Lit Continuity notes on the Battle of Endor (EU only)

Notes on the Battle of Endor and related unaddressed continuity

Truce at Bakura Sourcebook goes into some detail about the Battle of Endor, and the immediate aftermath. One bit of continuity, which was badly disregarded by subsequent EU sources, was the mention of a line of Interdictors:


...that by itself is an important part of the Battle to remember, but combine it with the other bit of overlooked continuity from The Bacta War, which notes that Joak Drysso commanded the Virulence at Endor, but did not retreat with the rest of the surviving ships to Annaj, as he had already taken his ship and DESERTED. He fled the battle PRIOR to the destruction of the DS2. Per The Bacta War:

...now, how he wasn't summarily court martialed and shot for that act of desertion (one must wonder the same about Makati and Takel) upon returning to Empire space was not addressed, but his later alignment with Isard herself, rather than the mainline Imperial forces, may offer an explanation. If Virulence was also the first ship to leave Endor, then logically it might also have been the first to arrive back into secure Empire territory, and thus the first major ship to provide news of the disaster (at the very least, it recorded the loss of the Executor-- flaghsip of the entire Imperial Navy). Aside from the unaddressed question of whether or not he even bothered to recover any of his deployed TIEs (which would in turn mean that those stranded fighters would have had to find berths on another ship), the fact that Virulence was able to flee the Endor system at all means that the Interdictor line had to have been shut off PRIOR to the destruction of the DS2!

Now, that was already a logical but never addressed point of continuity, because how else could the Imperial forces have retreated from the Endor system at all unless the Interdictors were turned off? Even if they hadn't been deactivated prior to the DS2's destruction, they would have had to have been in order to allow the rest of the fleet to escape. That raises the question of when exactly they were turned off, why, and who gave the order to turn off their gravity well projectors. By the time the Executor crashed into the Death Star, the Emperor, Vader, the Ruling Councilors, and all 4 Grand Admirals were still alive, though Declann was busy employing his Battle Meditation to coordinate the fleet and Vader and the Emperor were busy with Skywalker. Moff Jerjerrod was busy with the superlaser and the battlestation itself, so it wasn't him, either. For the Fleet itself, Piett was dead, and Admiral Harrsk may have already been incapacitated, and possibly also Admiral Strage. Who gave the order?

If the Interdictor line was part of the Death Squadron chain of command, then Piett must have given the order to deactivate the Interdictors prior to Executor's destruction, but it is safe to assume that the order to do so may have in turn come from one of the Grand Admirals (Makati, Takel, or Teshik), or from one of the Ruling Councilors. If the Interdictor line was NOT under the authority of the Death Squadron command heirarchy, then they had to have been commanded by somebody else- and that really only leaves Grand Admirals Takel, Teshik, or Makati. The EU never explained what exactly they were even doing being present at Endor ( the purpose of Declann's presence, the use of his Battle Meditation, is abundantly clear), but surely it was something more than just a way for the Emperor to honor and award his best servants. We do know that Takel (along with Thrawn, as mentioned) likely helped to plan the Battle itself (which along with his desertion also partly explains his post-Endor disgrace), and Takel's known background regarding the Seige of Trasemene would suggest a familiarity with Interdictors and thus serve to explain some of what he was doing during the initial parts of the Battle. If Takel was commanding the Interdictors, he was doing it from the DS2 itself, as he is confirmed to have been aboard it during the Battle.

If it was Takel that gave the orders to shut down the Interdictors, he may have done so under orders or even Force-compulsion from one of the Ruling Councilors. Turning off the Interdictors made no military sense, as it would have allowed the Rebels to escape, even after the loss of the Executor. It would also have marked a drastic deviation from the Imperial battleplan, and the Grand Admirals surely could have salvaged the Battle even at that stage. Unless, of course, they were themselves being over-ruled, which could only have been done by somebody even higher in the Imperial heirarchy. That somebody/somebodies had to have been one of the Councilors. Somebody who had the authority to order the Interdictors turned off really wanted to leave the Endor system. Of the 6 that were present during the Battle itself, only Aloo and Greejatus are known to have been Force-sensitive, and either may well have sensed what was happening and about to happen, and not just with the Emperor and Vader but also with the the ongoing Battle itself. Declann actually sensed the danger to the Emperor (hence why he broke his Battle Meditation), and Aloo not known to have been disloyal to the Emperor. Greejatus, though- his loyalty is known to have been a lot less absolute as his attempts to conspire with the late Grand Moff Tarkin had demonstrated. Greejatus's known character leaves no doubt that he would readily use Force-compulsion on lesser beings (which in his case includes Grand Admirals!), though for some reason he didn't himself make it off the station. The Councilors, and other present members of the Court (known to be present per the ROTJ novelization), were never on agreeable terms with each other, and a situation as desperate and personally dangerous to them as the spiralling out of control battle surely did not bring out the best in them.

