Palpatine/Legends


 * "The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."
 * &mdash; Palpatine

Emperor Palpatine (82 BBY&mdash;4 ABY, spirit destroyed 11 ABY), also known as Darth Sidious, was the last Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and the self-declared Emperor of the Galactic Empire, which he founded in 19 BBY after of orchestrating a full-scale galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars. He was the only Sith Lord in 1,000 years to achieve the ultimate goal of the Sith: to overthrow the Jedi Order, and to bring the Galaxy under the rule of the Sith, a feat he achieved through political machinations, his mastery of the Force, and the help of several powerful apprentices, including the Chosen One.

Early days (82 BBY to 32 BBY)
Information about Palpatine is difficult to come by, since most records on his homeworld concerning his ancestry, his immediate family and his upbringing had "mysteriously vanished" by the time he became a Senator, and were possibly deliberately destroyed in order to hide his true identity as a Sith Lord. It is known that Palpatine was born on the eleventh day of the eighth standard month, in the year 82 BBY. His birthplace was the peaceful planet of Naboo, in the Chommell Sector of the Mid Rim, and he claimed the capital of Theed as his home city.

Being Force-sensitive, Palpatine was eventually trained in the ways of the dark side of the Force by a Sith Lord named Darth Plagueis under the name Darth Sidious. Plagueis was an excellent mentor, preparing Palpatine for the ultimate revenge of the Sith. According to Sidious, Plagueis had the ability to manipulate midi-chlorians to create new life, as well as to sustain existing life and keep people from dying. It was speculated that either Plagueis or Palpatine used this technique to create Anakin Skywalker. It is unknown if Plagueis eventually taught Sidious these techniques, or even if he even knew them himself in the first place; Sidious or Plagueis may have simply been lying.

Over the years Palpatine had grown extremely strong in the Force, and his knowledge of the ways of the Sith became exceptional. After deciding that he had nothing more to learn from his master, he took an infant Zabrak from Iridonia to be his apprentice. He dubbed him Darth Maul and molded him into a deadly unquestioning tool who lived only to serve his master's wish of destroying the Jedi and claiming the galaxy for the Sith. Eventually, Sidious murdered Plagueis while he was asleep and would later revel in the irony of his master's ability to save anyone from death but himself. Plagueis may have taught him the technique and then Sidious, having no further use for him, killed him or he could have learned by himself to use this ability to save himself and others if it ever became necessary in the future.

The beginning of Palpatine's political career (70 BBY to 52 BBY)
Outside of his second existence as a Sith, the course of Palpatine's life is somewhat easier to trace. At a young age, Palpatine began his political career, carefully hiding his true persona of Darth Sidious. On Naboo, public service is mandatory from the ages of twelve to twenty, and he began his road to power here (70-62 BBY). Unlike most Naboo, however, he elected to stay on in politics beyond the normally accepted age, when others would move on to more refined cultural pursuits. They saw public service as an obligation; he saw it as something to be enthusiastically pursued. It was but the first instance of his habit of staying on in office longer than his due time.

Palpatine entered his full-fledged political career in local Naboo politics (62-52 BBY), working upwards through the lower levels of power. Although not every fact of this period is known, what is certain is that he did not begin with grandeur. He lost more elections than he won, missing out on a string of political appointments. There is no way of determining how much these failures were due to the natural learning process, and how much was deliberate on his part: he may have had to suffer more defeats than victories, so as not to seem extraordinary. At this point, it was probably important for him not to be seen as a political superman, as someone who could threaten other, more powerful people who could become impediments to him before his position was firmly entrenched.

Whatever the real reasons, though his initial years in politics were disappointing by any standard, he learned valuable lessons, which he would put to use with consummate skill. When Senator Vidar Kim, Naboo's representative in the Galactic Senate, was assassinated by a gunman on a passing airspeeder (52 BBY), Palpatine stood for election to succeed him. The people of Naboo elected him as their sectorial Senator, to represent Naboo and more than thirty other worlds in Chommell Sector. There is strong suspicion that the assassin had been contracted by Darth Sidious&mdash;or perhaps Darth Plagueis&mdash;to kill Kim specifically to ensure Palpatine's election. He was thirty years old.

