Cempo Shalk

Cempo Shalk was a male member of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine's personal Red Guard during the Clone Wars. In 19 BBY, Lieutenant Shalk and fellow guard Halland Goth escorted Palpatine and his party to a performance at the Galaxies Opera House on the planet Coruscant. Shalk stood in Palpatine's private box until the chancellor dismissed the rest of his party to speak with the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, at which point Shalk escorted the others out.

Later that year, after the Republic transitioned into the Galactic Empire, Galactic Emperor Palpatine assigned Shalk, Goth and five other Royal Guards to accompany Skywalker, now known as Darth Vader, to the planet Diso in search of a resurrectionist. On Diso, a local man guided the Imperials to the clearing where the resurrectionist, local shaman Ensoor-Koda-Za, lived.

When Vader and the guardsman confronted the shaman in his cave, the shaman drove the guardsman out with fire and was presumed dead; however, he survived and confronted Shalk and his allies once again in the settlement Adera as they prepared to leave. During the confrontation, Vader used the Force to rip up much of the surrounding town and Shalk was impaled by a timber stake. He remained in critical condition for the group's entire journey back to Coruscant on an Imperial shuttle, but was kept alive with a medkit and received good care once the trip was complete.

Biography

At the opera

Cempo Shalk was a man who, during the reign of the Galactic Republic, served in^[1] the Red Guard,^[2] the personal bodyguards of the Republic's leader, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. During the Clone Wars^[1] in 19 BBY,^[3] Shempo held the rank of lieutenant and escorted Palpatine and his party to^[1] a performance of the opera Squid Lake^[4] at the Galaxies Opera House on the Republic capital Coruscant. During the show, Shalk stood at the rear of Palpatine's private box with fellow Red Guard Halland Goth while Palpatine sat with his chief of staff Sly Moore, Vice Chair Mas Amedda, and^[1] Senator Sweitt Concorkill.^[5]

When the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker arrived at the box part way through the performance, Palpatine greeted him and summoned him over. The Supreme Chancellor then dismissed Moore, Amedda, and Concorkill,^[6] who Shalk escorted out of the private box, leaving Palpatine, Skywalker, and Goth alone. Shortly after Palpatine and Skywalker's encounter at the opera house, the Clone Wars came to an end and the victorious Republic transitioned into the Galactic Empire with Palpatine as Galactic Emperor. Shalk and the other Red Guards became the Emperor's Royal Guard under this new regime, with Goth being appointed their leader.^[1]

Dispatched to Diso

Later in 19 BBY,^[7] Shalk was one of six royal guards under the command of Goth who the Emperor assigned to accompany his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader, to the planet Diso in the Expansion Region. After Palpatine informed Vader—who unbeknownsts to the guards was secretly Skywalker—that he would be investigating a supposed "ressurectionist" on Diso, the Emperor summoned Shalk and the other guards with a press of a button on his throne in his office at the pinacle of the Imperial Executive Building on Coruscant. The squad then marched into the office and Goth introduced himself to Vader, after which they were soon joined by Imperial Security Bureau Supervisor Korali Desler, who casually glanced over Shalk and the other guards.^[1]

Vader objected to having guards, but Palpatine dismissed his complaint and so Vader left in silence. Once Vader was gone, the Emperor told Shalk and the others that they were now under Vader's command and dimissed them as well. In the lobby outside the office, Goth ordered the six other guards to head to their barracks and prepare for depature and so Shalk and the others filed away. Hours later, Shalk and the rest of the squad departed Coruscant with Vader in a shuttle and made the relatively long journey to the Diso system. They landed in the spaceport of Adera, the only settlement of note on Diso, and before they disembarked Vader gave a single order: find the ressurectionist of Diso.^[1]

Forest guide

Vader and Goth then remained in Adera's market square waiting while Shalk and the five other Royal Guards began going door to door to question the residents of the town, who had made themselves scarce upon the imposing arrival of the Imperials. The process took longer then Goth had expected and it was late in the day when the Royal Guards finally came up with a lead. Two of the guards brought a local man before Vader who had agreed to guide them to the resurrectionist, who was the local shaman, Ensoor-Koda-Za.^[1]

The guide led Shalk and his comrades in a fairly straight line through the dense trees of the ancient woodland that surrounded Adera for over an hour and a half through heavy rain. When the local finally stopped, Goth signalled Shalk and the others to remain in place before proceeding to the forest's edge with Vader and the guide. Ahead of them lay a large clearing in which the shaman's cave was located.^[1]

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Equipment

At both the opera house^[6] and while on Diso, Shalk wore the distinctive red ceremonial robes and cowl-like mask of Palpatine's guard. The uniform was designed for pomp and circumstance and also to elicit fear in those who saw it, but on Diso it proved impractical.^[1]

Behind the scenes

Cempo Shalk first appeared in the 2005 prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.^[6] The character was first identified in the 2025 novel Master of Evil, by Adam Christopher.^[1] Christopher suggested that the character was named for his fellow Star Wars author Chris Kempshall. Christopher was also amused to see the character receive a Wookieepedia, a fan-run encyclopedia of the Star Wars universe.^[8]

Appearances

• Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (First appearance)
• Master of Evil (and audiobook) (First identified as Cempo Shalk)

Notes and references