Stormtroopers
From the Movies
The military soldiers unswervingly loyal to the Emperor, stormtroopers represented the most visible extension of Imperial might. They were shock troopers meant to strike with speed and accuracy, putting down insurrections and maintaining order on the farflung worlds of the Empire. Stormtroopers served both the ground-based armies of Palpatine's forces, and the space-based Imperial starfleet.
Stormtrooper training stressed complete indoctrination in the tenets of the New Order, and individuals would obey their officers without question, without regard to the rights of others or even to their own safety.
Stormtroopers abandoned individuality in exchange for their loyalty. They are completely encased in a white armored spacesuit shell, and are armed with blaster pistols or blaster rifles. Their helmets contain comlinks for long-range communications. Officers were denoted with colored shoulder pauldrons. Specific environments called for specially trained and equipped stormtroopers, such as the snowtroopers that besieged the ice world of Hoth and the lightly-armored scout troopers that patrolled the forests of Endor.
From the Expanded Universe
Stormtroopers were totally loyal to the Empire and cannot be bribed, seduced or blackmailed.
Stormtrooper unit organization was separate to that of the Imperial Army and Navy, although this elite unit supported both arms of the Imperial Military. They followed similar organization patterns: squads, platoons, companies, battalions, regiments, and battlegroups (called legions). A stormtrooper battalion had 820 men. The health of stormtroopers was the responsibility of the Naval Biological group.
Specialized stormtrooper units included aquatic assault stormtroopers trained to operate in marine environments (seatroopers). They featured modified scout armor, with breathing tanks, flippers, and a helmet-mounted spotlight. They were assigned to aquatic garrisons, and were trained to operate patrol vehicles such as waveskimmers and wavespeeders.
Blackhole stormtroopers were a special branch of Imperial stormtrooper answering directly to the Imperial Intelligence agent Blackhole. Blackhole stormtroopers wore the same armor as regular stormtroopers, except that it was painted black and coated in a stygian-polymer substance that baffled sensor readings.
The cold assault stormtroopers, or Blizzard Force snowtroopers, wore specially modified armor for cold weather environments. It included a more powerful heating unit, and an airtight fabric oversuit. To facilitate breathing, a breather hood covered the faceplate and fed into the suit liner.
Desert stormtroopers, or sandtroopers, were identical to normal stormtroopers except for their specialized training and slightly modified armor. This elite corps emphasized independent-thinking more than standard stormtrooper units.
Stormtrooper scout units were usually assigned to garrison posts. Their mission profiles often equipped them with speeder bikes; as such these men were usually called biker scouts. A scout's armor is more flexible and lighter than a standard trooper's.
While standard stormtrooper armor provides some protection against hard vacuum, the zero-G stormtroopers, or spacetrooper, division trained for exclusive space combat. They wore massive suits of armor, powered by servomotors. Each suit functioned as a miniature spacecraft, with propulsion systems, sensor systems, and weapons. In full gear, a spacetrooper stood over two meters tall and was twice as wide as an unarmored soldier. In standard deployment, spacetroopers struck from assault shuttles that carried them to a target. The troopers then launched, using their weapons to secure and board the vessel.
A spacetrooper's armor featured concussion grenades, mini-proton torpedo launchers, a blaster cannon, and laser-cutters.
Radiation zone assault troops, or radtroopers, were a little known division of elite stormtroopers trained to handle irradiated combat zones. Their armor featured a lead-polymer substrate and a silvery reflective finish.
Other specialized Imperial trooper divisions included flying airtroopers, tunneling underminers, and magma troopers who crushed revolts on volcanic mining worlds.
Following the collapse of the Empire at Endor, stormtroopers were an increasingly rare sight in the galaxy. It was not until Grand Admiral Thrawn procured a working set of Spaarti cloning cylinders that the Imperial ranks of stormtroopers began to be replenished.
Behind the Scenes The stormtroopers can trace similar thematic origins as the faceless android police officers of Lucas' first feature, THX-1138. Even their processed voices sound hauntingly similar. The faceless ranks of unending soldiers are meant to underscore the inhuman nature of the Empire. This is vividly contrasted by the Alliance ranks, that aren't clad in face concealing armor, and instead bear a human face.
The original stormtrooper design came out of Ralph McQuarrie's illustrations. Costume designer John Mollo took McQuarrie's concepts and puzzled together how the pieces would fit based on his knowledge of medieval armor.