Palpatine's career as a Senator (52 BBY to 32 BBY)
Originally regarded as unambitious and unassuming by his peers, Senator Palpatine surprised everyone as he became increasingly popular, cultivating friendships with respected public figures, military commanders, and even Jedi Masters. Palpatine wrote extensively, his notes on power becoming popular texts among political and military science students, his theories even taught at leading universities throughout the galaxy. Despite this growing influence, Palpatine remained unassuming, and would spend many hours alone reflecting in his modest quarters. It was rumored that he orchestrated the abdication of Naboo's King Veruna, possibly hoping that his successor, Queen Amidala, would be too young to make rational decisions and would primarily rely on Palpatine during her reign.

According to Supreme Prophet Kadann, Palpatine produced a son named Triclops some time during this period and banished him to the spice mines of Kessel. The validity of this story is not known and is hard to determine due to Palpatine having altered or destroyed records of things in his life such as immediate family members, but it was commonly believed by high-ranking Imperial officers in 5 ABY.

The Naboo Conflict (32 BBY)


Palpatine secretly engineered the Blockade of Naboo for one purpose: to become the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

In 32 BBY, Sidious convinced the Neimoidian leaders of the Trade Federation to blockade the planet Naboo, in protest of the taxation of certain 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. Upon the arrival of two Jedi ambassadors and the escape of Queen Amidala, Sidious ordered Viceroy Nute Gunray to invade the planet.

Using the turmoil created by the invasion, Palpatine convinced Amidala, who returned to Coruscant to seek the Senate's help, to issue a Vote of No Confidence against Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum, whom he portrayed as weak, indecisive, and responsible for the taxation that brought about the Trade Federation blockade. Palpatine had made careful preparations for this situation in the Senate, garnering sympathy for himself and creating an atmosphere of distrust around Valorum based on accusations of corruption. Soon, he was nominated for Chancellorship, along with two other Senators, Bail Antilles of Alderaan and Ainlee Teem of Malastare. Palpatine appeared to the Queen confident that sympathy created by the current crisis on Naboo would cause many Senators to vote for him.

Against Palpatine's apparent insistence, Amidala returned to Naboo with the intention of reclaiming her home planet from the Trade Federation. Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Jar-Jar Binks joined her. Sidious was baffled by her decision, and dispatched Darth Maul to deal with the Jedi when they reached Naboo.

While the Battle of Naboo erupted, Darth Maul confronted Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Theed Royal Palace. A fierce lightsaber battle ensued, and Maul eventually killed a fatigued Qui-Gon Jinn. Maul also came close to defeating Kenobi; however Kenobi sliced Maul in half in a stunning last ditch attack.

It appeared that Naboo emerged victorious from the whole conflict, for the Trade Federation was forced to retreat, and a Sith Lord had been eliminated. However, Palpatine gained most from the debacle, for he had won the Senate's election and became Supreme Chancellor. On his visit to Naboo for celebrations, Palpatine promised to the young Anakin Skywalker, new Padawan to Obi-Wan Kenobi, that he would be watching his career with great interest.

Tyranus and the Clone Army (32 BBY)
After the untimely death of Darth Maul, Sidious was faced with the urgent task of finding and training a new apprentice. Sidious, who had no time to find a Force-sensitive youth to mold into a Sith Lord, approached Count Dooku, a maverick Jedi Knight who had grown to despise the corrupted Republic and the blinded Jedi Council. After much discussion, Sidious had persuaded Dooku that both their visions of improving the state of the galaxy were extremely similar. It was not long before Dooku decided to join Sidious in his bid to salvage the galaxy from depravity. Sidious thus began training Dooku in the ways of the dark side.

One Jedi Council member and friend of Dooku, Sifo-Dyas, became concerned for his friend's sudden change in spirit. Sifo-Dyas was already convinced that very dark times were ahead, however neither the Senate nor the Jedi Council had paid much attention. Desperate, he secretly contacted the elite cloners of Kamino, and ordered a massive army of clone soldiers, intended to defend the Republic in the future.

Sidious was quick to discover the request for the clone army, and knew that the army would become very handy in the future. In order to keep the army secret, Sidious ordered Dooku to eliminate his old friend Sifo-Dyas. Without hesitation, Dooku murdered the Jedi Master, proving that he had truly embraced the dark side. Sidious awarded Dooku the title of Darth Tyranus, and commanded his new apprentice to remove all records of the planet Kamino from the Jedi Archives.

