The Emperor's Royal Guard

The Emperor's Royal Guard, also referred to as the Imperial Royal Guard or Imperial Guard, was an elite order of protectors assigned to Emperor Sheev Palpatine of the Galactic Empire. Armed with force pikes and fully clad in their anonymous helmets and crimson robes, the Royal Guards were a silent, imposing, and deadly force in the Emperor's service. In addition to strict requirements of height, strength, intelligence, and loyalty, only the most capable soldiers in the Imperial Military qualified for duty in the ranks of the Royal Guard.

Prior to the Age of the Empire, the Senate Guard was responsible for the security of the Supreme Chancellor and the Galactic Senate of the Republic. Their service to the government's executive branch diminished under the chancellery of Palpatine, who gradually supplemented the Senate Guards with clone shock troopers of the Coruscant Guard along with a new force of bodyguards known as the Red Guard.

Recruited from the ranks of the Senate Guard, the Red Guards steadily supplanted their counterparts as the protectors of Chancellor Palpatine over the course of the Clone Wars. With the end of the war and the Proclamation of the New Order in 19 BBY, the newly-anointed Emperor Palpatine retained the red-robed guards—now a force of royal bodyguards—whereas the Senate Guard was disbanded and replaced by Imperial stormtroopers and the Royal Guard.