Star Wars Legends Wiki
Register
Advertisement


Emperor Sheev Palpatine
Darth Sidious
Biographical Information
Born82 BBY
Died
  • 4 ABY, Endor
  • 10 ABY, Byss
  • 10 ABY, Eclipse above Da Soocha V
  • 11 ABY, Onderon
  • Physical Description
    SpeciesHuman (Nabooian)
    GenderMale
    Height1.73/1.78 meters
    Hair color
  • Red
  • Gray
  • White
  • Eye colorBlue; Yellow/Red (dark side)
    Skin colorFair, later Pale
    Chronological and Political Information
    Era
  • Rise of the Empire Era
  • Rebellion Era
  • New Republic Era
  • Affiliation
  • House Palpatine
  • Damask Holdings
  • Royal House of Naboo
  • Order of the Sith Lords
  • Naboo Diplomatic Corps
  • Old Galactic Republic
  • Old Republic Senate
  • Trade Federation
  • Separatist Alliance
  • First Galactic Empire
  • Dark Empire
  • Known MastersDarth Plagueis
    Known Apprentices
  • Darth Maul
  • A Nikto
  • Vergere
  • Darth Tyranus
  • Garth Ezzar
  • Darth Vader
  • Ferus Olin (Informal)
  • Mara Jade
  • Cronal
  • Lumiya
  • Luke Skywalker (Briefly)
  • Darth Sidious, born as Sheev Palpatine, was a Human male was trained in the Dark Side of the Force by Darth Plagueis, and would grow up to become Dark Lord of the Sith. Recorded by history as the most powerful Sith Lord who had ever lived, Sidious followed his master's teachings, and would soon overthrow the Old Galactic Republic and destroy the Old Jedi Order from within. Born in 82 BBY on the world of Naboo, Sheev Palpatine was a member of the noble House Palpatine. At a young age, Sheev discovered that he was Force-sensitive, but would learn the ways of the Sith in 65 BBY when he met Hego Damask, a Muun businessman who was revealed to be the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. Hoping to learn his Plagueis' dark side teachings, Sheev murdered his father Cosinga and changed his name to Darth Sidious. Sidious spent most of his life, serving an untarnished career as Naboo's ambassador in the Old Republic Senate while learning from his master. He eventually took on his first apprentice, training a young Zabrak Darth Maul from the world of Dathomir.

    Skilled and powerful in the dark side of the Force, Sidious and Plagueis were able to conceal their identities from the Jedi for several decades. As Plagueis privately searched for the key to eternal life, Sidious manipulated galactic politics, culminating in the blockade of Naboo by the Trade Federation in 32 BBY. In the wake of the political crisis, the Galactic Senate voted to elect him as Supreme Chancellor in accordance with Darth Bane's Rule of Two. After Sidious was elected as the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, he murdered his master and usurped the role of Sith Master. However, after his apprentice was defeated and injured by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sidious was unaware that Maul was alive, and was in need of a new apprentice. When he learned that a Jedi Master named Count Dooku left the Jedi Order, Sidious contacted him and named him "Darth Tyranus", making him as his second Sith Apprentice. Together, they formed the Separatist Alliance to spark a civil war. He was given sweeping central, emergency powers to handle the Separatist crisis, and he raised the Grand Army of the Republic to fight the Separatists in a galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars. The clone troopers in the Grand Army had been secretly commissioned by the Sith, and each contained a bio-chip with a preprogrammed protocol to eliminate the Jedi, the sworn enemies of the Sith, when the order was given.

    At the war's end in 19 BBY, the vast majority of Republic citizens rallied behind Chancellor Palpatine, giving him enough support to amend the Galactic Constitution in the name of security and transfer most of the Senate's executive authority to his own office. With that, Sidious was almost ready to gain total control over the Republic. To fulfill his plan, Sidious allowed Anakin Skywalker to kill Dooku since he had no use for him, and that he would not survive the war. Following Dooku's demise, Sidious, as Palpatine, revealed his identity as Darth Sidious to Skywalker and convinced him to that the dark side teachings that Plagueis had pursued could help Skywalker to save his wife, whom Skywalker had foreseen dying untimely. After a failed attempt by the Jedi High Council to arrest Sidious, Skywalker pledged himself to Sidious's teachings as Darth Vader. Now having Vader as his third apprentice, Sidious branded the Jedi as traitors and ordered the clones to execute Order 66, thus destroying the Jedi Order. With most of the Jedi destroyed and none would oppose him, Sidious declared himself Emperor of the First Galactic Empire, bringing an end to the Republic that had stood for over 25,000 years.

    As Emperor, Darth Sidious effectively wielded absolute control over the entire galaxy and virtually everyone who lived within it. During his tenure, he built one of the most powerful military forces the galaxy had ever seen and ruled unopposed for nearly two decades. Sidious had to abandon his facade of being an enlightened leader and began to rule through terror symbolized by the Death Star, a superweapon that was designed to destroy entire planets. However, he later discovered that Vader was training Galen Marek, an exceptionally powerful Force Adept as a secret apprentice "Starkiller". When Sidious discovered Starkiller's existence in 3 BBY, he secretly ordered Vader to fake Starkiller's death and then request that the powerful Force Adept assemble the most influential traitors in the Empire in a rebellion in order to highlight and destroy them all. However, his plan backfired when Starkiller, healed from his near-fatal injuries and espousing the teachings of the light side, vowed revenge against the Emperor and confronted him on the Death Star, ultimately sacrificing himself in an act that inspired the dissident senators to create the Rebel Alliance. As the First Galactic Civil War broke out, the Emperor ironically fought against the rebellion, but the Empire suffered a devastating defeat in 0 BBY, in which the Alliance destroyed the Death Star. With the Death Star destroyed, the Emperor steadily began to lose his absolute control over the galaxy.