The Ruling Councilors were also surely responsible for some of the “conflicting orders” that the Warfare Guide mentions as having hampered the 181st and the Imperial fleet in general. That the most powerful men in the Galaxy after Vader and the Emperor themselves, and temporarily THE most powerful men in the Galaxy once Vader and the Emperor were lost, would have done nothing and just stood still is not the slightest bit likely. While some probably tried to go help the Emperor (as would some of the Royal Guards), others (looking at you, Janus!) probably tried to save themselves. The unspecified “conflicting orders”, combined with the loss of Declann's coordination, easily explains how the Interdictor line was turned off. One can imagine one or two of the Councilors actually getting off the doomed station, only to dock on a nearby Star Destroyer that didn't survive the explosion of the station or the Battle itself. No matter what it was that they did during the Battle, their exact actions are yet another untold part of the Endor story.

On a final note about the Interdictors and their continuity implications, what actually happened to them? They aren't mentioned as having been among the ships that retreated to Annaj, so they must have left separately. Nothing mentions them as having been destroyed, and they were likely out of reach of the Rebels who surely would have prioritized them as targets for the sake of their own survival if they were close enough. If the theory that Takel had specific command of them all given his previous siege experience and that his own ship was definitely not present at Endor, it would explain several things: how Takel escaped, how the Interdictors came to be deactivated to allow for all the Imperials to escape, and where Takel went after leaving the DS2- he went right to the Interdictors he or somebody on the Council had ordered shut off so as to escape. It also be why he and the Interdictors weren't at Annaj, and why he subsequently was not scapegoated for the disaster and outright executed.


5 Grand Admirals and Endor:

After the Ruling Councilors, the next highest Imperials (literally, in Takel's case) were the Grand Admirals. Declann was there for his Battle Meditation (something kept secret from Thrawn and which even he didn't realize), and his abrupt stoppage of his Battle Meditation in a moment of uncontrolled panic (he raced to the Emperor even before he died) might well have cost the Imperials the battle due to the immediate negative effects that Thrawn later described in HttE. It also has never been mentioned anywhere if Declann's personal Star Destroyer, the HMS Recondite, was present at Endor. It was never mentioned in any following story, and if a name is needed to assign to an unidentified destroyed at Endor ISD this is a good fit.

Regarding Teshik: while it was never explained why he was even present, we do know that he covered the retreat of the Imperials. Focusing on Teshik, one has to wonder HOW exactly he managed to hold off the Rebels for 4 hours after the loss of the DS2, and why he didn't himself flee. Going by his ability to safely reach his ship, we must assume that Eleemosynary was close enough to the DS2 for him to reach it at all, and if was close enough it may well have been partly damaged by the explosion of the battlestation, and/or by the resulting wreckage and space radiation spewing out from it. He might not have been able to leave!

It is logical that Teshik would have had to have made use of whatever he had available, which would include any “environmental” factors. He could easily have employed tractor beams to create a physical wreckage shield around his ship, in patterns that would allow him to fire outward but make it difficult for ships to get close enough to him, particularly anything larger than fighters. He could have used those tractor beams to grab and propel wreckage into the paths of oncoming capital ships. We know he was executed for unspecified “war crimes”- maybe he got into a position above Endor (his ship was likely already fairly close to it) where he could have fired down onto the surface, and/or threatened to bombard innocent Ewok villages with his turbolasers or even just by dropping wreckage onto them from orbit. The space environment around his ship itself must be factored in. Beyond the enormous amounts of debris, there was also a lot of radiation and related contamination from the exploded station, as well as volatile munitions. These cannot have helped the Rebels trying to get at his ship.

Eleemosynary may have been damaged enough to be unable to prevent it from fleeing into Hyperspace (Teshik stayed long after the rest of the Imperials fled), but its weapons and shields must have been in overall good working order, along with its various ship's systems and the attached fighter craft, shuttles, and gunboats. We don't know for sure if it was a regular ISD or a slightly larger ship, but given that at least one other Grand Admiral commanded a larger than ISD class ship (Grunger, HMS Aggressor, and Teshik himself previously commanded HMS Whelm), perhaps Eleemosynary wasn't your typical Star Destroyer. Even if it was just a plain ISD, it still would have had a Wing of fighters, assault shuttles that were able to enter combat, and a few shuttles and gunboats. He likely also had quite a few stragglers and surviving fighers and craft from the Death Star itself, and some other Star Destroyers, particularly destroyed vessels. Many of the TIEs from the Executor (a really good story would be about some of the few survivors from that ship!) might also have rallied to him, same for any abandoned by their fleeing home ships that weren't able to recover them all.

