Private Life
Palpatine of Naboo was born on Naboo, one of 36 Republic member states in the Chommell Sector in the Mid Rim, in approximately 47 BrS. His place
of birth is confirmed by the scribe in The New Essential Guide to Characters, which lists his homeworld as Naboo; the date can be inferred from evidence
from Shatterpoint, in which Master Jedi Mace Windu, Senior Member of the Jedi High Council, is said to have been appointed to the Jedi High Council
at age 30, some 20 years before the Haruun Kal crisis (six months after the Battle of Geonosis in 13 rS in Attack of the Clones). Also in Shatterpoint,
Windu estimates Palpatine to be "at least ten years" older than himself, which sets Palpatine's age as at least 60 in 13 rS, if Windu's estimate is correct;
this calculation of his age was confirmed by Republic HoloNet News in its Special Inaugural Edition's feature "Palpatine's Triumphs: A Celebration," in
which his date of birth is given as 47BrS:8:11.
It is not known precisely when and under what circumstances he first became associated with the Sith Order, with the Core Rulebook claiming that as of
the events of The Phantom Menace in 3 BrS, Darth Sidious had been "plotting the destruction of the Jedi order for decades," which would require that he
be a Sith Lord no later than 23 BrS or so, when he was 24 years old; the only known detail of this part of his life, found in Revenge of the Sith, is that he
was apprenticed under the name Darth Sidious to the reigning Sith Master, Darth Plagueis. At some later point he betrayed and killed the Sith Lord,
taking his place as Master of the Sith Order, and began training apprentices of his own (Palpatine related part of this story to General Anakin Skywalker,
JK, under the pretext of discussing the obscure Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise in the Galaxies Opera House). This dual identity as Palpatine of
Naboo and Darth Sidious was not revealed until just before his assumption of the Imperial dignity in 16 rS; although some individuals like Trachta and
Demetrius Zaarin were familiar with Palpatine's religious affiliation, it appears that most people (e.g., Moff Kadir, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin) were
ignorant of it – the Rebellion Era Sourcebook mentions that "few members among the Imperial hierarchy have any inclination that the Emperor is a
powerful Force-user." Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary remarks that after the destruction of the Jedi, "he has no need to reveal his Sith identity,
for he is now the beloved Emperor Palpatine, who has returned peace to the galaxy."
Details of Palpatine's family and early life are few and far between. The Introduction to the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook – the sourcebook is notionally an
executive summary by Voren Na'al of The Official History of the Rebellion, Volume One – mentions that Palpatine "started out as a Senator and a noble,
after all," but gives no further detail of his noble lineage; the Dark Empire Sourcebook states that "nearly all of Palpatine's personal records had been
deleted from the known libraries" by the time of his death at Endor in 39 rS, to which Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary adds by saying that
"records of Palpatine's ancestry, immediate family members, and upbringing on Naboo have mysteriously vanished" already during his term as Supreme
Chancellor. Nevertheless, in "Red Queen Rising!" Orman, Baron Tagge, angrily rejected his brother Silas's proposal that they arrange for their sister
Domina to "marry into the Imperial Family when she's old enough," which indicates that there must certainly be some members of Palpatine's family
alive and enjoying Imperial dignity by virtue of their close consanguinity with the Galactic Emperor, although who precisely Silas intended for Domina
to marry is unknown; the Princess Leia of Alderaan speculated in Children of the Jedi that Master Jedi Plett had turned Belsavis over to an Ithorian
corporation in order to prevent it from "being exploited by some relative of the Emperor's." Palpatine's distant grandniece Ederlathh Pallopides – she is
11 years old as of the 40s rS – is mentioned in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, which indicates that he must have had a brother or sister, while his late
third cousin Volpau in "Boba Fett: Salvage" shared two of Palpatine's great-great-grandparents. Palpatine's son Triclops – probably a pseudonym – first
appeared in Mission from Mount Yoda, a three-eyed mutant born to an unknown mother at an unknown point in Palpatine's career; Palpatine, foreseeing
that one day his son could surpass even him in the power of the dark side of the Force, ordered his banishment on the very day of his birth, apparently
not realizing that his son would become deeply pacifistic. While imprisoned on Kessel, Triclops's relationship with the so-called "Jedi Princess"
Kendalina produced a son, Ken, who first appeared in The Lost City of the Jedi. Triclops was probably aboard Space Station Scardia when Grand
Admiral Afsheen Makati destroyed it in "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals"; Ken's ultimate fate is unknown.
The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions rumors and speculation that Palpatine's longtime aide and lieutenant, Sate Pestage, was "one of the first clones
produced by the Emperor during his early rise to power," or perhaps "Palpatine's son by some forgotten wedding of convenience, who has aged normally
while the Emperor constantly rejuvenated himself," but the nature of Pestage's decades-long close relationship to Palpatine remains unknown (the scribe
repeats these rumors in The New Essential Guide to Characters, writing that Pestage was rumored to be "a relative of Palpatine's" or "one of the earliest
clones"). Based on the Dark Empire Sourcebook and the Death Star Technical Companion, Pestage and Ars Dangor are the only persons known to have
worked closely with Palpatine throughout his entire political career, having begun as Senatorial aides and ultimately becoming two of the most powerful
beings in the galaxy as Privy Counsellors under the Imperial State (although current sources frequently forget to mention Dangor, often substituting
Kinman Doriana as Pestage's counterpart). In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe writes that "if anyone truly understood Emperor
Palpatine, it was Sate Pestage."
Palpatine was "someone with a passion for exploring life's manifold heights and depths," according to Cloak of Deception; his interests were those of "a
scholar, a historian, a lover of art, and a collector of rare objects." The Complete Locations mentions his "Sith-inspired preference for the color red,"
which has been seen clearly in his suite in 500 Republica in The Phantom Menace, his offices in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and his
private quarters in Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Trilogy; it also mentions that his office contains "a number of seemingly innocent antiquities and
sculptural pieces, said to be from his personal art collection" (many of which are said to be "unrecognized Sith heirlooms," including a "Sith Chalice – a
form of incense burner used in ancient meditation rituals," an "archaeological find from the Wolhanian expedition to Yavin 4). In Revenge of the Sith, one
of "several pieces of sculpture that graced the office" in the Chancellor's Suite is identified as "an abstract twist of solid neuranium, so heavy that the
office floor had been specially reinforced to bear its weight, so dense that more sensitive species might, from very close range, actually percieve [sic] the
tiny warping of the fabric of space-time that was its gravitation" (Sidious had hidden his lightsaber inside the statue for decades); the Complete Locations
pinpoints this statue in the anteroom between his private office and ceremonial office, and further identifies it as being Sistros, one of the Four Sages of
Dwartii, "controversial philosopher-lawgivers from the early days of the Republic" (the other three Sages are Faya, Yanjon, and Braata, bronzium statues
of whom are also found in the Chancellor's Suite). In Labyrinth of Evil, Windu observes Palpatine's "curious and somehow unsettling collection of quasi-
religious statuary" on display in his office in the Senate Office Building, including items "acquired at an auction on Commenor; procured after many years
and at great expense from a Corellian dealer in antiquities; salvaged from an ancient temple discovered on a moon of the gas giant Yavin; a gift from the
Theed Council of Naboo; another gift from that world's Gungans," and most notably "a small bronzium statue Palpatine had once identified as Wapoe,
the mythical artisan demigod of disguise." Also on display in his offices in the Senate Office Building is a wall panel that "depicts a legendary battle
between the Sith and the Jedi," according to Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary, which the Complete Locations describes as a "bas-relief found in
an archaeological excavation of a Massassi site on Yavin 4, depicting battle between Jedi and Sith during the Great Hyperspace War" (in Episode I: The
Visual Dictionary, it is commented that "Senator Palapatine's [sic] unusual choice of art objects reveals to Queen Amidala that he has left his Naboo
heritage far behind and has adopted a more worldly point of view"). In his private quarters aboard the second Death Star, he would keep a "trophy
presented to Senator Palpatine by Naboo's Theed Council," a "gift from longtime ally and follower, Moff Panaka," and a statue of "Wapoe, mythical
Atrisian demigod of disguise," according to Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Trilogy. Cloak of Deception states that Palpatine's apartment in the exclusive
500 Republica residential complex – "the most exclusive address on the planet," according to Revenge of the Sith, where he lived throughout his terms as
Senator and Supreme Chancellor – was similarly appointed, with "objects of art adorning every niche and corner," what the Core Rulebook describes as
"gifts from supporters and allies: rare artifacts and art objects from a hundred different worlds (including items which have yet to be identified)." His
Clone Labs deep inside the Imperial Citadel on Byss were furnished with "a full library of Dark Side texts for the master's personal study," in addition to
"his collection rooms, which are filled with ancient works of art, holo-tapestries and fine mosaics." Interestingly, Attack of the Clones: The Visual
Dictionary notes that "Palpatine's statues honor obscure figures from the past who possessed much arcane wisdom and law, but whose actions are
shrouded in controversy." Labyrinth of Evil mentions that Palpatine's holding office in the Senate Building "contained several singular pieces of statuary,
as did Palpatine's chambers in the Senate Office Building, and his suite in the crown of 500 Republica."
Cloak of Deception and Revenge of the Sith establish that he often attended performances at the Coruscant Opera and the Galaxies Opera House (the
Official Site's Databank: "Romeo Treblanc" indicates that Palpatine, "describing himself as a patron of the arts," offered to "discreetly finance the
Galaxies Opera House" in exchange for "a private viewing box with heightened security"), and The Secrets of Naboo mentions that he enjoyed the harp
performance of Naboo Music Advisor Hela Brandes. As his career advanced and his power grew, Palpatine paid less and less attention to the niceties of
legitimate acquirement of pieces for his collection; in addition to being an art collector, he was also a prolific sponsor of art plunder – so much so that
famed xenoarcheologist Dr. Corellia Antilles called him “by far the worst of these” in “From the Files of Corellia Antilles,” having “ordered dozens of
digs apparently in an ongoing search for rare and powerful Jedi artifacts” and being “well-known as an acquirer of mystic objects.” His theft of rare
artifacts was not limited to the arcane; Antilles notes that in 34 rS he seized the original manuscript of the Sayings of Uueg Tching, the 54th Atrisian
Emperor, from the Imperial Museum on Imperial Center and added it to his private collection (the manuscript was never recovered, and may have been
relocated to the Citadel on Byss during the New Republic’s campaign to capture Imperial Center). To Palpatine's passion for art and culture the Dark
Empire Sourcebook adds impressive levels of knowledge of xenobiology, bureaucratic procedure, alien cultures and languages, psychology, criminology,
military history and science, planetology, archaic library systems, arcane technologies, cloning and cloning technology, Jedi lore, computer programming,
lightsaber history and repair, and (of course) dark side lore. The Revised Core Rulebook indicates that he constructed his own lightsaber, and although he
tells Windu that he knows "next to nothing of swordplay" in Revenge of the Sith, he correctly says that there are six commonly used forms of lightsaber
combat in Shatterpoint, easily kills three of the finest swordsmen in the Jedi Order in Revenge of the Sith, and keeps a collection of lightsabers in the
Clone Labs in the Citadel on Byss. The Core Rulebook mentions that he is knowledgeable in diplomacy and was fluent in Basic, Bothan, Calamarian,
Gran, Rodian, and Ryl, while the Revised Core Rulebook adds his extensive knowledge of galactic politics and Sith secrets, and fluency in Sith. In Attack
of the Clones his executive secretary, Dar Wac, spoke to him in Huttese, and although Palpatine answered in Basic, it is clear that he understands that
language, as well.
Although ambitious and narcissistic, Palpatine was in general a man of relatively simple tastes and great privacy. Attack of the Clones: The Visual
Dictionary mentions that "close aides say that Palpatine sometimes works for days without sleeping" (the same claim is repeated as rumor in Labyrinth
of Evil – "rumored to work for days on end without sleeping" – and by Pollux Hax in The Illustrated Star Wars Universe – "some say the Emperor
himself never sleeps"). In Shatterpoint, he admitted that he disliked the flavor of thyssel bark (a delicacy in the Core Worlds), saying that "you can take a
boy out of the Mid Rim, but..." According to the Core Rulebook, he was considered "something of a withdrawn scholar" by many of his colleagues in the
Senate, giving the impression of "a backwater bumpkin, someone to be manipulated, or more often, simply ignored." He was a bit of a recluse, as well,
often staying in his "modest apartment" in the 500 Republica residential complex in the Senate District's Ambassadorial Sector for "days at a time,"
"eschewing social functions, preferring to work as much as possible" (although what passes for a "modest apartment" among Senators may not be very
small by other standards, as Palpatine's "modest apartment" is large enough to accommodate the entire royal party in relative comfort in The Phantom
Menace). In Cloak of Deception, it is mentioned that he had "earned a reputation for integrity and frankness that had set him high in the hearts of many
of his senatorial peers." Palpatine's apparent lack of ambition and distaste for political maneuvering seemed ill-suited to a career in the Senate, and he
frequently stressed that he was "more interested in doing whatever needed to be done than in blind obedience to the rules and regulations that had made
the senate such a tangle of procedures." He avoided intrigue, and according to The Essential Guide to Characters, he had repeatedly "turned down
placement on important advisory boards and powerful committees," and had remarkably few enemies. After becoming Galactic Emperor, the scholars
write in the Star Wars Encyclopedia that he "became distant and reclusive, seen only by those who needed to see him"; the First Saga of the Journal of
the Whills (quoted in Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker) mentions that "once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting
himself away from the populace." The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that he stationed Sovereign Protectors "as watchmen over all the palaces and
monasteries that Palpatine haunts," and there are a number of Sithian "holy sites" that he is known to have visited or made use of throughout his reign,
including Korriban in Empire's End, Yavin IV and Ziost in Complete Locations, Dromund Kaas in Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and "The Emperor's
Pawns," and Malrev in "Requiem for a Rogue."
