Darth Sidious

**Darth Sidious**, born **Sheev Palpatine** and also known simply as **the Emperor**, was a human male Dark Lord of the Sith and Emperor of the Galactic Empire, ruling from 19 BBY to 4 ABY. Rising to power in the Galactic Senate as the senator of Naboo, the secretive Sith Lord cultivated two identities, Sidious and Palpatine, using both to further his political career and deceive his way into accomplishing his goal. He orchestrated the fall of the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order through the Clone Wars, and then established his reign over the galaxy which lasted until his death at the Battle of Endor. However, the dark side of the Force gave rise to powers which allowed him to return from the grave on Byss in a clone body.

Born on the Mid Rim planet Naboo in 84 BBY as the High Republic Era ended, Sidious possessed a strong connection to the Force, and was secretly trained in the ways of the Sith by Darth Plagueis. He eventually betrayed and killed his Sith Master, in order to train his own Sith apprentice, Darth Maul, for the Rule of Two limited their ranks to two Sith Lords at any given time. As a result of the Invasion of Naboo, a crisis orchestrated by Sidious, the Senate elected Palpatine as Supreme Chancellor. The Separatist Crisis and the Clone Wars were masterminded by Sidious and his new apprentice, Darth Tyranus, in an effort to achieve galactic dominance. Following an attempt to arrest the chancellor, the Great Jedi Purge commenced with Sidious enacting Order 66.

With the Jedi all but extinct, Sidious installed the New Order in the Republic's place, declaring himself Galactic Emperor and bringing an end to the millenia of democracy. Not too long after betraying and causing the death of Tyranus, he took on a new apprentice, having lured the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker to the dark side and transforming him into Darth Vader. Their reign was virtually unchallenged for a generation until the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. During the Galactic Civil War, the Emperor sought to betray Vader, by replacing him with the latter's son, Luke Skywalker. However, Sidious' plan backfired when Vader ultimately renounced the dark side and killed Sidious to protect Luke. Thus, with the Sith's destruction, the Force was brought back into balance, fulfilling Anakin's destiny as the prophesied Chosen One.

Through his master's teachings, however, Sidious transferred his essence to an imperfect clone vessel that had been modeled on his original body. Anticipating the possibility of defeat, he created the Contingency to destroy the Galactic Empire and replace it with a new Sith Empire, in the event of such a setback. His plans culminated in the creation of the Dark Empire, which was enough to be deemed a real threat to the New Republic.

## History

### First and believed death

During the Battle of Endor, Darth Vader hurtled Sidious to his death aboard the Death Star II, after becoming Anakin Skywalker again to save Luke Skywalker, his son. The galaxy believed Palpatine, Emperor of the Galactic Empire, was dead, after the battle had ended.

### Palpatine reborn

But even death was not the end for Palpatine. At an unknown time prior to his death at the Battle of Endor, Palpatine had found a different way to cheat death by preserving his spirit after the death of his body, by the method of spirit transference. He arranged for a clone of himself to be created for his spirit to possess, in the event that he perished. It was created by the Sith Eternal. His clone body was located on the Imperial fortress world, Byss. So when betrayed by Anakin Skywalker aboard the second Death Star, Sidious had little time to realize that his apprentice had turned on him much like he once did with Darth Plagueis, but unlike his former master, he had prepared himself for Skywalker's betrayal. Calling on all the power of the dark side of the Force, the Emperor transferred his consciousness far, far away as his empty body kept falling towards the battle station's reactor to his death.