    In 4 ABY, Darth Sidious gambled his chances in order to annihilate the Rebel Alliance once and for all, allowing Rebel spies to learn of the existence of a second Death Star and its secret location near Endor. As expected, the Alliance fell for the bait and dispatched its fleet to destroy the Emperor, Vader, and the incomplete Death Star. With the Alliance soon falling for his trap, Sidious brought Luke Skywalker, the son of Darth Vader, before him in order to turn him over to the dark side and replace Vader with an apprentice who was younger and more powerful. After goading Skywalker to give into his frustrations with thoughts of the Alliance's defeat and the death of his friends, Sidious eagerly watched as father and son fought one another. However, Luke refused to submit to the dark side and spared his father, prompting the Emperor to unleash all of his rage and hatred on Skywalker. Unwilling to stand by and watch his son die from the agonizing effects of the Emperor's Force lightning, Vader finally redeemed himself, throwing his astonished Master down the Death Star's shaft, a sacrifice that fulfilled the prophecy of the Chosen One and brought about the end of the Order of the Sith Lords.

    Throughout the rest of the First Galactic Civil War, the remnants of the Empire experienced a sharp decline while the Alliance reformed itself into the New Galactic Republic. However, Sidious did not stay dead, and eventually used a rare and ancient Force technique to transfer his spirit into one of many clone bodies stored on the Deep Core world of Byss. In 10 ABY, Darth Sidious resurfaced in the galaxy in a bid to rebuild his Empire, temporarily converting Luke Skywalker to the dark side and installing him as his apprentice. Sidious' efforts to live forever, however, were undermined by subversives within his own inner circle, including his Royal Guard Carnor Jax. With the last supplies of healthy clone bodies sabotaged and their genetic source material contaminated by his allies, Sidious desperately tried to take over the body of Darth Vader's youngest grandchild, the infant Anakin Solo, in 11 ABY. Sidious' spirit, however, was intercepted by the dying Jedi Knight Empatojayos Brand, who dragged the Sith Lord down into the depths of the Force forever, though his legacy lived for countless years.

    Biography[]

    Pre-birth[]

    Palpatine, the greatest Dark Lord of the Sith of all, was subject of several prophecies before his birth. In approximately 990 BBY, Bodo Baas's Master foretold Palpatine's eventual struggle against the Skywalker siblings Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo in 10 ABY. Bodo's mentor prophesied that Palpatine would try corrupt the former, so the latter would have to face him to save her brother.

    Sometime before 147 BBY, while still being taught by his master, Darth Tenebrous calculated with his enormous brain about the future of the Sith, and saw Palpatine's coming as the shadow that would mark the end of several things in a way that would darken the galaxy, envisioning the arrival of a "One Sith" that would no need a replacement and rule forever, though Tenebrous naively thought it was him.

    Early life[]

    "I haven't rejected the dynasty I was born into. I've rejected the name I was given."
    ―Palpatine to Hego Damask[src]

    Palpatine was born on Naboo, the eldest son of House Palpatine's patriarch Cosinga and his wife. He was raised in his family's ancestral home, Convergence, situated in Naboo's Lake Country, and had at least two brothers and two sisters.

    From an early age, Palpatine identified himself as different from his peers and siblings, recognizing a great power within himself, and believing that he was born to lead, which led to an uneasy relationship with his family. His father also perceived his eldest son as different, and would later claim to have divined his murderous nature from the time the latter was an infant. At some point early in Palpatine's life, Cosinga had his son tested to make certain that they were related. Until the end of his life, however, Palpatine's true nature remained a mystery to his father.

    Intelligent and highly ambitious, Palpatine desired his family to take on a more active role in Naboo's politics, both to increase their own wealth and power, and also to help their homeworld make the transition into the modern galaxy. He was soon disappointed to learn that he was alone in this ambition, and that his father not only lacked the ability to improve his family's standing, but also arrogantly believed he had all the power there was to be gained. Cosinga's political ambitions never exceeded provincial Naboo—father and son attended two coronations in the capital city of Theed, and for years to come Palpatine would remember Cosinga's envy for the power the monarch wielded. Although Palpatine longed to kill his father, he grudgingly concealed his patricidal desires for years, hiding his true feelings under a mask of simple reactionary rebelliousness. Disgusted by his father's incompetence, and infuriated by his mother's willingness to tolerate the situation of their family, it was not long before Palpatine discontinued the use of his given name as an act of spite. From then on, he demanded to be referred to exclusively by the name of his aristocratic family. />

    Lake retreat

    Palpatine was raised in Naboo's Lake Country.

    Palpatine recorded, in his preface to the Book of Sith (c 19 BBY), that he took a vested interest in forbidden Sith lore as a child. Employing his family's vast wealth, the youth took to the black market, resolving to collect as many inscrutable runes and ancient texts as possible. Enraptured by the secrets revealed with each tome, Palpatine at once recognized the key to realizing his true ambition: the acquisition of absolute power. All that remained was opportunity.

    Education[]

    "The Naboo might expect more of the eldest son of House Palpatine."
    "I ignore the expectations of others."
    ―Hego Damask and Palpatine[src]

    Throughout his education, Palpatine attended some of the most prestigious and exclusive academies in the galaxy, but never remained for long, soon expelled for some petty misdemeanor. Palpatine's list of offenses, while usually minor, was extensive enough that—were he anyone other than a nobleman's heir—he would have been imprisoned in a correctional facility. Sure enough, whatever his son's crime, Cosinga was there, ready and willing to use his influence and credits to make it "disappear." Having been raised to believe that money could solve anything, Palpatine quickly dispensed with traditional notions of morality, instead forging a unique code of ethics for himself; a pedestal on which he placed himself, to be raised above all others.