Friends and Allies
Palpatine had an extraordinary network of friends, acquaintances, and allies. The Core Rulebook mentions that he surprised many of his Senatorial
colleagues by "cultivating friendships with respected public figures – including military commanders and even a Jedi Master" and developed "a coterie of
admirers and supporters"; Admiral Mordon says in The Stele Chronicles that he made "allies of many key members of the senate, the Republican Guard,
and even those Jedi Knights who remained uncorrupted." Even early in his career, the Revised Core Rulebook says, "he was scheming, forging alliances
with influential figures in the Senate and the great learning centers," to the point that "his circle of supporters and confidants seemed at times to dwarf
the power of the Galactic Senate itself." The scribe mentions in The New Essential Guide to Characters a cordial relationship with Commander Terrinald
Screed, a "key personality" in the Judicial Department," and "friendships with the leaders of the Caamasi delegation" (which "enhanced the public
perception of his moral authority"). He was acquainted with Wilhuff Tarkin, a member of the wealthy and distinguished Tarkins of Eriadu and had
managed to secure for himself the office of Lieutenant Governor of Seswenna Sector, according to Cloak of Deception. He had a longstanding friendship
with Master Jedi Ronhar Kim dating from his election to the office of Galactic Senator in "Bloodlines," as well as having met and befriended Master Jedi
Jorus C'baoth during service on the Ando Demilitarization Observation Group, according to the Revised Core Rulebook. Palpatine was also friends with
Senator Finis Valorum (Spira) – although Coruscanti by birth, he represented the Lytton Sector in the Core Worlds – a member of the powerful and long-
lived Valorum dynasty, and their relationship became especially close in 1 rS, at the start of Valorum's second term as Supreme Chancellor of the
Galactic Republic, according to Cloak of Deception. The same source mentions that Palpatine's privacy and habitual tight-lipped manner drew other
Senators to him, as they felt free about themselves to him as "a kind of confessor, willing to hear the most banal confessions or basest of misdeeds
without passing judgment," trusting him to "guard the secrets of their lives as closely as he guarded his own." The dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di are
called "two of the Emperor's closest friends" in Dark Empire II, and the New Republic Historical Council notes in The Essential Chronology that he had
"an amicable relationship" with Rokur Gepta, the Sorcerer of Tund.
Not all of Palpatine's social connections were legitimate – or even legal. The Power of the Jedi Sourcebook mentions that Palpatine secretly backed a well-
armed pirate band, and used it to destroy the Jedi Order's Oracle at Pelgrin, which had been used for nearly 3,000 years to predict (and thereby prevent
or mitigate) galactic disasters. In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe mentions his "under-the-table allies in every organization from the
Techno Union to Freedom's Sons," and Cloak of Deception mentions that his friendship with a group of Bith delegates led to contacts within the terrorist
group called the Nebula Front, active primarily along the Rimma Trade Route and well known for its hostility to the Trade Federation (TradeFed) and to
the Republican Government. The Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook adds that even as early as his term as Senator for Naboo, he had begun
to design his New Order, a massive socio-economic reform program (to put it mildly), and had solicited contacts with "amoral factions in the Transport
and Power ministries," in addition to a secret alliance with the Galactic Corporate Policy League, a little known policy consortium whose members were
some of the largest and most influential multistellar corporations in the galaxy (the Tagge Company, Merr-Sonn Mil/Sci, Ayelixe/Krongbing Textiles,
Millennium Entertainments, Bank of the Core, Chiewab Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals Company, Kuat Drive Yards, Rendili StarDrive, Cybot Galactica,
and the Karflo Corporation). To Palpatine's contacts must be added those acquired under the guise of Darth Sidious, which the Revised Core Rulebook
says to have numbered in the "hundreds of pawns, both willing and unwitting." Sidious made at least one contract with Raith Sienar's Sienar Advanced
Projects Laboratory, according to Rogue Planet and the Episode I Incredible Cross-Sections, for Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator Scimitar. Possibly the most
important of these confederates are the three Neimoidian officials in the TradeFed's upper management, Viceroy Nute Gunray, Deputy Viceroy Hoth
Monchar, and legal counsel Rune Haako, from Cloak of Deception; these three – minus Monchar after his murder in Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter – were
part of the plot that brought Palpatine into office as Supreme Chancellor in The Phantom Menace, and leading figures of the corporate backing for the
Count of Serenno's Separatist movement in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Ultimately Sidious came to control the Separatist Council –
leaders of Serenno's Confederacy of Independent Systems – directly, and without the intermediation of Serenno, according to Labyrinth of Evil and
Revenge of the Sith. It is especially noteworthy that Sidious commanded the services of Kinman Doriana, one of Palpatine's most privy and trusted aides,
and that Doriana actively worked against what he thought to be Palpatine's interests in "Hero of Cartao" (which is fascinating in that it indicates that
Doriana was ignorant of the fact that Sidious and Palpatine were in fact the same person).
As the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, Sidious controlled the secret world of Thule (Thurra I), which Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds calls "a
sleeping Sith asset in the vast space of the Outer Rim"; there, the population of 790 millions is ruled by a clerical-military junta from the capital city of
Hurom, and the planet has a Sith Temple and a Sith Arts Academy. This world functioned as a breeding/training ground for armies of Sith loyalists, and
is dominated by priests and prophets of the religion and traditions of the vanished Sith Empire, although they did swear allegiance to Darth Bane's Sith
Order and probably also to its predecessors, Exar Kun's Sith Brotherhood and Lord Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness. Sidious retained Thule for his own
purposes, and deliberately erased all information about it from "histories and the few sources that documented its existence," determined that it would
"continue as a resource for the Sith, not the Empire." Given its remote location in the Outer Rim, its ruling Sithian theocracy, its pervasive atmosphere of
the dark side of the Force, and the devotion of its entire population to the schemes of the Sith cultists in power, it is possible that Thule served as the
inspiration for Palpatine's dark side utopia on Byss, hidden within the Deep Galactic Core.
The Dark Side Sourcebook notes that even before the execution of Order 66 and Palpatine's acclamation as Galactic Emperor, he had come into contact
with the Prophets of the Dark Side, a schismatic Sith cult said by "The Dark Forces Saga, Part 3: Two Peas in a Pod" to have been founded long before
by Darth Millenial, an apostate Apprentice from the Sith Order who rejected Darth Bane's Rule of Two in favor of Lord Kaan's Rule by the Strong.
Sidious may have been intrigued by the Prophetic theology of the Force, which they called the Dark Force; The Dark Side Sourcebook says that Master
Jedi Kadann believed that the prophesied "balance of the Force" required an equilibrium of the light side and the dark side, and this probably reflects the
Dark Force theology, as Kadann became the Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side after leaving the Jedi Order. Just as there were two major theological
schools of thought among the Jedi Knights – viz., Qui-Gonn Jinn's Living Force and Yoda's Unifying Force – , there were at least three theological
schools among the Sith Lords – viz., Sidious's Universal Force, Maul's Living Force, and Tyranus's Balanced Force; although Kadann's Dark Force is
subtly different from Sidious's Universal Force, it bears a striking resemblance to Tyranus's school of thought, which the Revised Core Rulebook explains
as having held that "one can draw from both sides of the Force equally – light and dark – to achieve perfect balance." Thus, the Prophets of the Dark Side
adhere to an interpretation of the Force that is generally compatible with that of the Sith Order, and Sidious was apparently fascinated enough that he
went through the effort of convincing the Prophets to serve him. This "small group of dark side devotees" was highly secretive, and only "the Emperor's
most trusted advisers" knew of their existence, although they continued to serve him throughout his reign as Galactic Emperor, consulting with him
regularly so as to augment his own clairvoyance and prescience with their prophetic "predictions on the outcome of plans, strategies, and upcoming
events," acquired by "employing meditative techniques and judicious use of the Farseeing technique." The Rebellion Era Sourcebook mentions that the
Prophets maintained a sanctuary within the Imperial Palace, near the Galactic Emperor's throne room, where they "constantly [keep] the oracles and
seers tuned to the ebb and flow of the Force," "reach out for signs and portents concerning topics specifically requested by the Emperor," and "troll the
dark side for warning signs that might threaten the Empire or opportunities to increase the Emperor's power or the influence of the dark side." The
Prophets also used an ancient Sith temple on the uncharted planet Bosthirda (the Prophets actually concealed this temple's existence from Palpatine),
and "The Dark Forces Saga, Part 3: Two Peas in a Pod" establishes that the Prophets' main headquarters is located on the hidden world of Dromund
Kaas, where they frequently undertook "the early training of [Palpatine's] darksiders," including dark side adept Grand Admiral Nial Declann, according
to "The Emperor's Pawns." Ultimately, The Dark Side Sourcebook explains that the close relationship between Palpatine and Kadann fell apart when
the Prophets warned of impending disaster at the Sanctuary Moon of Endor; Palpatine foresaw nothing of the kind and the two sects angrily dissolved
their decades-long partnership, the Prophets fleeing to Kadann's stronghold on Bosthirda, abandoning Dromund Kaas and hiding from the resurrected
Palpatine when he reincarnated on Byss.
Philosophy and Doctrine
Only a handful of sources give a glimpse of Palpatine's philosophical beliefs and doctrines; chief among these are Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Cloak of
Deception, the Dark Empire Sourcebook, and Return of the Jedi. Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter describes Sidious's perception of the Force as "an
omnipresent mist, invisible but nonetheless tangible, that swirled and drifted constantly about him," and mentions that he did not accept the tendency
"to demarcate the concept of the Force into light and dark," although he "had used such notions of duality in the training of his disciple"; rather, Sidious
believed that "the reality was that there was only the Force," and that "it was above such petty concepts as positive and negative, black and white, good
and evil." He regarded the Force as "a means to an end," where "that end was Power." This ties in closely with the course of his meditation in Return of
the Jedi, when he considers that he "knew what others refused to believe: the dark forces were the strongest," having "known this all along, in his heart of
hearts – but relearned it every day," "from traitorous lieutenants who betrayed their superiors for favors; from weak-principled functionaries who gave
him the secrets of local star systems' governments; from greedy landlords, and sadistic gangsters, and power-hungry politicians." Cloak of Deception
mentions that "in his heart he judged the universe on his own terms, with a clear sense of right and wrong," and that "he looked to no other guide than
himself." Palpatine regards the distinction between the light side and the dark side as a sort of convenient shorthand rather than an objective distinction,
certainly one not corresponding to good and evil, and embraces the dark side because he believes it to be more powerful and more effective at satisfying
his desires. His desire, of course, is "his own aggrandizement," as he narcissistically identifies himself with both the Empire and the universe. In Revenge
of the Sith, Sidious is identified as "the darkness in the Force" that had smothered the Jedi's ability to perceive the Force for fifteen years (although it is
unclear whether this metaphor implies that Sidious himself directly created this "shroud of the dark side" or whether it is the incidental result of Sidious's
rise to power and the actions of his agents).
Palpatine was well-regarded within academic circles. Early in his political career he had developed a political science theory on the nature of power
within organized groups such as legislatures, corporations, and militaries, which the scribe describes in The New Essential Guide to Characters as holding
that "members of any group [...] could be merged into exploitable partnerships given the proper motivation" and that a leader "is like a colossus astride a
mountain top,"having "power over those beneath him" but becoming "a target for their barbs and arrows." The Core Rulebook adds that during his time
as a Senator, his "early notes on the nature of power" became "popular political texts," and some of his writings were even "taught at universities
throughout the galaxy"; these "early notes" could potentially be the same as his book The Paths to Power, said by "Palpatine's Triumphs: A Celebration"
to have topped "the best-seller lists" on 5:3:13. He was invited as a commencement speaker at a number of university graduations, and "not a few young
government officials owe the beginnings of their political careers to him." The Revised Core Rulebook mentions that he had powerful allies in "the great
learning centers," where "political science students pored over his speeches" and "military science students absorbed his philosophies." Evidently he
ceased to publish his writings after he became Galactic Emperor, as the Rebellion Era Sourcebook claims that Wilhuff Tarkin "lent his vast intellect to
providing the framework for the New Order's founding precepts, providing scholarly and well-reasoned arguments to Emperor Palpatine's emotional
speeches."
Tarkin's book Visions of the New Order "served for the blueprint for COMPNOR-related organizations such as the Imperial Security Bureau and the
paramilitary group COMPForce [sic]," according to the Rebellion Era Sourcebook. In Visions of the New Order Tarkin first explored the concept of "rule
through the fear of force, rather than force itself" – a concept already firmly entrenched in Palpatine's philosophy, being very close to the third central
tenet of The Weakness of Inferiors – which he later developed in Imperial Communiqué #001044.92v, which subsequently became official Imperial
policy as the Tarkin Doctrine, according to the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition. It has been suggested that Palpatine may have ghostwritten both
Visions of the New Order and Imperial Communiqué #001044.92v, given their similarity to Palpatine's own writings on the subject of rule through the
use of fear; Master Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi mentioned the likelihood that Palpatine had done this before with the "latest amendment to the Security Act"
in 16 rS in Revenge of the Sith, saying that "we may be sure that Palpatine wrote it himself and passed it along to someone he controls." This idea is
incidentally supported by the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition, in which an Imperial Intelligence report mentions that Palpatine defeated "his
opponents within COMPNOR not through violence or threats, but with a hidden, gentle, consistent pressure which wore the opposition down," such
that "those who opposed the change in COMPNOR never even knew the Emperor had done anything to instigate the changes" and that he "had
succeeded in having his enemies unknowingly choose exactly the course of action he desired them to choose." If Palpatine ghostwrote Tarkin's Visions of
the New Order, which provided the model for a number of COMPNOR organs, then those "old shirts" in COMPNOR that opposed him specifically
may have unintentionally played into his hands by drawing their ideological and organizational bases from Tarkin's book.
