Ysanne Isard is the Imperial leader for era 1. She commands the Lusankya, an Executor-class Star Dreadnought.
Biography[]
Ysanne Isard served as the Director of Imperial Intelligence for several years during the Galactic Civil War, and ruled the Empire herself for a time after the Emperor's death in 4 ABY. Isard followed her father, Armand Isard, into Imperial Intelligence at a young age, blossoming into a model field agent. After the Alliance to Restore the Republic stole coordinates of the location of the Death Star's construction site, Ysanne was sent on a mission to the Planet Darkknell. While the mission was a failure, she survived but the prospect of losing considerable face back on Imperial Center infuriated Isard. She instead found a way to pin the blame on her father. Backed up by members of the Emperor's Royal Guard, she accused her father of treason; the Emperor had him executed within the hour, and she took her father's position as Director of Imperial Intelligence. Isard was exceptionally close to Palpatine, so much so that she was given the second Executor-class Star Dreadnought constructed, the Lusankya. Buried underneath the surface of her homeworld of Coruscant, the Lusankya became a prison and brainwashing facility, and Isard used it to torture the secrets out of many enemies of the Empire, as well as convert selected prisoners into sleeper agents.
After the Battle of Endor, Isard became an advisor to Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, all the while engineering his downfall. In the same day, Isard had Pestage and the Imperial Ruling Council assassinated, leaving her Empress in all but name. Isard commanded a sizable force at the height of her power, though the fact she held Coruscant made her a target for the New Republic. Knowing Coruscant would inevitably fall to the New Republic, she had the Krytos virus developed, so that they would inherit a sick world and hopefully fragment. After blasting off Coruscant in the Lusankya, Ysanne Isard supported a political coup of Thyferra, and became a warlord.
Use Ingame[]
The first leader of the Imperial Remnant, Isard has a rather lackluster command bonus in comparison to later leaders such as Thrawn or Pellaeon, with only a 15% damage boost. However, she makes up for this with the ship that she commands, the Lusankya, an Executor-class Star Dreadnought. Being matched only by the Pentastar Alignment in raw might, Isard grants the Imperial Remnant a powerful head start at the beginning of a campaign. In addition, the Imperial Remnant still maintains its ability to construct new Executors at capital shipyards while Isard lives. Those playing as the Imperial Remnant would be wise to take advantage of this ability while it is available, as once Isard is dead, the Remnant cannot construct new Executors until Era 4, when the New Republic and Empire of the Hand have access to far more powerful ships that can give them an edge over the Remnant. However, if the player wishes to gain access to more powerful weapons and heroes, particularly the ones available in Era 3, Isard must be sacrificed. Send her alone to an enemy planet with a large fleet of capital ships and carriers, and face her away from any large threats in order to move on to the next era.
Those playing against the Imperial Remnant, on the other hand, would do well to kill Isard as quickly as possible, in order to deny them the use of any Executors. Players should attempt to catch or lure Isard into battle when she is alone, or with few escorts, and dispatch her in the same manner as they would a normal Executor.