It took “overwhelming ion cannon” fire to disable his ship, which suggests that Eleemosynary still had fully working shields. Assuming that Teshik also had plenty of fighter support that had nothing left to lose, and the wreckage shield, the Rebels must have had an extended battle against the fighters, thinning them out enough to get close enough to the ship to make targeted runs on the shield projectors, or to blast away enough of the wreckage to allow for their larger capital ships to use their ion cannons to disable the shields on Eleemosynary to allow for the fighters to take out critical systems and force Teshik to submit. One also must wonder what effects that comm and sensor systems suffered from the residual effects of the DS2 explosion. If Eleemosynary suffered physical damage to those systems, it would certainly explain why he didn't outright order other Star Destroyers to turn around and assist him, or why he didn't countermand Pellaeon's retreat order. He might not have even been able to. The environment itself could have worked against his communications, something that the Rebels were a lot more used to than him and his fellow Imperials.

As for Makati, well, what in Chaos was he doing during the Battle? He and his ship were there, he got off the station safely, so why didn't he take command of the fleet? He and HMS Steadfast (an ironic name, as Makati was defintely NOT steadfast at all at Endor!) obviously didn't flee with the rest of the fleet back to Annaj, or else he could and would have assumed command and prevented the subsequent fragmenting of the fleet. Once he did return to Imperial space, though, why weren't he and Takel immediately arrested, tried, and sent to the disintegration booth for desertion, or at the very least scapegoated for the disaster? They were both the highest Ranking survivors of Endor, and neither had done anything to try and rally the fleet or continue the fight against the Rebels. It's just another point that the EU never explained, but surely Makati was, like Takel, under a cloud for the rest of his career. Takel ended up fleeing for his life from the Empire, only to be murdered by Trioculus, but Makati remained loyal to Pestage and then Isard. His continued service and apparent lack of consequence for his dereliction were just never explained, but if he and Takel were actually ordered to leave (which could only have been done by one of the Ruling Councilors), it might explain how their survival was tolerated by the Empire.

As for Takel, it should first be noted that his Star Destroyer, Magic Dragon, WAS NOT THERE! The original Grand Admirals article from Insider 66 makes it clear that while Takel was present, his un-named first officer, and thus his ship, were on the other side of the Galaxy being assisted by Grunger in patrolling for the Nagai menace. This has a few continuity implications: one, that Palpatine was indeed aware of the Nagai incursion; two, that he knew it to be a great enough threat to send one of his Grand Admirals and best strategists to deal with it, first just Takel and his normal ISD but then to detach Grunger and an entire SSD from the Inner Rim and to send him to that part of the Outer Rim to handle the matter while Takel was at Endor. This of course raises the question of what exactly was so important that Takel was taken away from an assignment that Palpatine felt required an Executor class and a Grand Admiral to handle, but it makes sense if the Nagai invasion initially caught him off guard, and Takel was planning to travel to Endor anyway to oversee and coordinate that Battle.

That in turn raises the initial question of why Takel was even at Endor. The original Grand Admirals article from Insider 66 has the following illustration:


...note that is has him and Thrawn, and that Thrawn is depicted as openly wearing the full Grand Admiral uniform. That means that it must have taken place after Thrawn's full promotion, that is after Zaarin's defection, but of course before Endor itself. Palpatine may have set up the overall plan of an ambush of the Rebel fleet using irresistible bait (himself and a Death Star), but the actual tactical details were surely left to his best subordinates. Those subordinates were Thrawn and Takel. Consider that even years later in Heir to the Empire, Thrawn seems uncharacteristically bitter about what happened at Endor:

...Thrawn's unusually tense attitude makes a bit more sense when it is remembered that he had personally been to Endor prior to the Battle, and had even helped plan it, as his visit from Choices of One that shows him personally touring the planned battle site and offering advice on it to the Emperor:

So, the personal and professional defeat of his planning (though nobody realized that Thrawn had a hand in planning Endor) would certainly explain Thrawn's attitude even years after the battle, as well as explaining that image of him and Takel viewing the holo of the DS2 at a time that must of happened immediately before the Battle itself. The troubles with Zaarin and then the Ssi-Ruuk and others in the Unknown Regions prevented Thrawn from being present at the Battle he helped plan years in advance, but Takel was able to attend.

