 Name: Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine (Darth Sidious)
Homeworld: Naboo
Born: 84 BBY (Approximate date), Naboo
Died: 4 ABY, Death Star II, Endor system (later resuscitated) 35 ABY, Exegol
Species: Human (Naboo)
Gender: Male
Height: 1.73/1.78 meters
Mass: 75 kilograms
Hair color: Red, later white
Eye color: Blue, yellow, (dark side) white
Skin color: Light, later pale
DEXTERITY 2D+1
Dodge 7D
KNOWLEDGE 4D+1
Alien species 10D
Bureaucracy: Empire 12D
Cultures 9D
Intimidation 13D
Languages 8D
Law Enforcement: Empire 6D
Military History 10D+2
Planetary Systems 7D
Scholar: Archaic Library Systems 8D
Scholar: Arcane Technologies 7D
Scholar: Clone Vat Systems 7D+2
Scholar: Dark side Lore 11D
Scholar: Jedi Lore 12D+1
Scholar: Lightsaber Histories 12D
Tactics: Fleets 10D
Tactics: Ground Assault 5D
Willpower 12D+1
MECHANICAL 2D
PERCEPTION 4D+1
Bargain 10D
Command 10D
Command: Imperial forces 12D+1
Con 8D
Hide 5D+2
Investigation 7D
Persuasion 11D
Persuasion: oration 13D+2
Search 7D
STRENGTH 3D
Stamina 6D
TECHNICAL 2D
Lightsaber Repair 8D
Special Abilities:
Force Skills: Control 13D, sense l5D, alter 14D
Force Powers (these are the known powers Palpatine possessed and it is believed that he had access to many other powers):
Control: Absorb/dissipate energy, accelerate healing, concentrate, control pain, detoxify poison, enhance attribute, hibernation trance, rage, reduce injury, remain conscious, resist stun, short-term memory enhancement
Sense: Combat sense, danger sense, instinctive astrogation, life detection, life sense, magnify senses, receptive telepathy, sense Force
Alter: Injure/kill, telekinesis
Control and Sense: Farseeing, Lightsaber Combat, Projective Telepathy
Control and Alter: Accelerate Another's Healing, Control Another's Pain, Feed on Dark Side, Force Lightning, Inflict Pain, Return Another to Consciousness, Transfer Force
Control, Sense and Alter: Affect Mind, Control Mind, Doppelganger, Drain Life Essence, Enhanced Coordination, Telekinetic Kill, Transfer Life
Sense and Alter: Dim Other's Senses
Force Sensitive: Y
Force Points: 35
Dark Side Points: 43
Character Points: 60
Move: 10
Description: Darth Sidious, a Force-sensitive human male, was the Dark Lord of the Sith and Galactic Emperor who ruled the galaxy from the fall of the Galactic Republic to the fragmentation of the Galactic Empire. Rising to power in the Galactic Senate as Senator Sheev Palpatine, he was elected to the office of Supreme Chancellor and, during the Clone Wars, accumulated wartime powers in the name of security. As the Emperor, he dropped the facade, no longer needing to cultivate two identities, and henceforth ruled as Darth Sidious in thought and action though he was known as Emperor Palpatine. His machinations brought an end to the last era of peace in galactic history, replaced a millennium of democracy with New Order fascism, and restored the Sith to power through the destruction of the Jedi Order.
A native of the Mid Rim planet Naboo, Sheev Palpatine was born around 84 BBY during the last century of the Galactic Republic. Inherently gifted with the Force, he became Darth Sidious during his apprenticeship under Darth Plagueis. But the Rule of Two dictated that only two Sith Lords could exist at any given time; therefore Sidious killed his Sith Master and took Darth Maul as his first disciple in the dark side of the Force. As Palpatine, he cultivated a political career on the Core World Coruscant, serving as his homeworld's representative in the galactic capital. Driven by a desire for greater power, Sidious manipulated the Trade Federation into a dispute with the Royal House of Naboo, resulting in a chain of events that led to his election as Supreme Chancellor in 32 BBY. Taking Darth Tyranus as his new apprentice, Sidious spent a decade fomenting political unrest until entire star systems seceded from the Republic to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The ensuing Clone Wars commenced in 22 BBY, spreading conflict across the galaxy and strengthening Chancellor Palpatine's control of the government and military. When the Jedi moved to arrest him, having learned of his true identity, Sidious commanded the clone troopers to execute Order 66, turning the entire Grand Army of the Republic against its Jedi Generals. Shortly afterward, the Republic was officially reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, with Sidious becoming the self-proclaimed Emperor in 19 BBY.