After the destruction of the second Death Star, Palpatine's spirit was forced to journey in the maddening, bodiless existence of the void, with various deceased Sith spirits aiding him in his journey back to the living plane of existence. Eventually Palpatine was able to take possession of a clone of himself. However, Sidious had not returned totally unscathed: while he indeed had expected Anakin's eventual betrayal, it still caught the Sith Lord at too early a point for his plans, so the transfer of his spirit to a clone body was imperfect and the cloned body, which the Dark Lord settled in, "wasn't enough": the body was not able to contain the immense power Sidious possessed and began to decay as a result. However, on Byss, he would still rebuild the Empire. Resurrected, Palpatine accelerated his plan to replace the Galactic Empire with a "Dark Empire," a universe-spanning magocracy ruled through the dark side of the Force alone, without the need for regional governors or technological domination. This became known as the formation of the infamous Dark Empire, the last step in the Contingency.

### Reemergence

On Byss, shortly after his rebirth, Sidious conversed with several Imperial Officers of the fledgling Dark Empire, including General Maximilian Veers. He revealed his grand plans, including indirectly mentioning the Xyston-class Star Destroyers that were still under construction far away.

However, he told them that he had decided to rule in secret, not openly, so he would retreat to the Sith planet Exegol to command his forces from afar via hologram. Another reason he decided to seclude himself on Exegol was because of his weak clone body, which would render him unable to command the Dark Empire directly. After the conversation, Sidious prepared to leave for Exegol.

Buoyed by the faith of the Sith Eternal cultists on Exegol, Sidious fought to survive in his rotting, weak, and temporary vessel. His body soon was unable to move on its own, and he took on a ghoulish, undead appearance with missing appendages and eyes clouded over with cataracts. Sidious was mobilized through the use of an Ommin harness, a mechanical spine once worn by Ommin, an ancient Sith king, and the decay of his body was slowed by vials of restorative fluid.

## Personality and traits

Prior to the Galactic Empire, Darth Sidious was careful to put on a charade, presenting himself as a grandfatherly gentleman and a servant of the public good. When in character, he often spoke of himself with great modesty and maintained only as much luxury as was expected of someone of his stature. However, Sidious was, in fact, a skilled manipulator and strategist, having orchestrated countless events in the galaxy, from the Invasion of Naboo to the Clone Wars, with the sole aim of increasing his own power. Even when something occurred that he did not initially plan for, the Sith Lord demonstrated that he was as adept at improvisation as he was at plotting, continuing to play his long game—a smart game—for power.

During the Republic Era, Sidious did not feel the need to hide in the lower levels of Coruscant, which he developed a personal dislike of. Instead, he preferred to remain amongst those who thought they were safe from the dark side. He would find the "weak points" of these places, ensuring the dark side took the light's place where-ever it was fading. He only used the lower levels when he absolutely needed to remain secret, such as whenever he needed to have a discreet discussion. Furthermore, he prefered to speak to his pawns via hologram, knowing that his in person presence could be overwhelming to people like Nute Gunray. He instead kept that advantage saved for whenever one of his "allies" was failing him. In public, as Senator of Naboo, he portrayed himself in a perfect state of blandness, looking interested in whatever was said nearby but never showing his true face. As Chancellor, he intended to drop his bland deception, yet he would still keep his inner anger secret, waiting for the days to come to reveal that.

After his ascension to Galactic Emperor, he essentially dropped his public persona and started living as Sidious full-time. Despite this, very few people other than Vader and some Royal Guard members knew that the Emperor was a Sith, as he took great pains to hide his capabilities. Even Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, perhaps Sidious's most trusted servant besides Vader, only suspected that Sidious was a Sith. Sidious also regarded Gallius Rax as a confidante and allowed Rax to address him as "Sheev." Freed from having to portray his gentle alter-ego, Sidious allowed his true personality, one of great cruelty and sadism, to occasionally shine through in ways that were obvious even to the most sycophantic of his servants. This caused many of those who worked closely with him, such as Senator Orn Free Taa and some of the Empire's intelligence chiefs, to greatly fear him. Sidious was also known to loath ostentation and luxury.