Returning to Takel, his presence with Thrawn, Vader, and the Emperor at the planning session right before Endor all but confirms that he also had a role in planning the Battle. Unlike the other present Grand Admirals, his ship was not there, which in turn raises the question of how he escaped. Like Makati, he fled the Battle instead of linking up with the Fleet and taking the fight to the Rebels, but it is never said how. Perhaps he hitched a ride with Makati onboard Steadfast, perhaps he got to a shuttle. What is known is that his state of mind was not one that would have left him fit to command, as he is outright said to have been under the influence of glitterstim during the Battle itself. While it saved his life by alerting him to Declann's panic, the fact that he would be using illegal narcotics in the midst of what was supposed to be the final battle of the War condemns him, as does his subsequent disgraceful flight. It surely would have caused him to fall from grace with the surviving Imperial establishment, and as it was his addiction would soon lead to deserting the Empire and to Trioculus destroying him.

 

...OK, so this isn't really relevant, but can we all just take a moment to wag an admonishing finger at whoever decided it would be a good idea to name a Star Destroyer Magic Dragon?

Every time that comes up, I've apparently managed to erase it from my prior memory, and seeing it is a bit "uh?!?"-inducing.

 

I wonder if it's possible that the Virulence was stationed on the edge of the system with the Interdictors? A battle line of Interdictor cruisers is nothing to sneeze at, but hardly something that would inflict "devastating casualties"; they're just not armed heavily enough to put up a serious fight against Rebel capital ships without support from fleet heavy-hitters. So it it might make sense for the Interdictor line to include some backup. If Drysso was back with this line, then he doesn't need the Interdictors to shut down in order to flee; he just flies in realspace behind them (Interdictor gravity wells are directional) and makes the jump to lightspeed once he's behind the line.

 

I'm sure it sounds awesomely intimidating in the original Klingon.

 

Hey, it's the mellowest posting in the fleet, man. *inhales deeply*

 

Now, this is a fun thread!!

I think this deserves a long reply, but as usual, all I can offer is my own personal fanboy POV and a few vague recollections of one pre-reboot project a long time ago, but I hope that'll be of interest to some people... I really like what @SheaHublin said up top, but my own established thinking is probably too different to get my head around that quickly...

Taking this from the top of the chain of command downwards....

I. As to the Grand Admirals, my personal view is that Maktai, Takel and Teshik are at Endor as part of the Imperial entourage, and are not in the direct chain of command for the fleet, which runs from Palpatine through their superior Lord Vader, and his direct subordinate Piett (and Piett's dialogue implies that with Vader off chasing Luke, Palpatine actually issued Piett's orders directly)... a view which certainly influenced me on WARFARE and which I suspect I must have shared with Jason (though I have no specific recollection of that, and that obviously doesn't say anything about his own view, or those of anyone else with input in the finished text - that's just my own personal approach to simplify the situation)...

On the related question of their personal rides, I'm not aware of any souce that any source that clearly establishes the class of Teshik's command ship - might be a type that isn't included in the main ISD list, or might as you say be commanding the interdictor perimiter - might even be an interdictor! - and whereas Steadfast is certainly an ISD, I'm not aware of any reason to think the ship was at Endor (given that she's later used as the flagship of the Ruling Council, my own headcanon is that she ought to be in position at Coruscant or at least in the Core, but that is just fan speculation)...

So is the idea of Teshik being on the interdictor line a bad one? Not at all - but I don't think we need to find him a role beyond standing at a viewport - or perhaps, speculating wildly, he was coordinating the battle station's own TIEs and flak...?

II. The grav-trap at Endor is a complicated question, but there are a number of points that I'd think ought to be considered:

* TTASB suggets the battle station itself prevents the Rebels escaping into hyperspace - is this just an incidental result of setting up deck gravity, inertial compensators and capital-ship drives on that scale, or does the battle station actually have interdictor domes on a massive scale...?

* The main Imperial fleet is presumably positioned in some way to block the Rebel retreat - are they astride a particularly useful route out, or are they simply positioned to direct ridiculously overwhelming fleet artillery against any Rebel capital ships which try and cut and run? Potentially, the box between the TIE attack, the battle station and the sanctuary moon might atcually be comparatively "safe" for the Rebels, with heavy jamming and the presence of Imperial units making masive turbolaser fire less attractive....

* the "interdictor battle line" in TTASB is not necessarily deployed with their domes spun up to interdict the entire sytem; they are essentially a supplementary force, which is deployed to block any Alliance forces trying to fight their way out of the main trap - speaking speculatively, I'd imagine they'd be waiting in the rear until they see any Rebel capital ships head in a particular direction, then perhaps just one interdictor will move to intercept any individual line of retreat, and then activate the domes to trap them...

