So this is the new home for all the old Star Wars discussion posters? Great welcome back everyone, now let's get back to lore shall we?

 

What was the deal with Sidious' final battle and death? A detailed description would be fantastic, as I don't have the book and Wookiepedia seems rather scarce on details.

 

Thank you.

Welcome back, Rayla. Edited December 13, 2011 by Hrisskar

I can't give you a lot of details, never got around to reading the book. I know Han shoots the final clone to prevent Sidious from returning. However, I am uncertain as to the exact number of clones & the manner of their respective deaths. Edited December 13, 2011 by HARBINGERXIII

I really wish I was capable of providing a better answer, but my knowledge of the Dark Empire content is limited at best. I am hoping some of the lore gurus log on at some point in the near future. I believe, and I could be wrong on this, that Sidious ultimately destroys himself via Force storms.

From Wookieepedia. Purely because I'm too lazy to type any of this out. For those who haven't read any of the expanded universe stuff...

 

Spoiler Alert...

 

 

Palpatine reborn (4–11 ABY)

 

"Flesh does not easily support this great power."

―Palpatine

 

The Emperor reborn.

 

But even death was not the end for Palpatine. Unlike his Sith predecessors, Palpatine had never intended to be replaced by an apprentice, expecting his Empire to rule the galaxy eternally, with only himself as its true leader. Unable to rediscover his former Master's lost secret, Palpatine had to find a different way to cheat death. During the Clone Wars he tasked Jedi Arligan Zey to capture rogue Kaminoan Chief Scientist Ko Sai following her defection to the Separatists a year and a half into the war. Palpatine hoped Ko Sai would be able to engineer him a longer life span. However, he was denied the chance when Ko Sai showed up dead in 21 BBY.

 

At an unknown point in time prior to his death at the Battle of Endor Palpatine had found a different way to cheat death by preserving his spirit after the death of his body, by the method of spirit transference. He arranged for a series of clones of himself to be created for his spirit to possess, in the event that he would perish. His primary supply of clones was kept on Byss, guarded by loyal Dark Jedi and immense genetically-altered guards and maintained by a trusted private physician. Unfortunately, the clones were heavily ravaged by the dark side and not sustained by the Force. Each body he took would age and deteriorate more quickly than the last. But the Dark Lord wasn't concerned; he had an endless supply of clones which he could use to rule the Empire.

 

After the destruction of the second Death Star, Palpatine's spirit was forced to journey in the maddening, bodiless existence of the void, eventually taking possession of the body of Emperor's Hand Jeng Droga. Palpatine called out to Sate Pestage, who rescued the broken body from Kaal and returned it to Byss. Though Droga went mad in the process, he was able to journey to Byss, where Palpatine was able to take possession of a clone of himself. There, on Byss, he would remain for years and would rebuild his strength and Empire. Resurrected, Palpatine planned to replace the Galactic Empire with a "Dark Empire", a universe-spanning magocracy ruled through the dark side of the Force alone, without the need for regional governors or technological domination.

Fragmentation of the Empire (4–10 ABY)

 

Following Palpatine's death, a year-long period of mourning was instituted throughout the Empire.

 

Palpatine's rule was so absolute that his apparent death at the Battle of Endor fragmented the Galactic Empire. Without an heir, opportunistic Moffs and other officers turned into warlords and set out to carve their own kingdoms wherever they could. This worked to the advantage of the New Republic, which succeeded in reclaiming much of the galaxy.

 

Reaction to Thrawn

 

While Palpatine was still recovering in his Deep Core stronghold, his former advisors received word (8 ABY) of the arrival, from deep in the Unknown Regions, of the last surviving Grand Admiral. This was the Chiss strategic mastermind Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was armed with a plan he outlined to them that would defeat the New Republic. Heartened by the possibility of wresting back their power from the Rebels, they managed to set aside their differences and grant him overall command of their forces, with an eye toward making him their figurehead emperor once they had a throne back to give him.[20] When Palpatine learned of this, he was genuinely devastated. He had liked Thrawn, as much as he was capable of liking anyone. He had entrusted much to Thrawn's genius, even as he had used that genius for his own ends.

