First of all, we would like to congratulate you on taking the decision to join the 501st Legion: Nordic Garrison. We are a close-knit, fun group of people who take our love for Star Wars costuming and turn it into a force for good by doing a lot of work for children’s charities within our territory.

Basic requirements

Before you can join us you need to make sure you meet our basic requirements. You must:

• be at least 18 years old
• own a professional quality Star Wars bad guy costume

If you prefer to join the light side of the Force then you should visit the Nordic Base’s website.

Getting started

So how do you get a costume that will be up to the high standards of the 501st Legion? The first step for you is to decide which costume you want to get. For a full list of the costumes that can be accepted for 501st Legion membership, please visit the Costume Reference Library.

Once you have done that, begin your research. There are two main places you should look. First is the Nordic Garrison forum (see below) and the second is the 501st Legion detachment for your costume type. While the Nordic Garrison members will be happy to help you, it is the detachments where you will find the armour makers and the real experts for each costume. You will find the correct detachment for your chosen costume in the Costume Reference Library.

Register for the Nordic Garrison forum

Although not a part of the formal application process, we highly recommend that you register for access to the Nordic Garrison forum. There you will be able to introduce yourself, ask for advice on what parts to buy and where and, just as importantly, what parts you should not buy. There are a lot of people out there selling costumes that they claim reach Legion standards. Unfortunately the truth is that they are often far below our standard and result in people being declined for membership.

Complete an application

Once your costume is complete and you are happy with how it looks, decide what you would like your four digit TK-ID to be. As we have a large number of members, many ID’s are already taken. You can see a full list of which ID’s are currently available here. Choose several in case your first choice is taken while your application is being processed.

The next step is to fill in the 501st Legion application form online.

Please note: We all work as volunteers so it may take some time for us to get back to you. Please do not start asking about why you have not been contacted until at least one week has passed after you submit your application. Thank you.

Prepare your photographs

Once the GML has looked at your application, they will contact you to ask for photographs of your costume for validation.

We will need five pictures of you, ALONE, with a PLAIN BACKGROUND

• one with your helmet on, taken from directly in front, standing at attention looking straight into the camera
• one with your helmet on, taken from the right
• one with your helmet on, taken from the left
• one with your helmet on, taken from the back
• one with your helmet off, standing in a suitable pose (look here for some suggestions)

These pictures will not only serve as your verification for the membership officer, but will be edited and placed within an Imperial frame, for eventual posting to the Legion and Garrison websites (click here to see Legion founder Albin Johnson’s record for an example of what your pictures will end up looking like).

Send your pictures to [email protected].

Wait for an answer from the GML

After looking at your photographs the GML will decide if your costume meets our standards or not. If it does then it will be passed to the Legion Membership Officer. If it does not then the GML will send you a list of what you need to alter to be approved. This process may go through several iterations before all issues are solved but do not become discouraged. We do this to make sure that you end up with a great costume that you can be really proud of.

Depending on your costume and the quality of the pictures sent in, this can either happen within a week or take several weeks to sort out.

Wait for communication from the 501st LMO

Once the GML has approved your costume it is passed to the Legion Membership Officer. In some cases, for example Sith Lords, the LMO will have a second look at your costume and verify that it meets our standards. Normally this is not a problem but occasionally they may suggest further improvements before finalising your membership.

If your application is approved, you will receive an email confirmation to that effect, at which time you will get your TK-ID assignment and your record is marked is ‘ACTIVE’ in the Empire’s database, which auto-generates a webpage on our site under the appropriate costumes that have been validated (please refer to the 501st Legion Members Area for reference).

PLEASE NOTE: This process should take only a week BUT it can take up to three weeks!

Start ‘TROOPING’!

Congratulations, you are now a member of Nordic Garrison. If you have not already registered for the Nordic Garrison forum then do that now. Once your user has been approved, make a post in this thread to ask for Legion level access. You will then be given access to our members only section where you can sign up for events, join in merchandise runs and lots more.

For further information regarding what we do and how to join, please read the Legion charter.