Darth Plagueis ( novel ) Darth Plagueis is a novel by James Luceno that tells the backstory of the Dark Lord of the Sith , Darth Plagueis . It was originally scheduled for release in October of 2008 , but its release was canceled . However , Sue Rostoni later stated that the book had been reinstated , and the novel was to be released on January 10 , 2012 . Narration for the audio version was performed by Daniel Davis . Publisher ' s summary . Hardcover . Back cover . Plagueis was the most powerful Sith Lord who ever lived . But could he be the only one who never died ? Internal flap . " “ Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise ? It ’ s a Sith legend . Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith , so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midi - chlorians to create life . He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying . ” " " — Supreme Chancellor Palpatine , " Star Wars : Episode III Revenge of the Sith Darth Plagueis : one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived . Possessing power is all he desires . Losing it is the only thing he fears . As an apprentice , he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith . And when the time is right , he destroys his Master — but vows never to suffer the same fate . For like no other disciple of the dark side , Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power . . . over life and death . Darth Sidious : Plagueis ’ s chosen apprentice . Under the guidance of his Master , he secretly studies the ways of the Sith , while publicly rising to power in the galactic government , first as Senator , then as Chancellor , and eventually as Emperor . Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious , Master and acolyte , target the galaxy for domination — and the Jedi Order for annihilation . But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition ? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme , and the dream of the other to live forever , sow the seeds of their destruction ? Paperback . " Darth Plagueis : Like all Sith Lords before him , he craves absolute power . But like no Sith Lord ever , he possesses the " ultimate " power — over life and death . " " Darth Sidious : In secret he masters the power of the dark side , while publicly climbing to the highest government office . " " One desires to rule supreme ; the other dreams of living forever . Together , they will destroy the Jedi and rule the galaxy . Unless merciless Sith tradition becomes their undoing . . . . " Plot summary . The novel begins just after Darth Sidious kills his Sith Master , Darth Plagueis . The Sith Lord experiences a moment where he feels a dramatic shift in the Force , which promises him that the dark side shall control him as much as he controls it . The book then cuts back 35 years , as Darth Plagueis and his Master , Darth Tenebrous , arrive on the world of Bal ' demnic to examine its cortosis supply , which is being mined unbeknownst to either the Republic or the Jedi Order . Tenebrous plans to take advantage of the cortosis ' natural resistance to lightsaber blades for his future attempts to overthrow the Jedi and replace the Republic with an empire ruled by the Sith . During the examination , the mining probe droid begins digging at a pocket of explosive lethane next to a cortosis deposit against orders , leading Tenebrous and Plagueis to rush back to their ship and escape the resulting explosion . Unfortunately , the explosion occurs before they make it back to their ship . Nevertheless , Tenebrous was able to use the Force to contain the explosion so it doesn ' t kill them . Meanwhile , Plagueis makes sure that their ship isn ' t destroyed by the impact of the blast . In the process , Tenebrous is severely weakened , and Plagueis finds himself with the opportunity to end his Master ' s life and take on the role of Sith Master . He uses the Force to hurl falling debris on top of his Master , attempting to make it look as though it was a natural event , he rushes to his master ' s side . However , he cannot resist revealing to Tenebrous what his true plans were , and what they meant for the future of the Sith . The Muun tells his Bith Master that he will put an end to the old order of the Rule of Two before breaking Tenebrous ' s neck and observing his dying body through the Force in an attempt to manipulate midi - chlorians . However , Tenebrous dies before Plagueis is even able to at least prolong his Master ' s life for the sake of his experimentation . Regardless , Plagueis makes it off of Bal ' demnic by stowing away on the ship known as the " Woebegone " . He kills its crew and has the ship slagged , taking only the droid 11 - 4D as an assistant in his midi - chlorian experiments . Plagueis then returns to his homeworld of Muunilinst as Hego Damask , CEO of Damask Holdings , in time for a clandestine meeting with several leaders of various companies and cartels on Muunilinst ' s moon of Sojourn . He confronts the representatives of the Subtext Mining Corporation , which was the company that supplied the faulty