 

There is no evidence that Palpatine ever took Thrawn into his confidence on his "post-mortem" plans. Not knowing about Palpatine's survival, Thrawn did know that the declared government of the Empire was in danger, and, for his own reasons as much as theirs—largely his old hope of securing the galaxy against the so-called Far Outsiders—he offered his help.

 

Palpatine's reaction may have to do with whatever role he was planning for Thrawn in his own upcoming offensive, Operation Shadow Hand. If anyone knew all there was to know about Thrawn's activities in the Unknown Regions, Palpatine knew. He had to have known what resources Thrawn commanded. Possibly he was only waiting for the right moment to reveal himself to Thrawn and offer him a place in his revived Empire, as he would soon do with many others, but never did. Instead, he let Thrawn make his bid to defeat the New Republic and, in secret, made every attempt to undermine that campaign.[20] This terrible example of Palpatine's pettiness may have cost him everything. A combined offensive, consisting of his own forces launched from Byss, and Thrawn's launched from Nirauan, would have meant the quick and painful death of the New Republic.

 

The Empire in resurgence (10–11 ABY)

 

"You've grown very strong in the Force since we last met… But then, so have I!"

―Palpatine to Luke Skywalker

 

Emperor Palpatine with the Eclipse and his new Imperial Navy behind him.

Thrawn's cunning tactics and unerring strategies brought the Imperial Remnant to the brink of victory in 10 ABY, and he would have had complete victory had it not been for betrayal by his Noghri bodyguard Rukh. Encouraged by Thrawn's successes, the remaining Inner Circle of Imperial warlords staged a devastating attack on the galactic capital Coruscant. Much of Imperial City was laid to waste as a result, and the New Republic was forced to evacuate. Once on the surface, the Imperials splintered again, and skirmishes dragged on in the devastated cityscape.

 

It was then that the resurrected Emperor struck. Using his dark powers to create a powerful Force storm, he swept Luke Skywalker to Byss. There, he revealed himself to Luke, and revealed the power of the dark side. Faced with an immortal foe, Skywalker did the unthinkable—in order to defeat the dark side from within, he knelt before Palpatine, and submitted himself as the Emperor's new Sith apprentice.

 

Skywalker's subterfuge

 

Unfortunately for the Empire, Skywalker stubbornly clung to his old loyalties. Immediately after being appointed Supreme Commander of the Imperial forces, Skywalker accessed the top-secret codes that remotely controlled the World Devastators, and transmitted improper signals. It was this abuse of his new authority that enabled Skywalker to scuttle the Devastator Silencer-7, for instance, and in other ways, both large and small, sabotage Palpatine's work.

 

Skywalker's treachery obviously could not go unnoticed for long. From the beginning, Palpatine and his most trusted officers were aware of it. Behind the scenes they began expressing their concerns to him about Skywalker's actions. Palpatine reassured them, at the same time reminding them that military considerations were not the only considerations:

 

"I expected to take some damage from him. Any worthy opponent is going to inflict injury. If he doesn't, he's not worth troubling with. Let a few Devastators be destroyed. Let Skywalker think he's getting the best of me. As long as he believes he's succeeding, I have him in my grasp. And as long as I hold him, the more vulnerable he becomes to the unfathomable power of the dark side. Think what he'll do when he is fully mine, when he is working for the Empire, working to help us win!"

―Palpatine regarding Luke Skywalker

 

Quietly, Palpatine countered Skywalker's moves, maximizing his gains and cutting his losses. Ultimately, victory or defeat in a single battle, or even an entire campaign, was less important than acquiring an apprentice as powerful as Skywalker promised to be. It was not without precedent; during the Clone Wars he had planned entire campaigns in such a way as to ensnare Anakin Skywalker.

 

"One day soon Skywalker will wake up and find that he can no longer go back to his friends. He will look in a mirror and he will see his true face, the face of power… the face of the dark side."

