know, but he had that smile about him. She became their darling, their poster child, their legend. And even though I resented her, I believed it...
>
> Cardinal about Phasma's rise as Brendol's newest champion

While departing into space, Brendol used the shuttle's laser cannons to orbitally bombard both Arratu Station and the Scyre territory as a demonstration of the First Order's power. Phasma watched the orbital bombardment in shock but accepted her new place in the First Order. Upon returning to the Absolution, Phasma and Frey were inducted into the First Order. While Frey was placed under the care of Cardinal, Hux placed Phasma in charge of the older stormtrooper cadets.

Shortly after their return, Brendol summoned Cardinal for an impromptu meeting. During the meeting he introduced Cardinal to Phasma and split the stormtrooper training program between Cardinal and Phasma. Phasma was tasked with training the teenagers and adults aboard the *Finalizer* while Cardinal would continue to train the new and younger recruits on the *Absolution*. Brendol also appointed Phasma as his personal bodyguard, replacing Cardinal. Cardinal came to despise Phasma as an outsider who had supplanted his position as Hux's protege and personal bodyguard.

### Abandoned Projects

> Every hive benefits from a guiding force. Bees without a queen will toil mindlessly before abandoning the hive to rot. Ants without a queen will meander in the dirt and starve. Clearly Grysk without a queen will seek blindly in the dark until they find purpose. I plan to give them that purpose. I know just the man to be their queen, the one who commanded them before.
>
> Brendol on his ultimate plans for Cardinal

As Brendol fawned over his newest acquisition, the Expeditionary Squads began to cause problems. Their hive had developed further than Brendol had anticipated. In addition, the troopers themselves had developed skills he had not considered, including language skills and mastery of weapons that were generally considered impossible. Worse, the troopers had begun to turn their attention onto the droids around them, showing limited ability to alter their programming from a distance. Brendol had studied such abilities during his time with the Republic, he'd observed Jedi using such tactics against living sentients. He consulted with Dr. Katsuo who suggested expansion of the hive to give it something more to act upon. Pryde agreed and offered the *Steadfast* as a new locus of research.

Brendol resented Pryde's eager offer to take control of the hive. Brendol agreed the hive needed better management but argued it could be managed from within. He argued that every hive needed a queen to provide direction and offered Cardinal for implantation as he had been the captain of the original legion. Dr. Katsuo argued that hives don't work that way but agreed to provide the implant. It was decided if Cardinal's implantation as 'queen' didn't serve to control the Expeditionary Squads then Pryde would be allowed to begin his expansion of the program under Brendol's scruitiny.

### Betrayal and Death

> What did they tell you about Brendol's death? What's the official word?
>
>
> Unknown malady. I saw him that morning. He didn't look good. Like maybe he was coming down with something. He was too pale. I suggested he hit the medbay, have the droids check him out.
>
>
> And what did Brendol say to that?
>
>
>
> He told me to mind my own business and respect my superiors. But he went. He was like that—followed good advice, but put you down so you didn't think it was your idea. And then...
>
> Vi questioning Cardinal about Brendol's death

Though Brendol had raised Phasma to a position of great power and respectability in the First Order, Phasma was never truly loyal to him nor the First Order. Within one year of Phasma's recruitment and Brendol's return from his shipwreck on Parnassos, Phasma and Armitage met and conspired to assassinate Brendol. Both agreed that the time had come for Brendol to die, and Armitage left the actual killing up to Phasma with his only instruction being that she make it untraceable.

Phasma went on to kill Brendol with the venomous bite of a Parnassos beetle, which she had obtained during a return trip to Parnassos to forge her chromium armor. Brendol exhibited symptoms similar to those that Carr had experienced including bloatedness, bulging eyes, falling hair and fingernails, and translucent skin. As a precaution, Phasma also had Frey killed during a training accident since her fellow Scyre was one of the few people who would have known about the dangerous beetle.

Prior to his death, Cardinal advised Brendol to visit the medbay for a checkup. The ailing Brendol told Cardinal to mind his own business and respect his superiors. Nevertheless, Brendol visited the medbay but his disease was unfamiliar to the medical droids, who listed it as an unknown malady. With the First Order's medical droids unable to treat Brendol's illness, he dissolved in a bacta tank, leaving behind only a few shrunken organs, bare bones, and a patch of graying red hair.

## Personality and Traits

Brendol Hux had pale-white skin and graying red hair. He was a dedicated but ruthless Imperial military officer who wanted to create deeply loyal stormtroopers who excelled in combat. While he admired the combat prowess and devotion of the Old Republic's clone troopers and the Jedi Order, he regarded the Empire's stormtroopers as sub-par in comparison to their historical predecessors. As a result, Brendol conceived the idea of raising worthy stormtroopers from birth. While his ideas were rejected by contemporary Imperial officers during the reign of Emperor Palpatine, his ideas were readily accepted by the First Order and greatly influenced the military junta's stormtrooper training regime.

