Imperial Sentinel

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Imperial Sentinels were usually confined to guarding the citadel planet Byss

Imperial Sentinels were gigantic, armored and cloaked warriors in the Star Wars' Dark Empire storyline, who guarded Emperor Palpatine's Dark Side Adepts, doing their bidding. They were most often seen in the Emperor's Citadel on Byss. Their origins were an impenetrable secret to all but the Dark Side Adepts; even the Sovereign Protectors could only speculate on the Sentinel's origins'. Some believed them to be droids or some sort of cyborg, perhaps created from an obscure and enslaved race of giants.

The speculation was only further enhanced by the fact that the first time that Sentinels ever appeared was when they travelled to the location of the capture of the Jedi Master Ashka Boda, and silently taking charge of him with extremely high-level authorization, escorted him aboard an Imperial Dungeon ship and thence to Byss, where his knowledge of the force, his invaluable holocron, and his life were all stolen from him by Palpatine. Since then, they have occasionally reprised this mysterious role: showing up unexpectedly and taking charge of a prisoner from the Inquisitorius, and taking the prisoner silently to Byss.

In reality, the sentinels were clones of the adepts. The application of dark side powers and chemical treatments (Sith alchemy) as described in Palpatine's tome The Creation of Monsters during the clone's gestation gifted each sentinel with the stature and physique of a titan, while they are administered chemicals stunting its mental development. The mind of each sentinel is enslaved to the telepathic will of its creator, when the process is successful; when not, the resulting abortion of nature is discarded. It is rumored that the creating adept can perceive what his sentinel perceives.

[edit] Skywalker's Sentinels

Under Palpatine's tutelage, Luke Skywalker bred at least two sentinels for himself on Byss. This pair met the crew of the Millennium Falcon when they landed in the Citadel in a bold attempt to rescue Luke. Princess Leia severed a hand from one of the giants.

There is a curious implication to the existence of these giants. As asexual genetic progeny of Luke Skywalker — however badly deformed — these particular sentinels are technically members of the Skywalker family. Their travels and activities after Luke's redemption are unknown, although it is likely that they were destroyed along with Byss itself when R2-D2 turned the Galaxy Gun on it.

[edit] References

Dark Empire, trade paperback, 1993. Tom Veitch, ISBN 1-56971-073-2
Dark Empire II, trade paperback, 1st edition, 1995. Tom Veitch, ISBN 1-56971-119-4