Sheev Palpatine

> "*Enter the bureaucrats, the true rulers of the Republic, and on the payroll of the Trade Federation, I might add. This is where Chancellor Valorum’s strength will disappear."*
>
>

> *-Palpatine to Queen Amidala*
>
>

**Darth Sidious**, a Force-sensitive human male, was the Dark Lord of the Sith who founded the Galactic Empire after toppling its predecessor, the Galactic Republic from within. Prior to his term as Supreme Chancellor and subsequent reign as the Galactic Emperor, Sidious was born approximately eighty-four years before the Battle of Yavin and given the name **Sheev Palpatine** during the Age of the Republic. A native of the Mid Rim planet Naboo,

Palpatine pursued a career in politics and eventually became his homeworld's representative in the Galactic Senate. Although he cultivated the persona of an honest and trustworthy public servant, Senator Palpatine was an ambitious Sith Lord who learned the ways of the dark side of the Force during his secret apprenticeship under Darth Plagueis.

Following in a lineage of Dark Lords that began with Darth Bane, who reformed the Sith a millennium prior to the Fall of the Republic, Sidious spent years conspiring to restore his Order to galactic dominance. After killing his Sith Master, he trained an apprentice of his own, the Dathomirian assassin Darth Maul in accordance with the Rule of Two—Bane's decree that there should only be two Sith Lords at any given time.

## Biography

### Early Life and Political Career

A human male, Sheev Palpatine was born to a very influential family on the Mid Rim world of Naboo some 84 years prior to the Battle of Yavin.As a teenager, Palpatine witnessed his entire family's murder at the hands of the wicked Roose Amidala, whom usurped the Naboo throne. After escaping his own assassination, he met Darth Plagueis, a Dark Lord of the Sith, who took him as an apprentice with the name of Darth Sidious. As Sidious, he learned all his Master knew about the dark side of the Force, at first to avenge his family. Palpatine learned that all of the Sith of Darth Bane's lineage had learned about the Force. He was also made aware of Plagueis's discovery of the secret to eternal life: his Master had learned to manipulate the midi-chlorians, and prevent people from dying.

Plagueis's obsession with extending his own life eventually passed to Sidious, but he later admitted that he had never been able to learn his Master's secrets. In his public persona as Sheev Palpatine, he embarked on a career in politics and eventually, with the aid of his Master, ended up representing his homeworld in the Galactic Senate. With his rise to power guaranteed and his Master's instruction complete, Sidious killed Plagueis in his sleep, betraying him just as Sith apprentices in the past had always done with their Masters once their training was completed.

Once elected as Senator for Naboo, he quickly joined Chancellor Kalpana's ruling party, and noticed the fervent bickering and corruption that mired the Galactic Republic. Palpatine also arranged for the palace to be unguarded one night, in which he personally slaughtered King Roose and his entire family, yet leaving his daughter Padme Amidala Naberrie alive. After this, he began to establish relations with those who'd become his future collaborators, such as Wilhuff Tarkin. The duo met for the first time when Tarkin was still a cadet of the Sullust Sector Spacefarers Academy, and while Palpatine was still apprenticed to Plagueis.

Taking an interest in the younger man, Senator Palpatine resolved to help him to join the Judicial Department, according to Tarkin's desire, but advised him to also consider a political career. In the following years, their relationship became more and more confidential. Palpatine often lauded Tarkin for his talents and skills and remarked they were very similar: they both came from planets at the edge of the galaxy, but destined to have great repercussions on the galactic history. Tarkin eventually became one of the few people who called Palpatine by his first name.