Sidious' next mission for his new apprentice was to select an exceptional warrior to be the template of the clone army Sifo-Dyas had ordered. After much consideration and a brutal trial, Tyranus selected Jango Fett as the perfect candidate. On Bogg 4, Tyranus offered Fett a generous payment for being the prime clone. Fett accepted, on the condition that he received an unaltered clone of himself, whom he would make his own apprentice, and son.

The Clone Wars (22 BBY to 19 BBY)
Under Palpatine's direction, Count Dooku united several commercial organizations&mdash;foremost among them the Trade Federation that had been Sidious’ tool for seizing the Chancellorship&mdash;into the Confederacy of Independent Systems, thus forging the Separatist movement. These organizations pledged the massive armies they had used to protect their profits to Dooku, thus making the Confederacy capable of overthrowing the Republic, and a threat in the eyes of the Senate.

In 22 BBY, Palpatine used his powers to convince the Senate to grant him emergency powers to deal with the growing threat of the Separatists. What both the Jedi and the Senate failed to realize was that both the Separatists and the Republic were now under the control of Palpatine, and the coming war was little more than a plot for Sidious to seize more power. Palpatine's insidious nature and supreme mastery of the Force also allowed him to conceal himself from the Jedi Masters, even when sharing the same room.

Palpatine used his emergency dictatorial powers to legalize the clone army secretly built on Kamino, calling it the Grand Army of the Republic, and use it to combat the Confederacy. This would later provide the basis for his Imperial reign, based largely on the military.

During the Clone Wars, Palpatine further consolidated his power. He continued to control the Confederacy of Independent Systems through Count Dooku, eventually having General Grievous, the cyborg android who answered to his other persona of Sidious, 'kidnap' him from his office in 19 BBY. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker led a rescue, eventually meeting with Palpatine and Dooku in the General’s flagship, the Invisible Hand. Whilst Obi-Wan was rendered unconscious, Anakin was able to defeat Dooku, and beheaded him upon the Chancellor’s urging. By this point, Palpatine had long desired and plotted to take Anakin as an apprentice, and he needed to have Dooku removed to do so. Over time, the Jedi began to grow distrustful of Palpatine, fearing what this ever-increasing power might mean for the Republic.

End of the Republic (19 BBY)
At the same time, Sidious was sowing similar seeds of doubt into the mind of Anakin. Young Skywalker saw a vision of his wife, Padmé Amidala, dying after giving birth to their child. Palpatine, who could have planted this vision of the future in Anakin’s mind himself, promised the young Jedi to open his mind to the Sith knowledge of sustaining or creating life, which&mdash;as he claimed&mdash;was the only way to escape Padmé's death. Eventually the inevitable confrontation emerged, and Anakin delivered the revelation that Palpatine was really Darth Sidious, the Sith master for which they had been searching for over ten years, to Jedi Master Mace Windu.

Mace ordered Anakin to remain in the Jedi Temple, while he and a team of Jedi went to arrest the Chancellor. Palpatine quickly dispatched the rest of the force, dueling Mace alone. Sensing Anakin's arrival, Sidious feigned defeat, knowing that the only way to break Anakin’s connection to the Jedi was to force Anakin to choose loyalty to the Jedi, or to Sidious' promises of the power to govern life and death. Anakin saw a helpless old man, seemingly deformed from injury, begging for his pity under the boots of a powerful Jedi Master that held his lightsaber close to his neck and threatened to kill him.

The young Jedi Knight chose Sidious, severing Mace’s hand. Sidious then took the opportunity to blast Mace from the building with Force lightning, removing one of the greater threats to his power. He dubbed his new apprentice Darth Vader, and told him that while he never learned Plagueis's secret technique used to preserve life, he thought they could achieve it together (which may perhaps be a lie, considering Palpatine's history). He then commanded Vader to exterminate anyone seen as a threat to the Republic, including the Jedi stationed at the Jedi Temple and the Separatists stationed at Mustafar. Meanwhile, he unleashed Order 66 to the clone army, and so did away with the majority of the Jedi Order.

Using his new face, which had gained a new grotesque appearance, apparently by his own Force lighting during the fight with Windu, as proof of the Jedi Order's attempt to assassinate him and usurp his power over the galaxy, Palpatine gained additional sympathy among the Senate and the Republic citizens. He declared a boldly unificationist policy, symbolically changing the name of the government from Republic to Empire, with himself as the first Emperor.

