The Emperor

Palpatine was born on Naboo and secretly became the Sith apprentice of Darth Plagueis. Under the name Darth Sidious he devoted himself to completing the Sith plan to destroy the Jedi and seize control of the Republic. He entered public life as a senator from Naboo while training Darth Maul as his own apprentice. Sidious engineered the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo and used the resulting political crisis to remove Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum. He succeeded Valorum as Chancellor while concealing his Sith identity from the Jedi and nearly the entire galaxy.

Sidious later took Count Dooku as Darth Tyranus and secretly controlled the Separatist movement through him. He manipulated both sides of the Clone Wars while the Senate granted his public identity increasing emergency authority. The conflict weakened the Jedi and placed a massive military directly under his command. Near the end of the war he revealed himself to Anakin Skywalker and turned him against the Jedi as Darth Vader. Sidious ordered the destruction of the Jedi Order and transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire with himself as Emperor. Vader became his Sith apprentice and chief enforcer while surviving Jedi were hunted throughout the galaxy.

The Emperor ruled through military power and fear while gradually eliminating institutions that might challenge his authority. Grand Moffs governed enormous territories and figures such as Wilhuff Tarkin enforced Imperial control through overwhelming force. Palpatine authorized the Death Star as the ultimate expression of this policy. He dissolved the Imperial Senate shortly before the station destroyed Alderaan. The Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star at Yavin and delivered the first major military defeat of his reign. Palpatine soon became aware of Luke Skywalker and recognized his growing power in the Force. He directed Vader to pursue the young man while considering Luke as a potential new Sith apprentice. Meanwhile the Empire began constructing a second Death Star as the Emperor prepared to destroy the rebellion and secure his rule.

Appearance: The Emperor has corpse-pale gray skin and a thin elderly build concealed beneath heavy robes. His eyes are yellow-orange with dark pupils. His bald head and exposed face are deeply wrinkled with sunken cheeks and pronounced folds running across his brow and around his mouth. His hands are similarly pale with long thin fingers and darkened nails.

He wears a voluminous black hooded robe made from coarse textured fabric. The oversized hood hangs low around his head and frames the exposed face with thick folded edges. The robe has extremely wide sleeves that drape heavily from his arms and a small dark clasp fixed at the upper chest.

The black garment falls in uninterrupted folds from his shoulders nearly to the floor and completely conceals his torso and legs. The lower hem pools slightly around his feet. He wears black boots.

Personality: Palpatine is extraordinarily patient and manipulative. He prefers to control opponents before they understand that a conflict has begun and can spend years cultivating fears or ambitions that he later exploits. His public manner can appear calm and grandfatherly while concealing complete contempt for those around him. Power is his central concern. Allies remain valuable only while they serve his designs and he readily sacrifices subordinates once another option becomes more useful. His confidence comes from decades of successfully directing political and military events from behind several layers of deception.

Darth Vader is Palpatine’s apprentice and most important servant under the Empire. Palpatine deliberately nurtures Vader’s anger and dependence while ensuring that he never becomes secure enough to threaten his master without consequence. His earlier apprentices Maul and Tyranus were treated with the same underlying calculation and were discarded once their usefulness ended. Palpatine maintains Imperial officials such as Mas Amedda and Tarkin according to their effectiveness rather than personal affection. Luke Skywalker interests him because the young Jedi possesses exceptional potential and could eventually replace Vader if he can be turned to the dark side.

The Emperor is one of the most powerful Sith Lords in galactic history. He possesses exceptional command of telekinesis and telepathy with the ability to influence minds and perceive events through the Force. His foresight allows him to anticipate possible futures and incorporate them into long-term plans. Sidious is especially feared for Force lightning which he can unleash with enough intensity to torture or kill powerful opponents. His knowledge extends deep into Sith ritual and forbidden techniques developed through decades of study under Darth Plagueis and through his own investigations into the dark side.

Sidious is also an exceptionally dangerous lightsaber duelist despite rarely needing to fight personally. He possesses two ornate crimson lightsabers constructed with phrik and electrum. He has fought multiple Jedi Masters at close range and battled Yoda directly after the fall of the Jedi Order. His physical age does little to reveal his actual combat capability since he can enhance his movements through the Force and attack with sudden speed. As Emperor he normally leaves conventional warfare to Vader and the Imperial military while relying upon the dark side and his own hidden weapons when direct intervention becomes necessary.