    Although he despised his father, more than any other member of his family, the two were not without their similarities. Aside from an inherited violent streak, both father and son shared an insatiable passion for speeder racing. Palpatine once fondly recounted an occasion from his youth when his father had bought him a state-of-the-art, prototype speeder, more as a bribe than a gift, but one he accepted, nonetheless. Indeed, the only time Palpatine thought well of the man who raised him was when they shared a cockpit together. This was not to last, however, as Palpatine soon crashed the machine, tragically killing two pedestrians in the process. As always, Cosinga bought his son a reprieve, and Palpatine himself never showed the slightest bit of remorse for the incident. Quite the opposite, in fact, if anything, the lack of punishment from the law only served to reinforce the boy's belief in his own invulnerability, and Palpatine insensitively chose this moment to announce his desire to become a professional racer. Cosinga initially banned his son from riding again, but even this feeble attempt at punishment did not last long. After many tantrums, Palpatine wore his father down, who eventually relented, and Palpatine went on to race competitively, and successfully. Despite this success, Palpatine's ambitions were hardly satisfied and indeed were merely just beginning.

    Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious[]

    "Tell me what you regard as your greatest strength, so I will know how best to undermine you; tell me of your greatest fear, so I will know which I must force you to face; tell me what you cherish most, so I will know what to take from you; and tell me what you crave, so that I might deny you…"
    ―Darth Plagueis[src]

    In 67 BBY, the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis murdered his Master, Darth Tenebrous, on Bal'demnic. Tenebrous's disembodied consciousness accessed his apprentice's body and Force senses through the maxi-chlorian retrovirus and saw a vision of the future, in which Plagueis's apprentice killed him before he had the chance to complete his life's work, which Tenebrous believed was the creation of the Chosen One. The Dark Lord panicked and abandoned Plagueis's body. The mysterious apprentice in Tenebrous's vision was invisible to his Force sense, and he only perceived him as the shadow. On Naboo, the young Palpatine was waiting for a chance to join the Sith, and this turn of events was the first step towards bringing Plagueis to Naboo, and, 35 years later, realizing Tenebrous's vision.

    First encounter[]

    "Palpatine."
    "How do you know my name?"
    "I know more about you than just your name."
    ―Hego Damask and Palpatine[src]

    As an adolescent, Palpatine studied at Theed University, and also enrolled in the Legislative Youth Program in accordance with Naboo's mandatory public service curricula. His family's social status provided him with high profile contacts, such as other aristocrats and even government officials. One such acquaintance was Vidar Kim, who was at the time an aide to the Republic Senator of Naboo. Although Palpatine regarded Kim as a political mentor, he secretly harbored certain views that conflicted with Kim's opinions. Palpatine's own father shared Kim's conservative beliefs and lobbied for Naboo's government to maintain an isolationist policy in order to protect their homeworld from interplanetary corporations that wanted to take advantage of Naboo. Bon Tapalo, a candidate for the Naboo throne in the 65 BBY monarchical elections eager to open Naboo to outside influences, was their main opponent in the political arena.

    Palpatine, motivated by pride and a desire to see his homeworld become a part of the greater galaxy, sought to quietly undermine his father's political agenda during the 65 BBY election season. More importantly, however, it was the rift with his father that indirectly led to his future as a Sith. Palpatine released confidential information pertaining to the shady role certain royal houses (including, presumably, his own) in the Tapalo opposition had allegedly played during the mercenary conflict, despite the fact that he was well aware he could be disinherited for it. In aiding Tapalo's campaign, Palpatine brought himself to the attention of Darth Plagueis, Dark Lord of the Sith. The young man had craved for the power of the Sith since becoming a collector of Sith artifacts, and soon he would have his chance to join their order. Plagueis was publicly known as Hego Damask, the Muun Magister of Damask Holdings, one of the galaxy's most powerful and influential financiers and political lobbyists. Having survived an assassination attempt by an unknown party on Bal'demnic and having killed his Master during that same incident, he was also the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith in Darth Bane's line.

    Plagueis learned from certain Gossam members of the Subtext Mining Group—the company that supplied the mining probe that was supposed to kill himself and Tenebrous on Bal'demnic—of a plasma reserve they had recently discovered under Theed. After ordering the Gossams' deaths, Plagueis instructed Larsh Hill of Damask Holdings to look into the situation. Hill contacted Tapalo, offering to support his bid for the throne in exchange for exclusive rights to transport the plasma from the Theed reservoir. Palpatine, by joining the covert war fought in the Naboo media for the public eye, had turned Damask's eyes on him—members of Damask Holdings traced the release of the information to the heir of House Palpatine, and Plagueis decided to meet this young noble who had helped him from afar. The Dark Lord arrived on Naboo in his public guise as Hego Damask and sought out Palpatine in Theed University. After asking after him, Plagueis eventually found Palpatine outside the Youth Program's headquarters in the university campus.

    Though he was aware of Damask's reputation, the haughty Palpatine initially had little interest in conversing with the Muun. Through a small effort of persuasion on Plagueis' part, however, Palpatine reluctantly agreed to give him a tour of Theed. Plagueis was able to learn much about the young aristocrat in their first encounter; Palpatine had an interest in politics, but was shy to admit it; he enjoyed art, yet his modest tastes made him disinterested in Naboo's grandiose architecture style; the estrangement with his father was augmented by their different political opinions. Aside from art and politics, Plagueis also learned that Palpatine had a passion for expensive landspeeders and competitive racing. But he was unable to peer into the young man with the Force, which intrigued him. At the end of the day, Plagueis offered to recruit Palpatine as a spy in order to advance the interests of Damask Holdings by ensuring the election of Tapalo as king of Naboo. Palpatine accepted the offer, but only on the condition that he would report directly to Plagueis alone.

    Initiation[]

    "It is my will to join my destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords."
    "Then it is done. From this day forward, the truth of you, now and forever more, will be Sidious."
    ―Darth Sidious and Darth Plagueis[src]
    PlagueisCover

    A young Darth Sidious kneels before his Sith Master, Darth Plagueis.

    Cosinga Palpatine eventually learned of his eldest son's friendship with Hego Damask. Due to his estrangement with the younger Palpatine, as well as Damask's support for Tapalo's bid for the throne, Cosinga immediately attempted to thwart any further contact between his son and the head of Damask Holdings. After Cosinga failed to coerce Damask with veiled threats, the Muun contacted Palpatine, who had been away on Chandrila with his class at the time. Palpatine, enraged by the revelation of his father's attempt to interfere in his affairs, desperately implored Damask for advice. Recognizing the potential that emanated within his young protégé, Damask took advantage of Palpatine's fear and hatred for his family, and thus insinuated that he had to do whatever it took to become emancipated from his father's control.