The Emperor ruled the galaxy for a generation with Darth Vader as his last apprentice. His reign remained relatively unchallenged until the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic which, in turn, began the Galactic Civil War in 0 BBY. After the Death Star was destroyed, the Emperor sensed a disturbance in the Force and foresaw Luke Skywalker's potential to destroy him. During the construction of a new Death Star, the Emperor manipulated Skywalker into a confrontation with Vader, believing the Jedi aspirant could be turned like his father before him. However, the Emperor was confounded by Skywalker's refusal to join the Sith, causing Sidious to torture the young Jedi Knight with Force lightning. Affected by his son's compassion, Vader sacrificed his life by destroying the Emperor, and thus fulfilled his destiny as the Chosen One in 4 ABY.
While Sidious had been defeated, the Empire would attempt to maintain the charade of his survival, while struggling to fill the void left by his absence. But Sidious had never intended to be replaced. Prior to his demise, he created the Contingency to seemingly destroy the Empire in the event of his death, propagating the idea that Sidious believed the Empire did not deserve to survive without its Emperor. As a consequence, the Imperial remnants were further weakened and less able to resist the New Republic during the waning days of the Galactic Civil War. Ultimately, the Empire capitulated the war after the Battle of Jakku in 5 ABY, ending the era founded by Darth Sidious. In the following years after his demise, Sidious' legacy took the shape of what ultimately became the First Order, a hermit state which seized control of the galaxy upon destroying the New Republic and led by Supreme Leader Snoke, who was also a practitioner of the dark side of the Force created by Sidious using Sith science. The reign of Snoke would untimely end with his death at the hands of Kylo Ren, his own apprentice and Skywalker's grandson, who succeeded his master as the new Supreme Leader during the war against the Resistance, desiring to let the past die along with the Jedi and the Sith.
Unknown to the galaxy, however, Sidious resurfaced from the dead through mysterious means after his death over Endor. Settling himself on the Sith world of Exegol, Sidious organized a fleet with which he could reclaim his power and formed the Final Order, promising to decimate any world that refused to acquiesce to his rule. Upon becoming aware of the phantom emperor's return, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren tracked him down, leading Sidious to reveal himself as the true mastermind behind Snoke, before asking him to bring the Jedi scavenger Rey, his secret granddaughter whom he wanted to manipulate into becoming a Sith. When Rey refused to succumb to the dark side and Kylo redeemed himself as Ben Solo, Sidious attempted to eradicate them both, though Rey ultimately called upon the strength of the Jedi of the past, and destroyed Darth Sidious.
Personality and traits
Prior to the creation of his Empire, Palpatine was careful to put on a charade, presenting himself as a grandfatherly gentleman and a servant of the public good. When in character, he often spoke of himself with great modesty and maintained only as much luxury as was expected of someone of his stature. However, Palpatine was, in fact, a skilled manipulator and strategist, having orchestrated countless events in the galaxy, from the Invasion of Naboo to the Clone Wars, with the sole aim of increasing his own power. Even when something occurred that he did not initially plan for, the Sith Lord demonstrated that he was as adept at improvisation as he was at plotting.
After his ascension to Galactic Emperor, Palpatine essentially dropped his public persona and started living as Sidious full-time. Despite this, however, very few people other than Vader and some of the Royal Guards knew that Palpatine was a Sith, as he took great pains to hide his capabilities. Even Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, perhaps Sidious's most trusted servant besides Vader, only suspected that Sidious was a Sith. Freed from having to portray his gentle alter-ego, Palpatine allowed his true personality, one of great cruelty and sadism, to occasionally shine through in ways that were obvious even to the most sycophantic of his servants. This caused many of those who worked closely with him, such as Senator Orn Free Taa and some of the Empire's intelligence chiefs, to greatly fear him. Palpatine was also known to loath ostentation and luxury.
Palpatine's most defining trait was his deeply manipulative nature, seducing many parties with promises of power, prize, even salvation to further his agenda. He successfully manipulated the leaders of the Separatists and Count Dooku under the pretense of a better future, coerced Anakin Skywalker into becoming Darth Vader by promising to save his beloved, Padmé Amidala, attempted to sweet talk Bridger with being able to reunite with his deceased parents by altering fate and also tried to push Luke Skywalker into murdering his father so they could rule the galaxy together. While trying to steer Bridger he displayed himself in his public personality via hologram, showing himself as benign and polite. Once Bridger frustrated his plans, his true malignant self was revealed as he had underestimated the boy's hatred for the Empire and devotion to the Rebellion and new-found rebel family. Likewise, when Palpatine tried to motivate Luke into killing his father upon momentarily embracing the dark side of the Force, the young Skywalker desisted due to his love to his father and Jedi teachings, which led Sidious to turn on him before Vader stopped him from harming his son.
