Illustration by John VanFleet. “Star Wars: Allegiance.” January, 2007.
Timothy Zahn expanded upon Mara Jade’s time as the Emperor’s Hand in the first of the Hand of Judgement series, in 2007. The first edition hardcover of “Star Wars: Allegiance” displayed a spread of the Hand of Judgement stormtrooper squad and Mara Jade, as depicted by artist John VanFleet. In an interview with StarWars.com, Zahn spoke about his inclusion of Mara in the novel:
“This is Mara's earliest story (at least by me) - all the others I've written take place during or after Return of the Jedi. One of the reasons I wanted to write Allegiance was to be able to show her in her role as the Emperor's Hand, and to show how she could serve the Empire without being corrupted by it. Palpatine wants to keep Mara under his control, but as something other than a Sith. I see her as a grand experiment: if he's limited to one Sith apprentice, perhaps he can still extend his power by having a single apprentice plus a group of lower-power non-Sith Force users like Mara.”