Among Sidious' most effective traits was his deeply manipulative nature, seducing many parties with promises of power, prize, or even salvation to further his agenda. Even so, he was annoyed by when his pawns, such as Nute Gunray, failed to understand the grand scope of his plans. Nevertheless, he successfully manipulated the leaders of the Separatists and Darth Tyranus under the pretense of a better future,[*source?*] coerced Anakin Skywalker into becoming Darth Vader by promising to save his beloved, Padmé Amidala, attempted to sweet talk Bridger with being able to reunite with his deceased parents by altering fate and also tried to push Luke Skywalker into murdering his father so they could rule the galaxy together. While trying to steer Bridger, he displayed himself in his public personality via hologram, showing himself as benign and polite. Once Bridger frustrated his plans, his true malignant self was revealed as he had underestimated the boy's hatred for the Empire and devotion to the Rebellion and new-found rebel family. Likewise, when Sidious tried to motivate Luke into killing his father upon momentarily embracing the dark side of the Force, the young Skywalker desisted due to his compassion for his father; his Jedi teachings.

Sidious saw his allies as pawns that he could use for his grand plan, and was more than willing to dispose them if they no longer served a purpose. He betrayed countless allies, including Darth Plagueis, Maul, Dooku, the Separatist Council, and Vader.

Sidious was known for being hypocritical and arrogant; whilst he told Yoda that his arrogance had blinded him when the Jedi Master confronted him, he had previously declared himself to be the Senate when Windu tried to arrest him. Even shortly before his second death years later, Sidious declared himself to be all the Sith while trying to finish off with his Jedi granddaughter.

After toppling the Republic and shedding his benevolent persona, Sidious essentially disappeared from public life and left most of the day-to-day affairs of the Empire in the hands of the Imperial Ruling Council. His absence did not go unnoticed by the citizenry of the Empire, and rumors began to circulate that the Jedi assassination attempt had not only resulted in his disfigurement but in the death of the sanguine politician that he had once been. In order to quash the gossip and rumor-mongering, the Ruling Council took to dispatching skycar processions in Imperial Center in an effort to make it appear as though Sidious still moved about in public.

From his secured position as Emperor, Sidious devoted most of his time to study and meditation, often in the ancient Sith shrine situated beneath the Imperial Palace. Wishing to rule his Empire for eternity, Sidious launched numerous inquiries into the topic of immortality. One of the most notorious of these was Project Blackwing; an attempt to unlock the secrets of immortality through Sith alchemy, but the project ended in failure. However, Sidious's true goal was ultimately to discover a way to use the dark side to manipulate reality itself, and with that power, not only achieve what he termed "mere immortality" but acquire the ability to reshape the galaxy and its people to his satisfaction. Whether or not Sidious made any significant progress in obtaining this goal is not known however, as he would have needed Vader's assistance to perform the sorts of rituals he had in mind. During the Imperial Era, Darth Sidious sought to gain access to the World between Worlds in order to control time as well as the universe. Following his first death, Sidious still sought ways to achieve immortality and the preservation of the Sith, which would allow Sidious to continue the Sith's legacy.

To those who had been at his nonexistent mercy, Sidious was known to be exceptionally sadistic, and he often took visible pleasure in torturing others. He was similarly quite bloodthirsty as well, and frequently reveled in combat to the point of laughing while he fought or killed. He was also noted for his lack of forgiveness, as even Darth Vader, who was well known for summarily executing officers who failed him, considered Sidious to be even less clement than himself. According to Sosha Soruna, the reason Sidious left his homeworld of Naboo relatively untouched during his reign was because he enjoyed tormenting the populace with the fact that he could destroy the serene beauty of the planet at anytime. In spite of his exceptional mastery of the dark arts, he was no less susceptible to fear, one of the primary emotions of the dark side, than any other Sith: after being attacked by a powerful Force push from Yoda, he displayed visible panic, attempted to flee rather than fight, and only confronted his opponent when he appeared to have no other choice. Despite this, his passion to inflict pain on others and his hate were a priority to him over his own well-being: while he could have used his own powers to save himself from Darth Vader during the Battle of Endor, Sidious' hate was so strong that his only thought was to harm Vader as his apprentice carried him to his first death.

