2638, First System Army
In fact, Palpatine's plan was to appoint these twelve marshals and have them become a force dependent on him, yet relatively independent from the other powers and factions.
Moreover, unlike what many nobles of the Core Worlds believed—that these men were a motley bunch—the twelve marshals, while not necessarily holding lofty positions or immense power, were undoubtedly genuinely capable. At the very least, they all had promising futures.
Take Niel Declann, for example, who had been promoted directly from pilot to marshal. He was Force-sensitive, had received Dark Jedi Knight training, and possessed strong organizational skills as well.
Then there was Miltin Tarkel, who fought only when drugged. But looking at it the other way around, once he took drugs, he truly knew how to wage war!
Of the three marshals with technical backgrounds, Matteo Batch's stealth technology and Demitrius Zaarin's TIE Defender fighter were both genuine achievements. Orman Tagge, aside from his naive political ideals, was also a top-tier researcher, and he had indeed organized the Cutting-Edge Technology Alliance very well.
Furthermore, appointing Orman Tagge was also an explanation to the great Noble Houses of the Core Worlds.
So Palpatine's appointments of these marshals had actually been quite shrewd. The criticism mainly came because their appointments did not align with the interests of all sides.
But clearly, Palpatine had never intended for these appointments to align with everyone's interests.
He merely wanted to establish a circle that belonged solely to himself. This circle belonged neither to the Navy, nor to the New Order Maintenance Committee, nor to the technical officials, yet it was intricately connected to every one of them.
In truth, this was essentially another version of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Take Ruffan Digorinus. Although he had only fought pirates and was