Palpatine was known for being hypocritical and arrogant; whilst he told Yoda that his arrogance had blinded him when the Jedi Master confronted him, he had previously declared himself to be the Senate when Windu tried to arrest him. Even shortly before his second death years later, Palpatine declared himself to be all the Sith while trying to finish off with his Jedi granddaughter.
After toppling the Republic and shedding his benevolent persona, Sidious essentially disappeared from public life and left most of the day-to-day affairs of the Empire in the hands of the Imperial Ruling Council. His absence did not go unnoticed by the citizenry of the Empire, and rumors began to circulate that the Jedi assassination attempt had not only resulted in his disfigurement but in the death of the sanguine politician that he had once been. In order to quash the gossip and rumor-mongering, the Ruling Council took to dispatching skycar processions in Imperial Center in an effort to make it appear as though Sidious still moved about in public.
As Emperor, Sidious devoted most of his time to study and meditation, often in the ancient Sith shrine situated beneath the Imperial Palace. Wishing to rule his Empire for eternity, Sidious launched numerous inquiries into the topic of immortality. One of the most notorious of these was Project Blackwing; an attempt to unlock the secrets of immortality through Sith alchemy, but the project ended in failure. However, Sidious's true goal was ultimately to discover a way to use the dark side to manipulate reality itself, and with that power, not only achieve what he termed "mere immortality" but acquire the ability to reshape the galaxy and its people to his satisfaction. Whether or not Palpatine made any significant progress in obtaining this goal is not known however, as he would have needed Vader's assistance to perform the sorts of rituals he had in mind. During the Imperial Era, Darth Sidious sought to gain access to the World between Worlds in order to control time as well as the universe. Following his first death, Sidious still sought ways to achieve immortality and the preservation of the Sith, attempting to perform a ritual on his granddaughter Rey to transfer his spirit into her body to continue the Sith's legacy.
To those who had been at his nonexistent mercy, Sidious was known to be exceptionally sadistic, and he often took visible pleasure in torturing others. He was similarly quite bloodthirsty as well, and frequently reveled in combat to the point of laughing while he fought or killed. He was also noted for his lack of forgiveness. Darth Vader, who was well known for summarily executing officers who failed him, considered Palpatine to be even less clement than himself. According to Sosha Soruna, the reason Palpatine left his homeworld of Naboo relatively untouched during his reign was because he enjoyed tormenting the populace with the fact that he could destroy the serene beauty of the planet at anytime. In spite of his exceptional mastery of the dark arts, he was no less susceptible to fear, one of the primary emotions of the dark side, than any other Sith: after being attacked by a powerful Force push from Yoda, he displayed visible panic, attempting to flee rather than fight, and only confronted his opponent when he appeared to have no other choice. Despite this, his passion to inflict pain on others and his hate were a priority to him over his own well-being: while he could have used his own powers to save himself from Darth Vader during the Battle of Endor, Sidious' hate was so strong that his only thought was to harm Vader as his apprentice carried him to his first death.
Unlike Darth Vader, his more conservative apprentice, Sidious believed that progress was in no way contrary to the ways of the Sith. When Vader was presented to the cyborgs created by Doctor Cylo, he denounced them as abominations and heresy to the ways of the Force. However, Sidious claimed that he was merely an apprentice and was meant to learn what he knew and that Sidious was meant to discover what there was to teach. He also dismissed Vader's hatred of technological superiority by replying that everything was of the Force.
Due to his Sith philosophy, Sidious was seemingly unwilling to let anyone else inherit the Galactic Empire in the event of his death. Using a game of Shah-tezh as an illustration, Palpatine seemed to believe that the Empire's sole purpose for existence was to protect his own life and well-being. He believed that the Empire was a failure if it failed to live up to this purpose. Even before the formation of the Empire, Sidious had prepared for this fate by formulating a Contingency plan. The Contingency involved luring the Empire to the barren Inner Rim planet Jakku and detonating the planet's core; destroying both the planet and the orbiting Imperial and enemy fleets. The key to the Contingency was the Jakku Observatory (which concealed a borehole that penetrated the planet's core) and Gallius Rax, a native of Jakku who rose to become Counselor to the Empire. As the Contingency showed, Sidious seemed to be willing to risk the lives of countless subjects to prevent the Empire from outliving him, showing his extreme pettiness. Sidious also regarded Rax as a confidante and allowed him to address him as Sheev Palpatine. Decades after his death, however, Supreme Leader Snoke, a Force-sensitive humanoid male whom Sidious had created, had taken control of the First Order, an organization built out of the remnants of the Galactic Empire, had by then discovered that Palpatine's Contingency, as a matter of fact, involved ensuring the Empire's rebirth, going as far as secretly constructing shipyards and laboratories within the Unknown Regions in pursuit of this goal. While it is unclear if Snoke was self-aware or controlled by Sidious the whole time, it can be assumed that as part of his Contingency, Sidious created Snoke as a vessel and puppet to re-build his Empire due to his philosophical beliefs that if the Empire failed to protect him, then the Empire was to be deemed a failure.
