What would happen to the Empire if Coruscant was destroyed?

[Mr. Oragahn]

Hey, simple question, isn't it?
Probably the first thing to do is give an era. The Galactic Empire has evolved throughout its history, from the day Palpatine declared himself Emperor, to the day he actually died.
In the meantime, the bureaucracy changed a lot. The senate was dismantled relatively late in the Empire's history, it was largely occupying the minds and hearts of Republic aficionados. Moff were put into charge of large swathes of the Old Republic's territories, and progressively saw their power grow. But with one man at the top of the pyramid, the Emperor.
So we can probably separate the Empire into a few suberas, easily prequel-era, the OT-era, and the in between-era.
Next thing to do is assess the importance of Coruscant, notably by what is found on Coruscant, and what goes through Coruscant. This way, it will be easier to understand its role and importance in the Galactic Empire.

[Praeothmin]

Civil war, nothing less.
All the local Warlords will try to grab power, all the small "empires" or federations will use their armies to try to grab as much territory as possible.
Unlike the Federation, the Empire's rule is based on fear of the Emperor, so I don't see things going as well for it should Coruscant fall...

[Mike DiCenso]

Simple. If the Emperor and Vader are there when Coruscant is destroyed, the Rebellion wins.
-Mike

[Youngla0450]

Vader is most likely to be somewhere at the other side of the galaxy, since most of his time is spent traveling; so only Palpatine dies, since he almost always is holed up in his Palace. It is faintly likely Palpatine will be on Byss, since he meditates on that world.