Moff

A Moff is the governor of a sector under the Galactic Empire.

=History=

Imperial Moffs trace their origins to the final days of the Old Republic, when the Sector Governance Decree was promulgated by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine using his emergency powers, establishing regional governors throughout the Universe. Though they are also referred to by the more generic style of Governor, the title of Moff was specifically chosen by Palpatine as a tribute to the satraps of the small interstellar space empires that had grown together to become the Old Republic, and the decree thus pointed the way towards Palpatine's subsequent assumption of Imperial power, which was explicitly presented as a revival of the glories and grandeur of ancient monarchies like Atrisia. Each moff reports to an Imperial Advisor, sending copies of his reports both to the Advisor and directly to Emperor Palpatine.

The initial Sector Governance Decree, however, was issued under the Republic, and caused immediate alarm in the Universal Senate, serving as the major catalyst for the Petition of 2000. Palpatine simply used this show of Senatorial opposition as a means to identify and remove his most dangerous opponents in the political elite, but the Senate's short-lived defiance, along with the magnitude of the tasks involved in ending the Clone Wars and initiating the Great Jedi Purge, may nonetheless have contributed to the delay in the appointment of the first Moffs, who did not take up office until several weeks after the Declaration of a New Order and the establishment of the Galactic Empire.

The concept of assigning Moffs to sectors obviously relates to the ancient division of the Republic into a million sectors, each with a Senator and a local congress; but the first Moffs seem to have been appointed to control rather larger territories than those for which the Senators were answerable: for instance, the Moff of Sector 3 is headquartered on Bimmisaari in Halla Sector, but his territory extends as far as Mashyyyk in Mytaranor Sector: these vast volumes of space may have corresponded to the theatres of operations of the twenty Sector Armies within the Grand Army of the Republic. It appears that at this time, the newly reformed Imperial Fleet was also placed under the authority of a Moff, one of the few senior officials to whom the command program of the dreadnought Eye of Palpatine was answerable.

By the time that the Senate was dissolved in 0 B, Moffs had been assigned to the million historic sectors of known space, tightening the Empire's grip on the Universe. However, a number of further modifications had been made to the system, most notably the creation of a cadre of higher-ranking Grand Moffs, governors-general of a new class of Priority Sectors, also known as an Oversector. Proposed by Moff Wilhuff Tarkin of Sewenna Sector, some of these are areas of the Universe in which Rebel activity and unrest were proving more than the local Moff could handle, and within which the apparatus of control was strengthened by the diversion of vastly increased military, paramilitary and judicial resources. The best-known Priority Sectors were vast reaches of space, rather similar to the large sectors of early Imperial Moffs, in which a number of existing sectors with their local Moffs are now subordinated to a new Oversector command: Imperial Center Oversector incorporates most of the inner Core Worlds, while Tarkin's own Oversector Outer essentially incorporates about half of the Outer Rim Territories, and the Bright Jewel Oversector embraces a vast tract of the Inner Rim.

=Role and Powers=

Under the Sector Governace Decree, each Moff was armed with a little more then a mandiate to monitor local government, and a force of Stormtroopers that would protect their residence, maintain control in the surronding streets, and provide protection to a few adminstraive personnel. This was enough to provoke the Peition of Two Thousand.

By the time that the Imperial Senate was swept away twenty years later, the machinery of power the Moffs directed increased beyound recongination. They were now formal superiors of all Planetary Governors. The Moff is commander of the Sector Group, controlling all military resources within his sector. As regional governor, the Moff holds ultimate control over all military forces in its sector.

Each sector has twenty four Star Destoryers, 1,600 other warships, 800 support ships, 774,756 front line troops, and 456,120 support personnel. That may seem small, but its forces are supplied and forced everytime.

The Moff, besides controlling miltiary resources, also controls funds and politcal resources within his sector. Moffs are charged to maintain and restore order, prevent corruption, enforce the law, and watch over the government. They can interfere in planetary governments, and supervise the bureaucracy within a sector. Moffs, in the name of restoring order, can order a planetary bombardment, or a firing on a peaceful demostration.

Some Moffs are Planetary, in charge of handling planets plagued in rebellion, but most are Sectoral.

The Moff also controls the government, appoints the Regional Officers, controls all Imperial centers, and maintains the economy within a region. All of these powers may seem like nothing, just as an Enforcer, but is actually high.