According to the Dark Empire Sourcebook, Palpatine devoted a great deal of his time to writing the Dark Side Compendium, "a great assemblage of Dark
Side Lore" which was intended to contain the sum total of his so-called 'Science of Darkness'; The Dark Side Sourcebook claims that studying each
volume of the Compendium requires "96 hours of reading time, over the course of a minimum of two weeks." He completed two volumes, The Book of
Anger and The Weakness of Inferiors, with a third volume, The Creation of Monsters, still in manuscript at the time of his death over Pinnacle Moon in
Dark Empire. The Dark Empire Sourcebook and The Dark Side Sourcebook both remark that he intended to write hundreds of volumes, but met his
final death before he could do so. Evidently some record of the Dark Side Compendium survived the destruction of Byss (possibly via the recollections
of Luke Skywalker, who had read them during his time on that planet), because in The New Essential Guide to Characters the scribe demonstrates at
least a passing familiarity with the content of The Weakness of Inferiors; nevertheless, it is unlikely that a written record survived, as indicated by the
fact that the scribe mistakenly claims that Palpatine's writings on a Sithian negative utopia are contained in The Book of Anger rather than The Weakness
of Inferiors. One of the subjects discussed in the Dark Side Compendium, according to "The Dark Forces Saga, Part 3: Pride of the Dark Side," was "the
creation of a unit of seven Dark Jedi perfectly absorbed into the Emperor's will, a 'Dark Side Elite'"; it is not clear which book contained this particular
concept.
Although he cultivated an image of himself as a populist – Kinman Doriana calls him "the champion of the common citizen" in "Hero of Cartao" and
Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary notes that he "revived the old tradition of appearing before the masses to accept their applause and vocal
support" – it is clear from Episode I Journal: Darth Maul that Palpatine had little regard for the common citizen, teaching his Apprentice that "the
feelings of the powerless do not matter." Palpatine wrote about his idealized Sith theocratic utopia in The Weakness of Inferiors – volume two of his
Dark Side Compendium, mentioned in The New Essential Guide to Characters as having "merged political theory with Sith doctrine" – , calling for
"control, without violence, over the innocent, the ignorant, and 'all inferiors'" (the latter category of "all inferiors" includes all sapient beings who are not
sensitive to the Force). The four central tenets of The Weakness of Inferiors, as quoted in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, are (1) that "all power comes
from outside the weak," as they "have never been known to believe in themselves or in their ability to wield power" (author's emphasis), (2) that the
weak "live as in a dream," and "all their thoughts, actions, and urges are governed by the face and the voice that controls this dream," which "they have
learned to obey" and which he calls "the face and voice of Authority," (3) that the weak live under "the law of fear," whereby the "mere suggestion of
violence from one in power is enough to inspire their obedience" because it is "impossible" for "one who doesn't believe in his own powers" to "stand
against the power of another," and (4) that the weak "do not understand the Force" because they can neither sense nor use it, leaving them "at the mercy
of those who know and use the power of the Force." Palpatine condemns as foolish the Jedi adherence to "a religion in which the Force is used only in
the service of others" and attributes the triumph of the dark side to this perceived dogmatic error (in Episode I Journal: Darth Maul, Sidious remarks that
the "fatal flaw" of the Jedi is compassion).
The Weakness of Inferiors advocates a decidedly aristocratic philosophy, in the literal sense of "rule by the best" (aristokratia); quoting from a different
passage than the Dark Empire Sourcebook, The Dark Side Sourcebook says that Palpatine argued that "those of great strength" must guide "those of
low capability" through life "by whatever means necessary"; "inferiors continually endanger their own lives and the lives of others through poor
decisions, reckless behavior, and simple inability to engineer the reality of their ambitious dreams," he writes, comparing them to children "crying in
frustration because they do not comprehend their own limitations." He contends that it is the responsibility of "the wise and powerful" to provide
"structure in order for civilization to survive and thrive in the galaxy" and to show inferiors "their place in the existing social structure"; those who
"cannot – or will not – accept that peace and order are far more important than their own selfish desires" are to be "removed from society before they can
inflict any lasting damage" (thus he justifies the liquidation of any enemy on the grounds that he himself – with his "clear sense of right and wrong" and
narcissistic self-identification with both the Empire and the universe – knows best, and any who will not accept his judgment is therefore a threat to the
proper order of things; as a result of this, even a friend can be destroyed without a second thought should it prove necessary). The Weakness of Inferiors
is interesting because it emphasizes Palpatine's malignant narcissism and his intense dislike for disorder (Darth Vader uses "Chaos" as a curse in Star
Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, and the Sith refer to their concept of Hell as "Chaos"). It also makes the interesting revelation that
Palpatine idealizes non-violence as part of his Sithian theocratic utopia, and regards the liquidation of his enemies as something akin to pest control or
gardening (cf. Gilad Pellaeon's use of gardening as a metaphor for authoritarianism in Destiny's Way). This brand of draconian aristocracy – Palpatinism,
one might say – is very probably the ideological underpinning of the entire New Order movement, in all its manifestations (paternalist, authoritarian, and
totalitarian), and The Dark Side Sourcebook says that "this sort of thinking laid the foundation for the Empire." Palpatinism gained one notable adherent
in the "seasoned philosopher" Dooku of Serenno, a former Jedi Master with traits of sociopathy who was wont to indulge in "moral outrage" when "the
incorrigibly untidy affairs of ordinary beings refuse to conform to the plainly obvious structure of How Society Ought To Be," according to Revenge of
the Sith.
In The Book of Anger, he wrote on "the use of emotion to control the Force," considering anger to be "the most potent emotional form," noting that
"anger and rage, mixed with intelligent control," can be used to "kill from a great distance." In particular, he wrote that "Anger and Will, joined together,
are the greatest Power," and that by meditating "upon Anger and Will with clarity and precision," he has been able to "have slain [his] enemies from great
distances," and to "have created lightning, and unleashed its destructive fire," ultimately to the point that he can "unleash the Dark Side energies that are
all around us, even to shatter the fabric of space itself" via "storms." However, although Palpatine believed that anger and hatred were the most powerful
emotions and the greatest tools of the dark side, The Dark Side Sourcebook (quoting from a different passage than the Dark Empire Sourcebook) notes
that he believed that "by exploring one's anger, one could ultimately learn to conquer it, thus taming the power of the dark side – instead of being tamed
by it." He derided the concept of overcoming anger by serenity, saying that those who claim to have done so "have never faced their anger, and thus have
no idea whether they have truly overcome it or not," and advanced the Bene Gesserit-like argument that "true calm is only achieved through testing the
limits of one's anger and passing through unscathed." In keeping with his doctrine in The Weakness of Inferiors that "the weak have never been known to
believe in themselves or in their ability to wield power," Palpatine asserted that "most fear to test their own strength," thus failing to overcome their
anger and should therefore be "considered at best weaklings, and at worst irresponsible." Palpatine's doctrine that most people lack true control of their
emotions – especially anger – is clearly manifested in his confrontations with Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith and Return of
the Jedi, respectively, where he takes advantage of the fact that both have focused on controlling their anger by achieving serenity rather than his
preferred method of immersion; ironically, Luke Skywalker failed to restrain his anger but resisted the temptation of the dark side, while his father
Anakin controlled his anger but fell to the dark side anyway.
In The Creation of Monsters, Palpatine wrote about "the ancient art of Sith alchemy," through which he created the Sithspawn Rancors – he named them
"Chrysalides" – that defended the Imperial Citadel on Byss; The Dark Side Sourcebook says that although the book was still in manuscript form when
he died at Da Soocha V, "it is complete enough for most purposes." Palpatine included what The Dark Side Sourcebook calls "detailed schematics for
Sith alchemical apparati [sic]" – note the incorrect pluralization of apparatus, which is a fourth declension noun, not second declension, and is therefore
correctly pluralized as apparatus (apparatuses is also acceptable) – as well as "guidelines and advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of tinkering with the
physical compositions of living, independent creatures"; The Dark Side Sourcebook regards Palpatine's treatment of the subject as thorough enough that
reading it provides one with a working knowledge of alchemy. Palpatine stressed that alchemists refrain from creating "specimens that are superior in
every way" because "the danger of such monstrosities being turned against you is too great" (cf. his decision to limit Darth Tyranus's access to his
Sithian holocron, preventing him from becoming a "perfect specimen" by withholding knowledge from him); he called for "instituting controlling
weaknesses into each and every beast," making it "strong where you are weak, but weak where you are strong," with a failsafe inclusion of "a fatal flaw
that you – and only you – know how to exploit" (cf. the Master Control Signal built into Palpatine's World Devastators in Dark Empire, or the secret
program 'backdoors' hardwired into all of his Star Destroyer's main computers in Dark Force Rising). As a final caveat, he stressed that one should
always "be prepared to destroy your most valued creation... or be prepared to be destroyed by it" (cf. his willingness to have both Darth Tyranus and
Darth Vader killed, despite their status as his successive Sith Apprentices). The Creation of Monsters reveals a degree of pragmatism in Palpatine's
intellectual makeup, and his doctrine on alchemy and creation is strongly reflected in his treatment of the various dark side agents he created, not to
mention the constitution of his magnum opus, the Galactic Empire; although he gloried in his Empire, he also deliberately built weaknesses and flaws into
it, so that it could not be turned against him, and was prepared to destroy it should he feel the necessity to do so.
Palpatine actively implemented his doctrine that fear is an essential means of control over others; in The Mandalorian Armor he candidly states "I prefer
terror and fear to any other means of ensuring obedience to my commands," and subsequently remarks "I see into so many creatures' hearts, and all I see
there is fear. Which is as it should be." Interestingly, Planet of Twilight mentions that he even went so far as to flood his court hall with "perfumes and
incense and subtle hurlothrumbic gas" to induce a level of visceral fear in those approaching him for an audience. It is noteworthy that virtually all of his
subordinates were actually terrified of him. In Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, Darth Tyranus reflected that Sidious was wont to indulge in what he considered
overly psychological "schemes," but Sidious's mere presence caused "the arrogance – one might even say, the faint condescension – with which he had
been thinking of his Master a few moments before" to "drain out of him like blood spilling from an open vein." Darth Vader was brave enough to refer to
Palpatine with sarcasm and a "disrespectful tone" in his absence in Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, but still found that "only one
being in the entire universe could instill fear in the dark spirit of Darth Vader" in The Empire Strikes Back; indeed, the thought of actually facing
Palpatine inspired "a hint of terror" in him, as even "the sound of his voice sent a thrill of terror coursing through Vader's powerful frame." Notably, even
Moff Commander Jerjerrod – who was respectful but not fearful of Vader, a fearsome enough figure in his own right – was frightened by the mere
suggestion of Palpatine's personal attendance (hence the visible apprehension in his question, "The Emperor is coming here?"); Return of the Jedi
mentions that "the Emperor's courtiers, the royal guard, Jerjerrod, and the Death Star elite guard" followed after Palpatine and Vader "with mixed
reverence and fear" after the Imperial party's arrival on the Death Star. Vader himself accentuated Palpatine's awful majesty with his succinct warning to
Jerjerrod that "the Emperor is not as forgiving as I am."
The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that when Palpatine became "convinced that there was nothing between him and the eternal rule of Darkness,"
he proudly claimed that "even Ulic Qel-Droma would be envious," which rather implies that he regards Qel-Droma as a personal hero of sorts. Qel-
Droma is a tragic hero of the Jedi Order, a heroic Knight who attempted to join the dark side in order to learn its secrets and then destroy it, for under the
influence of Satal Keto's Sith poisons and the seductive attentions of the treacherous illusionist Aleema, he became generalissimo of the Krath's armies
and second in command of Exar Kun's infamous Sith Brotherhood as his Sith Apprentice in Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith. Qel-Droma became
the first Sith Lord to command an army of Mandalorians as his personal vassals after he defeated Mandalore the Indomitable in single combat in Tales of
the Jedi: The Sith War; Palpatine was to demonstrate a certain fascination with the Mandalorians – in The Mandalorian Armor he told the Prince Xizor
of Falleen, "Lord Vader possesses some of the knowledge that belonged to the Mandalorians. I possess more." He created an entire army of
Mandalorians loyal to him personally in Attack of the Clones, and used the Mandalorian supercommandos as Sidious's private army in the Clone War,
according to "The Search Begins" and "The History of the Mandalorians." Qel-Droma was also the first known Sith Lord to have fallen to the dark side
intending to protect or save others, a concept that Palpatine would later use in turning Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith, as well
as turning Vader's son Luke Skywalker to the dark side in Dark Empire. Likewise, Qel-Droma also became the first Sith Lord to outright betray his
master by leading the Jedi Knights to Kun's secret lair on Yavin IV in Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War; as Sidious, Palpatine would repeat Qel-Droma's
faithlessness by betraying and murdering his own Master, Darth Plagueis. It is possible that Palpatine modeled his corruption of both Skywalkers after
the historical tragedy of Qel-Droma's life, given the similarities between their stories (indeed, Qel-Droma may be viewed as a type of Anakin Skywalker,
while the fall of Luke Skywalker is practically a re-enactment of Qel-Droma's).
