I will begin with a discussion on the abilities Plagueis displayed during the Maladian assassination on his life.

I will not post the entire fight, just quotes that show his Force abilities and his physical trauma, as the rest is superfluous to the thread.

Slumped on his right side, knees drawn up to his chest, eyes open but unmoving, Plagueis watched the second Echani succumb to multiple stabs from the assassins’ vibroblades. With blood welling out from Plagueis’s cupped right hand and glistening in a pool on the floor beneath his neck, they had taken him for dead.

Not a meter away stood 11-4D, five decapitator disks protruding from his alloy body and telltale lights blinking, in the midst of a self-diagnosis routine. Having run himself through a similar test, Plagueis knew that he had lost a great deal of blood, and that one of his subsidiary hearts was in fibrillation. Sith techniques had helped him perform chemical cardioversions on his other two hearts, but one of them was working so hard to compensate that it, too, was in danger of becoming arrhythmic.

Spreading his arms wide, he clapped his hands together, turning every loose object in the vicinity into a deadly projectile.

The wait lasted only until Plagueis attempted to unleash lightning. His second subsidiary heart failed, paralyzing him with pain and nearly plunging him into unconsciousness. The assassins wasted not a moment, throwing themselves at him in groups, though in a vain attempt to penetrate the Force shield he raised. Again he rallied, this time with a ragged sound dredged from deep inside that erupted from him like a sonic weapon, shattering the eardrums of those within ten meters and compelling the rest to bring their hands to their ears.

 

In blinding motion his hands and feet smashed skulls and windpipes. He stopped once to conjure a Force wave that all but atomized the bodies of six Maladians. He spun through a turn, dragging the wave halfway around the room to kill half a dozen more.

With nothing more than the Force of his mind, Plagueis rattled the floor, knocking some of the assassins off their feet, but others rushed in to take their places, slashing at him with their vibroblades from every angle.

--Darth Plagueis

What can be gleaned from this is that Plagueis was on the verge of death after a surprise ambush from dozens of Maladian assassins. He was forced to divide his attention between defending himself with Force shields, keeping his body alive, and attacking his assailants. Despite suffering from severe physical trauma and being near death for most of the fight, Plagueis was able to summon telekinetic attacks that caused so much damage that investigators believed explosive weapons were the cause, hurl multiple objects with ease, and create small Force Quakes. It is my belief that, because of these circumstances, these displays are not the greatest that Plagueis could use. The tip of the iceberg, so to speak. It is very likely that, if pressed, Plagueis could unleash similar and even greater devastation when he needed to.

However, as I will endeavor to make clear in the next article, this is not Plagueis’ greatest display of power.

So, to move on to that article: midi-chlorian manipulation.

Darth Plagueis sought midi-chlorian manipulation for a number of reasons. One of them was to gain a scientific understanding of the Force, in doing so learning more about how the Force works in life more than anyone else. What came about from his study was a method for manipulating the Force in ways no one else had done before him.

Plagueis briefly describes his application of the art here:

The solution, therefore, is not to introduce new midi-chlorians but to impose one’s will on the midi-chlorians already present in the subject.

The result of such action:

I began with experiments on scurriers and other small creatures. I used my will, amplified through my body’s own midi-chlorians, to override the lesser concentrated midi-chlorian voices in the test subjects. This proved more challenging than I predicted. Because midi-chlorians are linked by a universal mind, the ones in my own cells seemed to resist this imposition upon upon their fellows. But eventually I succeeded, first with small creatures, then with slaves purchased from the Hutts.

Indeed, the midi-chlorians are all connected with one another. It is not just the cells of the individual imposed upon that resist, but those within the aggressor as well. This is important to my thesis because of the following:

I conclude that Force energy is required for life and that midi-chlorians are its biological vector.

I forced the midi-chlorians to override their natural life cycles. What I discovered is that these midi-chlorians would not die. Instead, they drew upon sustaining Force energy, which acted on a microscopic level to halt tissue decay in their host, putting an end to aging and disease.

And in other sources, midi-chlorians are depicted as messengers of the Force, embodiments of the Force’s Will that allow individuals to connect with, and use, the Force. Rather than list what quotes I can find, I hope this brief explanation is sufficient to keep us from going off track.

What the above shows is that the midi-chlorians are connected to the Force and use it in conjunction with other midi-chlorians to defend themselves from the will being imposed upon them. Plagueis was able to overcome the combined defense of the subject’s midi-chlorians and his own in order to study and manipulate the midi-chlorians in a number of ways, as will be shown here.

Plagueis manipulated the midi-chlorians so that they would replicate themselves:

After much experimentation, I succeeded in prodding the midi-chlorians to replicate themselves through the asexual fission. Though in most cases, this process increased the numbers uncontrollably and killed the host.