Following his demise on Endor and resurrection, in spite of his physical frailness, Sidious' mind was more sharper than ever before. Upon realizing that the Jakku scavenger Rey was his granddaughter, Sidious manipulated Kylo Ren into bringing the young woman to him in order to make her a Sith like him and train her to succeed him in a desperate attempt to bring back the Sith. While he tried to sway Rey to his side by claiming that he cared for her, Rey easily deduced that he didn't care for her since he even ordered the assassination of her parents in spite of the fact that her father was his own son for protecting her from him, as Sidious feared that she would turn out more powerful than him. When it became clear that Rey would not become a Sith, Sidious unleashed his fury on her and tried to kill her and a redeemed Ben Solo by absorbing their life energy as well as the entire Resistance, effectively demonstrating that even after experiencing death, Sidious' beliefs and way of being remained largely unchanged and he still just cared for himself and the future of the Sith to the point of harming his own family, traits which eventually led to Sidious' second death at the hands of his own granddaughter and all the great Jedi of the past.
Prior to his disfigurement, Palpatine was a slim man sporting wavy hair, a prominent nose, blue eyes, and a narrow face. By 32 BBY, his red hair was graying, and it had turned entirely silver ten years later. After his duel with Windu, Palpatine's visage was heavily disfigured and withered, with deathly pale, wrinkled skin, flesh sagging from his bulging forehead and around his piercing yellow eyes. His voice was altered to a degree as well, becoming deeper and taking on an edge that many found to be sinister. Tarkin, however, was of the opinion that Palpatine's voice merely sounded strained when compared to that of his pre-war persona. For most of his reign, the Emperor remained away from public view and crafted holograms or idealized portraiture that depicted him in his prime, as he was in the last years of the Galactic Republic. Even so, as the reign of the Empire solidified, the citizenry of the galaxy largely forgot the name of "Palpatine", and the man was known simply as "the Emperor". When he was discovered on Exegol, Palpatine appeared to be in a putrid and decaying state. His skin was more pallid than it was when he was last seen alive, his eyes were white, his lips were blackened, his face lacked some of the wrinkling from his disfigurement and his fingers had begun to rot away. Upon draining Rey and Ben Solo of their life energy to restore his own, his appearance changed back to that he had prior to his first death.
Power and abilities
Force powers
As the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith in his time, Palpatine was incredibly powerful in the Force, with extreme levels of mastery over the powers of the Dark Side. He was extremely skilled in Force lightning, and was known to use this power both as a deadly attack, and as a means of torture. On several occasions on Ryloth, he utilized blasts of Force lightning powerful enough to not have only killed the lyleks on contact, but also badly charred and scorched their carapaces, which were tough enough to repel heavy blaster fire. On another occasion, he used the ability to damage a Twi'lek freighter's engines badly enough to pull it out of the sky with telekinesis. Sidious could use Force lightning in a number of ways, including striking multiple enemies at once, with the bolts jumping from one victim to the other, like a chain and imbuing the ground around a victim's feet with energy, effectively electrocuting them. His Force lightning's raw power was demonstrated to be far greater than that of Dooku's; while Yoda was able to effortlessly absorb and deflect Dooku's lightning, he was only able to partially deflect Sidious's. Another more obscure ability that he possessed was the power to produce a dark aura, a miniature storm of malevolent Force energy that slowed the movement of and tortured all that it caught within its radius. The maximum potential of Sidious' Force lightning, however, was achieved before his final death on Exegol; when restored back to his former self, Sidious unleashed an immense wave of Force lightning towards the sky which rapidly expanded enough to disable all the ships of the Resistance.