―Palpatine

 

When Leia Organa Solo arrived on Byss attempting to rescue Luke, she only succeeded in getting herself captured, along with her husband, Han Solo. Palpatine quickly attempted to turn her to the dark side, tempting her with a Jedi holocron he had in his possession, and stirring her anger by revealing that he planned to transfer his mind into the body of her unborn child once he was born. Unfortunately, his attempt backfired and she flipped over the bed he was lying on and fled. Initially Palpatine was pleased, but his glee quickly turned to rage when he discovered she had stolen a Jedi Holocron he kept. Luke Skywalker aided her and Han's escape before attempting to rebel against Palpatine.

 

In the end, Skywalker was too enmeshed in the dark side to successfully rebel against his new master, despite marching into the cloning lab and smashing all of Palpatine's cloning tanks. Before he could finish the job, Palpatine transferred his spirit into one of the last clones. Luke then attempted to subdue Palpatine, citing that his time as the Sith Lord's apprentice had given him knowledge of Palpatine's weaknesses. Palpatine scoffed at this and seized one of the lightsabers he kept in the lab. Palpatine then engaged Luke in a spectacular lightsaber duel. However, even Luke's skills with Djem So weren't enough, and he fell before Palpatine's brutally intense swordplay. It was only from his sister, Leia Organa Solo, that he gained the strength that he needed.

 

The clone Palpatine with Luke Skywalker as his Sith apprentice

Appearing in his Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer Eclipse above Pinnacle Base, Palpatine demanded the return of his stolen holocron and the presence of Leia, who complied, in exchange for a possible truce with the New Republic. When Leia arrived aboard Eclipse, she implored Luke for help—as foretold by Bodo Baas's Master a thousand years earlier. Skywalker managed to cast off the veil of the dark side that cloaked his mind and turned on Palpatine. Enraged at this latest development, Palpatine brandished a blue-bladed lightsaber and struck at Luke. Despite Palpatine's viciousness, Luke managed to defeat the Sith Lord in a brief but intense lightsaber duel, slicing off his hand.

 

Palpatine was hardly finished, summoning a Force storm against the New Republic fleet. However, the siblings banded together and were able to use the light side of the Force to temporarily sever Palpatine's connection to the Force, causing him to lose control of the Force storm he had summoned. The wayward storm then destroyed Eclipse, killing Palpatine again while the pair fled, before dissipating, ending the Battle of Pinnacle Base.

 

The last clone

 

After the Battle of Balmorra, two Dark Side Adepts Nefta and Sa-Di began to slaughter the secret auxiliary clones Skywalker did not kill. Executor Sedriss killed them for their defiance, as the last clone of Palpatine emerged, planning to resume conquest of the galaxy.

 

Having returned in yet another clone, Palpatine continued his scourge against the New Republic. Armed with the deadly superweapons, the Galaxy Gun, and his second Eclipse-class Star Dreadnought, Eclipse II, Palpatine forced many New Republic worlds to submit to Imperial rule. But, despite his growing Empire, Palpatine was again deteriorating and becoming frail and weak.

 

Even worse, the Emperor began to succumb to genetic tampering done to his clones by the treacherous Imperial Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax. He tried to clone other bodies so that he could resurrect himself, but Jax had succeeded in tainting even the genetic source material. With his body wasting away rapidly, he went to the Sith world Korriban to consult the ancient spirits of his forebears in the Great Temple. They advised that he use Leia's newborn son, Anakin Solo to house his spirit. The Dark Side Adepts escorting him vowed to be his watchmen until his new body would grow up. Sidious, though he deeply distrusted his tools, especially after Nefta and Sa-Di's betrayal, had no other choice; he ordered Eclipse II to make course for the Onderon system, where the Solos had relocated their children.

 

While the New Republic engaged the Imperials, a team of Jedi, led by Luke, sought out the Emperor. They did not find him aboard his ship since he had slipped down to Onderon to find Leia. During the battle, Lando Calrissian and R2-D2 had infiltrated the flagship. R2-D2 then sabotaged the vehicle's automated hyperdrive engines and set the coordinates to match the location of the Galaxy Gun, which was over Byss. The flagship fled into hyperspace, despite the efforts of the crew to regain control of the vessel. There above Byss, both superweapons collided with each other. The Galaxy Gun's final missile was pulled into the planet's gravity and exploded, destroying the reborn Emperor's throne world.