The connection that Palpatine seems to feel with Qel-Droma is especially interesting because Qel-Droma was ultimately redeemed from the dark side in
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption. After spending ten years unable to touch the Force – his beloved, the equally legendary Jedi Knight Nomi Sunrider, had
blinded him to the Force after he killed his own brother in Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War – Qel-Droma spent the last days of his life on the frozen world
of Rhen Var, where he trained Sunrider's daughter Vima in the Force before being shot by "a no-name freighter pilot trying to be a hero" (as the scribe
puts it in The New Essential Guide to Characters) and his body "vanished into the light of the Force." Qel-Droma's life is seen as a tragedy because, in
classically tragical fashion, he was perfect in almost every respect save his hubris, and that tragic flaw caused his fall from "heroism to barbarism,
followed by shame and exile"; this, however, does not appear to appeal to Palpatine's theology of the Force or of his philosophy of the universe, in
which power is the highest ideal to which one can aspire, and brutality is regarded as being objectively neither good or bad. It is possible that Palpatine
finds Qel-Droma's life tragic because (from his perspective) Qel-Droma rose to "glory" as a Sith Lord only to fall from "grace" by being blinded to the
Force and ultimately returning to the light side in Tales of the Jedi: Redemption. It would be interesting to know if Palpatine ever learned that Anakin
Skywalker had encountered Qel-Droma's ghost on Rhen Var and learned from him how to resist the Dark Reaper, an ancient Sithian weapon left over
from the Great Sith War, according to The Clone Wars and The Clone Wars: Prima's Official Strategy Guide; certainly it would be interesting to see
Palpatine's reaction to the fact that Qel-Droma warned Skywalker of the perils of the dark side and expressed a desire that he not follow in Qel-Droma's
footsteps.
The Dark Side of the Force
As noted earlier, Palpatine must have become a Sith Lord no later than 23 BrS or so, being apprenticed to Darth Plagueis, whom he betrayed and
murdered in order to become the reigning Sith Master, devoting an extraordinary amount of time and effort into study; the Dark Empire Sourcebook
mentions that after becoming Galactic Emperor he "gathered the greatest works of knowledge from over a million worlds" and "studied the Force in all its
guises throughout the galaxy, whether it was the shamanism of the Jarvashqiine or the tales of the Tyia," to the point that "he had long ago gone beyond
any knowledge to be found in the recovered teachings of the Krath or the Heresiarchs." In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe writes that
"Palpatine was known to have studied [the Sorcerers of Tund] prior to their destruction." In Revenge of the Sith it is said that "wherever darkness
dwelled, the shadow [Sidious] could send perception"; his own Sith Apprentice, Darth Tyranus, described him as "an event horizon," "absolute, perfect
nothingness," "darkness beyond darkness," and "a black hole of the Force." Elsewhere the scribe mentions that he had possession of a Sith holocron,
which one Apprentice used to create "Sith speeders, probe droids, and a double-bladed lightsaber"; he obtained still more "restricted holocrons" which
contained "the deepest secrets of the greatest Masters of the Force" from the Jedi Temple after it was sacked by his newest Apprentice, Darth Vader,
and several brigades of clone storm troopers in Revenge of the Sith; of these, Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary says were included "the only
known Sith Holocrons, whose very existence is revealed only to a handful of Jedi at the highest levels," which "infernal devices contain teachings of
powerful evil" (interestingly, it seems that Sidious was reluctant to share the secrets of the Sith with his Apprentice, Darth Tyranus; Attack of the
Clones: The Visual Dictionary notes that "after he left the Jedi Order, Dooku was no longer able to use the Sith Holocron in the Archives," but rather
than supplying him with one of his own holocrons, Sidious supplied Tyranus instead with "holographic cells containing mystic teachings of shadowy
power"). Finally, after the Great Jedi Purge, his agents captured the very old and very wise Master Jedi Ashka Boda, who had in his possession a
particularly valuable 600-year-old holocron created Master Jedi Bodo Baas (a descendant of Master Jedi Vodo-Siosk Baas, the Adegan teacher of the
infamous Exar Kun, Qel-Droma's Dark Lord of the Sith), according to the Dark Empire Sourcebook.
Sidious's mastery of the Force was both prodigious and extraordinary, to the point that the Dark Empire Sourcebook states that he "has spent decades
studying the most arcane and esoteric Jedi disciplines" and that "it is believed that he has mastered nearly all the known powers, previously unknown
powers, and devises new ones at his pleasure." In Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, it is said that Sidious's "command of the dark side" was "sufficient to
cloak [the Sith Lords] from being sensed by their enemies" when standing just outside the Jedi Temple, or even when face to face with the Jedi High
Council, a talent Labyrinth of Evil subsequently identified as "the Quey'tek technique for hiding oneself in the Force." In Episode I Journal: Darth Maul,
he demonstrated the ability to "move faster than [Darth Maul's] eye can follow," and wielded a lightsaber with such precision that he traced Maul's
outline with its blade so closely that "one flinch, one involuntary twitch of a muscle" would have killed him; it seems that this ability is only effective in
short bursts, as his Force-enhanced speed, agility, and strength in his duel with the four Jedi Masters in his private office in the Senate Office Building in
Revenge of the Sith did not demonstrate quite this level of speed. Also in Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi, he demonstrated the use of
psychokinesis, empathy, clairvoyance, prescience, and powerful Sith lightning; in Revenge of the Sith he was able to sense that Vader was in danger on
the distant Outer Rim world of Mustafar from the Senate Hall on Coruscant in the Core Worlds Region. Nevertheless, he was not infallible in the use of
the Force, as in Return of the Jedi he did not feel Luke Skwyalker's presence on the Sanctuary Moon of Endor, despite having foreseen that Skywalker
would come. In "Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade," he was able to telepathically communicate with his pet assassin and Emperor's Hand, Mara
Jade, across interstellar distances (he has only demonstrated full telepathy with a handful of persons, all of whom are very close to him, both personally
and psychically, and was generally obliged to use the HoloNet for most interstellar communications, including with Vader in The Empire Strikes Back).
In The Bacta War, it was speculated that he may have clouded the minds of Coruscant's population so that no one remembered the burial of a Super Star
Destroyer in the Imperial City skyline, but it was also speculated that he may have simply ordered the murder of all the witnesses. Either explanation is
consistent with Palpatine's behavior.
In Dark Empire II he demonstrated the ability to "empower" Dark Jedi, allowing his power to "enter [them] and fill [them] with the knowledge and the
strength of the dark side of the Force that is [his] to give"; this is clearly the same concept of a "Dark Side Elite" of Dark Jedi "perfectly absorbed into
the Emperor's will" that he had written of in the Dark Side Compendium. The Revised Core Rulebook notes that this technique is part of the secret Sith
knowledge to which he had access by virtue of his status as the reigning Sith Master, so theoretically any very high-level Sith Lord ought to be able to do
the same. Nevertheless it should be noted that the act of "empowering" another in this way actually weakens the Sith Lord in the same respect, so the
ability is of relatively limited utility in most circumstances. Palpatine himself apparently found little use for it except as a mental exercise in the Dark
Side Compendium, as he made use of it sparingly (if at all) before Dark Empire II; his Emperor's Hands seem to perform the same function without the
coincident weakening effect, and he may have created his Dark Side Elite-style Dark Jedi as a stopgap measure to provide himself with useful agents ad
interim. Certainly the idea is not new, as he had written of it before the Battle of Endor, and he has possessed the necessary knowledge for a good deal of
time longer than that. Similar uses of the Force include the creation of mindless Sentinels enslaved to the wills of the dark side adepts in the Dark Empire
Sourcebook, the "empowerment" of the cybernetic Shadow Droid starfighters and the special purpose Darktroopers in Dark Empire II (elite Imperial
Marines, not to be confused with the mobile weapons platform Dark Troopers of Dark Forces or the cybernetic "darktrooper" dragoons of Battlefront).
According to the Dark Empire Sourcebook, Palpatine had created his idyllic, utopian retreat world of Byss in the Deep Core in order to lure millions to
reside permanently there, so that he could "feed off their life energy" with his "Dark Side skills"; using the siren call of "beauty and peace," he and his
dark side adepts used the Force for "draining the life itself from the populace," replacing their independent wills with "an illusion of tranquillity as they
blissfully surrender their life energy to sustain the Emperor." This particular ability seems closely related to the "empowerment" technique, and the two
abilities combine to create a sort of pyramid system, in which the dark side adepts would feed off others beneath them, in turn becoming assimilated into
Palpatine; the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions this as part of an experimental dark side theocracy intended to gradually supplant the system
currently in place in the Galactic Empire. It should be noted that the Dark Empire Sourcebook notes that the "drain life essence" ability is easy to use on
"willing, worshipful subjects," which may explain why Byss is the only world known to be a dark side "feeding ground" of this sort. In any case Byss's
status as an idyllic paradise world matches closely with Palpatine's stated ideal of the nonviolent theocracy in The Weakness of Inferiors.
In Heir to the Empire, Grand Admiral Thrawn noted that after Palpatine's death at the Battle of Endor, the Imperial fleet suffered a "sudden loss of
coordination between crew members and ships; the loss of efficiency and discipline," or, as he put it, "the loss, in short, of that elusive quality we call
fighting spirit." To explain this, he speculated that "it was the Emperor's will that drove [the fleet]; the Emperor's mind that provided [them] with
strength and resolve and efficiency," and that "[they] were all as dependent on that presence as if [they] were all borg-implanted into a combat
computer"; Thrawn believed that Palpatine had been using this form of battle meditation "as completely and constantly as possible." Apparently,
Thrawn's borg-implant theory was essentially correct, even if his details were not ("Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals" indicates that it was dark side
adept Grand Admiral Nial Declann who had been using battle meditation at Endor, not Palpatine). Battle meditation or no, Palpatine's death at Endor
was an unmitigated disaster for the Imperial fleet; Return of the Jedi calls him "the central, powerful evil that had been the cohesive force to the Empire"
and points out that with his death, the dark side became diffused and nondirected, producing only confusion, desperation, and "damp fear."
One of the most important abilities demonstrated by Palpatine is the ability to reincarnate, featured prominently in Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, and
Empire's End. In Dark Empire, he explains to Luke Skywalker that Endor "was not the first time [he] died... nor will it be the last," and he tells the
Princess Leia of Alderaan that "long ago, [he] found [his] flesh could not withstand the awesome demands of the dark side" and "[his] body was literally
consumed by the energies [he] had released." Always fascinated by cloning technology, he had explored very early on the possibility of cloning a new
body for himself; to that end, The Essential Chronology mentions that he cloned Master Jedi Jorus C'baoth, creating an insane clone that for some
inexplicable reason mispronounced his own name as "Joruus C'baoth." Satisfied that the cloning process could at least duplicate sensitivity to the Force,
Palpatine proceeded to establish a Clone Lab in the Imperial Citadel on Byss and began slowly growing clones of himself (the slow pace was required to
avoid "clone madness"); the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that his "experimentations with cloning dates back many years," and "in time, his
scientists perfected his base genetic patterns to create bodies with enhanced intelligence, stamina, strength, and agility." The scribe writes in The New
Essential Guide to Characters that Palpatine learned "the secret of spirit transference via the Force" from Master Jedi Ashka Boda, whom he tortured
and executed after extracting all the information he could from his mind, according to the Dark Empire Sourcebook. He then created his own brand of
functional immortality by combining this knowledge with his cloning technology and "the dark side knowledge the Sith Lords had granted him years
earlier" of how to "transmigrate his essence across lightyears," according to "The Emperor's Pawns." The ghosts of the long-dead Sith Lords of the
vanished Sith Empire on Korriban – the Sith Empire was an intellectual and theological predecessor of Sidious's own Sith Order – had taught him how to
survive after death as a dark side ghost, whereas the Jedi Master and his holocron had revealed how to reincarnate; the Dark Empire Sourcebook relates
these two skills to the psychic parasitism with the Byss populace, saying that "just as he can siphon off the vital life force of his subjects on Byss, he
can will his own personality, his very life, into a waiting receptacle body," i.e., his clones. It is very likely that this discovery radically changed
Palpatine's plans and intentions.
There are certain other abilities and techniques that Palpatine has not been seen to demonstrate, but which he can be inferred to possess based on the fact
that they are demonstrated by certain of his students. Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter mentions that Darth Maul had been trained in Teräs Käsi early in his
life, including patterns of movement such as "Charging Wampa, Rancor Rising, Dancing Dragonsnake, and many more"; the fact that Sidious raised Maul
from his infancy indicates that Sidious himself must have been trained in the art. Similarly, "Fight Saber: Jedi Lightsaber Combat" identifies Maul as a
master of Form VII, which is only possible for "high-level masters of multiple Forms," another implicit indicator of Sidious's skills; still another such
indicator related to Maul is the scribe's remark in The New Essential Guide to Characters that Maul created a customized protocol 'droid named C-3PX
"using the Force mechanical skill mechu-duru," which "The Emperor's Pawns" calls an obscure discipline and "lost Sith 'art'" of "mechanical manipulation
using the Force," most knowledge of which "was committed to ancient scrolls that have since been destroyed or scattered across the galaxy." There is
also Luke Skywalker's use of the illusory Doppelgänger ability in Dark Empire, which the Dark Empire Sourcebook – incidentally, it specifically
attributes the ability to Palpatine as well – describes as "an illusion, but to those who interact with it, it will seem real," and is indistinguishable from the
genuine individual even by "all droid audio and video sensors," even seeming to "have form and substance."