    Palpatine's defining moment came when his father personally journeyed to Chandrila with the entire family in tow to retrieve his heir. Once the family yacht had left Hanna City Spaceport, Cosinga and his son clashed. In order to keep him away from Naboo during the elections and out of Damask's reach, Cosinga planned to send his son to Chommell Minor, where he would stay with the Greejatus family and complete the Legislative Youth Program locally with Janus Greejatus. Palpatine did not accept the arrangement, and verbally attacked Cosinga. The altercation brought out their long-standing yet barely concealed hatred for each other, until Cosinga revealed to his son that he had wanted to kill him from the start. Overcome by years of repressed anger and frustration, Palpatine instinctively drew upon the power of the dark side and slaughtered his entire family and their security guards. When the deed was done, he contacted Damask and was assured by his mentor that none would ever learn of his role in the slaughter of House Palpatine. Damask arranged for all evidence of the crime to be purged, and for Palpatine to return to Chandrila. All records pertaining to his ancestry or his immediate family members mysteriously vanished afterwards; some would even assume years later that he created the name "Palpatine" to conceal his Sith identity and enter the political sphere. In addition, Palpatine later sold Convergence and moved to a modest apartment in Theed. One standard week later, they met in a luxury cabin aboard the Quantum Collosus.

    Having judged the young Palpatine worthy of joining the Sith after he murdered his family, Darth Plagueis formally initiated him into the cult. From the time of Darth Bane onward, it was common for Sith names to begin with the forename Darth, a moniker that was as much a title as it was a name. Many factors went into deciding on the second name. At least one, based on observed ceremonies, is that Sith masters would enter a kind of communion with the dark side of the Force, question it, and within it find inspiration, an answer. In Palpatine, Plagueis saw a being completely lacking in empathy, ambitious, arrogant, and insidious. Palpatine genuflected before his master, pledged his undying allegiance to the Sith Order, and the Dark Lord of the Sith proclaimed him his new apprentice under the name Darth Sidious.

    Apprenticeship[]

    "My mentor taught me everything about the Force, even the nature of the dark side."
    ―Palpatine to Anakin Skywalker[src]
    Palpatineyouth

    Darth Plagueis oversees the training of his young apprentice.

    The training of Darth Sidious was focused on the honing of his Force abilities and combat skills, as well as his natural talents as a politician. In the first decade of his role as an apprentice, Sidious accompanied his Master to Mygeeto, where he was subjected to intense cold and nearly froze to death. Darth Plagueis, unaffected by the planet's freezing temperature, forced Sidious to relate the slaughter of his family in exacting detail, as he did many times, with the goal of extinguishing any lingering feeling of personal connection. The Sith Lord's overall goal was to use his disciple's hate, anger and desperation for survival as a tool to destroy any vestiges of Palpatine the young noble from Naboo, and in his place create Darth Sidious, a true Sith. Were Palpatine to give up, he would prove himself unworthy of the mantle; the young Human endured, asking only when the trials would be over. Plagueis also demonstrated a use of the mind-clouding technique by having his apprentice struggle to reach him, only to discover he had been a dopplegänger, and also subjected Palpatine to deprivation of food, water and sleep.

    In regard to the history of the Sith, Plagueis was more than aware of the fact that Sidious' desire to kill him would grow in time; only a true Sith Lord wanted to seize the mantle of Master by slaying his own mentor. But like many of his Sith predecessors, Plagueis was appalled by Darth Bane's Rule of Two, more specifically its tenet that commanded each Master to train his or her own eventual killer. Plagueis had no intention of dying by his apprentice's hand, or anyone else's for that matter. Instead, he intended to break the cycle started by Bane and Zannah a millennium ago. In order to do so, Plagueis wished for no secrets or feelings of jealousy and mistrust to exist between Sidious and himself. In the long run of the Sith Grand Plan, Plagueis envisioned himself as the "power behind the throne" while Sidious—in his public guise as Palpatine—carried out the Sith's interests in the political domain.

    Sidious, ever the academic with a desire for knowledge, yearned to learn more of the Sith lore. However, his Master carefully concealed much information from his apprentice, and only intended to share his full knowledge at a gradual pace, depending on how much Sidious progressed as a Sith Lord. Among Plagueis' artifacts were holocrons that contained much of what Sidious desired to know. The Jedi mistakenly believed that these holocrons sat in the Archives room in their Temple, but those were actually clever forgeries, a form of Sith disinformation.

    The beginning of Palpatine's political career[]

    Owing to Plagueis and Palpatine's manipulations, Bon Tapalo became King of Naboo, and negotiated a deal to sell the planet's plasma through the Trade Federation. Around this time, Palpatine began his political career, carefully hiding his true persona of Darth Sidious. His double identity would allow him to deceive the Jedi, Republic and Senate. On Naboo, public service was mandatory from the ages of twelve to twenty, and he began his political career in this fashion (presumably 7062 BBY). Unlike most of the Naboo, however, he elected to stay in public service beyond the normally accepted age and entered local Naboo politics (62–52 BBY), working his way upward.

    After a five-year stint in the Apprentice Legislator program, he was appointed Ambassador in the reelected Senator Vidar Kim's retinue. Kim was a vocal critic of Tapalo's policy towards the Trade Federation, pointing out that the Trade Federation would sell Naboo's plasma on for ten or even twenty times what it paid for it.

    Palpatine lost more elections than he won in his early political career, missing out on a string of political appointments. He elected to keep a low profile so as to not undermine his Sith master, and to allow him to discreetly disappear from the radar in order to focus on his Sith training on such worlds as Mygeeto, Hypori, Buoyant and Kursid, and rendezvous with Plagueis on remote planets where they did not have to risk being seen together by beings from the political sphere.