 

Palpatine's final death

 

Palpatine's spirit departs the last clone body he occupied.

Meanwhile, the Emperor faced Leia and demanded that her newest child be his to possess. She fought back, but was no match for the Emperor. Before he could complete his plot, Luke Skywalker and two other Jedi, Rayf Ysanna and Empatojayos Brand, arrived. Palpatine killed Ysanna instantly and fatally wounded Brand, but was shot in the back by an enraged Han Solo during the conflict.

 

His last body destroyed, the Emperor's cackling spirit flew toward young Anakin Solo, but was intercepted by the dying Brand, who threw himself in the way. The Jedi Knight bound the Emperor's soul to his own departing life force, taking it with him as he became one with the Force. Railing and cursing against the Skywalker family, Emperor Palpatine's spirit was dragged into the depths of the Force, where every deceased Jedi would ensure his dark essence would never again return to wreak havoc upon the galaxy. There he would experience disembodiment in darkness, perpetual madness as if to always live with an open wound; terror without respite.

 

Darth Sidious, considered by many to be the most powerful Dark Lord of the Sith of all time, was finally, permanently dead.

 

Legacy

 

"After all, you are full of life, and I… Well, because the Holocron is now in your hands, I must assume that I am but a whisper from the past."

―Darth Sidious, a gatekeeper of the Telos Holocron

 

Even though Palpatine's final death prevented his spirit from returning to the mortal plane, his legacy would endure long after his ultimate defeat. His entire reign as the Dark Lord of the Sith led to the galaxy's ruin and the deaths of trillions. The loss of the Emperor did not stop the remnants of the Empire from continuing the Galactic Civil War for almost another decade, and the Sith continued to persevere through several incarnations that were separate from Bane's Order. The New Order also managed to survive despite the Empire's defeat, even though it was largely amended to exclude many of Palpatine's tyrannical policies. There were even people who craved for yet another one of his returns.

 

The Second Imperium Scam (23–24 ABY)

 

Leader of the Second Imperium

 

Some nineteen years after the Battle of Endor, and more than a decade after the last of the clone bodies of Emperor Palpatine were destroyed, it seemed that he had arisen in another and become head of a coalition seeking to reestablish the Empire. The Great Leader of the Second Imperium was supposedly the Emperor reborn yet again. The Emperor's image was transmitted regularly to the Shadow Academy. Although the academy leader, Brakiss, found it difficult to imagine how the Emperor had survived, he knew that with the Force, many things were possible.

 

The Great Leader was transported to the Shadow Academy sealed within a room-sized containment unit. Brakiss eventually discovered that the Great Leader was not Palpatine after all, but a series of recordings and props used by four Emperor's Royal Guards to trick the galaxy into thinking that the Emperor had returned to rule the Second Imperium.

 

"Although these insights from the mind of Darth Sidious are nearly priceless in their historical value, it is important to point out the fact that Palpatine's numerous clones were indeed just that—clones. The possibility remains that the former Emperor's clones only believed themselves to be the real Palpatine."

―Tionne Solusar

 

The Telos Holocron, a reservoir of the knowledge and experience of many Sith Lords, including Darth Sidious

Sometime before his final death, Palpatine compiled his knowledge into the Telos Holocron, acting as one of the Holocron's gatekeepers and offering his knowledge to future aspiring Sith. He detailed the importance of an apprentice, his rise to power, the cloning techniques he used to cheat death, and more about the Sith in general. It was unknown to Tionne Solusar how Palpatine came upon the Telos Holocron or when he did. The Holocron was eventually obtained by the Jedi in 40 ABY, preventing its dark knowledge from corrupting curious Jedi. As the researcher of the Telos Holocron, Master Solusar studied and included many of its teachings in her written study of the Jedi and the Sith.

