Who Is Emperor Palpatines Master, Darth Plagueis?
The Big Picture
- Darth Plagueis, born as Hego Damask, was manipulated by Darth Tenebrous to become a Sith Lord who craved power and immortality.
- Plagueis took Sheev Palpatine as his apprentice, together working on unlocking the secrets of immortality and establishing a Sith Empire.
- Plagueis's obsession with power and immortality blinded him to the growing ambitions of Palpatine, who eventually killed him and took his place as the Sith Master.
One of the great things about Ahsoka — and the Disney+ stable of Star Wars series as a whole — is the introduction of characters that have never been seen in live-action to date. Some, like Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), have been seen in animation, while others, like Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), make their debut in the series. Yet there is one infamous character in Star Wars lore that we haven't seen on screen to date. We've certainly heard about him, though, through a bone-chilling narrative told to Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) by Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith: Darth Plagueis. And it is through his story that the narrative of Star Wars canon, from before the prequel trilogy and on, begins.
Darth Plagueis Was Born To Become a Sith Lord — Literally
Before he was Darth Plagueis he was Hego Damask, a Muun and son of Caar Damask, a mid-level agent for the Intergalactic Banking Clan on the planet Mygeeto. His was a birth orchestrated by Darth Tenebrous, the Dark Lord of the Sith who used a force-sensitive Muun female to woo Caar in order to create a child strong with the Force. Hego was different from his peers and he knew it, with abilities the others didn't — or shouldn't — have. It didn't take long before Hego was lured to the Dark Side, with his first malevolent act forcing a youngling to jump to his death from a great height... simply because Hego didn't like him. When Hego was ready, Darth Tenebrous came to him and claimed Hego as his apprentice, giving him the Sith name Darth Plagueis. Tenebrous guided Plagueis in the use of his strong Force powers, and it was during this time that Plagueis crafted his own lightsaber, a single red blade with a large grip to accommodate the Muun's larger features. He was reportedly very skilled in lightsaber combat, but found it tedious and beneath him.
Plagueis, like all Sith, craved power, and while working under Tenebrous established Damask Holdings, a banking corporation of great power and influence that established refining complexes on Naboo and Mustafar, two planets that would be of major importance in Star Wars canon. Eventually, Plagueis and Tenebrous found themselves on the planet Bal'demnic when a droid mining Cortosis ore inadvertently triggered an explosion nearby. Plagueis seized the opportunity to kill Darth Tenebrous, burying him under an avalanche and snapping his neck. As a result, Darth Plagueis became his own Sith Master — all he needed now was an apprentice to satisfy the Rule of Two.
Darth Plagueis Is Emperor Palpatine's Master
It was on Naboo that Darth Plagueis came across Sheev Palpatine and took him on as his apprentice, giving him the name Darth Sidious after Palpatine killed his family on Plagueis' orders. Together, they worked on unlocking the secrets of immortality, seeing it as key in implementing a Sith Empire to supplant the Galactic Republic. Plagueis believed that together they could harness the full power of the Dark Aide, ruling for 10,000 years as immortals.
An attempt on Plagueis' life at the hands of Maladian assassins forced Plagueis into wearing a transpiratory mask to assist his breathing. It also saw him retreat from the public eye and concentrate his efforts on unlocking the secrets of the Dark Side of the Force and immortality, more determined than ever. Through his studies and a host of disturbing experiments, Plagueis discovered that manipulating midi-chlorians could lead to the ability to cheat death. More frighteningly, Plagueis also came upon a form of immortality through the Force power of transference, allowing the consciousness to move to another body when needed. These realizations became an obsession that blinded him to the growing, dark ambitions of his apprentice.
Star Wars Retold the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise in ‘Revenge of the Sith’
Darth Plagueis was still committed to the goal of a Sith Empire, and as such orchestrated Darth Sidious' appointment as the Senator of Naboo. Under Plagueis' tutelage, Palpatine navigated his way into the Galactic Senate, the first domino to fall in the ascension of the Empire. Meanwhile, Plagueis grew even stronger with the Force, allowing him to manipulate midi-chlorians to create life and prevent death. His deep knowledge of these dark secrets led to Plagueis earning the nickname "The Wise." However, it also led to a paranoia in Plagueis that drove him to believe that there would be a reckoning for the power he had gained. In essence, Darth Plagueis was so powerful that the only thing he feared was losing it.
His fears would be realized on the night that Palpatine was elected to the office of Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. Darth Plagueis had fallen asleep after having too much to drink, and just as Plagueis had done with Darth Tenebrous, his master, Darth Sidious saw an opportunity and seized it. He broke into Plagueis' apartment and murdered his master, killing him as he slept, and too swiftly for Plagueis to utilize the dark skills he had learned. Darth Sidious was now the Sith Master.
Darth Sidious took what he had learned from Plagueis and deftly used those Force skills to give rise to the Empire, achieving the goal that he and Plagueis had been working towards for years. In many ways, the student had surpassed the master. He brought down the Galactic Republic and laid waste to the Jedi and the Jedi Council. After his supposed death at the end of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Palpatine survived through the power of transference, the very skill that Plagueis could have used to save himself, and pushed his consciousness into a series of clones, including one Supreme Leader Snoke. Through Snoke, Palpatine also successfully created a Force dyad between Kylo Ren and Rey, something that Plagueis had tried to do with Sidious but failed repeatedly. But in the end, Palpatine failed, struck down by the very thing his master Darth Plagueis feared: the Force's unleashing of a karmic justice.
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