In addition, Brendol had a fascination with evolution by natural selection. He was enamored by the evolutionary paths taken by the disparate human groups who had settled the galaxy, a fascination that his posting on Arkanis readily allowed him to indulge as by the time of the Empire, the Arkanan denizens of the Arkanis Regency had long since diverged from their human ancestors. This fascination led to his personal indiscretions and the birth of his illegitimate son to an Arkanan woman, as well as the de facto adoption of the desert-adapted Cardinal.

Brendol applied the principles of natural selection to all aspects of his work and advocated weeding out "undesirable" individuals, whether cadets or nerfs, in order to create a strong population. Brendol's adherence to natural selection led him to engineer the deaths of several "low-performing" cadets including Xan Lanier. Brendol's efforts to raise a strong herd of nerfs led him to reject protective measures in favor of using punishment and the threat of death to bring the animals into line, the same tactics he used on his cadets, his stormtroopers, and his own son.

By 5 ABY, Brendol had gained weight and his jaw was covered by stubble. Grand Admiral Sloane regarded him as a "big, blustering, ego-fed pig" and disliked his habit of interjecting during conversations. Brendol was embarrassed when Sloane raised the matter of his illegitimate son Armitage Hux. Brendol took pride in his cadets and was annoyed when Sloane suggested that even they were not enough to save the Empire from defeat. While Brendol regarded his son as a weak-willed boy, he believed that the boy still had potential. While skeptical of Fleet Admiral Rax's plans, he was mollified when Rax revealed that he commanded several Imperial fleets scattered across the Galaxy.

The harsh desert conditions of Jakku took a toll on Brendol. His hair became unkempt and he developed a paunch. Brendol spent little time with his son Armitage and mistreated the boy physically and psychologically. Brendol used his skills as a commandant to train local orphans into Rax's praetorian guard of assassins and child soldiers. Brendol came to put his faith in Gallius Rax's vision of a resurgent Empire and acquiesced to the Contingency plan. Brendol had a poor relationship with Sloane, who disapproved of his harsh treatment of Armitage. Brendol was no match for the seasoned Sloane in unarmed combat and became her subordinate, exhibiting signs of sycophancy after being beaten into submission by Sloane.

By his sixties, Brendol had pale-white skin, graying red hair, slender limbs, and a large belly. He was known to like classical, traditional styles, elegant rugs, fine artifacts, and rich foods. Despite his age Brendol considered himself a strong leader who was able to command the respect and loyalty of his stormtroopers, unwilling to believe that Armitage's role in the stormtrooper's conditioning had already begun to wrest control of the corps from Brendol's grasp. Brendol saw potential in Phasma as a warrior and leader and believed that she would make an invaluable asset to the First Order. However, he failed to realize that Phasma only cared for herself and her own interests, an oversight that ultimately cost him his life.

## Relationships

### Cardinal

One of his recruits from Jakku, Cardinal would notice that Brendol tended to look at him in a much more closer and familial light than he did his own son. Cardinal would quickly grow to accept Brendol's indoctrination, even to his own physical detriment, allowing himself to be molded by Brendol into the very kind of 'civilized monstrosity' that Brendol most wanted to create. While Cardinal would take to heart the lessons imparted to him about loyalty to the First Order above all else, Brendol still found him a disappointment in that Cardinal never quite matched the ferocious ideal that Brendol fantasized about. In the end Brendol abandoned that fantasy and outfitted Cardinal with his own unique set of crimson armor, granting him the right to train a legion before placing him in charge of the First Order's stormtrooper training program, a role that was later shared with Phasma.

### Phasma

Brendol was impressed by the martial prowess and leadership skills of Phasma, a Scyre warrior. He appreciated how Phasma was willing to break a truce with the rival Claws and betray her own brother Keldo and tribe to help Brendol reach his crashed ship in order to call for help in exchange for a chance to escape Parnassos. While Brendol disliked her pride and strong will, he believed that he could break her of her will the same as he'd done to Cardinal. He always wondered what evolutionary branch of humanity she represented, unwilling to believe that such ferocity and will to survive could be found in a mere human. Phasma's combat skills led Brendol to appoint her to manage the training of the First Order's older cadets as part of Brendol's planned reduction of Cardinal's duties. Brendol's faith in Phasma was ultimately misplaced when she conspired with Armitage to kill him for the good of the First Order.

### Pryde, Brooks, and duLandis

Their own little shadow council in the First Order

### Dr Katsuo

She told him Grysk implants are an STD for a reason and that reason was he was really gross

He was an over-indulgent man who wasted many Imperial and First Order resources, and had no vision. He had weird ideas and nobody was okay. Strange things happened.