Darth Plagueis was eventually able to succeed in this endeavor and increase his own midi-chlorian count.

Regardless, eight long years later, Plagueis remained convinced that he was on the verge of absolute success. The evidence was in his own increased midi-chlorian count; and in the power he sensed in Sidious when he had finally returned to Sojourn.

While not the most advanced application of midi-chlorian manipulation, it was beneficial in his experiments to create life by creating a zygote in female specimens. This endeavor was fueled by a theory that Darth Plagueis could not only create life but the fabled Chosen One as well.

But I believe that by using this method I can trick midi-chlorians into creating a zygote. Then it would simply be a matter of growing the subject under normal biological conditions. Such a subject would, of course, take years to hit the development milestones of a typical humanoid, but he could have a midi-chlorian count as high as 20,000 per cell. That is more than any Jedi or Sith in recorded history. Although entirely theoretical, such an achievement is intriguing.

If bred in sufficient quantities, midi-chlorians can even conceive a new life form and bestow upon it powers greater than any Jedi has ever dreamed, generating a vergence in the Force.

 

If I induce midi-chlorians to create such a being, my handiwork would fit all the descriptions of their Chosen One.

An ambitious theory, yes? Of course, such a theory eventually sparked the rumors that Plagueis himself created Anakin Skywalker. Ultimately, Plagueis was able to create a zygote in multiple subjects, effectively creating the beginnings of life.

As was previously quoted from Book of Sith, the midi-chlorians were able to draw on the Force to reverse aging and prevent disease. Darth Plagueis was eventually able to do this for himself.

The scars that had grown over his wounds had abruptly begun to soften and fade, and he had begun to breathe more freely than he had in twenty years. He began to sense that not only were his damaged tissues healing, but his entire body was rejuvenating itself. Beneath the transpirator, areas of his skin were smooth and youthful, and he knew that eventually he would cease to age altogether.

It is theoretical then that Plagueis would have been able to prolong his life indefinitely, achieving a level of immortality, though not invincibility. While it is also possible that Plagueis’ bodily organs would have given out eventually, it is also possible that Plagueis could have advanced his mastery of midi-chlorian manipulation to the point that he could sustain his bodily functions indefinitely. Regardless, in the short term, Plagueis was able to heal old wounds and reverse the effects that aging had on his body. Moving on…

Arguably one of Darth Plagueis’ greatest feats in this area was his achievement of mastery over life and death.

On the fulcrum they had fashioned, the light side had dipped and the dark side had ascended.

 

On the same day they had allowed Venamis to die.

 

Then, by manipulating the Bith’s midi-chlorians, which should have been inert and unresponsive, Plagueis resurrected him. The enormity of the event had stunned Sidious into silence and overwhelmed and addled 11-4D’s processors, but Plagueis had carried on without assistance, again and again allowing Venamis to die and be returned to life, until the Bith’s organs had given out and Plagueis had finally granted him everlasting death.

He also attained the ability to kill subjects outside of a test environment. As displayed on King Veruna.

”Let me explain what is happening to you,” Plagueis said. “The cells that make up all living things contain within them organelles known as midi-chlorians. They are, in addition to being the basis for life, the elements that enable beings like me to perceive and use the Force. As the result of a lifetime of study, I have learned how to manipulate midi-chlorians, and I have instructed the limited number you possess to return to their source. In plain Basic, Veruna, I am killing you.”

Darth Plagueis developed what could be considered the greatest power of all: the power over life and death. By manipulating the essence of the Force within life, Plagueis developed the ability to control life and death. He was effectively able to control the life cycles of those he experimented on. He was able to resurrect the dead and kill people by influencing the midi-chlorians, the latter being a rather subtle way to kill. Plagueis was able to achieve a form of immortality and resurrect the dead without the use external aids such as Sith rituals or other Force abilities. These displays indicate a greater mastery and, more importantly, control over the Force than is displayed by most individuals. But Plagueis was an ambitious Sith Lord, and his advancements in this field paved the way for theories on abilities that few Jedi and Sith have been able to master. Indeed, Plagueis elaborates on these abilities in the Book of Sith.

The aperion governs the cohesion of matter, from the atoms of a pebble to all planets and gravity in the universe. This includes the dimension of time. Through the aperion, space-time may be manipulated on a grand scale—that is if a user channels sufficient energy through his aggregate midi-chlorians while maintaining focus and accuracy.

 

I believe an individual could step instantly from one place to another by folding space, regardless of the intervening distance. Similarly, one could be able to fold time—not to temporally displace a physical object, but to shift one’s consciousness backward and forward along time’s flow. Such a thing would permit the study of all knowledge through history, even the secrets recorded in the long-lost Library of Silversisi.