See also:
Palpatine of Naboo was born on Naboo, one of 36 Republic member states in the Chommell Sector in the Mid Rim, in approximately 47 BrS. His place
of birth is confirmed by the scribe in The New Essential Guide to Characters, which lists his homeworld as Naboo; the date can be inferred from evidence
from Shatterpoint, in which Master Jedi Mace Windu, Senior Member of the Jedi High Council, is said to have been appointed to the Jedi High Council
at age 30, some 20 years before the Haruun Kal crisis (six months after the Battle of Geonosis in 13 rS in Attack of the Clones). Also in Shatterpoint,
Windu estimates Palpatine to be "at least ten years" older than himself, which sets Palpatine's age as at least 60 in 13 rS, if Windu's estimate is correct;
this calculation of his age was confirmed by Republic HoloNet News in its Special Inaugural Edition's feature "Palpatine's Triumphs: A Celebration," in
which his date of birth is given as 47BrS:8:11.
It is not known precisely when and under what circumstances he first became associated with the Sith Order, with the Core Rulebook claiming that as of
the events of The Phantom Menace in 3 BrS, Darth Sidious had been "plotting the destruction of the Jedi order for decades," which would require that he
be a Sith Lord no later than 23 BrS or so, when he was 24 years old; the only known detail of this part of his life, found in Revenge of the Sith, is that he
was apprenticed under the name Darth Sidious to the reigning Sith Master, Darth Plagueis. At some later point he betrayed and killed the Sith Lord,
taking his place as Master of the Sith Order, and began training apprentices of his own (Palpatine related part of this story to General Anakin Skywalker,
JK, under the pretext of discussing the obscure Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise in the Galaxies Opera House). This dual identity as Palpatine of
Naboo and Darth Sidious was not revealed until just before his assumption of the Imperial dignity in 16 rS; although some individuals like Trachta and
Demetrius Zaarin were familiar with Palpatine's religious affiliation, it appears that most people (e.g., Moff Kadir, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin) were
ignorant of it – the Rebellion Era Sourcebook mentions that "few members among the Imperial hierarchy have any inclination that the Emperor is a
powerful Force-user." Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary remarks that after the destruction of the Jedi, "he has no need to reveal his Sith identity,
for he is now the beloved Emperor Palpatine, who has returned peace to the galaxy."
Details of Palpatine's family and early life are few and far between. The Introduction to the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook – the sourcebook is notionally an
executive summary by Voren Na'al of The Official History of the Rebellion, Volume One – mentions that Palpatine "started out as a Senator and a noble,
after all," but gives no further detail of his noble lineage; the Dark Empire Sourcebook states that "nearly all of Palpatine's personal records had been
deleted from the known libraries" by the time of his death at Endor in 39 rS, to which Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary adds by saying that
"records of Palpatine's ancestry, immediate family members, and upbringing on Naboo have mysteriously vanished" already during his term as Supreme
Chancellor. Nevertheless, in "Red Queen Rising!" Orman, Baron Tagge, angrily rejected his brother Silas's proposal that they arrange for their sister
Domina to "marry into the Imperial Family when she's old enough," which indicates that there must certainly be some members of Palpatine's family
alive and enjoying Imperial dignity by virtue of their close consanguinity with the Galactic Emperor, although who precisely Silas intended for Domina
to marry is unknown; the Princess Leia of Alderaan speculated in Children of the Jedi that Master Jedi Plett had turned Belsavis over to an Ithorian
corporation in order to prevent it from "being exploited by some relative of the Emperor's." Palpatine's distant grandniece Ederlathh Pallopides – she is
11 years old as of the 40s rS – is mentioned in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, which indicates that he must have had a brother or sister, while his late
third cousin Volpau in "Boba Fett: Salvage" shared two of Palpatine's great-great-grandparents. Palpatine's son Triclops – probably a pseudonym – first
appeared in Mission from Mount Yoda, a three-eyed mutant born to an unknown mother at an unknown point in Palpatine's career; Palpatine, foreseeing
that one day his son could surpass even him in the power of the dark side of the Force, ordered his banishment on the very day of his birth, apparently
not realizing that his son would become deeply pacifistic. While imprisoned on Kessel, Triclops's relationship with the so-called "Jedi Princess"
Kendalina produced a son, Ken, who first appeared in The Lost City of the Jedi. Triclops was probably aboard Space Station Scardia when Grand
Admiral Afsheen Makati destroyed it in "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals"; Ken's ultimate fate is unknown.
The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions rumors and speculation that Palpatine's longtime aide and lieutenant, Sate Pestage, was "one of the first clones
produced by the Emperor during his early rise to power," or perhaps "Palpatine's son by some forgotten wedding of convenience, who has aged normally
while the Emperor constantly rejuvenated himself," but the nature of Pestage's decades-long close relationship to Palpatine remains unknown (the scribe
repeats these rumors in The New Essential Guide to Characters, writing that Pestage was rumored to be "a relative of Palpatine's" or "one of the earliest
clones"). Based on the Dark Empire Sourcebook and the Death Star Technical Companion, Pestage and Ars Dangor are the only persons known to have
worked closely with Palpatine throughout his entire political career, having begun as Senatorial aides and ultimately becoming two of the most powerful
beings in the galaxy as Privy Counsellors under the Imperial State (although current sources frequently forget to mention Dangor, often substituting
Kinman Doriana as Pestage's counterpart). In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe writes that "if anyone truly understood Emperor
Palpatine, it was Sate Pestage."
Palpatine was "someone with a passion for exploring life's manifold heights and depths," according to Cloak of Deception; his interests were those of "a
scholar, a historian, a lover of art, and a collector of rare objects." The Complete Locations mentions his "Sith-inspired preference for the color red,"
which has been seen clearly in his suite in 500 Republica in The Phantom Menace, his offices in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and his
private quarters in Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Trilogy; it also mentions that his office contains "a number of seemingly innocent antiquities and
sculptural pieces, said to be from his personal art collection" (many of which are said to be "unrecognized Sith heirlooms," including a "Sith Chalice – a
form of incense burner used in ancient meditation rituals," an "archaeological find from the Wolhanian expedition to Yavin 4). In Revenge of the Sith, one
of "several pieces of sculpture that graced the office" in the Chancellor's Suite is identified as "an abstract twist of solid neuranium, so heavy that the
office floor had been specially reinforced to bear its weight, so dense that more sensitive species might, from very close range, actually percieve [sic] the
tiny warping of the fabric of space-time that was its gravitation" (Sidious had hidden his lightsaber inside the statue for decades); the Complete Locations
pinpoints this statue in the anteroom between his private office and ceremonial office, and further identifies it as being Sistros, one of the Four Sages of
Dwartii, "controversial philosopher-lawgivers from the early days of the Republic" (the other three Sages are Faya, Yanjon, and Braata, bronzium statues
of whom are also found in the Chancellor's Suite). In Labyrinth of Evil, Windu observes Palpatine's "curious and somehow unsettling collection of quasi-
religious statuary" on display in his office in the Senate Office Building, including items "acquired at an auction on Commenor; procured after many years
and at great expense from a Corellian dealer in antiquities; salvaged from an ancient temple discovered on a moon of the gas giant Yavin; a gift from the
Theed Council of Naboo; another gift from that world's Gungans," and most notably "a small bronzium statue Palpatine had once identified as Wapoe,
the mythical artisan demigod of disguise." Also on display in his offices in the Senate Office Building is a wall panel that "depicts a legendary battle
between the Sith and the Jedi," according to Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary, which the Complete Locations describes as a "bas-relief found in
an archaeological excavation of a Massassi site on Yavin 4, depicting battle between Jedi and Sith during the Great Hyperspace War" (in Episode I: The
Visual Dictionary, it is commented that "Senator Palapatine's [sic] unusual choice of art objects reveals to Queen Amidala that he has left his Naboo
heritage far behind and has adopted a more worldly point of view"). In his private quarters aboard the second Death Star, he would keep a "trophy
presented to Senator Palpatine by Naboo's Theed Council," a "gift from longtime ally and follower, Moff Panaka," and a statue of "Wapoe, mythical
Atrisian demigod of disguise," according to Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Trilogy. Cloak of Deception states that Palpatine's apartment in the exclusive
500 Republica residential complex – "the most exclusive address on the planet," according to Revenge of the Sith, where he lived throughout his terms as
Senator and Supreme Chancellor – was similarly appointed, with "objects of art adorning every niche and corner," what the Core Rulebook describes as
"gifts from supporters and allies: rare artifacts and art objects from a hundred different worlds (including items which have yet to be identified)." His
Clone Labs deep inside the Imperial Citadel on Byss were furnished with "a full library of Dark Side texts for the master's personal study," in addition to
"his collection rooms, which are filled with ancient works of art, holo-tapestries and fine mosaics." Interestingly, Attack of the Clones: The Visual
Dictionary notes that "Palpatine's statues honor obscure figures from the past who possessed much arcane wisdom and law, but whose actions are
shrouded in controversy." Labyrinth of Evil mentions that Palpatine's holding office in the Senate Building "contained several singular pieces of statuary,
as did Palpatine's chambers in the Senate Office Building, and his suite in the crown of 500 Republica."
Cloak of Deception and Revenge of the Sith establish that he often attended performances at the Coruscant Opera and the Galaxies Opera House (the
Official Site's Databank: "Romeo Treblanc" indicates that Palpatine, "describing himself as a patron of the arts," offered to "discreetly finance the
Galaxies Opera House" in exchange for "a private viewing box with heightened security"), and The Secrets of Naboo mentions that he enjoyed the harp
performance of Naboo Music Advisor Hela Brandes. As his career advanced and his power grew, Palpatine paid less and less attention to the niceties of
legitimate acquirement of pieces for his collection; in addition to being an art collector, he was also a prolific sponsor of art plunder – so much so that
famed xenoarcheologist Dr. Corellia Antilles called him “by far the worst of these” in “From the Files of Corellia Antilles,” having “ordered dozens of
digs apparently in an ongoing search for rare and powerful Jedi artifacts” and being “well-known as an acquirer of mystic objects.” His theft of rare
artifacts was not limited to the arcane; Antilles notes that in 34 rS he seized the original manuscript of the Sayings of Uueg Tching, the 54th Atrisian
Emperor, from the Imperial Museum on Imperial Center and added it to his private collection (the manuscript was never recovered, and may have been
relocated to the Citadel on Byss during the New Republic’s campaign to capture Imperial Center). To Palpatine's passion for art and culture the Dark
Empire Sourcebook adds impressive levels of knowledge of xenobiology, bureaucratic procedure, alien cultures and languages, psychology, criminology,
military history and science, planetology, archaic library systems, arcane technologies, cloning and cloning technology, Jedi lore, computer programming,
lightsaber history and repair, and (of course) dark side lore. The Revised Core Rulebook indicates that he constructed his own lightsaber, and although he
tells Windu that he knows "next to nothing of swordplay" in Revenge of the Sith, he correctly says that there are six commonly used forms of lightsaber
combat in Shatterpoint, easily kills three of the finest swordsmen in the Jedi Order in Revenge of the Sith, and keeps a collection of lightsabers in the
Clone Labs in the Citadel on Byss. The Core Rulebook mentions that he is knowledgeable in diplomacy and was fluent in Basic, Bothan, Calamarian,
Gran, Rodian, and Ryl, while the Revised Core Rulebook adds his extensive knowledge of galactic politics and Sith secrets, and fluency in Sith. In Attack
of the Clones his executive secretary, Dar Wac, spoke to him in Huttese, and although Palpatine answered in Basic, it is clear that he understands that
language, as well.
Although ambitious and narcissistic, Palpatine was in general a man of relatively simple tastes and great privacy. Attack of the Clones: The Visual
Dictionary mentions that "close aides say that Palpatine sometimes works for days without sleeping" (the same claim is repeated as rumor in Labyrinth
of Evil – "rumored to work for days on end without sleeping" – and by Pollux Hax in The Illustrated Star Wars Universe – "some say the Emperor
himself never sleeps"). In Shatterpoint, he admitted that he disliked the flavor of thyssel bark (a delicacy in the Core Worlds), saying that "you can take a
boy out of the Mid Rim, but..." According to the Core Rulebook, he was considered "something of a withdrawn scholar" by many of his colleagues in the
Senate, giving the impression of "a backwater bumpkin, someone to be manipulated, or more often, simply ignored." He was a bit of a recluse, as well,
often staying in his "modest apartment" in the 500 Republica residential complex in the Senate District's Ambassadorial Sector for "days at a time,"
"eschewing social functions, preferring to work as much as possible" (although what passes for a "modest apartment" among Senators may not be very
small by other standards, as Palpatine's "modest apartment" is large enough to accommodate the entire royal party in relative comfort in The Phantom
Menace). In Cloak of Deception, it is mentioned that he had "earned a reputation for integrity and frankness that had set him high in the hearts of many
of his senatorial peers." Palpatine's apparent lack of ambition and distaste for political maneuvering seemed ill-suited to a career in the Senate, and he
frequently stressed that he was "more interested in doing whatever needed to be done than in blind obedience to the rules and regulations that had made
the senate such a tangle of procedures." He avoided intrigue, and according to The Essential Guide to Characters, he had repeatedly "turned down
placement on important advisory boards and powerful committees," and had remarkably few enemies. After becoming Galactic Emperor, the scholars
write in the Star Wars Encyclopedia that he "became distant and reclusive, seen only by those who needed to see him"; the First Saga of the Journal of
the Whills (quoted in Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker) mentions that "once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting
himself away from the populace." The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that he stationed Sovereign Protectors "as watchmen over all the palaces and
monasteries that Palpatine haunts," and there are a number of Sithian "holy sites" that he is known to have visited or made use of throughout his reign,
including Korriban in Empire's End, Yavin IV and Ziost in Complete Locations, Dromund Kaas in Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and "The Emperor's
Pawns," and Malrev in "Requiem for a Rogue."
