Galaxy's Most Powerful Sith Lords: Part Four

Darth Sidious

    The man who would become Darth Sidious was born to an influential family on the planet Naboo as Sheev Palpatine. Not much is known about his early life. It is known that he was eventually found by the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis and became his apprentice. Together, they discovered how to create life with midi-chlorians, as well as how to transfer their consciousness into other bodies. Palpatine followed a career in politics, and soon became Naboo's senator. As Darth Sidious, he took it upon himself to create a new Sith Empire and destroy the Jedi Order. Sidious traveled to the planet Dathomir and took an infant Zabrak to be his apprentice. However, this broke the Rule of Two, which stated that there can only be two Sith Lords at a time. To keep this law, Sidious betrayed his master, murdering him in his sleep. He trained the Zabrak in the ways of the Dark Side and named him Darth Maul. He trained Maul to be a very powerful warrior. Sidious also influenced very powerful beings and put them under his control, including Nute Gunray, viceroy of the Trade Federation, and Finis Valorum, Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Under Sidious's control, Gunray blockaded Naboo in protest of high taxes. In response, Valorum secretly sent two Jedi as ambassadors: Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi. When he learned of this, Sidious ordered the invasion of Naboo and the execution of the Jedi. the Trade Federation's droid army took the planet's capital within a day, but the Jedi managed to escape to the planet below. The Jedi rescued Queen Padmé Amidala and escaped the planet with her. Sidious was furious at this, and he sent Darth Maul to kill them. Maul tracked the Jedi to Tatooine, but was unable to catch them before they departed to Coruscant. On Coruscant, Palpatine convinced Amidala that Valorum was a weak leader, and she moved for his impeachment. Palpatine then learned that the Queen would leave for Naboo, taking Jinn and Kenobi with her. He tasked Maul with killing the Queen and Jedi. The Queen formed an alliance with a species on Naboo called the Gungans, and Sidious ordered Gunray to destroy them. However, both of Sidious's subordinates failed. Gunray was captured by the Queen, his flagship was destroyed, and Maul was defeated by Kenobi. However, Palpatine was elected Supreme Chancellor, and he took an interest in Anakin Skywalker, the young pilot who destroyed Gunray's ship. Sidious began a master plan in the decade that followed. Anakin was trained as a Jedi, and Sidious took on a new apprentice: Count Dooku, who would be known as Darth Tyranus. The two Sith also began production of a clone army on Kamino. Palpatine also became a mentor to Skywalker, grooming him to be a future Sith. Meanwhile, the galaxy was falling apart. Under Sidious's direction, Dooku rallied thousands of planets into declaring independence from the Republic. These planes became known a the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and they were backed by Nute Gunray and the Trade Federation. It became known that the CIS (better known as the Separatists) were building a large army, and war seemed imminent. In light of this, Palpatine was given emergency powers to deal with the crisis. His first act was to use the clone army against the Separatists, resulting in the Battle of Geonosis. This began what was called the Clone Wars. This war saw the Jedi leading the clones as generals. The Separatist's droid army was led by a ruthless cyborg named General Grievous. Controlling both sides of the conflict, Sidious made the war drag on with no end in sight. The Senate gave Palpatine more power in order to end the conflict. Near the end of the war, things happened outside of Palpatine's control. Darth Maul, who had been thought dead, came out of hiding and allied with his brother, Savage Oppress. The two of them were able to take over the planet Mandalore with the hopes of creating a criminal empire. Sidious sensed Maul's growing power, and set out to put a stop to it. He traveled to Mandalore, killed Opress, and tortured Maul. Later, Dooku and the Separatists launched an attack on Coruscant, which saw Palpatine kidnapped by General Grievous. The Jedi Kenobi and Skywalker sought to rescue him, but they were confronted by Count Dooku. In the ensuing battle, Kenobi was knocked unconscious and Dooku was at Anakin's mercy. With Palpatine's encouragement, Anakin murdered Dooku in his anger. With Darth Tyrannus dead, Palpatine worked to turn Skywalker to the dark side. Palpatine took advantage of Anakin's fears and anger. He convinced Anakin that the dark side could save his wife, Padmé, whom Anakin feared would die in childbirth. The Jedi soon learned of Palpatine's affiliations with the Sith, and moved to kill him. Anakin felt that he needed Palpatine's teachings and betrayed the Jedi to save him. With this, Anakin's fall to the dark side was complete, and Sidious anointed him Darth Vader. With this done, Sidious brought an end to the war. He ordered Vader to march on the Jedi Temple and kill all of the Jedi there. Palpatine then activated Order 66. This caused all of the Jedi to turn on their Jedi generals, killing them mercilessly. As this was happening, Palpatine went before the Senate. He declared that the war had ended and that the Jedi were traitors. He motioned to reorganize the Republic into a Galactic Empire, with himself as emperor. The Senate, eager for peace, responded with thunderous applause. When Vader had finished with the Temple, Sidious ordered him to fly to Mustafar, kill the Separatist leaders and shut down the droid army. He did so, but things went out of accordance with his plan. Yoda, the Jedi Grand Master, attacked Sidious in his chambers while Obi-Wan Kenobi went to Mustafar to confront Vader. Sidious defeated Yoda, but had to rescue Vader on Mustafar. Vader had lost an arm and both of his legs, has well has suffering from serious burns. Palpatine took him to Coruscant, gave Vader cybernetic limbs, and gave him a life support suit. Vader asked Sidious if Padmé was still alive, and he responded by saying that he killed her. In the decades to follow, Sidious did much with his reign. He began the Contingency, which would take place in the event of his death. he also ordered the construction of the Death Star, a space station that had the power to destroy planets. However, there would be a new threat to his reign in the Rebel Alliance. The Rebellion was made up of surviving Jedi and treasonous Senators. One man who sympathized with the rebels was Galen Erso, an engineer who designed the Death Star. He planted a small but fatal weakness into the station, and told the rebels about it. The rebels then attacked an Imperial base on the planet Scarif, and stole the Death Star's plans. As this was happening, Palpatine dissolved the Imperial Senate, as he felt the the Death Star would be enough to keep the galaxy in line. He put Grand Moff Tarkin in charge of the Death Star, and tasked him with ending the Rebel Alliance. Tarkin tracked the rebels to a hidden base on Yavin IV and prepared to destroy the moon. But before he could do so, several rebel ships exploited the station's weakness and destroyed it, killing Tarkin and everyone on board. This Battle of Yavin marked the beginning of the Galactic Civil War. Without the Death Star or the Senate, Palpatine had almost no way of maintaining order in the galaxy. And even worse, he had sensed that the pilot who destroyed the Death Star, Luke Skywalker, was Anakin Skywalker's son, and he was very strong in the Force. He ordered Vader to either bring Luke to the Emperor or kill him. However, Luke had been trained as a Jedi by both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, so Vader's quest failed. At this time, Palpatine had a plan to end the Galactic Civil War. He had been building another Death Star over the forest moon of Endor. He went to Endor in the hopes of luring the Rebel Alliance into a trap there. As preparation for the attack, a rebel strike team landed on Endor to lower the station's defenses. Sidious sensed that Luke Skywalker was leading the mission, so he sent Vader to bring him aboard the station. The rebel fleet attacked the unfinished Death Star, but discovered that the Station's superlaser was operational. A large Imperial fleet cut off the rebels' escape route, and the Death Star, protected by a shield generator, began firing on the rebel fleet. In his throne room on the Death Star, Sidious tried to force Skywalker to give into his anger. Luke began to relent, and he cut off Vader's hand. Sidious instructed Luke to kill his father, but Luke calmed down and threw his weapon away, saying that he was a Jedi. When the Emperor realized that Luke would not turn to the dark side, he attacked him with Force lightning. Seeing that his son was dying, Vader betrayed the Emperor and threw him down a reactor shaft. This killed both of the Sith, and the rebels would go on to win not only the Battle of Endor but also the Galactic Civil War. They established a New Republic and the Empire came to an end. 

