Zan Contispex was a statesman and military officer who first served the Fel Empire, then Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire before defecting to the Empire-in-exile, and later carried out his own coup d'état against the Galactic Federation Triumvirate in 147 ABY. Following the coup, he became the dictatorial Holy Emperor of the new Holy Galactic Empire, a government based on Palpatine's original Galactic Empire. He was a descendent of the Contispex dynasty, which produced several Supreme Chancellors in the years of the Galactic Republic.