He was also highly skilled with telekinesis; during his duel with Yoda, he levitated several Senate pods simultaneously, including the one he was standing on, with great dexterity and accuracy. Likewise, he was skilled enough with telekinesis that he was also able to remove Luke Skywalker's handcuffs while barely lifting his finger when they met face to face on the second Death Star. Sidious was capable of unleashing a Force push strong enough to easily send Maul and Opress flying and he was able to keep them pinned with little effort. He later effortlessly slammed Maul into the ground and walls, badly wounding him. Sidious was also highly skilled with Force choke. When he arrived on Mandalore, he was effortlessly able to telekinetically throttle two Mandalorians to death at once and used this power on two others while standing on the other side of the room that they were in. He was even able to use his abilities on a target from hundreds of light years away, using only a holo-transmission to show him his target, allowing him to telekinetically choke and pick up Count Dooku and open the handcuffs of Bridger while projecting himself to their respective locations through the use of a hologram.
Darth Sidious was exceptionally adept at foreseeing the future, an ability which allowed him to plan for nearly any contingency. He believed that, with enough time and practice, he would eventually have been able to use the dark side to view the future with infallible accuracy. The Dark Lord also was proficient in Sith magic, as he was able to cast a Dark illusion on Yoda using a ritual that applied Balc speech incantations and managed to access the World between Worlds using an unknown ritual. He was also capable of using Sith magic to generate a blue fiery energy, which he used to attack Ezra and Ahsoka, that he can use both as a weapon and a tool in order to bind and draw someone closer, as it did with Ezra; the energy wrapping around his leg and becoming akin to a tangible rope as well as knowledge of the ancient Sith tongue. The Dark Lord was also adept in the use of Force Persuade to such an extent that he was able to take complete control of a subject's mind and force them to obey his commands.
Likewise, Sidious was also capable of using Dark Absorption He was also capable of telepathically communicating with Darth Vader over a distance of hundreds of light-years. It appeared however as though this ability may have been limited to sending and receiving relatively simple messages such as Vader requesting that a starfighter be shipped to him, as the two Sith Lords communicated through holoprojections while discussing more complex matters. Palpatine also had a remarkably keen ability to sense the thoughts and feelings of others, including those of incredibly powerful Force adepts such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. On a related note, he was also capable of hiding his own thoughts and feelings from even such individuals as Yoda, and managed to conceal his true dark nature from the entire Jedi Council for decades before deliberately revealing himself. Sidious also used Force Dash. He even created the extremely powerful Force-wielder Snoke, who far surpassed Kylo Ren and Rey. He was able to easily overpower both Ben Solo and Rey, as shown by how he deactivated their lightsabers and disarmed them using the Force, then later easily telekinetically picked up the former and threw him into the pit behind him. Palpatine also demonstrated the ability to drain life essence or the Force from his victims as he did wih Rey and Ben Solo in the confrontation on Exegol.
Lightsaber skills
Despite his frail appearance, Darth Sidious was immensely skilled in lightsaber combat, to the point of being one of the greatest duelists of all time. Having fully mastered every single form of lightsaber combat, Sidious was one of the very few who could go head to head with both Yoda and Mace Windu. As a result of his tremendous skill, he effortlessly killed Agen Kolar and Saesee Tiin—who were considered to be two of the finest lightsaber duelists of their time—each with a single blow, and while also engaged with Mace Windu, he slew the formidable Nautolan Kit Fisto only moments later. He then fought Windu on equal grounds for an extended period of time and even briefly had the upper hand, although he was ultimately disarmed by a kick to the face which caused him to drop his lightsaber. Later on, Sidious was able to duel almost evenly against Yoda in a lightsaber duel, but in the end, he had to use his Force powers to force Yoda to retreat. Sidious had an extremely aggressive dueling style and augmented his swordplay by using Force-enhanced speed, which allowed him to kill three experienced Jedi Masters at once within seconds. When fighting at his full power, the Sith Lord was an utterly terrifying opponent, able to overwhelm even the most experienced and skilled duellists. His style was a combination of brutal aggression, extreme speed, and lethal precision making him an almost unstoppable opponent. In fact, the only person known to have defeated him in a duel was Mace Windu.
Although Sidious usually used only one lightsaber, he was also exceptionally skillful in Jar'Kai, wielding both of his lightsabers against Darth Maul and Savage Opress. Utilizing a violently ferocious yet extremely fluid fighting style, Sidious easily held off the two brothers on equal grounds and ultimately separated them, stunning Maul for a brief time with the Force before swiftly toying with and killing Opress. While Sidious showed some difficulty against his former apprentice, who put up a far more ferocious fight than Opress (due to the latter's death and Sidious's subsequent taunts to him about him being replaced by Count Dooku) and appeared to match him with every blow, parry, and kick, the Dark Lord eventually used all of his superior strength in the Force to disarm and bring Maul to his knees in roughly only a minute. He was also skilled in blaster deflection, able to easily deflect every single blaster shot aimed at him when he fought on Ryloth.
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