probe droid that was the indirect cause of Tenebrous ' s death . He threatens their lives , and in response , they tell him of a lode of plasma located beneath the world of Naboo , which will prove profitable for Damask Holdings , the InterGalactic Banking Clan , and the galaxy at large . Plagueis spares their lives and has them relocated to the most remote world on the Tingel Arm so they would be in reserve in case he needs them again ( he has them killed later on when it becomes clear that he cannot have anymore dealings with Malastare ' s Pax Teem , who is a supporter of Subtext ) . After the meetings on Sojourn , Plagueis is confronted by Darth Venamis , a Sith who Tenebrous had been training in secret as a plan B for if Plagueis failed to live up to Tenebrous ' s expectations . Plagueis bests Venemis in combat , forcing him to swear allegiance to him before forcing the lesser Sith to poison himself . Plagueis then proceeds to use Venamis as part of his experiments in manipulating midi - chlorians , whose ultimate end is to defeat death and make himself immortal . In the meantime , Plagueis tracks down the other Force - users that Venemis had met in order to determine whether or not they pose a threat to his plans . He promptly identifies the Force - users who pose a threat to him and eliminates them . In exchange for the plasma located beneath the surface of Naboo , Damask Holdings and the Trade Federation begin a bid to support Bon Tapalo as king of the planet . Tapalo will open Naboo to trade , particularly for the plasma , which will then allow it to get involved with the rest of the galaxy . Among the political allies Plagueis sees in particular is a young man named Palpatine , whose motivations and actions go against those of his father , Cosinga , who wants Naboo to remain an isolationist world . Seeing potential in Palpatine in terms of ambitions and even actual power in the Force , Plagueis begins using him as a source of information regarding the campaign of Tapalo and his opponents . Palpatine , meanwhile , sees in Hego Damask the father figure he never had , even as he knows that he is being manipulated . Naturally , this attracts Cosinga ' s attention , who tries to separate his son from Plagueis . In retaliation , Palpatine kills his entire family and their honor guard aboard their personal starship by using his full , unbridled power in the dark side of the Force . He later informs Plagueis of the deed , who then congratulates Palpatine on " emancipating " himself . Soon , Plagueis takes Palpatine under his wing as his Sith apprentice after revealing to the young man the nature of himself and of the Sith , promptly naming him Darth Sidious . In the eleven years that follow of Plagueis teaching Sidious the nature of the dark side and the ways of the Sith , Palpatine , as the last of House Palpatine , climbs his way up the political ladder of Naboo to become its ambassador throughout the galaxy . And with the help of new friends like Kinman Doriana and Sate Pestage , Palpatine arranges for the successful assassination of his former mentor and Naboo ' s representative Senator to the Republic , Vidar Kim . As a result , Palpatine becomes the new Senator of Naboo , taking a seat in the Republic Senate as Plagueis continues his plans of manipulating midi - chlorians to prolong his own life indefinitely . One such plan involves the cloning industry on the backwater world of Kamino , inadvertently setting the stage for the eventual Clone Wars . Meanwhile , amidst his own political machinations , Palpatine , in his urge to know more about the dark side than what Plagueis teaches him , manages to make a visit to the world of Dathomir , where he encounters a Dathomirian woman who gives him a Zabrak infant simply known as Maul . Palpatine later has Maul sent to Mustafar , where he could be nurtured at his young age in the dark side of the Force . As Sidious and Plagueis promptly proceed to eliminate their political opponents , Plagueis is attacked during an Order of the Canted Circle ceremony for his assistant Larsh Hill by Maladian assassins . Hill and the other members of the Order of the Canted Circle are killed , but Plagueis , albeit severely wounded , is able to fight off and kill several of the assassins before Palpatine and Sate Pestage arrive to assist the superior Sith Lord . Palpatine had previously discerned that a powerful political opponent of his , Pax Teem , had outwitted Plagueis and had sent the assassins to kill him and his partners during the Canted Circle ceremony . In retaliation , Palpatine himself personally attacks Teem during a celebratory feast , killing him and all of his guests , leaving no survivors or evidence . In the aftermath of the attack at the botched ceremony , as Plagueis is forced to wear a transpirator to survive , he becomes more alert than ever about his surroundings , even going so far as forever renouncing sleep , and is even more obsessed with finding a way to live forever . As Damask , he trains Hill ' s son , San , to become the new head of the InterGalactic Banking Clan . Meanwhile , even though Plagueis managed to kill and then resurrect Darth Venamis in one of his experiments , he finds that he cannot do it again after Venamis dies for good . More than two decades pass as Palpatine gains more power in the Senate as the reign of Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum comes to an end . The rest of the novel tells the events depicted in other , preexisting " Star Wars " stories , such as " " , " Cloak of Deception " , " " , and " " , until the novel takes place during the entirety of . Throughout these events , it is learned that Plagueis had killed former King Ars Veruna of Naboo ( thus , allowing Palpatine to have a teenaged Padmé Amidala elected as the planet ' s Queen ) and that Plagueis also suggested to Sifo - Dyas to sanction a human clone army on Kamino . Palpatine , who had also named Maul Darth behind Plagueis ' s back , also sees a potential ally in the former Jedi Count Dooku . As the novel comes to a close during the events of " The Phantom Menace " , Sidious and Plagueis learn that a young boy named Anakin Skywalker , a former slave found by Qui - Gon Jinn on Tatooine , had been born of the Force . They discern that this is most likely due to Plagueis ' s experiment of creating life through the Force , which he had commenced about a decade earlier . The novel climaxes where it began — as the Battle of Naboo occurs , Palpatine coerces Plagueis into sleep with the promise of making him co - chancellor of the Republic , just as Plagueis demanded decades earlier , now that Palpatine appears to be winning in the election to replace Finis Valorum as Chancellor . With that , Sidious attacks Plagueis and , as he kills him , he explains that he was the one who had really been manipulating Plagueis the whole time , with such deals as the clone army as an example . In the end , Sidious ends Plagueis ' s life with the dark side of the Force , although his feeling of triumph is ruined as he feels uneasy for some reason . He later attributes this to the supposed death of Darth Maul , though , as he initially suspected , it may very well have been Plagueis himself reaching out to him from beyond the Force . As Palpatine is officially made Supreme Chancellor of the Republic , he begins to commence his solo plans of taking over the galaxy with the upcoming Clone Wars , such as seeking Dooku as a placeholder Sith apprentice and ally in the war . But the biggest part in Darth Sidious ' s plan is young Anakin Skywalker , now a Padawan to Obi - Wan Kenobi , who the Sith sees will be into becoming his true apprentice , and a harbinger of Palpatine ' s own power . Development . A Darth Plagueis novel was scheduled to be written by James Luceno and released in October 2008 by Del Rey about Darth Plagueis and his backstory . In an interview with " Star Wars Insider " magazine , Luceno said that he would like to write a future novel dealing with the search for immortality that both Qui - Gon Jinn and Darth Plagueis embarked upon in their own separate ways . However , in a talk show interview in February 5 , 2007 , he indicated that the novel was currently on hold due to issues surrounding the revelation of Palpatine ' s backstory and Expanded Universe continuity concerns . Cancellation . On March 27 , 2007 , Sue Rostoni revealed in her blog that the novel had been canceled , in an entry revealing an updated publishing schedule . The announcements for the novel stated that Plagueis was a Muun . Leland Chee has confirmed that , since Plagueis ' s species did not originate in the novel , it is still considered his canonical species by Lucas Licensing . The novel was replaced with " " ; however , Luceno had said he still hoped he could convince the powers that be at LucasFilm to let him write the novel , and cited sales of " Millennium Falcon " could help influence that . Rejuvenation . On July 27 , 2010 , Sue Rostoni stated that the book was back on schedule , with a release date of February 28 , 2012 . This announcement came following a sales database leak , which the fan site New Jedi Order Encyclopedia published . Believing it to be a replacement for the canceled " Imperial Commando 2 " , fans asked for clarification . Rostoni confirmed that the book was going to be published in 2012 , but that it is not intended to replace " Imperial Commando 2 " . The release date was later changed to December 27 , 2011 , and then again to January 10 , 2012 . On August 22 , 2011 , it was announced on the Star Wars Books Facebook page that Matthew Stover would be writing a short story , entitled " The Tenebrous Way " , that ties into the book . It was published in the " Star Wars Insider 130 " on December 13 , 2011 . Original outline and inspiration . " Darth Plagueis " was first set to be a first - person narrative . Sidious would have found Plagueis ' s holocron shortly after he murdered his master and it would have retold Plagueis ' s recorded life story . served as inspiration for the storyline . Continuity . On page 407 of the paperback edition of " Darth Plagueis " , " Xizor " is misspelled as " Xixor . "