* my own headcanon has always been that the main challenge is to do with getting into position around Endor - I'd imagine that with the gas-giant, the sanctuary moon, the sistermoon, and the eight other large satellites of Tana, as well as the battle station, all in play, the local mass-shadows provide a significant obstacle to easy hypernavigation, so once the Rebels have dropped into the well, the route out is restriced (a loose reversal of the way Tarkin needs to manoeuvre into position in ANH)... but that's as may be, and I mention that only for context - I don't think that found its way onto the page in WARFARE, did it...?

* The point that the Imperials do seem to depart Endor relatively easily is interesting - this is a part of the battle we don't know much about, but there are a number of questions that can be asked, with associated possibilities: did Pellaeon actually command an hours-long "fighting reatreat"; or does the destruction of the battle station deactivate a big interdictor; or are we overestimating the significance of the grav-trap - is the main problem specifically that the Rebels are caught between the battle station and the by the massed turbolasers of the Empire's fleet, and can't reposition without being slammed - or is jumping directly out from Endor particularly problematic for the Rebel fighters, which can only carry limited numbers of navacomp routes...?

* Rolling that over to the Imperial side, this leaves an interesting thought - I've remarked before that the attrition of the TIE forces at Endor seems to have been severe and may have taken a long time to rebuild from; but beyond what happened in the actual dogfight, the fleet may have quit out without recovering its TIEs properly, deying the Empire not only those fighters, but also all the extra élite squadrons assigned to the battle station...

III. The question of when individual ISDs retreat is really two distinct questions - there are two separate moments involved, the moment they begin to retreat, and the moment they make the jump to hyperspace... and especially given all the complicated stuff outlined above, there could be a considerable amount of movement in between...

* The POV in The Bacta War certainly shows that Drysso started to retreat as soon as Executor went sideways, but there's nothing to say that he managed to fully extricate the Virulence before the other big pointies started running too, and he may have simply been caught up in Pellaeon's bunk-en-masse to Annaj; for both comparison and contrast, Darksaber indicates that Harrsk jumped to hyperspace "just after he had seen the Death Star explode", but the Whirlwind was already damaged and out of the fight before that point, so may have started to run away significantly earlier...

* There's also an inconsistency between Darksaber and WARFARE, in which Harrsk bugs out directly from Endor for the Core, and "Despoilers of an Empire", in which the Whirlwind initially accompanies Pellaeon to Annaj.

* I think the point @jSarek makes about the possibility of additional ISDs on the drag line is a good one, and adds additional "wiggle room" in the fleet roster...

* To go into a bit more detail, I personally think that keeping things open is useful as a continuity decision to allow more flexibility in stories - as configured in WARFARE, there are four groups of ISDs at Endor - twelve ISDs that go with Pellaeon, three that go with Harrsk, three that leave independently of either group, and fifteen that are "lost", as in don't apparently leave immediately, but might potentially only be temporarily out of Imperial control; there's at least one free space in each of those groups for story purposes, and that was entirely deliberate, even if the reboot makes things rather moot; the Virulence could be in any of the first three groups... and we can now add another potential group of unknow size, consisting of ISDs on the drag line...

* Quite separately, my personal headcanon idea of the best role for Drysso is probably to pair him up with Harrsk, and have him later swap to Isard when she shows up at Thyferra with an SSD in need of a commander - as Harrsk has at least three SSDs in this period and Drysso evidently didn't get one, he might have felt his support wasn't being rewarded... BUT that's just pure headcanon, and is worth nothing...

And @SheaHublin - that "high commander" gag about Miltin Takel gets you a Kessel Golden Ewok™ with Glitter Marinade and Coaxium Sauce. Not a prize, just an imaginary burger...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

@Thrawn McEwok come to think of it, the Eleemosynary is only identified as a Star Destroyer but without an unknown class. Perhaps the Eleemosynary is actually an Interdictor-class Star Destroyer leading a fleet of Immobilizer 418 cruisers. That's my headcanon now. Helps too since the Eleemosynary makes no sense as a name and Teshik isn't a spice junkie like Takel was, thus explaining Magic Dragon.