Friends and Allies
Palpatine had an extraordinary network of friends, acquaintances, and allies. The Core Rulebook mentions that he surprised many of his Senatorial
colleagues by "cultivating friendships with respected public figures – including military commanders and even a Jedi Master" and developed "a coterie of
admirers and supporters"; Admiral Mordon says in The Stele Chronicles that he made "allies of many key members of the senate, the Republican Guard,
and even those Jedi Knights who remained uncorrupted." Even early in his career, the Revised Core Rulebook says, "he was scheming, forging alliances
with influential figures in the Senate and the great learning centers," to the point that "his circle of supporters and confidants seemed at times to dwarf
the power of the Galactic Senate itself." The scribe mentions in The New Essential Guide to Characters a cordial relationship with Commander Terrinald
Screed, a "key personality" in the Judicial Department," and "friendships with the leaders of the Caamasi delegation" (which "enhanced the public
perception of his moral authority"). He was acquainted with Wilhuff Tarkin, a member of the wealthy and distinguished Tarkins of Eriadu and had
managed to secure for himself the office of Lieutenant Governor of Seswenna Sector, according to Cloak of Deception. He had a longstanding friendship
with Master Jedi Ronhar Kim dating from his election to the office of Galactic Senator in "Bloodlines," as well as having met and befriended Master Jedi
Jorus C'baoth during service on the Ando Demilitarization Observation Group, according to the Revised Core Rulebook. Palpatine was also friends with
Senator Finis Valorum (Spira) – although Coruscanti by birth, he represented the Lytton Sector in the Core Worlds – a member of the powerful and long-
lived Valorum dynasty, and their relationship became especially close in 1 rS, at the start of Valorum's second term as Supreme Chancellor of the
Galactic Republic, according to Cloak of Deception. The same source mentions that Palpatine's privacy and habitual tight-lipped manner drew other
Senators to him, as they felt free about themselves to him as "a kind of confessor, willing to hear the most banal confessions or basest of misdeeds
without passing judgment," trusting him to "guard the secrets of their lives as closely as he guarded his own." The dark side adepts Nefta and Sa-Di are
called "two of the Emperor's closest friends" in Dark Empire II, and the New Republic Historical Council notes in The Essential Chronology that he had
"an amicable relationship" with Rokur Gepta, the Sorcerer of Tund.
Not all of Palpatine's social connections were legitimate – or even legal. The Power of the Jedi Sourcebook mentions that Palpatine secretly backed a well-
armed pirate band, and used it to destroy the Jedi Order's Oracle at Pelgrin, which had been used for nearly 3,000 years to predict (and thereby prevent
or mitigate) galactic disasters. In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe mentions his "under-the-table allies in every organization from the
Techno Union to Freedom's Sons," and Cloak of Deception mentions that his friendship with a group of Bith delegates led to contacts within the terrorist
group called the Nebula Front, active primarily along the Rimma Trade Route and well known for its hostility to the Trade Federation (TradeFed) and to
the Republican Government. The Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook adds that even as early as his term as Senator for Naboo, he had begun
to design his New Order, a massive socio-economic reform program (to put it mildly), and had solicited contacts with "amoral factions in the Transport
and Power ministries," in addition to a secret alliance with the Galactic Corporate Policy League, a little known policy consortium whose members were
some of the largest and most influential multistellar corporations in the galaxy (the Tagge Company, Merr-Sonn Mil/Sci, Ayelixe/Krongbing Textiles,
Millennium Entertainments, Bank of the Core, Chiewab Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals Company, Kuat Drive Yards, Rendili StarDrive, Cybot Galactica,
and the Karflo Corporation). To Palpatine's contacts must be added those acquired under the guise of Darth Sidious, which the Revised Core Rulebook
says to have numbered in the "hundreds of pawns, both willing and unwitting." Sidious made at least one contract with Raith Sienar's Sienar Advanced
Projects Laboratory, according to Rogue Planet and the Episode I Incredible Cross-Sections, for Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator Scimitar. Possibly the most
important of these confederates are the three Neimoidian officials in the TradeFed's upper management, Viceroy Nute Gunray, Deputy Viceroy Hoth
Monchar, and legal counsel Rune Haako, from Cloak of Deception; these three – minus Monchar after his murder in Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter – were
part of the plot that brought Palpatine into office as Supreme Chancellor in The Phantom Menace, and leading figures of the corporate backing for the
Count of Serenno's Separatist movement in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Ultimately Sidious came to control the Separatist Council –
leaders of Serenno's Confederacy of Independent Systems – directly, and without the intermediation of Serenno, according to Labyrinth of Evil and
Revenge of the Sith. It is especially noteworthy that Sidious commanded the services of Kinman Doriana, one of Palpatine's most privy and trusted aides,
and that Doriana actively worked against what he thought to be Palpatine's interests in "Hero of Cartao" (which is fascinating in that it indicates that
Doriana was ignorant of the fact that Sidious and Palpatine were in fact the same person).
As the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, Sidious controlled the secret world of Thule (Thurra I), which Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds calls "a
sleeping Sith asset in the vast space of the Outer Rim"; there, the population of 790 millions is ruled by a clerical-military junta from the capital city of
Hurom, and the planet has a Sith Temple and a Sith Arts Academy. This world functioned as a breeding/training ground for armies of Sith loyalists, and
is dominated by priests and prophets of the religion and traditions of the vanished Sith Empire, although they did swear allegiance to Darth Bane's Sith
Order and probably also to its predecessors, Exar Kun's Sith Brotherhood and Lord Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness. Sidious retained Thule for his own
purposes, and deliberately erased all information about it from "histories and the few sources that documented its existence," determined that it would
"continue as a resource for the Sith, not the Empire." Given its remote location in the Outer Rim, its ruling Sithian theocracy, its pervasive atmosphere of
the dark side of the Force, and the devotion of its entire population to the schemes of the Sith cultists in power, it is possible that Thule served as the
inspiration for Palpatine's dark side utopia on Byss, hidden within the Deep Galactic Core.
The Dark Side Sourcebook notes that even before the execution of Order 66 and Palpatine's acclamation as Galactic Emperor, he had come into contact
with the Prophets of the Dark Side, a schismatic Sith cult said by "The Dark Forces Saga, Part 3: Two Peas in a Pod" to have been founded long before
by Darth Millenial, an apostate Apprentice from the Sith Order who rejected Darth Bane's Rule of Two in favor of Lord Kaan's Rule by the Strong.
Sidious may have been intrigued by the Prophetic theology of the Force, which they called the Dark Force; The Dark Side Sourcebook says that Master
Jedi Kadann believed that the prophesied "balance of the Force" required an equilibrium of the light side and the dark side, and this probably reflects the
Dark Force theology, as Kadann became the Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side after leaving the Jedi Order. Just as there were two major theological
schools of thought among the Jedi Knights – viz., Qui-Gonn Jinn's Living Force and Yoda's Unifying Force – , there were at least three theological
schools among the Sith Lords – viz., Sidious's Universal Force, Maul's Living Force, and Tyranus's Balanced Force; although Kadann's Dark Force is
subtly different from Sidious's Universal Force, it bears a striking resemblance to Tyranus's school of thought, which the Revised Core Rulebook explains
as having held that "one can draw from both sides of the Force equally – light and dark – to achieve perfect balance." Thus, the Prophets of the Dark Side
adhere to an interpretation of the Force that is generally compatible with that of the Sith Order, and Sidious was apparently fascinated enough that he
went through the effort of convincing the Prophets to serve him. This "small group of dark side devotees" was highly secretive, and only "the Emperor's
most trusted advisers" knew of their existence, although they continued to serve him throughout his reign as Galactic Emperor, consulting with him
regularly so as to augment his own clairvoyance and prescience with their prophetic "predictions on the outcome of plans, strategies, and upcoming
events," acquired by "employing meditative techniques and judicious use of the Farseeing technique." The Rebellion Era Sourcebook mentions that the
Prophets maintained a sanctuary within the Imperial Palace, near the Galactic Emperor's throne room, where they "constantly [keep] the oracles and
seers tuned to the ebb and flow of the Force," "reach out for signs and portents concerning topics specifically requested by the Emperor," and "troll the
dark side for warning signs that might threaten the Empire or opportunities to increase the Emperor's power or the influence of the dark side." The
Prophets also used an ancient Sith temple on the uncharted planet Bosthirda (the Prophets actually concealed this temple's existence from Palpatine),
and "The Dark Forces Saga, Part 3: Two Peas in a Pod" establishes that the Prophets' main headquarters is located on the hidden world of Dromund
Kaas, where they frequently undertook "the early training of [Palpatine's] darksiders," including dark side adept Grand Admiral Nial Declann, according
to "The Emperor's Pawns." Ultimately, The Dark Side Sourcebook explains that the close relationship between Palpatine and Kadann fell apart when
the Prophets warned of impending disaster at the Sanctuary Moon of Endor; Palpatine foresaw nothing of the kind and the two sects angrily dissolved
their decades-long partnership, the Prophets fleeing to Kadann's stronghold on Bosthirda, abandoning Dromund Kaas and hiding from the resurrected
Palpatine when he reincarnated on Byss.
Philosophy and Doctrine
Only a handful of sources give a glimpse of Palpatine's philosophical beliefs and doctrines; chief among these are Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Cloak of
Deception, the Dark Empire Sourcebook, and Return of the Jedi. Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter describes Sidious's perception of the Force as "an
omnipresent mist, invisible but nonetheless tangible, that swirled and drifted constantly about him," and mentions that he did not accept the tendency
"to demarcate the concept of the Force into light and dark," although he "had used such notions of duality in the training of his disciple"; rather, Sidious
believed that "the reality was that there was only the Force," and that "it was above such petty concepts as positive and negative, black and white, good
and evil." He regarded the Force as "a means to an end," where "that end was Power." This ties in closely with the course of his meditation in Return of
the Jedi, when he considers that he "knew what others refused to believe: the dark forces were the strongest," having "known this all along, in his heart of
hearts – but relearned it every day," "from traitorous lieutenants who betrayed their superiors for favors; from weak-principled functionaries who gave
him the secrets of local star systems' governments; from greedy landlords, and sadistic gangsters, and power-hungry politicians." Cloak of Deception
mentions that "in his heart he judged the universe on his own terms, with a clear sense of right and wrong," and that "he looked to no other guide than
himself." Palpatine regards the distinction between the light side and the dark side as a sort of convenient shorthand rather than an objective distinction,
certainly one not corresponding to good and evil, and embraces the dark side because he believes it to be more powerful and more effective at satisfying
his desires. His desire, of course, is "his own aggrandizement," as he narcissistically identifies himself with both the Empire and the universe. In Revenge
of the Sith, Sidious is identified as "the darkness in the Force" that had smothered the Jedi's ability to perceive the Force for fifteen years (although it is
unclear whether this metaphor implies that Sidious himself directly created this "shroud of the dark side" or whether it is the incidental result of Sidious's
rise to power and the actions of his agents).
Palpatine was well-regarded within academic circles. Early in his political career he had developed a political science theory on the nature of power
within organized groups such as legislatures, corporations, and militaries, which the scribe describes in The New Essential Guide to Characters as holding
that "members of any group [...] could be merged into exploitable partnerships given the proper motivation" and that a leader "is like a colossus astride a
mountain top,"having "power over those beneath him" but becoming "a target for their barbs and arrows." The Core Rulebook adds that during his time
as a Senator, his "early notes on the nature of power" became "popular political texts," and some of his writings were even "taught at universities
throughout the galaxy"; these "early notes" could potentially be the same as his book The Paths to Power, said by "Palpatine's Triumphs: A Celebration"
to have topped "the best-seller lists" on 5:3:13. He was invited as a commencement speaker at a number of university graduations, and "not a few young
government officials owe the beginnings of their political careers to him." The Revised Core Rulebook mentions that he had powerful allies in "the great
learning centers," where "political science students pored over his speeches" and "military science students absorbed his philosophies." Evidently he
ceased to publish his writings after he became Galactic Emperor, as the Rebellion Era Sourcebook claims that Wilhuff Tarkin "lent his vast intellect to
providing the framework for the New Order's founding precepts, providing scholarly and well-reasoned arguments to Emperor Palpatine's emotional
speeches."
Tarkin's book Visions of the New Order "served for the blueprint for COMPNOR-related organizations such as the Imperial Security Bureau and the
paramilitary group COMPForce [sic]," according to the Rebellion Era Sourcebook. In Visions of the New Order Tarkin first explored the concept of "rule
through the fear of force, rather than force itself" – a concept already firmly entrenched in Palpatine's philosophy, being very close to the third central
tenet of The Weakness of Inferiors – which he later developed in Imperial Communiqué #001044.92v, which subsequently became official Imperial
policy as the Tarkin Doctrine, according to the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition. It has been suggested that Palpatine may have ghostwritten both
Visions of the New Order and Imperial Communiqué #001044.92v, given their similarity to Palpatine's own writings on the subject of rule through the
use of fear; Master Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi mentioned the likelihood that Palpatine had done this before with the "latest amendment to the Security Act"
in 16 rS in Revenge of the Sith, saying that "we may be sure that Palpatine wrote it himself and passed it along to someone he controls." This idea is
incidentally supported by the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition, in which an Imperial Intelligence report mentions that Palpatine defeated "his
opponents within COMPNOR not through violence or threats, but with a hidden, gentle, consistent pressure which wore the opposition down," such
that "those who opposed the change in COMPNOR never even knew the Emperor had done anything to instigate the changes" and that he "had
succeeded in having his enemies unknowingly choose exactly the course of action he desired them to choose." If Palpatine ghostwrote Tarkin's Visions of
the New Order, which provided the model for a number of COMPNOR organs, then those "old shirts" in COMPNOR that opposed him specifically
may have unintentionally played into his hands by drawing their ideological and organizational bases from Tarkin's book.