Obi-Wan and Yoda eventually caught up with the betrayal and deceit, realizing that Anakin had slain everyone in the Jedi Temple, including younglings. Obi-Wan begged the old master not to send him to battle his former Padawan and friend, but there was no choice; Yoda thought the new Emperor would be far too powerful for Obi-Wan. As Obi-Wan confronted Anakin on Mustafar, Yoda met with Sidious on Coruscant. Yoda was unable to stand against the might of the Emperor, and so fled, whilst Obi-Wan succeeded in wounding his former apprentice, leaving him for dead. Sidious eventually found his apprentice, and commanded that he be rebuilt using prosthetic replacements. Sidious lied to Vader, telling him that he had killed Padmé in his anger, and rage finally consumed him completely. Meanwhile, Yoda and Obi-Wan fled into exile, carrying Anakin's twin offspring.

The Emperor's reign (19 BBY to 4 ABY)
Emperor Palpatine proceeded to gather power and eliminate his rivals following the end of the Clone Wars, establishing a New Order called the Galactic Empire. The Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR) was established during this time, including the pervasive Imperial Security Bureau (ISB). His militaristic regime was centered on the Imperial Navy, although this branch would also prove the most insubordinate, and a tension between the Coruscant government and the fleet admirals existed throughout this period, creating the need for the ISB as an internal police. COMPNOR's Coalition for Progress established monitoring agencies to keep track of all aspects of life.



Although this attempted totalitarian regime remained weak, it was continually strengthening until the break-up of the Empire in 4 ABY. Examples of its broad scope include an Imperially promoted aesthetic style of military-inspired simplicity, in contrast to the opulence and ornamentation Galactic Republic-era. Non-humans and women were excluded from much of this New Order, and atrocities committed by powerful regional governors were common.

Palpatine was also responsible for the devastation of Caamas. The Emperor saw the respected Caamasi as a threat to his New Order. A group of Bothan infiltrators were responsible for sabotaging Caamas's shield generators, leaving the planet vulnerable to Imperial orbital bombardment. The once beautiful world was devastated during this attack, turned into a poisoned wasteland. The peaceful Caamasi were dispersed throughout the galaxy. In 18 BBY, the Emperor constructed the huge, asteroid-shaped superweapon Eye of Palpatine in order to use it to destroy a Jedi enclave on Belsavis. However, the deadly superweapon was sabotaged by two Jedi Knights and the Jedi on Belsavis managed to escape. The Eye would remain forgotten until 12 ABY when it was recovered by Roganda Ismaren.

Unlike his Sith predecessors, Palpatine did not intend to be inherited by Darth Vader. Palpatine expected his Empire to rule the galaxy eternally, with only himself as its true leader. At an unknown point in time, Palpatine sensed that his aging body was decaying to the point he was dying, his flesh unable to support the growing power of the dark side within him. In response, he arranged for a series of clones of himself to be created. Palpatine had mastered the horridly painful technique of transferring his own consciousness into a fresh clone&mdash;finding the secret to eternal life.

It was believed that Palpatine actually died a number of times during his reign as Emperor, however each time he was successful in transferring his spirit into a new clone. No details of his many deaths had ever been documented and remain a mystery as to how and when they occurred, if they actually occurred at all.

Shortly after the declaration of the Galactic Empire, Darth Sidious began constructions in the dangerous Deep Core on the planet Byss to turn it into a secret throne world immediately after he became Emperor. To do this, he utilized thousands of non-human workers from countless conquered worlds including Utapau, Gamorr, and Toydaria. Byss was a dark side conduit, able to give its inhabitants great power in using the Force. Along with the power of Byss, Palpatine slowly fed on the life energy of his workers, to lengthen his own life.

He and Darth Vader also brought a number of captured Agricultural Corps survivors and other Padawans to the planet in order to train them into powerful servants. Vader was ordered to select worthy pupils, and dispose of the rest. He initially selected four of the best pupils including an Agricultural Corps member named Tremayne. There, on Byss, his primary supply of clones was kept, guarded by loyal Dark Jedi and immense genetically-altered guards, and maintained by a trusted private physician.

On a number of occasions, Palpatine visited the ancient Sith graveyard world Korriban for advice from long dead Sith Lords. He also unlocked secrets of the Force from a captured Jedi Holocron. Emperor Palpatine wrote the Dark Side Compendium, a study of the nature of the dark side, and finished two books while in power, with the third incomplete by his death at Endor.

