After the end of the Onderon Crusade the fortunes of the Empire continued to fade. System after system began to break away, ignoring the authority of the core worlds. As urbanized planets depending on outside sources of food and other vital supplies, the populations of many core world planets, including Coruscant, began to suffer deprivation. Events surrounding the abdication of the Empress Talmerith are obscure. Whether she willingly abdicated, abdicated in the face of an ultimatum, or simply fled upon seeing the approach of General Selkisto's forces, is unknown.