According to the Dark Empire Sourcebook, Palpatine devoted a great deal of his time to writing the Dark Side Compendium, "a great assemblage of Dark
Side Lore" which was intended to contain the sum total of his so-called 'Science of Darkness'; The Dark Side Sourcebook claims that studying each
volume of the Compendium requires "96 hours of reading time, over the course of a minimum of two weeks." He completed two volumes, The Book of
Anger and The Weakness of Inferiors, with a third volume, The Creation of Monsters, still in manuscript at the time of his death over Pinnacle Moon in
Dark Empire. The Dark Empire Sourcebook and The Dark Side Sourcebook both remark that he intended to write hundreds of volumes, but met his
final death before he could do so. Evidently some record of the Dark Side Compendium survived the destruction of Byss (possibly via the recollections
of Luke Skywalker, who had read them during his time on that planet), because in The New Essential Guide to Characters the scribe demonstrates at
least a passing familiarity with the content of The Weakness of Inferiors; nevertheless, it is unlikely that a written record survived, as indicated by the
fact that the scribe mistakenly claims that Palpatine's writings on a Sithian negative utopia are contained in The Book of Anger rather than The Weakness
of Inferiors. One of the subjects discussed in the Dark Side Compendium, according to "The Dark Forces Saga, Part 3: Pride of the Dark Side," was "the
creation of a unit of seven Dark Jedi perfectly absorbed into the Emperor's will, a 'Dark Side Elite'"; it is not clear which book contained this particular
concept.
Although he cultivated an image of himself as a populist – Kinman Doriana calls him "the champion of the common citizen" in "Hero of Cartao" and
Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary notes that he "revived the old tradition of appearing before the masses to accept their applause and vocal
support" – it is clear from Episode I Journal: Darth Maul that Palpatine had little regard for the common citizen, teaching his Apprentice that "the
feelings of the powerless do not matter." Palpatine wrote about his idealized Sith theocratic utopia in The Weakness of Inferiors – volume two of his
Dark Side Compendium, mentioned in The New Essential Guide to Characters as having "merged political theory with Sith doctrine" – , calling for
"control, without violence, over the innocent, the ignorant, and 'all inferiors'" (the latter category of "all inferiors" includes all sapient beings who are not
sensitive to the Force). The four central tenets of The Weakness of Inferiors, as quoted in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, are (1) that "all power comes
from outside the weak," as they "have never been known to believe in themselves or in their ability to wield power" (author's emphasis), (2) that the
weak "live as in a dream," and "all their thoughts, actions, and urges are governed by the face and the voice that controls this dream," which "they have
learned to obey" and which he calls "the face and voice of Authority," (3) that the weak live under "the law of fear," whereby the "mere suggestion of
violence from one in power is enough to inspire their obedience" because it is "impossible" for "one who doesn't believe in his own powers" to "stand
against the power of another," and (4) that the weak "do not understand the Force" because they can neither sense nor use it, leaving them "at the mercy
of those who know and use the power of the Force." Palpatine condemns as foolish the Jedi adherence to "a religion in which the Force is used only in
the service of others" and attributes the triumph of the dark side to this perceived dogmatic error (in Episode I Journal: Darth Maul, Sidious remarks that
the "fatal flaw" of the Jedi is compassion).
The Weakness of Inferiors advocates a decidedly aristocratic philosophy, in the literal sense of "rule by the best" (aristokratia); quoting from a different
passage than the Dark Empire Sourcebook, The Dark Side Sourcebook says that Palpatine argued that "those of great strength" must guide "those of
low capability" through life "by whatever means necessary"; "inferiors continually endanger their own lives and the lives of others through poor
decisions, reckless behavior, and simple inability to engineer the reality of their ambitious dreams," he writes, comparing them to children "crying in
frustration because they do not comprehend their own limitations." He contends that it is the responsibility of "the wise and powerful" to provide
"structure in order for civilization to survive and thrive in the galaxy" and to show inferiors "their place in the existing social structure"; those who
"cannot – or will not – accept that peace and order are far more important than their own selfish desires" are to be "removed from society before they can
inflict any lasting damage" (thus he justifies the liquidation of any enemy on the grounds that he himself – with his "clear sense of right and wrong" and
narcissistic self-identification with both the Empire and the universe – knows best, and any who will not accept his judgment is therefore a threat to the
proper order of things; as a result of this, even a friend can be destroyed without a second thought should it prove necessary). The Weakness of Inferiors
is interesting because it emphasizes Palpatine's malignant narcissism and his intense dislike for disorder (Darth Vader uses "Chaos" as a curse in Star
Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, and the Sith refer to their concept of Hell as "Chaos"). It also makes the interesting revelation that
Palpatine idealizes non-violence as part of his Sithian theocratic utopia, and regards the liquidation of his enemies as something akin to pest control or
gardening (cf. Gilad Pellaeon's use of gardening as a metaphor for authoritarianism in Destiny's Way). This brand of draconian aristocracy – Palpatinism,
one might say – is very probably the ideological underpinning of the entire New Order movement, in all its manifestations (paternalist, authoritarian, and
totalitarian), and The Dark Side Sourcebook says that "this sort of thinking laid the foundation for the Empire." Palpatinism gained one notable adherent
in the "seasoned philosopher" Dooku of Serenno, a former Jedi Master with traits of sociopathy who was wont to indulge in "moral outrage" when "the
incorrigibly untidy affairs of ordinary beings refuse to conform to the plainly obvious structure of How Society Ought To Be," according to Revenge of
the Sith.
In The Book of Anger, he wrote on "the use of emotion to control the Force," considering anger to be "the most potent emotional form," noting that
"anger and rage, mixed with intelligent control," can be used to "kill from a great distance." In particular, he wrote that "Anger and Will, joined together,
are the greatest Power," and that by meditating "upon Anger and Will with clarity and precision," he has been able to "have slain [his] enemies from great
distances," and to "have created lightning, and unleashed its destructive fire," ultimately to the point that he can "unleash the Dark Side energies that are
all around us, even to shatter the fabric of space itself" via "storms." However, although Palpatine believed that anger and hatred were the most powerful
emotions and the greatest tools of the dark side, The Dark Side Sourcebook (quoting from a different passage than the Dark Empire Sourcebook) notes
that he believed that "by exploring one's anger, one could ultimately learn to conquer it, thus taming the power of the dark side – instead of being tamed
by it." He derided the concept of overcoming anger by serenity, saying that those who claim to have done so "have never faced their anger, and thus have
no idea whether they have truly overcome it or not," and advanced the Bene Gesserit-like argument that "true calm is only achieved through testing the
limits of one's anger and passing through unscathed." In keeping with his doctrine in The Weakness of Inferiors that "the weak have never been known to
believe in themselves or in their ability to wield power," Palpatine asserted that "most fear to test their own strength," thus failing to overcome their
anger and should therefore be "considered at best weaklings, and at worst irresponsible." Palpatine's doctrine that most people lack true control of their
emotions – especially anger – is clearly manifested in his confrontations with Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith and Return of
the Jedi, respectively, where he takes advantage of the fact that both have focused on controlling their anger by achieving serenity rather than his
preferred method of immersion; ironically, Luke Skywalker failed to restrain his anger but resisted the temptation of the dark side, while his father
Anakin controlled his anger but fell to the dark side anyway.
In The Creation of Monsters, Palpatine wrote about "the ancient art of Sith alchemy," through which he created the Sithspawn Rancors – he named them
"Chrysalides" – that defended the Imperial Citadel on Byss; The Dark Side Sourcebook says that although the book was still in manuscript form when
he died at Da Soocha V, "it is complete enough for most purposes." Palpatine included what The Dark Side Sourcebook calls "detailed schematics for
Sith alchemical apparati [sic]" – note the incorrect pluralization of apparatus, which is a fourth declension noun, not second declension, and is therefore
correctly pluralized as apparatus (apparatuses is also acceptable) – as well as "guidelines and advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of tinkering with the
physical compositions of living, independent creatures"; The Dark Side Sourcebook regards Palpatine's treatment of the subject as thorough enough that
reading it provides one with a working knowledge of alchemy. Palpatine stressed that alchemists refrain from creating "specimens that are superior in
every way" because "the danger of such monstrosities being turned against you is too great" (cf. his decision to limit Darth Tyranus's access to his
Sithian holocron, preventing him from becoming a "perfect specimen" by withholding knowledge from him); he called for "instituting controlling
weaknesses into each and every beast," making it "strong where you are weak, but weak where you are strong," with a failsafe inclusion of "a fatal flaw
that you – and only you – know how to exploit" (cf. the Master Control Signal built into Palpatine's World Devastators in Dark Empire, or the secret
program 'backdoors' hardwired into all of his Star Destroyer's main computers in Dark Force Rising). As a final caveat, he stressed that one should
always "be prepared to destroy your most valued creation... or be prepared to be destroyed by it" (cf. his willingness to have both Darth Tyranus and
Darth Vader killed, despite their status as his successive Sith Apprentices). The Creation of Monsters reveals a degree of pragmatism in Palpatine's
intellectual makeup, and his doctrine on alchemy and creation is strongly reflected in his treatment of the various dark side agents he created, not to
mention the constitution of his magnum opus, the Galactic Empire; although he gloried in his Empire, he also deliberately built weaknesses and flaws into
it, so that it could not be turned against him, and was prepared to destroy it should he feel the necessity to do so.
Palpatine actively implemented his doctrine that fear is an essential means of control over others; in The Mandalorian Armor he candidly states "I prefer
terror and fear to any other means of ensuring obedience to my commands," and subsequently remarks "I see into so many creatures' hearts, and all I see
there is fear. Which is as it should be." Interestingly, Planet of Twilight mentions that he even went so far as to flood his court hall with "perfumes and
incense and subtle hurlothrumbic gas" to induce a level of visceral fear in those approaching him for an audience. It is noteworthy that virtually all of his
subordinates were actually terrified of him. In Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, Darth Tyranus reflected that Sidious was wont to indulge in what he considered
overly psychological "schemes," but Sidious's mere presence caused "the arrogance – one might even say, the faint condescension – with which he had
been thinking of his Master a few moments before" to "drain out of him like blood spilling from an open vein." Darth Vader was brave enough to refer to
Palpatine with sarcasm and a "disrespectful tone" in his absence in Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, but still found that "only one
being in the entire universe could instill fear in the dark spirit of Darth Vader" in The Empire Strikes Back; indeed, the thought of actually facing
Palpatine inspired "a hint of terror" in him, as even "the sound of his voice sent a thrill of terror coursing through Vader's powerful frame." Notably, even
Moff Commander Jerjerrod – who was respectful but not fearful of Vader, a fearsome enough figure in his own right – was frightened by the mere
suggestion of Palpatine's personal attendance (hence the visible apprehension in his question, "The Emperor is coming here?"); Return of the Jedi
mentions that "the Emperor's courtiers, the royal guard, Jerjerrod, and the Death Star elite guard" followed after Palpatine and Vader "with mixed
reverence and fear" after the Imperial party's arrival on the Death Star. Vader himself accentuated Palpatine's awful majesty with his succinct warning to
Jerjerrod that "the Emperor is not as forgiving as I am."
The Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that when Palpatine became "convinced that there was nothing between him and the eternal rule of Darkness,"
he proudly claimed that "even Ulic Qel-Droma would be envious," which rather implies that he regards Qel-Droma as a personal hero of sorts. Qel-
Droma is a tragic hero of the Jedi Order, a heroic Knight who attempted to join the dark side in order to learn its secrets and then destroy it, for under the
influence of Satal Keto's Sith poisons and the seductive attentions of the treacherous illusionist Aleema, he became generalissimo of the Krath's armies
and second in command of Exar Kun's infamous Sith Brotherhood as his Sith Apprentice in Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith. Qel-Droma became
the first Sith Lord to command an army of Mandalorians as his personal vassals after he defeated Mandalore the Indomitable in single combat in Tales of
the Jedi: The Sith War; Palpatine was to demonstrate a certain fascination with the Mandalorians – in The Mandalorian Armor he told the Prince Xizor
of Falleen, "Lord Vader possesses some of the knowledge that belonged to the Mandalorians. I possess more." He created an entire army of
Mandalorians loyal to him personally in Attack of the Clones, and used the Mandalorian supercommandos as Sidious's private army in the Clone War,
according to "The Search Begins" and "The History of the Mandalorians." Qel-Droma was also the first known Sith Lord to have fallen to the dark side
intending to protect or save others, a concept that Palpatine would later use in turning Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith, as well
as turning Vader's son Luke Skywalker to the dark side in Dark Empire. Likewise, Qel-Droma also became the first Sith Lord to outright betray his
master by leading the Jedi Knights to Kun's secret lair on Yavin IV in Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War; as Sidious, Palpatine would repeat Qel-Droma's
faithlessness by betraying and murdering his own Master, Darth Plagueis. It is possible that Palpatine modeled his corruption of both Skywalkers after
the historical tragedy of Qel-Droma's life, given the similarities between their stories (indeed, Qel-Droma may be viewed as a type of Anakin Skywalker,
while the fall of Luke Skywalker is practically a re-enactment of Qel-Droma's).