At some point during his reign, Palpatine communicated with the Shreeftut of the distant Ssi-ruuvi Imperium through the use of the dark side. He appeared in the Shreeftut's dreams and claimed that he was the ruler of an empire in the Galactic Core. Palpatine traded with the Shreeftut for some battle drones in exchange that a large number of ‘subjects’ be present for entechment by the Imperium. This would result in the Ssi-ruuvi invasion of Bakura in 4 ABY. Emperor Palpatine also employed a large number of Force sensitive agents. These people, the Dark Side Adept, were outside the Empire's official organization, but reported directly to Emperor Palpatine or (when necessary) Lord Vader. Palpatine intended to replace key officials with the Adepts, though their number was too limited. It is unknown how these adepts got around the Sith Order's Rule of Two. Technically, Palpatine and Vader the only ones who styled themselves as Sith Lords, so they may have just been paying lip service to the Rule of Two. It is also possible that, since the Republic was gone and the Jedi extinct (or at least presumed extinct), Palpatine may have rendered obsolete the Rule of Two.

In 0 BBY, the Emperor took another step for ultimate control over the Galaxy, dissolving the Senate, thus erasing the last institutional remnants of the Old Republic. In the absence of the Senate, the Death Star, an orbital planet-destroying battle station capable of hyperspace travel, would enforce the Emperor's law. As a demonstration, it completely destroyed the Core world of Alderaan that had given birth to rebellious elements. Grand Moff Tarkin promulgated a fear-driven principle of governance later called the Tarkin Doctrine, and the Galaxy sank in fear.

Fall of the Empire (4 ABY)
When Darth Vader delivered Luke Skywalker to the second Death Star during the Battle of Endor, the Emperor tried to convert Luke to the dark side and convince him to taking Vader's place as Palpatine's apprentice. His plan almost succeeded, but at the last moment, Luke refused to continue fighting his father, realizing that he had already started transforming into his likeness&mdash;"more machine than man." The Emperor, outraged, attacked Luke with Force lightning. Vader, seeing his helpless son tortured by his master, was conflicted once again. He had to choose between the light side of the Force and the dark side as he had twenty three years before, but this time he chose the light side. Vader became Anakin Skywalker again and found enough strength to kill Palpatine by throwing him into the second Death Star's reactor core. But the bolts of lightning ravaged his mechanical suit and he was fatally wounded.

Without Palpatine's Force guidance, the Imperial fleet was scattered, and the station itself destroyed. The Battle of Endor was treated as the end of the Empire; formally continuing to exist, it never rebuilt itself to its former strength, eventually shrinking to the small and insignificant Imperial Remnant.

Palpatine Reborn (10 ABY to 11 ABY)
Palpatine would return, however, in a series of clone bodies and wreak vengeance on Luke Skywalker and the New Republic. He would only be defeated completely in 11 ABY. He was forced to journey in the maddening, bodiless existence of the void. His spirit was forced to take possession of the body of Emperor's Hand Jeng Droga. Though Droga went mad in the process, he was able to journey to Byss, where Palpatine was able to take possession of a new clone. There, on Byss, he would remain for years and would rebuild his strength and Empire.

Palpatine's rule was so absolute that his apparent death at the Battle of Endor fragmented the Galactic Empire. Without an heir, opportunistic Moffs and warlords set out to carve their own kingdoms wherever they could. This worked to the advantage of the New Republic, which succeeded in reclaiming much of the galaxy. One warlord who nearly succeeded in defeating the New Republic was Grand Admiral Thrawn, the only non-human to hold that rank. His cunning tactics and unerring strategies brought the Imperial Remnant to the brink of victory in 10 ABY had it not been for betrayal by the Noghri Rukh.

Encouraged by Thrawn's successes, the remaining Inner Circle of Imperial warlords staged a devastating attack on the galactic capital Coruscant. Much of Imperial City was laid waste as a result, and the New Republic was forced to evacuate. Once on the surface, the Imperials splintered again, and skirmishes dragged on in the devastated cityscape.

It was then that the resurrected cloned Emperor struck. Using his dark powers to create a powerful Force storm, he swept Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to Byss. There, he revealed himself to Luke, and revealed the power of the dark side. Faced with an immortal foe, Skywalker did the unthinkable -- in order to defeat the dark side from within, he knelt before Palpatine, and submitted himself as the Emperor's new apprentice.

