Star Wars

Star Wars ABCs: I is for Inquisitors

Fallen former Jedi turned to the dark side to do one thing and one thing only.

February 18, 2021

Star Wars ABCs is a fun 26-part series that partners Star Wars with your ABCs to introduce you to characters, droids, places, and creatures from every era of the franchise, including the newest venture into a galaxy far, far away — The High Republic.

I is for Inquisitors

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Inquisitors were Force-sensitive dark side users that were members of the Inquisitorious Program, a secretive organization within the Galactic Empire in the years leading up to the Galactic Civil War. The program was also known as the Order of the Inquisitors, and the Imperial Inquisition, and its members were the Imperial Inquisitors, or as they were more commonly referred to, Inquisitors.

Following the end of the Clone Wars, the Inquisitors were tasked with hunting down any remaining Jedi who had survived Order 66 and the Great Jedi Purge, with the goal of either turning them to the dark side or eliminating them should they refuse. The shadowy group was also sent on missions to retrieve Force-sensitive children, and capture political dissidents.

Sith Lord Darth Sidious, known to nearly everyone in the galaxy as Emperor Palpatine, created the Inquisitor Program and tasked his apprentice Darth Vader with overseeing it. The Inquisitors were led by a male Pau’an who was a former Jedi Knight and Temple Guard, known simply as the Grand Inquisitor. The Inquisitor ranks were compromised entirely of former Jedi Masters, Knights and Padawans that had been corrupted or broken through torture. Darth Vader trained the fallen Jedi in the ways of the dark side and would often severe the limbs of his students as a means of ensuring his lessons were never forgotten.

During their time serving the Empire, the Inquisitors came into conflict with several notable Jedi, including former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Master Eeth Koth, Purge survivors Kanan Jarrus and Cal Kestis, Padawan Ezra Bridger, and even the former Sith Lord Darth Maul. These encounters were often quite deadly for the fallen former Jedi, with their members being killed by their foes, their own troopers, and even their own leader, Darth Vader.

Members of the Inquisitorious Program earned the nickname “Red Blades” and for good reason: all of the Inquisitors wielded a unique double-bladed spinning lightsaber with bright red crimson blades. Their unique lightsabers contained emitters and spun in a helicopter-like motion that allowed for them to escape from great heights. The one exception to this standardized lightsaber was the Tenth Brother, who wielded two separate shoto lightsabers, the same style Ahsoka Tano was famous for using.

By the time the Galactic Civil War had begun, the Inquisitorius Program was no longer active, with its members having seemingly vanished. While many were killed during missions to hunt down the remaining Jedi, so suspect that Darth Vader personally killed the remaining Inquisitors once they had outlived their usefulness.

You can follow the Inquisitors on their journey to capture Jedi in the Star Wars: Rebels animated TV series on Disney+ and Darth Vader’s comic series, or fight against them in Jedi: Fallen Order.