IMPERIAL DECREE
A:102:700166
Erskine Barran, Lord Regent.
Carlyle Rausgeber, Grand Moff - Sector VIII
Willan Tal, Grand Moff - Sector VII
876ABY
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TRIUMVIRATE
To consolidate Imperial authority beneath the leadership of the Lord Regent and the two most trusted Grand Moffs within the Empire, the final testament of Rurik Fel.
Our Emperor has fallen.
His life given for the Empire he built, risen from the ashes of an Order created in response to the Sith-Imperial threat. We once faced a threat so existential to our existence, that our founders met within the Hand of Thrawn to reach an accord for their survival. Rivals and allies alike, comrades whose bonds were smithed out of the fires of vengeance against the eternal enemy of the dark.
It was Rurik Fel, first of his name, who took us from being a disjointed state of rebels, into an age of Pax Imperialis that no other Imperial state had realized in centuries of strife. He brought us out of the past, and broke the shackles of Warlordism to remove the gangrenous limb that kept it from realizing our greatness. He fought against the Sith, and every actor of the Dark Lords who came to assail our borders with their legions of cultists and Sith alike.
Always at the vanguard, always forwards.
Through the entirety of this great, galactic war, it was the Iron Emperor who kept us whole. Who kept us united. And upon his unyielding shoulders, the Empire marched forwards into the abyss, its men and women united in their defiance against the powers who sought our destruction. We fought, and we overcame each and every trial that we faced. Together, beneath the leadership of the adamant, the unbreakable Rurik Fel, we overcame all odds.
He was my brother, and it was his will to see our Empire fall under the watchful eye of the Lord General, Erskine Barran. These words I can attest to, and though I remain the heir to his throne, I will respect his will. The Lord General -- now the Lord Regent in my stead -- has seen to establish a Triumvirate to rule under my brother's final order. There are many who would see our time of mourning, and seek to probe us for weakness, but I believe thoroughly that our Empire will never fall. It must never fall, no matter the struggles we'll come to face.
My brother once told me, that the Empire was above all, and that he'd sacrifice everything to achieve victory over the enemies who'd bring us destruction. No matter the cost. I believe him now, and to the citizens of our Empire, I will leave you with these final words that I've come to understand wholeheartedly.
There is no more nobler sacrifice, than to give your life for a cause in which you sincerely believe. And in the millennial history of this galaxy, there has never been a cause more worthy than that of the Empire.
Long live Rurik. Long live the Empire.
- Lucien Dooku, Heir to the Empire