    The training of Darth Maul[]

    "Do you feel the hate? … It is the source of your strength. You still hate me. No matter. Today you have delivered yourself into my hands. I have the power of life and death over you, Maul. Someday, you will hold that power over another. It is the honor of the Sith. You will devote yourself to the idea of domination."
    ―Darth Sidious[src]
    YoungSid1

    Darth Sidious at the time he met Darth Maul

    During his apprenticeship under Plagueis, Sidious was given an infant Zabrak by the child's Nightsister mother on Dathomir and trained him as a Sith assassin. It was not without precedent that Sidious should have chosen a Zabrak for his apprentice. In ancient times, the Sith, taking notice of the martial prowess of the Zabrak, made lucrative contacts on Iridonia, and spent exorbitant sums to hire Iridonian Zabrak as mercenaries. Long after the Sith culture died out, the influence of the Sith remained a part of Zabrak culture. ere known to endure extreme amounts of pain, but nothing could have prepared young Maul for the brutality of Sidious' training. Despite Sidious' harshness, Maul held the utmost respect for the man, and was fanatically loyal.

    Maultraining

    Darth Sidious oversees Maul's training.

    When Darth Maul was very young—so young that he had few memories prior to this—Darth Sidious took him to the Jedi Temple, both of them disguised as tourists. Sidious' command of the dark side was sufficient to keep both himself and Maul from being sensed by the Jedi, as long as they did not enter the Temple itself. As the building was not open to tourists, there was very little risk of discovery. For the better part of a day, they stood there, and Sidious pointed out to Maul the various faces of individual Jedi as they entered and left the Temple, whispering into his apprentice's ear of the Jedi Order's ultimate destruction. Maul would long remember the thrill of seeing his foes, standing in their presence, hearing about their downfall, as they walked past, not one of them aware of the fate that ultimately awaited them.

    In 37 BBY, the time came for Maul's final test. Sidious sent him out to Hypori, where he was hunted by assassin droids for a month. At the end of the month, Maul found Sidious waiting at the mouth of a cave. He had not eaten for days, and was exhausted. Regardless, Sidious challenged Maul to a duel, in which he easily evaded each of Maul's attacks. He stood over the broken teenager, and told him that he had been preparing another apprentice, should Maul fail as he had. Enraged, Maul gathered all the dark side could offer within him and flew at Sidious with murderous intent. Sidious was caught off guard, but had managed to struggle through the onslaught before disarming Maul. Even without a weapon, Maul continued to attack, even going so far as to bite Sidious' hand before being ultimately defeated. Pleased, Sidious announced that Maul's training was complete, and that he was now a Sith Lord.

    The rise of Senator Palpatine (52–32 BBY)[]

    The Death of Vidar Kim[]

    "This Palpatine was a Rodian in Ewok's clothing!"
    ―Mon Mothma[src]

    Around the year 52 BBY, as a critical vote on seating several "client worlds" of the Trade Federation approached, Darth Plagueis and Palpatine decided during a Gathering on Sojourn that the galaxy was ripe for more direct forms of manipulation. The stage of decadence required by the Grand Plan had been reached—disaffected with political corruption, both the citizens of the Republic and the beings of the lawless Rim yearned for strong central leadership; for tyranny. So, in order to place Palpatine in the Galactic Senate, Plagueis ordered his apprentice to arrange the assassination of Senator Vidar Kim. To this end, Palpatine availed himself to the services of a professional assassin named Sate Pestage, a man who would later become one of his most trusted agents. Palpatine's only stipulation regarding Kim's assassination was that it be an obvious and publicly witnessed murder.

    When Senator Vidar Kim was assassinated by a never-identified Maladian gunman on a passing airspeeder in 52 BBY, the thirty-year-old Palpatine stood for election to succeed him. However, the assassination had nearly been a disaster thanks to the presence of Vidar Kim's son, Jedi Knight Ronhar Kim. The Maladian had attempted, for reasons unknown, to kill both Kims, and while she had succeeded in killing Vidar, Ronhar had escaped her attack and captured her. Fortunately for Palpatine, the assassin committed suicide before she could be interrogated by the Jedi Knight, and Palpatine's role in the affair was never revealed. The people of Naboo elected him as their sectorial Senator, to represent Naboo and the thirty-five other affiliated worlds of the Chommell sector.

    When Palpatine first came to Coruscant to begin his service in the Senate, a number of his personal effects came with him from Naboo, accompanied by a manifest. The manifest was submitted to Republic officials as part of a standard security scan. This procedure was mandatory for all equipment and furniture to enter the Senate building. One of these items was an abstract sculpture of Sistros, one of the Four Sages of Dwartii (these were controversial philosopher-lawgivers who lived during the early days of the Republic—the others were Faya, Yanjon, and Braata).

    Palpatine's manifest clearly stated that this sculpture was a single piece of solid-forged neuranium with a bronzium finish. But the sculpture was not solid; it contained a small cylindrical cavity, in which rested one of his Sith lightsabers, sealed within the sculpture at the time of its forging. The security scan did not detect this cavity; neuranium was so dense that any piece more than a millimeter in thickness was impervious to sensors, and since nothing unusual was found in the scan, no one questioned it further. An advanced gravimetric detector would have revealed that one small section of the sculpture massed slightly less than it should have, but no one thought to use one at the time. The sculpture was admitted and placed in Palpatine's Senate offices (the floor had to be specially reinforced to bear its weight), and when Palpatine was elected Chancellor it was moved into the anteroom of his Suite in the Executive Office Building. Only after thirty-three years would Palpatine extract the blade within. In addition, he also gave his interior decorating the color crimson. He also used his family status as a convenient excuse for utilizing that as the color of choice (as his family prominently used crimson for their seal).

