The Eye of Palpatine was a colossal, asteroid-shaped super dreadnaught constructed at the behest of Emperor Palpatine during the second year of the Galactic Empire. It was destroyed twelve years after the Battle of Yavin.^[2]

Contents 1 Characteristics 2 History 2.1 Later service 3 Appearances 4 Sources 5 Notes and references 6 External links 6.1 In other languages

CharacteristicsEdit

The deadly warship was the Emperor's first superweapon. It was referred to as both a "dreadnought" and a "battlemoon." As part of its secretive origin, the vessel was made to look similar to an asteroid, and was possibly even converted from a large space rock in order to save on material resources.^[2] Akin to a Torpedo Sphere in role (ie an enormous siege platform intended to target sections of planet with myriad weapons) the Eye was armed with much more weaponry and built on a much larger scale. Its firepower rivaled and possibly exceeded that of an entire fleet carrying out an Base Delta Zero-type orbital bombardment, i.e. it could reduce the upper crust of a planet to molten slag while acting alone and using only it's own weaponry.^[2]

Because of the secrecy involved, the ship was unmanned and all its systems were controlled by an artificial intelligence known as the Will. The ship was equipped with many TIE squadrons as well as Beta-class ETR-3 escort transports and Skipray Blastboats. Much of the ship's onboard equipment was supplied by SoroSuub Corporation.^[2]

HistoryEdit

The dreadnaught was designed by Ohran Keldor, who also had a hand in the Death Star project.^[2] Palpatine had the Eye constructed in 18 BBY, and he intended to use it to destroy Belsavis's Plawal Rift, where the Children of the Jedi were being sheltered by the Ho'Din Jedi Master Plett in the same year. This rift was a lush, steamed-filled geothermal vent gouged into the planet's icy wastes and covered by a transparisteel dome. Since this action would have caused outrage in the Imperial Senate, he scattered the vessel's contingent of troops across the Outer Rim Territories to await pickup.^[2]

The ship was constructed at the shipyards of Rothana and at Patriim, where it was activated and sent to Belsavis to destroy the Jedi. Scheduled to fly along lightly traveled hyperlanes, it would pick up contingents of troops at Pzob, Dom-Bradden, Kirdo III, Tatooine and Alzoc III. The vessel failed to arrive at any of these places, however, thanks to sabotage by two Jedi Knights, Geith Eris and Callista Ming, in the Moonflower Nebula.^[1] Callista was forced to trap her spirit in the ship's computers in order to stop it. Plett and the children of the Jedi were able to leave Belsavis and escape as a result of Geith's and Callista's heroic act.^[2]

Later serviceEdit

The Eye remained dormant until 12 ABY, when the Emperor's Hand Roganda Ismaren located it. She used her son Irek Ismaren—who had been implanted with a sub-electronic converter that allowed him to control any machine by thought—to "summon" the dormant ship to Belsavis in her attempt to revitalize the Empire.^[2] Upon activation, the Eye of Palpatine attempted to fulfill its programming by picking up its Imperial stormtrooper contingent. But, after so many years, the troops had disappeared, except for Triv Pothman, one of 45 troopers left on the Gamorrean colony Pzob, who survived the bloodshed brought on by the various warring Gamorrean tribes.^[2]

Undaunted, the Eye went after any sentient beings found in the appropriate locations. It began grabbing groups of prisoners from various species located on many worlds. Soon the Eye was filled with numerous species including Talz, Affytechans, Jawas, Kitonaks, Tusken Raiders, Tripods, and Gamorreans. They were all brainwashed into thinking they were Imperial stormtroopers.^[2] The Eye was eventually destroyed by Jedi student Nichos Marr over Belsavis. Although no evidence could be found in any of the surviving Imperial records recovered by the New Republic, Qwi Xux believed that the Eye had a sister ship; that ship's mission or final fate, if it even existed, had not been discovered as of 25 ABY.^[3]

AppearancesEdit

• Children of the Jedi (First appearance)
• Darksaber (Mentioned only)
• Planet of Twilight (Mentioned only)
• The New Rebellion (Mentioned only)
• Dark Tide II: Ruin (Mentioned only)
• Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse (Mentioned only)
• Force Heretic II: Refugee (Mentioned only)
• Allies (Mentioned only)

SourcesEdit

• Star Wars Gamemaster Screen, Revised
• "Murder in Slushtime"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 14 ("Callista Ming" capsule)
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons
• "ComicScan: Luke-ing for Love in all the Wrong Places" — Star Wars Galaxy Collector 5 (Indirect mention only)
• The Essential Chronology
• The Dark Side Sourcebook
• "Who's Who in the New Jedi Order"—Star Wars Insider 57
• The New Jedi Order Sourcebook
• The New Essential Guide to Characters
• The New Essential Chronology
• Star Wars Chronicles: The Prequels
• Star Wars Galaxy 3
• Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 8
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Atlas
• The Essential Guide to Warfare

Notes and referencesEdit

External linksEdit

•  Eye of Palpatine in The Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia (backup link on Archive.org)