Unlike Darth Vader, his more conservative apprentice, Sidious believed that progress was in no way contrary to the ways of the Sith. When Vader was presented to the cyborgs created by Doctor Cylo, he denounced them as abominations and heresy to the ways of the Force. However, Sidious claimed that he was merely an apprentice and was meant to learn what he knew and that Sidious was meant to discover what there was to teach. He also dismissed Vader's hatred of technological superiority by replying that everything was of the Force.

Due to his Sith philosophy, Sidious was seemingly unwilling to let anyone else inherit the Galactic Empire in the event of his death. Using a game of Shah-tezh as an illustration, Sidious believed that the sole purpose for the Empire's existence was to protect his own life and well-being. He believed that the Empire was a failure if it failed to ensure the survival of its Emperor. Even before the formation of the Empire, Sidious had prepared for this fate by formulating a contingency plan. The Contingency involved luring the Empire to the barren Inner Rim planet Jakku and detonating the planet's core; destroying both the planet and the orbiting Imperial and enemy fleets. The key to the Contingency was the Jakku Observatory, which concealed a borehole that penetrated the planet's core, and Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax. The last step in the Contingency was the Dark Empire, secretly formed by Sidious on Byss.

Following his demise on Endor and resurrection, in spite of his physical frailness, Sidious' mind was sharper than ever before. Even after experiencing death, Sidious's beliefs and way of being remained largely unchanged; his sole overriding ambition was the attainment of unlimited power, and the perpetuation of a Sith Order embodied through him. He would go to any lengths to realize these goals, including harm his own progeny.

Sidious was a human male who stood at 1.73 to 1.78 meters and weighed 75 kilograms. Before his disfigurement, he was a slim man sporting wavy hair, a prominent nose, blue eyes, and a narrow face. By the Invasion of Naboo, his red hair was graying, and it had turned entirely silver ten years later. As he became more embroiled in his plot to control the galaxy, the strain of leading a double life began to show in his face. After his duel with Windu, Sidious' visage was heavily disfigured and withered, with deathly pale, wrinkled skin, flesh sagging from his bulging forehead and around his piercing yellow eyes. Serving as a reminder of his own weakness and mortality, the change further fueled his hatred of the Jedi. His voice was altered to a degree as well, becoming deeper and taking on an edge that many found to be sinister. Tarkin, however, was of the opinion that Sidious's voice merely sounded strained when compared to that of his pre-war persona. For most of his reign, the Emperor remained away from public view and crafted holograms or idealized portraiture that depicted him in his prime, as he was in the last years of the Galactic Republic. Even so, as the reign of the Empire solidified, the citizenry of the galaxy largely forgot the name of "Palpatine," and the man was known simply as "the Emperor." When he was hiding on Exegol sometime after being resurrected on Byss, Sidious, inhabiting a clone body, appeared to be in a putrid and decaying state. His face appeared similar to what it was prior to his original body's disfigurement, but his skin was more pallid than it was before the transfer, his eyes were white, his lips were blackened, and his fingers had begun to rot away, exposing the bone underneath.

## Appearances

* Beyond the Dune Sea (First appearance) (Appears in Newsreel)
* The Enormous Profit (Mentioned only)
* Dark Force Rising
* Raiders of the Lost Darth (Mentioned only)
* Shards of the Past (Mentioned only)
* Shadows of the Empire (Mentioned only)
* Orders (Mentioned only)
* Agent of Doom (Mentioned only)
* Ochi of Bestoon (Mentioned only)
* Tales from Vader's Castle, Part II (Mentioned only) (In flashback(s))
* Armed to the Teeth (Indirect mention only)
* Into the Crossfire (Appears in hologram)
* "The Sith Witch of Mustafar"—*The Further Exploits of Indiana Jones* (In flashback(s))
* *Star Wars: Veers*
* *The Dark Man* (Mentioned only)