 

The anima governs life, and it is through this state that Force healing is possible. But to sever the Force—that is something rare. To sever the Force is to trigger a mass die-off of a victim’s midi-chlorians—not enough to kill but enough to take a Jedi’s power. It could be that the Jedi of old knew this feat, but if so they did not understand its underpinnings. Severing the Force is the inverse of what I have done when inducing the midi-chlorians to create life. It is far easier to achieve.

 

The pneuma governs consciousness. Through this I am convinced that the energy pattern we know as self-awareness can be preserved, and imprinted a second time into the neural pathways of a different brain. This process would be simplest with a cloned body that is identical to the subject’s own, though in theory any advanced biological form would prove sufficient. Body swapping of this nature is riskier than simply sustaining one’s own life through midi-chlorian manipulation. In dire emergency, however, it could serve as an escape against oblivion.

It appears that Plagueis has discovered a possible means of employing Fold Space, Flow Walking, and a possible alternative to Essence Transfer through the use of midi-chlorian manipulations. These three abilities are incredibly powerful and are employed by few Jedi and Sith. Most notably, Plagueis could theoretically use midi-chlorian manipulation to simulate Sever Force. Given time, it is likely that Plagueis could have developed these abilities for himself to use as he chose.

Plagueis’ advancements in midi-chlorian manipulation gave him access to extraordinary powers and abilities and allowed him to attain a level of mastery over the Force that manifested on a level that was simultaneously grand and microscopic. In approaching the Force from a scientific perspective, rather than one held back by tradition, Plagueis was able to realize, and theoretically eventually access, abilities that most other Jedi and Sith would not be able to use without access to a deep reservoir of knowledge or the assistance of traditions lying outside of the dominant Force traditions.

This level of mastery took decades to achieve, but the result of such study is clear. Plagueis achieved mastery over life and death, reached a level of immortality, and had the ambition and determination to reach a state of divinity. All of this was achieved through the manipulation of the very basis of all life.

To further address Darth Plagueis’ power, I have decided to write this addendum to address, in particular, how much Plagueis was weakened during the Maladian attack and how much his power increased during his exile. First I will address the Maladian Attack.

First, we should address the physical trauma Plagueis was experiencing.

Plagueis pressed his right hand to the right side of his neck to discover that a disk had made off with a considerable hunk of his jawbone and neck, and in its cruel passing had severed his trachea and several blood vessels.

Slumped on his right side, knees drawn up to his chest, eyes open but unmoving, Plagueis watched the second Echani succumb to multiple stabs from the assassins’ vibroblades. With blood welling out from Plagueis’s cupped right hand and glistening in a pool on the floor beneath his neck, they had taken him for dead.

Not a meter away stood 11-4D, five decapitator disks protruding from his alloy body and telltale lights blinking, in the midst of a self-diagnosis routine. Having run himself through a similar test, Plagueis knew that he had lost a great deal of blood, and that one of his subsidiary hearts was in fibrillation.

Obviously, Plagueis had lost a great deal of blood in the onset of the fight and one of his hearts was ‘malfunctioning’ (for lack of a better word). Later in the fight:

His second subsidiary heart failed, paralyzing him with pain and nearly plunging him into unconsciousness.

His second heart fails.

With these three pieces of evidence, we can make inferences as to how much he was weakened, and to how much energy he needed to use to keep himself from dying during the fight. However, before we do that, we should first address where he was putting his power and in what ways.

Sith techniques had helped him perform chemical cardioversions on his other two hearts, but one of them was working so hard to compensate that it, too, was in danger of becoming arrhythmic.

Before going into battle, Darth Plagueis used the Force to manage his bodily functions so that they do not fail him. However, at the same time, we see one of his other hearts in danger of becoming arrhythmic. Plagueis likely continued to put power into this area in order to maintain his bodily functions. Of course the second failure of his hearts could imply the opposite. However, it is also possible that the energy he expended by that point detracted from his ability to preserve his bodily functions, resulting in the failure of his second heart.

Despite the failure of his second heart, however, he was able to quickly deploy a Force shield to defend himself from attack and use a Force scream to strike back:

The assassins wasted not a moment, throwing themselves at him in groups, though in a vain attempt to penetrate the Force shield he raised. Again he rallied, this time with a ragged sound dredged from deep inside that erupted from him like a sonic weapon, shattering the eardrums of those within ten meters and compelling the rest to bring their hands to their ears.

Immediately afterwards, Plagueis leaps into action with a flurry of unarmed attacks and then the ‘atomizing’ Force wave:

In blinding motion his hands and feet smashed skulls and windpipes. He stopped once to conjure a Force wave that all but atomized the bodies of six Maladians. He spun through a turn, dragging the wave halfway around the room to kill half a dozen more.

