Darth Plagueis/Legends

"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

Darth Plagueis, sometimes referred to as Darth Plagueis the Wise, was a Muun Dark Lord of the Sith, heir to the lineage of Darth Bane and a master of midi-chlorian manipulation, who lived during the century leading up to the Battle of Naboo.

He played a very important role in galactic events, inciting Darth Sidious, whom he trained in the ways of the Sith and the dark side of the Force, to take control of the Galaxy and bring about an age of the Sith.

The rise of Darth Plagueis
"He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew. Then, his apprentice killed him in his sleep."

- Palpatine to Anakin Skywalker

For all the influence he had on galactic events, very little is known about Darth Plagueis. Only his apprentice, Sidious, had said anything, and that amounted to very little. In any case, little of what Sidious said can be taken at face value.

The birth name and early life of this man remains a complete mystery. Recent research has revealed that he was a Muun, implying&mdash;but not specifying&mdash;that he was born on the distant but prominent Outer Rim world of Muunilinst. What can be surmised is that at some point he was found to be very strong in the Force by an existing Sith Lord, who at the appropriate time, took him as an apprentice, declaring that from that point onward, he would be known as Darth Plagueis.

Eventually, Plagueis became a master in his turn and sought an apprentice of his own to carry on the Sith tradition. Though the exact chain of events is unknown, it is clear that a gifted young man from Naboo named Palpatine caught his eye. Seeing his potential, Plagueis took him on as his apprentice, naming him "Darth Sidious." It is possible that Plagueis found in Sidious what the Sith Lords had long awaited&mdash;a Sith born with the power to implement the final stages of Darth Bane's thousand-year-old plan and bring the revenge of the Sith to fruition.

Plagueis and Sidious
"You must begin by gaining power over yourself; then another; then a group, an order, a world, a species, a group of species&hellip; finally, the Galaxy itself."

- Darth Plagueis

At this point, there is no way of knowing exactly how long Sidious's apprenticeship under Plagueis lasted. It is clear that he learned much from his master. As Palpatine later claimed that his mentor (not naming him as Plagueis) taught him all about the Force, including the dark side, the possibility exists that Plagueis knew&mdash;and therefore taught Sidious&mdash;as much of the light (Jedi disciplines) as well as the dark (the ways of the Sith), as this would have been very useful knowledge in their plans to destroy the Jedi Order from within. Sidious possibly became more powerful than Plagueis. But he was also more ambitious than Plagueis anticipated, and there are strong indications that there were frictions between the two Sith Lords.

For instance, it has long been assumed that Sidious awaited the death of his master before taking on an apprentice of his own, but it has been recently discovered that Sidious raised and trained the infant Darth Maul without Plagueis's knowledge. There could be little reason for Sidious caring what Plagueis knew or did not know, unless he was doing this behind his master's back, possibly preparing a secret apprentice in anticipation of his own eventual ascension to mastery. This also indicates that Plagueis was still alive as of 60–50 BBY, since Maul was born in 54 BBY. In fact, he may have lived even longer than this.

Beyond simple ambition on Sidious's part, it is not specified what the source of this intrigue was, but it is strongly implied that a particular arcane discipline of Plagueis's drove a wedge between master and apprentice, leading eventually to that master's death.

The murder of Darth Plagueis
"Ironic. He could save others from death&hellip; but not himself." "Is it possible to learn this power?" "Not from a Jedi."

- Palpatine and Anakin Skywalker

Plagueis, obsessed with the possibilities of spontaneous generation and immortality, was a practitioner of some of the deepest, darkest secrets of the Force. This included his ability to influence the midi-chlorians to not only save the lives of those he cared about, but also to create life. A child created from such methods, according to Plagueis, would be the embodiment of the Force itself. It is these secrets that have stirred the greatest controversy about Plagueis, for they are crucially connected with the central enigma about another young man destined to become a Sith&mdash;Anakin Skywalker. It would be very possible that Plagueis was behind the miraculous conception of Skywalker, but this has never been fully proven.

Palpatine eventually told Skywalker that Plagueis's apprentice (not naming himself as such) killed Plagueis in his sleep. Though it is difficult to determine how much of what he said about Plagueis was real and how much, if any, was fabricated, there seems no reason for him to have lied about what would be, for Skywalker, an irrelevant point. The murder implement itself is unknown, though it likely would have been his lightsaber. Later, Palpatine would reflect to himself that his master had been foolish enough to sleep, something he knew never to do.

The legacy of Darth Plagueis
"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?" "No." "I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create&hellip; life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about&hellip; from dying." "He could actually&hellip; save people from death?"

- Palpatine and Anakin Skywalker

Plagueis's apprentice, Darth Sidious went on to become the Sith destined to take the final steps, to walk among the Jedi unseen, to bring about their destruction and the fall of the Republic they served.

Palpatine later related the so-called "Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise" to Anakin Skywalker, luring him to the dark side with the possibility that he could learn Plagueis's secret of saving beings from death. Skywalker, plagued by disturbing visions of the death of his wife, was soon corrupted. As Skywalker swore allegiance to him, Sidious declared that together they could rediscover Plagueis's lost secret.

Behind the scenes
Darth Plagueis was named as early as the first draft of Revenge of the Sith (April 2003), and possibly earlier than this. Lucas always named his Sith characters in a way that summed up their characters, and though he was never seen, the name does indeed say a lot. As a derivative of the word "plague," the name implies his interest in arcane biological experiments. It could also be argued that, in the person of his apprentice Darth Sidious, he had unleashed a plague that proved fatal to the body politic of the Republic and the Galaxy as a whole.

Plagueis's identity as a Muun came from George Lucas. James Luceno's cancelled novel focusing on Darth Plagueis would have also identified Plagueis as this. This would imply&mdash;but not specify&mdash;that he was born on the planet Muunilinst.

Appearances

 * Darth Plagueis novel
 * Tag & Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novel
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader

Notes and references
Darth Plagueis Darth Plagueis Darth Plagueis