Skywalker was too enmeshed in the dark side to successfully rebel against his master. Although he sabotaged some of Palpatine's military projects including the World Devastators during the Battle of Calamari, he still could not free himself from the grip of the dark side. It was only by his sister, Leia Organa Solo, that he gained the strength that he need. Together, the pair was able to defeat the clone Emperor temporarily onboard his flagship the Eclipse during the Battle of Pinnacle Base.



Having returned in yet another clone, Palpatine continued his scourge against the New Republic. Armed with the deadly superweapons, the Galaxy Gun and his second Eclipse-class Star Dreadnought Eclipse II, Palpatine forced many New Republic worlds to submit to Imperial rule. Despite his growing Empire, Palpatine was again growing frail and weak.

Even worse, the resurrected Emperor began to succumb to clone madness and the genetic tampering done to his clones by the treacherous Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax. He tried to clone other bodies so that he could resurrect himself, but Jax had succeeded in tainting even the genetic source material. Even his scientists and doctors were rendered helpless. With his body wasting away rapidly, he went to the Sith world Korriban to consult the ancient Sith Lords. They advised him to enter Leia's newborn son Anakin Solo.

The Emperor brought the Eclipse II to Onderon, where the Solos had relocated their children. While the New Republic engaged the Imperials, a team of Jedi led by Luke sought out the Emperor. They did not find him onboard his ship since he had slipped sown to Onderon to find Leia. During the battle, Lando Calrissian and R2-D2 had infiltrated the flagship. R2-D2 then sabotaged the vehicle's automated hyperdrive engines and set the coordinates to match the location of the Galaxy Gun, which was in Byss. The flagship fled into hyperspace, despite the efforts of the crew to regain control of the vessel. There above Byss, both superweapons collided with each other. The Galaxy Gun's final missile was pulled into the planet's gravity and exploded, destroying the reborn Emperor's throne world.

Meanwhile, the clone Emperor faced Leia and demanded that her newest child be his to possess. She fought back, but was no match for the Emperor. Before he could complete his evil plot, Luke Skywalker and other Jedi arrived. Palpatine fatally injured Rayf Ysanna and Empatojayos Brand in the conflict. However, Han Solo shot the dying Emperor in the back. Before his soul could enter Anakin's body, Palpatine was intercepted by the dying Empatojayos Brand. The Jedi Knight bound the Emperor's departing life essence to his own, taking the evil spirit with him as he became one with the Force. Cut off from a host body, Emperor Palpatine was destroyed.

Darth Sidious, once the greatest Dark Lord of the Sith, was finally dead.

Conclusions
Palpatine claimed - and fully expected - that his New Order would endure for ten thousand years. In the end, it endured, with and without him, in one form or another, for roughly fifty years. It could not have lasted much longer than this, for in the end it had never truly been intended to operate apart its Emperor. And, when that man was gone, it remained only for those who came after to realize that it could never work, and accept the inevitable, despite the attempts by others to give it a new lease on life as "the New Order with a personal face." The notion of a benevolent Empire, of the concept of absolute law and order walking hand-in-hand with the concept of civil rights, is a contradiction.

What was the Galactic Empire that Palpatine had established? It was, at first, simply the irrational and terrible culmination of a blood fued thousands of years old, of a difference of opinion over the nature of power as argued by opposing bands of mystics. It was a vainglorious attempt by one of those bands to reverse the course of thousands of years of history, to resurrect the golden age of a long-fallen Sith Empire and then hold it in eternal stasis. It was the physical embodiment of the belief, long held by the Sith, that power denied is power wasted, and it was living proof of the fact, learned at a terrible cost, that power indulged is power abused.

And its inaugurator, Palpatine himself? He was at first the beneficiary of a plot formed long before he had first drawn breath, an agent-provocateur working in secret to succeed where his progenitors had failed. In mirror image of his dual identities as both Palpatine and Sidious, he was a pleasant facade concealing a cold core. He had close friends, and yet had no friends at all. He was both a believer in the principles of the Sith, and a believer in no principle at all, save what he decided on the day. He was both a man of faith and a man of no faith. He was, in his way, both an idealist and a cynic.