    Sidious was dead, but he had his Contingency in place. The Contingency allowed Palpatine to cheat death, and he lived on through Supreme Leader Snoke. As Snoke, he created the First Order out of what remained of the Empire. The First Order built a secret weapon, called Starkiller Base, and used it to destroy the New Republic. He also took on Ben Solo as an apprentice, naming him Kylo Ren. However, the remains of the New Republic, the Resistance, destroyed Starkiller Base. Also, one of Palpatine's failed clones gave birth to a daughter named Rey. Being the equivalent of Sidious's granddaughter, Rey was strong in the Force, and began to receive training as a Jedi. She tried to turn Ren to the light side, and the two of them murdered Snoke. However, Ren stayed in the dark, took command of the First Order, an began hunting Rey and the Resistance. With Snoke dead, Palpatine took over a new body and took command of the Sith Eternal on the hidden Sith world of Exegol. There, he had been building a gigantic army. It included thousands of warships, each with planet killing weapons, as well as myriads of loyal and capable soldiers. Palpatine had chosen to remain in hiding until 35 years after the Battle of Yavin, hen he revealed himself through a message broadcasted to the galaxy. When Kylo Ren heard of Sidious's survival, he began searching for Exegol vigorously. The location of Exegol was a secret, and it can only be found by two wayfinders. Ren found one of the wayfinders, and journeyed for Exegol with the intent of killing Sidious. On Exegol, Ren found the massive army, and Sidious offered to take the boy as an apprentice. He told Ren to hunt down and kill Rey, and he revealed himself to be her grandfather. He found Rey, but she was finally able to turn Solo back to the light. When Rey also found a wayfinder, she also went to kill Palpatine on Exegol. She also sent the path to Exegol to the Resistance. They followed her with the intent of attacking the Sith fleet. The weather on Exegol was dangerous, and the fleet could only leave with navigation towers on the planet's surface. If they could destroy these towers, the fleet would be trapped on Exegol. As the Resistance prepared for battle, Rey faced down Sidious on Exegol. Sidious wanted Rey to kill him, so that his spirit may live on through her. She resisted the Sith Lord's manipulation and she was soon joined by Ben Solo. The two of them attacked Palpatine, and they soon defeated him. However, Rey was fatally injured by the Emperor, but Solo sacrificed himself to save her. Because Rey struck down Palpatine without anger, his spirit ws destroyed. In the skies above, the Resistance battled the Sith fleet, but it soon became clear that they were doomed. When all hope seemed lost, many ships arrived at Exegol. They were citizens throughout the galaxy that believed that the Sith can be stopped, and they far outnumbered the Sith fleet. The battle was won, and the Sith came to an end.