The connection that Palpatine seems to feel with Qel-Droma is especially interesting because Qel-Droma was ultimately redeemed from the dark side in
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption. After spending ten years unable to touch the Force – his beloved, the equally legendary Jedi Knight Nomi Sunrider, had
blinded him to the Force after he killed his own brother in Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War – Qel-Droma spent the last days of his life on the frozen world
of Rhen Var, where he trained Sunrider's daughter Vima in the Force before being shot by "a no-name freighter pilot trying to be a hero" (as the scribe
puts it in The New Essential Guide to Characters) and his body "vanished into the light of the Force." Qel-Droma's life is seen as a tragedy because, in
classically tragical fashion, he was perfect in almost every respect save his hubris, and that tragic flaw caused his fall from "heroism to barbarism,
followed by shame and exile"; this, however, does not appear to appeal to Palpatine's theology of the Force or of his philosophy of the universe, in
which power is the highest ideal to which one can aspire, and brutality is regarded as being objectively neither good or bad. It is possible that Palpatine
finds Qel-Droma's life tragic because (from his perspective) Qel-Droma rose to "glory" as a Sith Lord only to fall from "grace" by being blinded to the
Force and ultimately returning to the light side in Tales of the Jedi: Redemption. It would be interesting to know if Palpatine ever learned that Anakin
Skywalker had encountered Qel-Droma's ghost on Rhen Var and learned from him how to resist the Dark Reaper, an ancient Sithian weapon left over
from the Great Sith War, according to The Clone Wars and The Clone Wars: Prima's Official Strategy Guide; certainly it would be interesting to see
Palpatine's reaction to the fact that Qel-Droma warned Skywalker of the perils of the dark side and expressed a desire that he not follow in Qel-Droma's
footsteps.
The Dark Side of the Force
As noted earlier, Palpatine must have become a Sith Lord no later than 23 BrS or so, being apprenticed to Darth Plagueis, whom he betrayed and
murdered in order to become the reigning Sith Master, devoting an extraordinary amount of time and effort into study; the Dark Empire Sourcebook
mentions that after becoming Galactic Emperor he "gathered the greatest works of knowledge from over a million worlds" and "studied the Force in all its
guises throughout the galaxy, whether it was the shamanism of the Jarvashqiine or the tales of the Tyia," to the point that "he had long ago gone beyond
any knowledge to be found in the recovered teachings of the Krath or the Heresiarchs." In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe writes that
"Palpatine was known to have studied [the Sorcerers of Tund] prior to their destruction." In Revenge of the Sith it is said that "wherever darkness
dwelled, the shadow [Sidious] could send perception"; his own Sith Apprentice, Darth Tyranus, described him as "an event horizon," "absolute, perfect
nothingness," "darkness beyond darkness," and "a black hole of the Force." Elsewhere the scribe mentions that he had possession of a Sith holocron,
which one Apprentice used to create "Sith speeders, probe droids, and a double-bladed lightsaber"; he obtained still more "restricted holocrons" which
contained "the deepest secrets of the greatest Masters of the Force" from the Jedi Temple after it was sacked by his newest Apprentice, Darth Vader,
and several brigades of clone storm troopers in Revenge of the Sith; of these, Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary says were included "the only
known Sith Holocrons, whose very existence is revealed only to a handful of Jedi at the highest levels," which "infernal devices contain teachings of
powerful evil" (interestingly, it seems that Sidious was reluctant to share the secrets of the Sith with his Apprentice, Darth Tyranus; Attack of the
Clones: The Visual Dictionary notes that "after he left the Jedi Order, Dooku was no longer able to use the Sith Holocron in the Archives," but rather
than supplying him with one of his own holocrons, Sidious supplied Tyranus instead with "holographic cells containing mystic teachings of shadowy
power"). Finally, after the Great Jedi Purge, his agents captured the very old and very wise Master Jedi Ashka Boda, who had in his possession a
particularly valuable 600-year-old holocron created Master Jedi Bodo Baas (a descendant of Master Jedi Vodo-Siosk Baas, the Adegan teacher of the
infamous Exar Kun, Qel-Droma's Dark Lord of the Sith), according to the Dark Empire Sourcebook.
Sidious's mastery of the Force was both prodigious and extraordinary, to the point that the Dark Empire Sourcebook states that he "has spent decades
studying the most arcane and esoteric Jedi disciplines" and that "it is believed that he has mastered nearly all the known powers, previously unknown
powers, and devises new ones at his pleasure." In Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, it is said that Sidious's "command of the dark side" was "sufficient to
cloak [the Sith Lords] from being sensed by their enemies" when standing just outside the Jedi Temple, or even when face to face with the Jedi High
Council, a talent Labyrinth of Evil subsequently identified as "the Quey'tek technique for hiding oneself in the Force." In Episode I Journal: Darth Maul,
he demonstrated the ability to "move faster than [Darth Maul's] eye can follow," and wielded a lightsaber with such precision that he traced Maul's
outline with its blade so closely that "one flinch, one involuntary twitch of a muscle" would have killed him; it seems that this ability is only effective in
short bursts, as his Force-enhanced speed, agility, and strength in his duel with the four Jedi Masters in his private office in the Senate Office Building in
Revenge of the Sith did not demonstrate quite this level of speed. Also in Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi, he demonstrated the use of
psychokinesis, empathy, clairvoyance, prescience, and powerful Sith lightning; in Revenge of the Sith he was able to sense that Vader was in danger on
the distant Outer Rim world of Mustafar from the Senate Hall on Coruscant in the Core Worlds Region. Nevertheless, he was not infallible in the use of
the Force, as in Return of the Jedi he did not feel Luke Skwyalker's presence on the Sanctuary Moon of Endor, despite having foreseen that Skywalker
would come. In "Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade," he was able to telepathically communicate with his pet assassin and Emperor's Hand, Mara
Jade, across interstellar distances (he has only demonstrated full telepathy with a handful of persons, all of whom are very close to him, both personally
and psychically, and was generally obliged to use the HoloNet for most interstellar communications, including with Vader in The Empire Strikes Back).
In The Bacta War, it was speculated that he may have clouded the minds of Coruscant's population so that no one remembered the burial of a Super Star
Destroyer in the Imperial City skyline, but it was also speculated that he may have simply ordered the murder of all the witnesses. Either explanation is
consistent with Palpatine's behavior.
In Dark Empire II he demonstrated the ability to "empower" Dark Jedi, allowing his power to "enter [them] and fill [them] with the knowledge and the
strength of the dark side of the Force that is [his] to give"; this is clearly the same concept of a "Dark Side Elite" of Dark Jedi "perfectly absorbed into
the Emperor's will" that he had written of in the Dark Side Compendium. The Revised Core Rulebook notes that this technique is part of the secret Sith
knowledge to which he had access by virtue of his status as the reigning Sith Master, so theoretically any very high-level Sith Lord ought to be able to do
the same. Nevertheless it should be noted that the act of "empowering" another in this way actually weakens the Sith Lord in the same respect, so the
ability is of relatively limited utility in most circumstances. Palpatine himself apparently found little use for it except as a mental exercise in the Dark
Side Compendium, as he made use of it sparingly (if at all) before Dark Empire II; his Emperor's Hands seem to perform the same function without the
coincident weakening effect, and he may have created his Dark Side Elite-style Dark Jedi as a stopgap measure to provide himself with useful agents ad
interim. Certainly the idea is not new, as he had written of it before the Battle of Endor, and he has possessed the necessary knowledge for a good deal of
time longer than that. Similar uses of the Force include the creation of mindless Sentinels enslaved to the wills of the dark side adepts in the Dark Empire
Sourcebook, the "empowerment" of the cybernetic Shadow Droid starfighters and the special purpose Darktroopers in Dark Empire II (elite Imperial
Marines, not to be confused with the mobile weapons platform Dark Troopers of Dark Forces or the cybernetic "darktrooper" dragoons of Battlefront).
According to the Dark Empire Sourcebook, Palpatine had created his idyllic, utopian retreat world of Byss in the Deep Core in order to lure millions to
reside permanently there, so that he could "feed off their life energy" with his "Dark Side skills"; using the siren call of "beauty and peace," he and his
dark side adepts used the Force for "draining the life itself from the populace," replacing their independent wills with "an illusion of tranquillity as they
blissfully surrender their life energy to sustain the Emperor." This particular ability seems closely related to the "empowerment" technique, and the two
abilities combine to create a sort of pyramid system, in which the dark side adepts would feed off others beneath them, in turn becoming assimilated into
Palpatine; the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions this as part of an experimental dark side theocracy intended to gradually supplant the system
currently in place in the Galactic Empire. It should be noted that the Dark Empire Sourcebook notes that the "drain life essence" ability is easy to use on
"willing, worshipful subjects," which may explain why Byss is the only world known to be a dark side "feeding ground" of this sort. In any case Byss's
status as an idyllic paradise world matches closely with Palpatine's stated ideal of the nonviolent theocracy in The Weakness of Inferiors.
In Heir to the Empire, Grand Admiral Thrawn noted that after Palpatine's death at the Battle of Endor, the Imperial fleet suffered a "sudden loss of
coordination between crew members and ships; the loss of efficiency and discipline," or, as he put it, "the loss, in short, of that elusive quality we call
fighting spirit." To explain this, he speculated that "it was the Emperor's will that drove [the fleet]; the Emperor's mind that provided [them] with
strength and resolve and efficiency," and that "[they] were all as dependent on that presence as if [they] were all borg-implanted into a combat
computer"; Thrawn believed that Palpatine had been using this form of battle meditation "as completely and constantly as possible." Apparently,
Thrawn's borg-implant theory was essentially correct, even if his details were not ("Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals" indicates that it was dark side
adept Grand Admiral Nial Declann who had been using battle meditation at Endor, not Palpatine). Battle meditation or no, Palpatine's death at Endor
was an unmitigated disaster for the Imperial fleet; Return of the Jedi calls him "the central, powerful evil that had been the cohesive force to the Empire"
and points out that with his death, the dark side became diffused and nondirected, producing only confusion, desperation, and "damp fear."
One of the most important abilities demonstrated by Palpatine is the ability to reincarnate, featured prominently in Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, and
Empire's End. In Dark Empire, he explains to Luke Skywalker that Endor "was not the first time [he] died... nor will it be the last," and he tells the
Princess Leia of Alderaan that "long ago, [he] found [his] flesh could not withstand the awesome demands of the dark side" and "[his] body was literally
consumed by the energies [he] had released." Always fascinated by cloning technology, he had explored very early on the possibility of cloning a new
body for himself; to that end, The Essential Chronology mentions that he cloned Master Jedi Jorus C'baoth, creating an insane clone that for some
inexplicable reason mispronounced his own name as "Joruus C'baoth." Satisfied that the cloning process could at least duplicate sensitivity to the Force,
Palpatine proceeded to establish a Clone Lab in the Imperial Citadel on Byss and began slowly growing clones of himself (the slow pace was required to
avoid "clone madness"); the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that his "experimentations with cloning dates back many years," and "in time, his
scientists perfected his base genetic patterns to create bodies with enhanced intelligence, stamina, strength, and agility." The scribe writes in The New
Essential Guide to Characters that Palpatine learned "the secret of spirit transference via the Force" from Master Jedi Ashka Boda, whom he tortured
and executed after extracting all the information he could from his mind, according to the Dark Empire Sourcebook. He then created his own brand of
functional immortality by combining this knowledge with his cloning technology and "the dark side knowledge the Sith Lords had granted him years
earlier" of how to "transmigrate his essence across lightyears," according to "The Emperor's Pawns." The ghosts of the long-dead Sith Lords of the
vanished Sith Empire on Korriban – the Sith Empire was an intellectual and theological predecessor of Sidious's own Sith Order – had taught him how to
survive after death as a dark side ghost, whereas the Jedi Master and his holocron had revealed how to reincarnate; the Dark Empire Sourcebook relates
these two skills to the psychic parasitism with the Byss populace, saying that "just as he can siphon off the vital life force of his subjects on Byss, he
can will his own personality, his very life, into a waiting receptacle body," i.e., his clones. It is very likely that this discovery radically changed
Palpatine's plans and intentions.
There are certain other abilities and techniques that Palpatine has not been seen to demonstrate, but which he can be inferred to possess based on the fact
that they are demonstrated by certain of his students. Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter mentions that Darth Maul had been trained in Teräs Käsi early in his
life, including patterns of movement such as "Charging Wampa, Rancor Rising, Dancing Dragonsnake, and many more"; the fact that Sidious raised Maul
from his infancy indicates that Sidious himself must have been trained in the art. Similarly, "Fight Saber: Jedi Lightsaber Combat" identifies Maul as a
master of Form VII, which is only possible for "high-level masters of multiple Forms," another implicit indicator of Sidious's skills; still another such
indicator related to Maul is the scribe's remark in The New Essential Guide to Characters that Maul created a customized protocol 'droid named C-3PX
"using the Force mechanical skill mechu-duru," which "The Emperor's Pawns" calls an obscure discipline and "lost Sith 'art'" of "mechanical manipulation
using the Force," most knowledge of which "was committed to ancient scrolls that have since been destroyed or scattered across the galaxy." There is
also Luke Skywalker's use of the illusory Doppelgänger ability in Dark Empire, which the Dark Empire Sourcebook – incidentally, it specifically
attributes the ability to Palpatine as well – describes as "an illusion, but to those who interact with it, it will seem real," and is indistinguishable from the
genuine individual even by "all droid audio and video sensors," even seeming to "have form and substance."
See also:
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| This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement of any kind is intended. Star Wars and related materials are © Lucasfilm Ltd., which reserves all rights thereto. All original material is © Julius Sykes. Please do not use without permission. |
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| This article was initially published in 2005. This section was republished on 15 March 2008. The header includes a pencil drawing of Palpatine done by the author in 2004, and was generously arranged by Mr Jamie Holm. |