What about the Inexorable? Considering it was in Thrawn's hands in c. 6 ABY, did it get transferred there before Endor or after Endor where it participated in the battle itself. Considering that Pellaeon's Star Destroyers ended up as Thrawn's main fleet in 9 ABY (Chimaera [confirmed at Endor], Death's Head [unconfirmed at Endor], Stormhawk [unconfirmed at Endor], Nemesis [unconfirmed at Endor], Inexorable [unconfirmed at Endor/or with Thrawn], Judicator [confirmed at Endor], Peremptory [unconfirmed at Endor], Bellicose [unconfirmed at Endor] and four unknown Star Destroyers (possibly including the Tyrant, Retaliator and Avenger), in addition to the Victory-class Star Destroyer Adamant [unconfirmed at Endor], a second unnamed Victory-class Star Destroyer and at least two Immobilizer 418 cruisers Constrainer and Sentinel [both unconfirmed at Endor]), Inexorable is an oddity. I'd like to imagine it was at Endor but could easily be Thrawn's flagship in the Unknown Regions he returned with to replace the twelfth Star Destroyer lost at some point prior (the Tyrant back in Imperial hands at this point).

 

It means "charitable". A nod to Teshik's being the nicest of the Grand Admirals.

 

Definitely sounds better as a non-Imperial class SD

 

Incidentally, this all is a classic case of the EU not getting the films. In the movie, Piett is in command. There’s no grand admirals or ruling councils in the command chain there - it’s the Emperor, Vader, then Piett.

 

I just love the idea that there is a stoned Grand Admiral aboard the Death Star while the Battle of Endor is raging on around it. Knowing this makes watching the RoTJ so much fun.

 

Admiral, welcome back. I do like this theory, particularly because it suggests that Isard was viewed by the Imperial High Command as just another rogue warlord, no better than Harrsk or Teradoc. It would explain why she had no other support ships at Thyferra and why she was reduced to bargaining with warlords for replacement starfighters. The fall of Coruscant cost Isard sny legitimacy she had as the Emperor’s Regent.

 

The Councilors are in the movie (the creepy pale guys in purple) but there's no indication of what they actually do. Also, Jerjerrod, a Moff, is there, and it sort of seems like he should be higher than Piett.

 

I would think that Death Squadron, the Interdictor line, Death Star 2 and whatever else was present were all under separate commands. Piett commanded Death Squadron while Jerjerrod commanded DS-2. The unified task force would've been led by the Grand Admirals, with Vader above them, and finally the Emperor in charge of everything. Since both Makati and Takel fled the battle, either of them could've ordered the Interdictors to stand down.

If we are to assume the Grand Admirals abandoned their forces, their lack of punishment could've easily been a political move on the part of Coruscant. As we know, Imperials immediately started defecting after Endor, including Grand Admirals. The Ruling Council was probably smart enough to see how delicate the situation was, and realized how valuable the Grand Admirals were. Being the highest ranking officers left in the Empire, appointed by Palpatine nonetheless, loyal Grand Admirals would grant Coruscant much-needed legitimacy. Indeed, when Thrawn returned, the Council embraced him when they had resisted other claimants to the Empire's leadership. The way I see it, the Grand Admirals were of enough value to Coruscant as to render them essentially untouchable.

 

Good to see you, McEwok.

I think that's the only view that makes sense. The Grand Admirals clearly weren't a part of any chain of command we saw at Endor prior to the destruction of the Death Star II, in the films or in Legends works. It makes more sense that they were there at the Emperor's invitation - "Come watch the end of the pitiful Rebellion" - with the exception of Declann, who probably got told something like "My will shall prop up and direct our fleet, but should I become occupied with more important matters, you shall carry out this task for me."

So when the Grand Admirals become aware that things have gone sideways and they have only minutes to escape the battle station, they aren't escaping as fleet officers, to join their commands - they're escaping as personal guests of the Emperor, to whatever safe point they can reach.

I think the sheer mass of the Death Star is more than sufficient to serve an interdictor role in most situations (remember, Pirates & Privateers establishes that even a chunk of rock towable by a Nebulon-B Frigate is enough to knock a ship out of hyperspace). Moreover, after it fulfilled its ship-killing role at the Battle of Endor, it's primary targets were going to be planets, which don't need to be interdicted.

It probably moved to block exit by the Sanctuary Pipeline, which is probably the only route the Rebels would be expected to have access to. As has been noted numerous times, the Endor System is a gravitational Sargasso which dumps countless castaways on the forest moon. Perhaps this is how the Interdictors are employed; the Sanctuary Pipeline was left open, but the other, dicier routes into the system were totally pinched off by one or two Interdictors each, so the Pipeline was the only way in or out for either side.

Another possibility.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Nope, pretty sure that didn't make it to the page anywhere. ;-)

Agreed.

Headcannon perhaps, but it makes sense!

Or, perhaps, as a very early ISD, before the Empire decided to go all-in on the "Are we the baddies?" starship names.

 

All we know is that they’re just dudes - for all the movie says, they could be Palpatine’s manicurist. Before I got into the EU, I always assumed that they were like the Emperor’s court wizards or something - they’re certainly more like the mystical Sheev then they are like any of the Empire’s other secular leaders.

