The Emperor

Son of the Naboo noble Cosinga, Palpatine grew up to be cruel and filled with rage. His opposition of his father gained him the attention of Darth Plagueis - under the guise of Magister Hego Demask of Demask Holdings. Cosinga learned of his son's relationship with Demask and decided to send Palpatine away somewhere he could no longer contact Demask. However, Palpatine destroyed his entire family and their guards using nothing but the Force. Once this was done, he contacted Plagueis and was apprenticed to him.

In the following years, Palpatine grew in power and learned many secrets from Darth Plagueis in the Dark Side of the Force. The two were often experimenting with the Dark Side, and one of their experiments lead to the Force to be tilted out of balance. In response, the Force created Anakin Skywalker, also known as the Chosen One. Upon receiving the power and ability to do so, Palpatine killed his master Plagueis in his sleep, following the Rule of Two Sith tradition that the apprentice surpasses the master.

Following this, under the guise of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, he creates a clone army with help from his apprentice Count Dooku and coordinated the events behind the Clone Wars in an attempt to weaken the Jedi before destroying them, and turn the now prodigal Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker to the dark side. Palpatine's plan succeeded, and after a ferocious duel with Mace Windu, he manages to kill the Jedi Master with Anakin's help and makes Skywalker his apprentice, renaming him Darth Vader.

After this, he executes Order 66, a command that was implanted in the head of every clone that ordered them to execute the Jedi for treason to the Republic. As a result, most of the Jedi scattered across the galaxy were killed and Palpatine, framing the Jedi for attempting to assassinate him, turned the Republic into the first Galactic Empire with himself as the Emperor. Soon after, Palpatine was confronted by Grand Master Yoda, and the two fought to a stalemate in the empty Senate Chamber, with Yoda escaping having failed his mission. However, Vader was severely injured in a concurrent battle with his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi, with several of his limbs being amputated. This prevented Vader from reaching his full potential and becoming the ultimate Sith Palpatine had foreseen.

After creating the Empire, Palpatine located himself on the Imperial Capital of Coruscant. As Emperor, Sidious effectively wielded absolute control over the entire galaxy and virtually everyone who lived within it. During his tenure, he built one of the most powerful military forces the galaxy had ever seen and ruled unopposed for nearly two decades. Although Sidious suffered a near-death experience when he was infected by a deadly virus in a plot orchestrated by Headmaster Gentis who saw that Emperor Palpatine was needlessly wasting the lives of young Imperial officers. He orchestrated a coup, seeking to gain control of the Empire in order to end such warmongering. The coup failed and Gentis was killed by Sidious. Sidious progressively abandoned his facade of being an enlightened leader and began to rule through terror symbolized by the Death Star, a superweapon that could annihilate entire planets. However, he later discovered that Vader was training Galen Marek, an exceptionally powerful Force adept as a secret apprentice "Starkiller." When Sidious discovered Starkiller's existence in 3 BBY, he ordered Vader to fake Starkiller's death and then request that Starkiller assemble the most influential traitors in the Empire in a rebellion in order to highlight and destroy them all. Sidious's plan backfired when Starkiller, healed from his near-fatal injuries and espousing the teachings of the light side, vowed revenge against Sidious and confronted him on the Death Star, ultimately sacrificing himself in an act that inspired the dissident senators to create the Alliance to Restore the Republic. As the Galactic Civil War broke out, Emperor Palpatine ironically fought against a rebellion that he started in secret. After the Empire suffered a devastating defeat in 0 BBY, in which the Alliance destroyed the Death Star, the Emperor steadily began to lose his absolute control over the galaxy.

Through his own nature, Palpatine, alias Darth Sidious, seemed to be evil incarnate. He insistently made clear to Anakin Skywalker, however, that he did not believe himself to be evil, but simply beyond common morality, calling evil "a label we all put on those who threaten us." Aside from his opinion on morality, he believed himself to be the embodiment of darkness and the living incarnation of the dark side of the Force, and, after the death of his body, he saw himself as pure energy, or simply the dark side itself. After Mace Windu's attack on him, he created a new image of himself, that of a pitiful victim of a random act of violence. He had been left after the attack with the appearance of a gnarled, ancient man with pale skin, and searing, sickly yellow eyes. He wore a heavy dark cloak, which gave him the appearance of being a simple individual to hide his Force abilities, and carried a glossy black cane, leaning heavily on it to create an illusion of weakness.

His acts as a loving politician and later a helpless victim served only to bolster his true persona, that of Sidious. The Dark Lord was a highly manipulative, Machiavellian, exploitative and seductive megalomaniac, easily bending others to his will in his quest for Sith supremacy and ultimate power. As a megalomaniac and egotist, Sidious identified his own essence with the very blackness of space, even going so far as to declare himself the ultimate personification of the dark side. His desire for absolute power was such that he even had Extra-galactic aims regarding his rule, seeking to dominate the entire universe.

In addition to his lightsaber combat skills, Darth Sidious was one of the most powerful Force users of all time, perceived in the Force by his apprentice, Darth Tyranus, as a "black hole of the dark side." Sidious' mastery of the Force was so immense, having spent decades immersing himself in the many facets of the Force and researching it, which reportedly granted him full mastery over almost all known Force powers and he also managed to discover and master previously unknown techniques, allowing him to create new powers almost at whim, because of this, even he at times wondered if the Force had been so strong in anyone before him, feeling a monster rising from the core of himself, impatient to unleash itself.

Sidious was incredibly skilled in Force lightning and was known to use this both as a lethal attack, and as a way of torturing his enemies. Palpatine had two red Sith lightsabers fashioned from nigh-indestructible phrik alloy while the flat emitter was composed of aurodium. He ultimately viewed his own lightsabers as little more than an affectation, and rarely wielded them in combat.