 

Although Palpatine's spirit had in fact managed to stave off damnation by inhabiting the bodies of his clones one by one, there was still some skepticism regarding his achievement. Master Solusar was not necessarily convinced that Palpatine's spirit was able to stave off damnation by inhabiting the bodies of his clones one by one. His speculation led him to believe that the fallen Emperor's clones merely believed themselves to be the real Palpatine, but were ultimately just clones that possessed the memories and Force potential of the Emperor. As such, Solusar viewed the clones as not only separate individuals from each other, but also from their genetic template as well.

 

Ironically, Solusar appreciated the historical value of Palpatine's mindset as recorded by the Telos Holocron, but could not dismiss the chance that many of the recordings were made by the Dark Lord's clones rather than the true Palpatine himself.[15] While Solusar's belief was shared by the Jedi Mara Jade Skywalker,[7] it was not shared Grand Master Luke Skywalker, who personally served the reborn Emperor for a brief time after his resurgence.

 

Lumiya's Sith

 

"You're afraid that my words might be true. That the dark side doesn't corrupt in and of itself. That you're destined to become the next Sith Lord—the first Sith Lord to be active in decades, the first one in centuries with the strength to use the Sith techniques to help others. Because if it is true, you have to make a decision, choosing between your life as it is—comfortable, but almost purposeless—and life as you know it should be."

―Lumiya, to Jacen Solo in regards to his future as Darth Caedus

 

Darth Caedus, arguably the first active Sith Lord since the time of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader

Despite Anakin Skywalker's ultimate sacrifice and the final death of Emperor Palpatine, Darth Bane's Sith Order was preserved by Lumiya, a Force-sensitive Human female who received some training under the instruction of Darth Vader and the Emperor. Due to the untimely deaths of both Sith Lords, the mantle defaulted to her and she took it upon herself to ensure the survival of the Sith and its traditions, including the Rule of Two. Thus, she formed her own Sith Order that closely resembled the Order of Bane. After a few failed apprentices, Lumiya all but disappeared from the galactic stage, until resurfacing in 40 ABY with the intention of seducing Darth Vader's grandson, Jacen Solo to the dark side of the Force.

 

Though she was once fiercely loyal to Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, Lumiya developed a strong sense of disdain for the last two Sith Lords of Bane's Order. Like Tionne Solusar, Lumiya was skeptical about considering the Emperor's clones as the true Emperor himself. She even resented the clones and was not entirely convinced that they could be counted amongst the Sith. In her eyes, the clones never earned the knowledge and power of the Sith through struggle and sacrifice; they simply inherited the Sith legacy through the memory imprints of their proginetor. Thus, Lumiya believed that the last true Sith were destroyed when the Emperor and Solo's grandfather died at the Battle of Endor.

 

As Lumiya'a apprentice, Jacen Solo gradually embraced his destiny as a Sith Lord by freeing himself from his former persona and life as a Jedi. He justified his transformation by convincing himself that his preoccupation was different from those of Sidious and Vader. Unlike Sidious, he was not motivated by self-serving ambitions or an insatiable lust for power; he did not fall to the dark side for selfish reasons like Vader. Solo genuinely sought to bring about an everlasting age of peace and order to the galaxy. After sacrificing his aunt Mara Jade Skywalker to fulfill his training, Jacen Solo renamed himself as Darth Caedus,[110] thus fulfilling Lumiya's dream of creating the first true Sith Lord since the deaths of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. When Lumiya sacrificed her life in a final confrontation with Luke Skywalker,[110] Lord Caedus eventually anointed the Jedi Tahiri Veila as his apprentice, thus continuing the Sith legacy in accordance with Darth Bane's Rule of Two.

 

One Sith

 

Over a century after Palpatine's fall, a new Sith Order had ascended, the One Sith, under Darth Krayt, formerly Jedi Master A'Sharad Hett. With the countless Sith servants at his disposal, Krayt swore that they would never repeat Palpatine's mistakes such as letting scattered Jedi live. However, unlike Palpatine, Krayt did not adhere to the Rule of Two, which caused the architect and founder of the Order of the Sith Lords, Darth Bane, and ancient Sith Lords Darth Andeddu and Darth Nihilus to consider him a heretic and pretender.