He was a man who ruled with power, and who was finally ruled by power. He was a man who saw all and knew much, and yet was totally blind, and knew nothing, when it mattered the most. He was a vigorous leader who stood proudly astride the colossus of the most powerful modern state ever devised, a man who claimed to represent the new direction of the universe, and also a pathetic old man, possessed by fear, who was taken totally aback when the universe changed direction again.

He was a man who claimed to be able to save the ailing Republic from its demons, and who was later laid bare as the most terrifying of all its demons. At the very last, he was a cripple, lying, unable to move, on the floor with a smoking blaster wound in his chest. And, if there is any justice in the universe, he is today a soul in Chaos, forever screaming out against the madness of the evil that came to embrace him as he had once embraced it.

Abilities and traits
Darth Sidious possessed a superior intellect, had a cunning understanding of the human mind, and was skilled in the use of the Force in foreseeing the future, so he could manipulate events as though he were a dejarik grandmaster moving pieces on a board. Therefore, he had a penchant for complicated schemes, and such was his patience that he could wait years to see them come into fruition. Sidious had a broad expertise in areas such as psychology, bureaucracy, and philosophy. The dark side energies flowing through his body were so intense that they ravaged his mortal frame. Lord Sidious was a gnarled, ancient man with pale skin, searing, sickly yellow eyes, a heavy dark cloak, and a glossy black cane.

Darth Sidious was an enormously talented fighter. Apparently, the only Jedi ever known to defeat Sidious in battle was Mace Windu, though Anakin Skywalker intervened and Sidious won after all. It is also possible that the loss itself was merely a ploy on Sidious' part to attempt to turn Anakin. As Palpatine, he had gained a reputation for being a good and modest man from Naboo, an extremely humble and peaceful backwater world. As both Senator and Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, he promised to bring justice to the government, which had been mired in corruption and chaos. Actually the Dark Lord of the Sith, he had in fact used his genius-level intellect to become the most powerful tyrant in galactic history. He was a self-proclaimed savior and political mastermind who had immense power and immeasurable cunning. In his roles as Senator and Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, though, he appeared as an unassuming old man, almost grandfatherly, with elegant robes.

Disfiguration


It is not known which of Palpatine's guises was his 'true' face. One obvious possibility was that he was deformed due to injuries sustained during his battle with Mace Windu. Palpatine sustained these injuries when his Force lightning was reflected from Windu's lightsaber back at him. Though most of the circumstances behind Palpatine's duel with Windu and the other Jedi Masters were not publicly revealed, he did garner sympathy in the Senate by claiming that he had been disfigured when the Jedi attacked him.

On the other hand, when Jedi such as Anakin and Luke Skywalker were hit by Force lightning, they were not permanently scarred. This could be explained if Sidious had been deformed for as long as he had been a Sith Lord, a process which is believed to have happened to other devotees of the dark side. He could have therefore used some kind of Force trick (like Force Concealment) in order to cloak his Sith form and appear like a normal Human to others, even Jedi. He may also have had cosmetic surgery which "corrected" his real face, like Seti Ashgad did, who looked many years younger than he actually was. During the battle with Windu, he lost concentration and temporarily revealed it to Anakin Skywalker, possibly on purpose to make him look injured and weak in order to win his sympathy, and revealed his true face. He then decided to present his appearance publicly to accuse the Jedi, and ceased to hide it afterwards.

Another theory suggests that, since Sidious had never overtly used his considerable power before, the dark side took a heavy toll on his body when his full powers were finally unleashed. The fact that Sidious' eyes changed to the sickly yellow which such Sith as Darth Maul also had lends some credence to this idea.

Behind the Scenes


Like many personalities in the Star Wars universe, Palpatine's character has clear similarities to certain historical figures. Parallels to dictators such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler can all be found in the Galactic Emperor's words and actions (in many ways he is an amalgamation of the two Caesars -- Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus -- and Lucius Cornelius Sulla). In writing the original drafts of the Star Wars films, during the mid-1970s, George Lucas has said he was influenced by then-US President Richard Nixon and the constitutional crisis he ignited that caused the fall of his administration, and during the writing of the prequels in the early 2000s, Lucas was influenced by President George W. Bush, and the increasing power of state security under his administration.