 

According to my notes, a number of the ships you listed were at the Battle of Endor, according to the Essential Guide to Warfare (Death's Head, Stormhawk, Nemesis, Inexorable, Avenger).
There's also (somewhere) that I have the list of capital ships from X-Wing: Alliance that were present at the Battle of Endor.

 

Essential Guide to Warfare implies Death's Head, Stormhawk, Inexorable (though considering it was with Thrawn circa 6 ABY, I'm ambiguous), Nemesis, Peremptory and Bellicose were present but not confirmed.

 

Okay, I've looked through the EGW to see why I had noted those ships were at Endor.
In the section on the Battle of Endor, Death Squadron was said to consist of 33 ISDS, two battlecruisers (the Executor and the Ilthmar's Fist), and some other vessels. 15 of the ISDs were destroyed in battle, and when they split apart at Annaj, "Death Squadron was reduced to twelve Star Destroyers" (p. 185)
Under Thrawn's section, it is stated "He took command of the fleet defeated at Endor, now reduced to just a dozen Imperial Star Destroyers, of which only six ships were judged fully loyal to Bastion (the Chimaera, Death's Head, Judicator, Inexorable, Nemesis and Stormhawk) while remainder formed a second force under the ambitious Captain Dorja of the Relentless." (p. 201)
So, I think it's fair to assume the 7 listed ISDs were at the Battle of Endor.

 

The Executor wasn't one of the battlecruisers - it was a dreadnought. The second battlecruiser was the Pride of Tarlandia, which was the communications ship, which had its destruction described in the novel before the Executor's was.

 

You're right, Iron Lord, a hasty reading of the line led me to misunderstand - it should be the Pride of Tarlandia, Ilthmar's Fist and Executor as the SSD and two battlecruisers.

In any case, it looks like the Truce at Bakura SB is the source for the Interdictors at the edge of the battlefield at Endor. There's no information about what happens to them during the battle. Since they were there to prevent an Alliance retreat, they didn't necessarily have to engage, and the chaos following the destruction of the Executor and the Death Star II might have meant that they would've retreated.

 

Eleemosynary was an Imperial-class per Dan Wallace's old blog. (I wanted it to be another class as well, but, alas.)

 

Well, wouldn't be the first time something was retconned to a different class

 

All right... if anyone is interested, here's my fanon roster for Death Squadron's Star Destroyer (and SSD) complement at Endor. It's canon compliant but contains a lot of my own suppositions and invention so take from it what you like.

We know from several sources but especially Warfare that there were a number of flag officers present and in chain of command at Endor in addition to Piett; among them Blitzer Harrsk, Adye Prittick and Horst Strage. This actually makes sense: for a force as massive as the one at Endor-- 36 star destroyers and 3 super star destroyers, plus who knows how many hundreds or thousands of smaller capital vessels-- you'd expect there to be a lot of sub-organization. So I went ahead and grouped them into battle groups or whatever the term would be (probably Systems Forces going by the old ISB order of battle).

I can expand on my specific reasoning later, if anyone's interested; for now here's the list.

Format:
Name (provenance) - fate [source for presence/source for fate]
regular black text is stated directly by canon sources. blue is extrapolative fanon using elements of existing sources and connecting them; violet is deductive fanon which isn't explicit but imo is a step beyond extrapolation; magenta is pure invention albeit with a basis in canonical indicators.

"Group 1", commanded by Prittick in Avenger
Executor (Death Squadron original) - destroyed [RotJ/RotJ]
Pride of Tarlandia (unknown, probably added for Endor) - destroyed [EGtW/EGtW]
Avenger (Death Squadron original) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [CCG/DEII+EGtW]
Devastator (Death Squadron original) - destroyed [TEC/TEC]
Tyrant (Death Squadron original) - to Coruscant via Sanctuary Pipeline [BtM/TEC]
Stalker (Death Squadron original) - to Elrood via Annaj [CCG/EGtW]
Conquest (Death Squadron original) - destroyed [extrapolation from EGtW]

"Group 2", commanded by Coross in Vengeance
Vengeance (gifted from Jerec) - MIA, eventually back to Jerec [ext. CCG/ext. Dark Forces Saga]
Relentless (Death Squadron early addition) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Accuser (Death Squadron early addition) - captured [DE/DE]
Adjudicator (Death Squadron early addition) - captured [DE/DE]
Garret (Juris sector fleet pre-Hoth addition) - destroyed [ext. TIE Fighter]
Bellicose (Periphery sector fleet, added during Triellus op) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [EGtW/DFR]

