Empire and Rebel Alliance

[CTTT]

So, in trying to figure the lore out, the Empire is the enemy that includes characters like Palpatine, Vadar, etc. and they face off against the rebel alliance which includes Luke, Han, etc. Who are the rebels and where are they defecting from?

[Starter Set]

Well, the full name of the rebellion explains it all : the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

The Empire is a short lived anomaly in the long, long, looooooong, history of the Republic. A bit like communism is in the centuries long, quite royalist, history of Russia.

[Tofali]

The Republic was made up of the Senate, the Jedi and the Clones as the diplomacy and military arm of the Republic

The Empire is a powerless Senate that abdicated it's power to Emperor Palpatine, the Sith (Vader & Inquisitors) and the Stormtroopers (and more) are the Imperial enforcement military arm of the Empire.

Who are the rebels

To simplify in the Star Wars universe I'd say anyone that goes against the Galactic Empire taking over or exploiting their worlds by joining a rebel cell

where are they defecting from?

This is a bit broad. Sone are Senators, cadets in the Imperial Navy and Imperial Academy, Imperial Security Bureau, Imperial Minister etc

Watch Star Wars Rebels it will give you a lot of examples and answers to your question.

[ChrisIII]

The story of the Empire's founding is in the Star Wars prequels. Basically, a Sith Lord (the thought-extinct enemies of the Jedi Knights) creates a crisis on his home planet to get elected as Chancellor of the Republic, a government composed of several worlds and largely protected by the Jedi Knights, an order who use the ability called the force which grants them foresight, telekinesis, and some telepathy. They're sort of peacekeepers and sort of have the functions of a police force but also help with diplomacy. (The Phantom Menace)

He then uses this on a larger scale to justify creating a military force-one that conveniently pops up at the right time (Attack of the Clones)

His next move uses this force to frame and destroy the Jedi an quickly end the war (with the corrupted Jedi and new Sith Lord Darth Vader by his side), and the Republic is reorganized into the Galactic Empire, which becomes a more brutal and evil state.

Although Palpatine keeps the senate, he also installs regional military governors (Moffs) to oversee the sectors.

When he finally completes the first Death Star, he ends the senate as well as he figures the Moffs and the Death Star will be enough to control the galaxy.

As for the Rebels, as noted they come from a wide group, and largely start as smaller cells (Like Solo's Cloud flyers) before they eventually become a full alliance (although they leave out some of the more radical groups like Saw Gerrara's partisans). Although they have a few skirmishes in the Rebels series, the true start of the Galactic Civil War is shown in Rogue One.


In the sequels, a new Republic is formed, but are blind that there's a new group modeled after the Empire (First Order). Leia's group the Resistance starts as sort of a watchdog group but then becomes the only hope when the First Order destroys the Republic capital.