In many ways, Palpatine is an archetypal villain, who does not appear to have any understandable motivation. He relies on deception and manipulation to control and corrupt individuals throughout the films, and as a result is a classically diabolical character. As Emperor, he appears to be a frail, weak old man, but is actually quite supernaturally powerful. Palpatine may be viewed as the quintessential wolf in sheep's clothing. Palpatine's motivations are more easily explained when viewed in the context of his alter ego Darth Sidious.

Name
Palpatine's full name (assuming he has any names other than "Palpatine" alone) has never been revealed. The usage "Emperor Palpatine" suggests that Palpatine is in fact his only name, though the use of titles such as "Senator Palpatine" suggests it may be his family name. Of course, Palpatine might be a name of state, as the name Amidala is, so it may mean that neither Palpatine's given or family name is known.

Nevertheless, the original version of his character in Lucas' early scripts was named "Cos Dashit" and many Star Wars fan fiction writers have quite incorrectly adopted the name "Cos Palpatine" in their stories and web pages -- so much so that it has become "fanon." The name "Dantius Palpatine" has also been adopted, though its origins are more ambiguous, seeming to come from SuperShadow, a website of fraudulent Star Wars material, including "synopses" for Episodes VII - IX. Another first name, Ethril, was apparently used in early drafts of The Phantom Menace Visual Dictionary, but was vetoed by George Lucas. Other names postulated by fans include "Augustus" (based on the presumption that Augie's Great Municipal Band on the Episode I soundtrack refers to Palpatine) and "Albert". On the official website, it is stated that Palpatine's first name, if he has one, has not yet been revealed.

The origin of the name "Palpatine" is not known. It may come from the word "palatine," meaning, "relating to a palace," which is fitting for a supreme dictator. Some have speculated that it refers to Senator Charles Palantine, a character in Taxi Driver portrayed by Leonard Harris. Another theory suggests he was named for Palatine Hill, where Romulus and Remus were found and raised by she-wolf according to Roman mythology and where the palace of the Roman Emperors was located.

Palpatine's Sith name, Sidious, is believed to be derived from Insidious, a word with multiple meanings, such as treacherous, cunning, and seductive--all of which accurately describe the Dark Lord.

Portrayal


Both the middle-aged Palpatine and the elderly Emperor Palpatine are played by actor Ian McDiarmid, although the holographic image of the Emperor that briefly appeared in The Empire Strikes Back was played by an unnamed actor (a woman with the composite image of a chimpanzee for the eyes) and was voiced by Clive Revill. For the 2004 DVD release of the Star Wars Trilogy, the scene in Episode V was reshot with Ian McDiarmid replacing Revill as the Emperor, with new lines recorded for both McDiarmid and James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader). In the Clone Wars cartoon series, Nick Jameson voiced Palpatine. Jameson has also voiced Palpatine in different video games.

Dark Empire possible discrepancy explanations
In the Dark Empire series, Palpatine tells Luke that the Battle of Endor was not his first death, and that he had been transferred his spirit into at least one clone body years prior. Lucasfilm official Leland Chee has recently explained that Palpatine was lying to Luke about having died previously, and that Palpatine's demise on the second Death Star was definitely the first time he died, although not the last. The most likely reason for this retcon is that in Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine's deformed face seems to be a result of his battle with Mace Windu, and since Palpatine has those same deformities in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, it is his original body seen in those movies and not a clone. If the theory of the deformity being a result of injury is true, then the reason that Palpatine had similar deformities within the Dark Empire series is because Palpatine's clone bodies, unlike his original one, rapidly degenerate as a result of the strong presence of dark side energy within them, which is why he must periodically switch from one clone body to another.

Styles of address

 * Senator Palpatine of the Sovereign System of Naboo.
 * His Excellency Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic.
 * His Imperial Majesty Emperor Palpatine of the Galactic Empire.
 * Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith or Lord Sidious.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Republic 64: Bloodlines
 * Darth Maul: Saboteur
 * Cloak of Deception
 * Darth Maul
 * Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
 * Marked
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Republic
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Reversal of Fortune
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Evasive Action: Recruitment
 * In His Image
 * Star Wars: Empire
 * Star Wars Empire: Betrayal (TPB)
 * Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope (non-canon)
 * Star Wars: TIE Fighter
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Shadows of the Empire
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars Infinities: Return of the Jedi (non-canon)
 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * Dark Empire
 * Dark Empire II
 * Empire's End
 * Crimson Empire (flashbacks)
 * Darksaber (flashbacks)