    The senator's first "friendship"[]

    "Through me, you might have a voice in the shaping of the Republic. Through you, I better understand the Jedi and their ways."
    ―Palpatine to Ronhar Kim[src]
    Palpy30

    Palpatine, at the time of his election as Senator of Naboo

    The new representative of Chommell sector wasted no time in forming relationships that could help him in the future. The first was the son of the man whose death ensured his own election. Ronhar Kim, who had been with his father at the time of the assassination, had attended the funeral despite both having hardly known Vidar and having had little interest in forming a relationship with him. Palpatine approached the younger Kim even as he stood before his father's body, and under his mask of sorrow and condolence, he studied Kim carefully. But he said little; instead, he demonstrated an art that would serve him well, and give him access to the powerful: his ability to listen, to serve as a confidant for others.

    During their conversation, it quickly became clear that, rather than finding whoever struck down the father he had barely known, Kim was more concerned about himself and his own choices in life. In fact, Ronhar appeared to be more preoccupied by his personal failure to detect and thwart the assassin than he was with the fact that his father was now dead. Vidar Kim, lacking any other living family, had wanted his son to honor his bloodline by following him into politics. With Ronhar apparently giving the matter some serious thought, Palpatine quickly suggested that for a Jedi to become a politician would be a waste. Instead, perhaps the best course would be an alliance between a Jedi and a politician.

    Kim agreed, and struck up a "friendship" that would last some three decades. Ronhar Kim would be the first of Palpatine's "alliances" with individual Jedi, but this particular alliance would be of great use. Kim would eventually be used as a pawn in a scheme that resulted in the creation of the feared Red Guards (32 BBY), and his eventual death in battle on Merson (21 BBY) would be used as propaganda fuel to further Palpatine's war aims.

    Palpatine in the Senate[]

    By the time Palpatine stepped onto the Senate floor for the first time in 52 BBY, he already knew that the prominent power-brokers in the Senate looked down their noses at the more provincial delegates, expecting little to nothing of importance from them. He knew that he, too, was lumped in with the other hopefuls from Rimward worlds, those who, having never ventured far from their homeworlds before, would in short order be overwhelmed by Coruscanti politics.

    Rather than do anything to prove the elites wrong, Palpatine encouraged them to keep thinking this way. Again, he failed to take advantage of opportunities that could have landed him on important advisory boards and powerful committees, and unless pressed, he never shared his observations with his colleagues. Instead, he purposely sought to keep his advancement slow, knowing that the more he did so, the more harmless he seemed to potential rivals. The performance evidently worked; the powerful Senators, wrapped up in their own petty power struggles, initially laughed at the small and quiet provincial, and otherwise paid him no mind.

    Palpatine surprised everyone as he became increasingly popular. He wrote extensively, his notes on power became popular texts among political and military science students. Soon, his theories became well known enough for them to be taught at leading universities throughout the galaxy. Despite this growing influence, Palpatine remained unassuming, and would spend many hours alone reflecting in his modest, yet well-appointed quarters. People remarked on how he remained a private man, rarely attending social functions, devoting all his time to his work. In fact, he spent much of his time in the training of Darth Maul and the furthering of his private Sith agendas; it was left to his senatorial aides and to droids, such as TC-4 to do much of the day-to-day work and maintain his guise as the mild-mannered representative of Naboo.

    After a little more than two standard months on Coruscant, the Senate convened to vote on whether or not to seat Felucia, Murkhana and half a dozen other planets. The vote was highly controversial as the planets in question were considered by many to be client worlds of the Trade Federation. Approaching the Senate Building on the day of the vote, Palpatine had a brief conversation with Senator Pax Teem of the Gran Protectorate, who eagerly anticipated the Trade Federation losing the vote and expected Palpatine to vote against the motion. Shortly afterwards, Palpatine met Plagueis (in his public guise as Hego Damask) and Ronhar Kim, who introduced him to Jedi Masters Dooku and Sifo-Dyas. As they spoke they were spotted by Teem, who realized Palpatine and Plagueis were working together: Teem had hated Plagueis for nearly ten years after the Sith Lord had supported Gardulla the Hutt's plan for a new podrace course on Tatooine and had financed the exploitation of Naboo's plasma reserves, both of which threatened to seriously affect Malastare's finances.

    During the debate, Palpatine followed instructions from both King Bon Tapalo and Darth Plagueis: Tapalo wished to placate domestic critics of Naboo's agreements with the Trade Federation, which many saw as corrupt and exploitative. Plagueis, meanwhile, wanted the new member-worlds to be caught in between a Republic that heavily taxed them and a Trade Federation that exploited them, in order to foment discontent and pave the way for a future secession crisis that would destroy the Republic. Palpatine's speech addressed the issue of the Trade Federation gaining too much influence in the Senate, and the criticisms of Naboo's agreements with the Federation. He then implied that the Trade Federation may have been responsible for the death of Senator Kim, a vocal critic of Naboo's trade agreement, and concluded by declaring that in protest of the way the investigation into Kim's death had been handled, King Tapalo had instructed him to abstain from the vote.

    Attempted abduction[]

    Palpatine's speech and abstention tipped the Trade Federation towards victory and the client worlds were subsequently seated in the Senate, where they indeed proved to be aligned with the Federation's interests. The speech was regarded as career-making by many: Supreme Chancellor Thoris Darus even sent Palpatine a personal message stating that he had instructed the Judiciary Committee to use its wide-ranging powers to investigate the Kim assassination.

    In retribution, Pax Teem arranged with Santhe Security and a group of disgruntled Naboo nobles to organize the kidnap of Palpatine. Under the guise of a meeting with a lobbyist from Silvestri Trace Power, Palpatine was lured to the Shimmersilk restaurant in the POTU before being escorted to the abandoned LiMerge Power Building in the Works. There Teem addressed him by hologram, declaring that he was aware of Palpatine's role in Bon Tapalo's election, the death of Vidar Kim, and of his relationship with Hego Damask. Before he could carry out his threat to kill Palpatine, however, the building was raided by Plagueis' Echani Sun Guards: Plagueis had learned of the plan from Ars Veruna and had used his agents to encourage the kidnap so he could arrange Teem's death, as well as to give Palpatine another trial.