"Group 3", commanded by Strage in Chimaera
Chimaera (Death Squadron addition, freshly refit) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [HttE/HttE]
Inexorable (Death Squadron expansion, fresh from KDY) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Nemesis (Death Squadron expansion, freshly refit) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Stormhawk (Death Squadron expansion, freshly refit) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Vehement (Death Squadron expansion, fresh from KDY) - destroyed [XWA/XWA]
Redoubtable (Death Squadron expansion, fresh from KDY) - crippled, to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [BtS/BtS]

"Group 4", commanded by ?? in Judicator
Judicator (Death Squadron addition) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Denunciator (Death Squadron expansion, fresh from KDY) - destroyed [XWA/extrapolation]
Indictor (Death Squadron expansion, fresh from KDY) - destroyed [XWA/extrapolation]
Imputator (Death Squadron expansion, fresh from KDY) - destroyed [XWA/extrapolation]
Retaliator (Death Squadron expansion, fresh from KDY) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [XWA/XW:SoA]
Eviscerator (Death Squadron expansion, fresh from KDY) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [ext. from XWRS]

Moddell sector fleet, commanded by ?? in Visage
Visage (Moddell sector fleet) - destroyed [CCG/extrapolation]
Peremptory (Moddell sector fleet) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]

Arrowhead Command, commanded by Harrsk in Whirlwind
Whilrlwind (Arrowhead Command) - to Deep Core via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Ilthmar's Fist (Arrowhead Command) - to Deep Core via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Firestorm (Arrowhead Command) - to Deep Core via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Groundquake (Arrowhead Command) - destroyed [my invention]
Whiteout (Arrowhead Command) - to Deep Core via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Thunderflare (Elrood sector, temporarily back with Arrowhead Command) - to Eldrood via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Pulsar (Tector, Arrowhead Command) - captured [EGtW/WBC]
Quasar (Tector, Arrowhead Command) - to Deep Core via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Magnetar (Tector, Arrowhead Command) - to Deep Core via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]

Coruscant detachment, delivering and escorting the Emperor
Eleemosynary (Teshik's flagship) - captured [WW:IGA/WW:IGA]
Death's Head (Coruscant sector fleet) - to Yag'Dhul via Annaj [EGtW/EGtW]
Virulence (Coruscant sector fleet) - to Coruscant via Sanctuary Pipeline [XW:TBW/ext. from XW:TBW]

So to sum up then the breakdown is this, based on numbers provided in Warfare:

Spoiler

3 Tector-class Star Destroyers
Pulsar - captured
Quasar - to Deep Core with Harrsk
Magnetar - to Deep Core with Harrsk

33 Imperial-class Star Destroyers
15 lost:
Devastator - destroyed
Tyrant - MIA (to Coruscant)
Conquest - destroyed
Vengeance - MIA (to Jerec)
Accuser - captured
Adjudicator - captured
Garret - destroyed
Vehement - destroyed
Denunciator - destroyed
Indictor - destroyed
Imputator - destroyed
Visage - destroyed
Groundquake - destroyed
Eleemosynary - remained behind, captured
Virulence - MIA (to Coruscant)

18 to Annaj; of these
3 to Deep Core with Harrsk:
Whirlwind
Firestorm
Whiteout

2 to Elrood:
Stalker
Thunderflare

This leaves 13 with Prittick & Pellaeon to head to Yag'Dhul and then (presumably) to Coruscant. 1 of these, Redoubtable, was so crippled it was sent to N'Zoth for repair and refit (per Before the Storm), where it was shortly thereafter captured by the Yevetha; the other 12 would remain in service and together for the next four years, long enough to form the core of Thrawn's fleet. Six of these were directly under Pellaeon, and considered loyal to Bastion:
Chimaera
Inexorable
Nemesis
Stormhawk
Death's Head
Judicator

The other six formed a less loyal force nominally under Dorja. The first three are known canonically; the other three can be deduced by elimination:
Relentless
Bellicose
Peremptory
Avenger
Retaliator
Eviscerator

For those final three, based on some loose evidence I've supposed they were actually loyal to Soontir Fel more than Dorja (though nominally part of his sub-task force)-- Eviscerator serves as the 181st's carrier at Brentaal (XWRS), and is part of a force of three ISDs, the other two of which are unnamed. Given what we know of Isard's suspicions toward Fel, I think it's likely she would have sent the ISDs loyal to him there in order to basically dare him to go warlord. And fittingly, both of the other two have assocations with the 181st: Avenger was directly screened by them during the battle of Endor, and Retaliator is part of the 181st-led fleet sent to capture the titular world in Starfighters of Adumar.