UPDATE - 1st. December 2010 (Top Secret: Dossier on the Imperial Agent!)

Top Secret: Dossier on the Imperial Agent!

Who is the Imperial Agent?

The Imperial Agent is the ghost inside the Empire who ensures the people’s loyalty. She could be your neighbor, your lover or your superior officer. When rebellion stirs, she silences or discredits those who commit treason. She’s always alert, always watching for signs of dissent, and with a word, she can consign you to a dark cell for the rest of your life.

The Imperial Agent is the undercover spy who’s earned the trust of powerful individuals inside the Republic. She attends all the best parties, steals the plans of Senators and generals, and knows just what to sabotage and just who to kill to bring whole fleets crashing down around her. When she’s discovered, she’ll disappear with a smile.

The Imperial Agent is the special operative who cleans up the messes made by Sith Lords who can’t see the big picture—or who further their own agenda at the expense of the greater good. Without anyone realizing it, the Imperial Agent keeps the Empire from falling apart by arranging backroom deals and undertaking secret missions into the underbelly of the Empire.

The Imperial Agent is the Intelligence officer who hunts down enemies no one else ever hears about—conspiracies, rogue Jedi, ascendancy malcontents, black ops groups inside the Strategic Information Service, and worse. No one will ever know about her victories, but the secrets she collects make her powerful… and that’s the way she likes it.

Long story short? The Imperial Agent is an expert at infiltration, seduction and assassination. She’s part of Imperial Intelligence. And she’s whoever she needs to be to get the job done.

Creating a New Class

One of our goals for the Imperial Agent was to take a fresh look at the Star Wars universe. We know what life is like for Jedi and Sith, smugglers and bounty hunters—but what does it mean to be a citizen of the Empire, charged with protecting its people and bringing glory to its Sith rulers? What does it take to be part of a military machine—not as a soldier on the front lines or a scheming Grand Moff, but as a player in politics and espionage? What sort of person navigates a galaxy of superweapons and superhumans with only his training and his wits, knowing that one wrong word could mean secrets exposed and wars lost? What’s the ultimate goal for such an individual? Power? Thrills? Or simply an Empire safe from its enemies?

The Imperial Agent is an unusual class in that it doesn’t neatly fit a specific Star Wars movie archetype. Oh, espionage clearly has a role in the setting—in the original trilogy alone, we see stolen Death Star plans, mysterious cloaked informants, good-hearted businessmen blackmailed into betraying old friends, infiltration teams flying salvaged enemy ships, and more—but the operatives themselves are rarely front-and-center. In a game with the scope of Star Wars: The Old Republic, however, creating a class to deal directly with this setting element seemed natural.

That addresses the “agent” part of the class. But why “Imperial”? We see a lot of loyal officers of the Empire in the films without getting inside their heads. Grand Moff Tarkin is the only character Darth Vader ever treats as an equal—he can stare Darth Vader down even as Vader violently chokes people around him. But why? How does an ordinary man like Tarkin come to “hold Vader’s leash,” and how would a lower-ranking officer ever survive a Sith’s wrath? Is it by proving yourself invaluable, or by having a secret edge your superiors can’t beat?

There’s also a lot to be explored in the role of the defender of a despotic nation. The Sith Empire has done terrible things, yes—but trillions of ordinary Imperial citizens believe in its cause. The Empire isn’t mired in the chaos and mediocrity of the democratic Republic. The Empire promises that great men will rise to the top, and lesser men can be proud to serve. Many Imperial Intelligence officers are genuinely patriotic, believers in the system… and others are jaded, self-serving or idealistic reformers. If we were going to create a game where half our stories take place from the Imperial perspective, we needed a class that dived deep into the Imperial story.

Secrets of the Imperial Agent

That’s enough background and context. Let’s talk specifically about what you’re going to see and do in the Imperial Agent class story.

It all starts on Hutta, where XXX XXXXXX is trying to XXXX the XXXXXXXXXX of XXXXXX the Hutt. After XXX XXXXX XXXXXXX, the Imperial Agent XX XXXX XX XXXXXXXXXXX X XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX on behalf of Darth XXXXX. He’ll work alongside a genetically enhanced XXXXXXX, encounter double-agents and triple-agents, betray XXX XXX XXXXXX or perform atrocities in the name of the Empire. The Imperial Agent will need to determine his own loyalties and the loyalties of those around him, and survive the attentions of XXXXXXX successor, the Sith Lord XXXXX XXXXXXX.

The Republic military, the SIS and the Jedi will all have a part to play as well, and that’s just the beginning—enough to give you a taste without spoiling what’s to come.

Conclusion

Playing the Imperial Agent isn’t for everyone. He’ll never be out front with a Lightsaber or torching Droids with a flamethrower, and he’ll never receive fame and recognition for his successes. The Imperial Agent lives in the shadows and, when he does his job right, no one ever realizes he was there. His best weapons are a sniper rifle, his gadgets and his ability to charm or lie his way through any situation. He works for an Empire that places little value on an individual operative’s life.

It’s going to be rough. It’s going to be fun.

For those of you giving it a try, one last word of advice: Whatever you do? Don’t trust XXXXXX.

Alexander Freed
Senior Writer