    However, Plagueis had been so focused on preventing his apprentice's kidnap that he had neglected his own safety: during the induction of Larsh Hill into the Order of the Canted Circle at the Fobosi Lodge, the ceremony was attacked by Maladian assassins. Sate Pestage had learned of the operation from the commander of the team that had assassinated Vidar Kim, who was embarrassed at the complications that had surrounded Kim's death and wished to make amends. Pestage immediately informed Palpatine, who had in turn felt Plagueis' pain and anger in the Force. The two arrived at the Fobosi Lodge as Plagueis, gravely injured and barely holding himself conscious, was lashing out with the dark side against his attackers. All the others, including the Muuns who made up Damask Holdings, had been killed. Larsh Hill was the first victim of the attack, his head sliced from his neck.

    With the Sun Guard distracted following Teem's fake signal to the Panoply Orbital Facility, Palpatine followed Pestage's information to the Gran Protectorate Embassy, where Teem and his allies were celebrating the Sith Lords' assumed deaths. Palpatine proceeded to slaughter every being present, saving Teem to last: using the Force, he ignited the room's curtains and collapsed them on to the Gran, burning Pax Teem to death.

    Friends and allies[]

    Brazilian Darth Plagueis Art

    Plagueis and Sidious, master and apprentice

    Plagueis withdrew into seclusion in the aftermath of the attack, leaving Palpatine to be the main executor of the Grand Plan. With his star rising on Coruscant, Senator Palpatine wasted no time in establishing relationships with respected public figures in key positions of government. As it grew, the list of friends included Senators both weak and powerful, military officers, members of the great organs of commerce, and even members of the Jedi Order. Many of those with whom he formed friendships would eventually have prominent positions in the Empire, the most loyal of whom were rewarded with power, prestige and gifts such as worldcrafts, personal artificial planetoids. Others would meet radically different fates.

    Palpatine served as part of a Republic task force sent to monitor the demilitarization of Ando, where the two native species had resumed a long-standing feud over mining rights. It was here that he met Jorus C'baoth, a Jedi who was also a member of the expedition. Palpatine took advantage of the encounter to establish what would become a long-standing "friendship" with C'baoth. Upon returning to Coruscant, they often met to discuss politics, philosophy, and the state of the Republic. Eventually, at Palpatine's request, the Jedi Reassignment Council sent C'baoth to act as his personal advisor, and C'baoth became part of his staff. One thing they discussed during their time together held promise for the future: they spoke of the ExGal Society, a small, dedicated group of scientists studying the possibilities of life outside the galaxy, and the idea of an excursion beyond the Galactic Rim. It would be conversations like this that would result in the ill-fated Outbound Flight project.

    Janus_Greejatus, then a politician on Chommell_Minor, had established himself as an isolationist—in fact his political language concealed a virulent anti-alien prejudice that stemmed from his earliest formative years—with a significant popular following on his homeworld. The Greejatus family had had friendly relations with House Palpatine of Naboo, and Cosinga Palpatine, based on the rapport he perceived between his son and Janus Greejatus, had decided to send Palpatine to stay with the Greejatuses in 65 BBY. Years later, Palpatine became senator, and Greejatus came to his attention as a result of his political achievements on Chommell Minor. Palpatine did not echo Greejatus's more divisive statements, understanding that they would only do harm to his own long-term plans, but he did see a use for Greejatus and took him under his wing. Palpatine's own feelings are a mystery, but Greejatus labored under the impression that theirs was a firm friendship. That friendship, if such it was, would endure for more than three decades.

    Commander Terrinald Screed, then a young officer in the Republic Judicial Department, was contacted by Palpatine, and found that his own ideas easily meshed with those of the Senator. With the coming of the New Order, Screed, now an Admiral, would become one of the highest-placed officers in the new Imperial Navy.

    Lieutenant Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, a government official on Eriadu who was descended from a ruthless and ambitious family, was contacted by Darth Sidious, who convinced Tarkin that they actually shared many of the same sentiments on government. It is not known for certain if Tarkin ever was aware that Palpatine and Sidious were the same person, but he served both faithfully and long. Even as the New Order was inaugurated, Tarkin was placed in charge of the construction of Palpatine's most secret weapons projects.

    Lord Crueya Vandron, the head of a noble house in the Senex sector, also secretly joined Palpatine's camp. After the Empire was inaugurated, Vandron would become an advisor and the head of COMPNOR.

    In addition, Senator Palpatine brought his own loyal aides with him from Naboo and elsewhere. They served him in legitimate political and legal roles, but they also worked his will in darker and more secretive ways. It would be these functionaries who earned the greatest rewards (with the exception of Palpatine's Sith accomplices) that could be bestowed in the New Order. Sate Pestage was one of Palpatine's most useful assets, and perhaps his longest-serving ally. Initially, he was contracted by Sidious as an assassin, a profession that he apparently excelled at. After Pestage arranged the murder of Senator Vidar Kim on Palpatine's orders, Palpatine took him on as an aide, and Pestage would retain this dual function throughout Palpatine's rise to power. He typically performed the day-to-day duties of a senatorial aide, but he also was fully aware of Palpatine's secret identity of Darth Sidious and willingly served Sidious as a covert operative. Palpatine treated Pestage's colleague, Kinman Doriana, in a similar fashion. Doriana had something of an unspoken wish to be a spy, and Sidious indulged this by assigning him to perform covert work, but unlike Pestage, Doriana was not informed of the secret connection between Sidious and Palpatine. As far as Doriana was aware, they were separate people, and he performed tasks for both without realizing the truth. Ars Dangor was also an aide to Senator Palpatine at this time.

    Destabilization[]

    "Are you still with me, Plagueis? Yes, I detect that you are—though barely […] I actually thought you would die on Sojourn—and you would have if the Hutt hadn't tipped you off to Veruna's scheme. And yet that also turned out for the best […] If it's any consolation, I'm being honest when I say that I could not have succeeded without you. But now […] I've no need for [you]. […] I have Maul to do what the risk of discovery might not allow me to do, while I execute the rest of the Grand Plan: growing an army, fomenting rebellion and fabricating intergalactic war, corralling the Jedi and catching them unawares … Rest easy in your grave, Plagueis. In the end, I will be proclaimed Emperor. The Sith will have had their revenge, and I will rule the galaxy."
    ―Darth Sidious to Darth Plagueis[src]

    In 33 BBY, Sidious's shadow ally, Lieutenant Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, helped Sidious to engineer the murder of the Trade Federation Directorate, which were on Tarkin's homeworld of Eriadu for a Eriadu_Trade_Summit trade summit. The pirate raids on the Trade Federation that had led to the summit had also been orchestrated by Palpatine, as was Nute Gunray's rise to power as Viceroy.

    Shortly afterward, Palpatine secretly arranged to have several billion credits, believed to have been stolen by the criminal organization Nebula Front, funneled through the Bank of Aargau and into the accounts of House Valorum. Sate Pestage ensured that the exchange was uncovered by Valorum's political enemy, Senator Orn Free Taa, who revealed it to the Internal Activities Committee. This action served to critically weaken Chancellor Finis Valorum's already tenuous hold on power.

    During this time, Sidious also made his first attempt on his master's life. Sidious, as Palpatine, contacted King Veruna of Naboo and manipulated him into allying with Black Sun and the Bando Gora terrorist cult, which ultimately culminated with these groups Bombing_of_Sojourn annihilating Damask's personal residence on Sojourn Sojourn with a nuclear weapon. However, Sidious had not anticipated that Plagueis had an ally in the form of the Hutt gangster Jabba Desilijic Tiure, who warned him of Veruna's plans and enabled him to escape. He managed to cover up his involvement before Plagueis, and only revealed his role in the assassination plot a year later when he made a second, successful attempt on the life of his old master.

    Around the same time as the doomed trade summit, Palpatine and Plagueis arranged for Veruna to abdicate the Naboo throne, as a means to ensure the already irate Neimoidians would become even more enraged at the circumstances, and as revenge for his role in Plagueis' near death. Palpatine initially intended to send Maul to kill him, but Plagueis decided instead to personally ensure his death. Due to this turn of events, Palpatine also was responsible for the coronation of Padmé Naberrie/Amidala.

    In 32 BBY, Sidious convinced the Neimoidian leaders of the Trade Federation to blockade the planet Naboo, in protest of Senate resolution BR-0371, a measure that levied a tax on the major Rim trade routes. Sidious kept his identity of Palpatine unknown to the Neimoidians, although he revealed that he was a Sith Lord and made it quite clear that he held some power in the Senate.

    Final preparations[]

    Before the first overt moves of the Grand plan could be initiated, Palpatine and Plagueis first had to deal with a variety of rogue dark side practitioners and organizations. The Sun Guard and the Dark Force practitioners were all brought into line, and under Palpatine's direct control. The Dark Force adherents, who were led by former Jedi Master Kadann, would later be reorganized by Palpatine as the Prophets of the Dark Side.

    The Naboo crisis (32 BBY)[]

    "You've been nothing more than a pawn in a game played by a genuine Master. The Sith'ari. Reflect back on […] Yinchorr, Dorvalla, Eriadu, Maul, the Neimoidians, Naboo, an army of clones, the fallen Jedi Dooku … You think these were your ideas, when in fact they were mine, cleverly suggested to you so that you could feed them back to me. You were far too trusting, Plagueis."
    ―Darth Sidious to Darth Plagueis[src]

    With the loose ends that were the Sun Guard and Dark Force practitioners now tied off, the Sith moved to initiate Palpatine's rise to the Chancellorship. The Trade Federation was now angered, threatened, and led by weak individuals who were under Sith control. Chancellor Valorum had virtually no political power left at his disposal and, just as importantly, he counted Palpatine as a close friend and ally, allowing for Palpatine to easily manipulate him. And, finally, the monarch of Naboo had been replaced by an inexperienced and impressionable child. Palpatine—a political prodigy—now had control of every side of the proverbial game board; it was time for the next round to begin. Palpatine's opening move would be the instigation of the Naboo crisis; the point where all the other plots intersected, and the beginning of the end for the Republic.

    The blockade of Naboo[]

    Young-palpatine

    Senator Palpatine of Naboo during the Naboo conflict

    The Trade Federation rapidly built up its forces in the Naboo system, assembling enough battleships to ensure a tight blockade. At Sidious's command, they closed the planet off and strangled its formerly thriving trade business. No supply ships were permitted to land or take off. The Federation then secured the outer gate to the system by stationing a battleship at Station TFP-9, its own outpost at the outer edge of the system, to ward off the curious and advertise the act to all who would listen. The last free entrance was closed off, and all incoming ships were informed that the Federation was acting in protest of the illegal taxes that the Republic had levied against them. The blockade of Naboo was an accomplished fact.

    For the next month, the Senate debated fiercely, but did nothing to help the Naboo. The Federation's representative, Lott Dod, successfully argued that they had not yet violated any Republic laws; they had attacked no ships, nor had they moved against Naboo itself. As no outright crime had been committed, the Judicial Department was powerless to intervene. The stalling further weakened the Valorum government; their defiance of his measures was in itself damaging, but the longer it went on, the more impotent Valorum appeared. Partly to allow this perception to widen, Palpatine kept his monarch, Queen Amidala, from disrupting his plans, urging her to be patient and wait until the Senate reached a decision.

    Amidala proved harder to rein in than expected: her patience spent, she contacted Valorum and told him that she held him personally responsible for her world's suffering. Shocked, pushed into a corner by his own conscience, and desperate to shore up his crumbling support, Valorum decided to act. He would call for a special session of the Senate to discuss the blockade, but to give him a strong bargaining position, he needed the battleships sent away from Naboo. He decided to send the Jedi to Naboo as ambassadors, hoping they would shake the Neimoidians' confidence and show them he meant business.

    Appearance[]

    Note: This list is incomplete

    Advertisement