However, the assassins eventually managed to get in close and stab him in the arms and shoulders:

They flew against him, making the most of his momentary weakness to open gashes on his arms and shoulders.

Despite further injury, Plagueis was capable of further feats of telekinesis.

Down on one knee, he levitated a Sun Guard blaster and called it toward him; but one of the assassins succeeded in altering its trajectory by hurling himself into the path of the airborne weapon.

 

With nothing more than the Force of his mind, Plagueis rattled the floor, knocking some of the assassins off their feet, but others rushed in to take their places, slashing at him with their vibroblades from every angle.

And, again, Plagueis takes continued injury, but that wouldn’t be enough to put him down.

He knew he had life enough to conjure one final counteroffensive. He was a moment from loosing hell on the Maladians when he sensed Sidious enter the room.

Unfortunately, before he could make any further attacks, Sidious and Sate Pestage arrived. However, Plagueis was able to join Sidious in finishing the Maladians off.

So, with the injuries Plagueis took and the responses he made revealed, we can begin to address how weakened Plagueis had been.

Plagueis sustained two failed hearts, massive blood loss, a severed trachea, and multiple stab wounds. Despite these injuries, Plagueis was able to fight off some two dozen assassins single-handedly using incredible strength to smash skulls and bodies with his bare hands, powerful Force waves that did enough damage to replicate that which would be done with explosions, and other powerful uses of telekinesis. Considering that several times the pain of the attacks against him nearly plunged him into unconsciousness, I believe most of his energy went to physical augmentation abilities and self-preservation abilities such as Force Valor. Thus, I believe the telekinetic attacks he made were not at their full strength in the slightest, and that he would be capable of even greater telekinetic destruction.

The issue of how weakened he actually was, is still difficult to judge. However, it can be said that the massive amounts of energy he would have to devote to simply keeping himself alive and combat capable would be debilitating enough. However weakened he was, we can be sure that his Force attacks would certainly be far more powerful if not for those debilitating injuries.

However, his capacity for destruction could be dramatically increased after his self-imposed exile. So, now we must focus on the effects midi-chlorian manipulation had on his power.

As was stated before, Plagueis was able to increase his own midi-chlorian count.

The evidence was in his own increased midi-chlorian count

Since midi-chlorians act as biological vectors for the Force and the more you have the more powerful you can be, it is obvious that any increase to his count would increase his power. The question is: by how much? The answer lies in how the count is increased:

After much experimentation, I succeeded in prodding the midi-chlorians to replicate themselves through the asexual fission. Though in most cases, this process increased the numbers uncontrollably and killed the host.

This is going to require a little science. Unfortunately, science is not my expertise, so I had to do a little internet research.

Plagueis notes that midi-chlorians replicate via asexual fission. According to what I could find on the internet, asexual fission is the division of a single cell into two cells. Assuming that is the case here, if Plagueis applied this to all of his midi-chlorians then his count would have, if I’m right, doubled. Of course, I won’t be so bold as to say that Plagueis doubled in strength at the end of his exile as that is entirely theoretical. However, we can certainly say that Plagueis’ power most definitely did increase.

The only issue is that the degree to which it did increase is unknown.

However, this particular addendum is not intended to say what level Plagueis’ power increased to. The intention was to further clarify Plagueis’ weakened position during the Maladian attack and highlight his increase in power during his exile. I will leave it to the readers and my fellow nerds to discuss just how powerful Plagueis is.

And so now we come to my final thoughts on the Dark Lord. It is my belief that the abilities Plagueis displayed outside of midi-chlorian manipulation were not the maximum that he could achieve. Indeed, it is noted that he increased his own midi-chlorian count, which would, in turn, increase his own strength in the Force, as he himself noted. I believe that Plagueis could achieve similar displays of power that he made during the Maladian attack whenever he chose. I also believe that he would have been capable of even more powerful attacks if he ever had the need to attack. Unfortunately, I also believe that Plagueis eventually became a victim of his own hubris. At the time of his final death, Palpatine mused that Plagueis did not retaliate because he was too sure of his own immortality. Whether or not this would impact his combat prowess is, of course, theoretical.

However, it is his ability to manipulate the midi-chlorians that is his claim to fame. Through a lifetime of study, Plagueis was able to manipulate the midi-chlorians to any end that he chose. He was able to coax them to replicate, create life, kill and resurrect the dead, and eventually attain a level of immortality. Through his studies, Plagueis could conceive of many different ways to manipulate the Force, and many different abilities to use. He saw the ability to fold space and time, sever the Force from a Force user, and even perform a kind of Essence Transfer.

It is my belief that, given time, Plagueis could have attained these abilities and much more. But he was unable to achieve that goal. What he did achieve, however, is indicative of an incredibly immense mastery of the Force. Truly, a scientific approach to the Force was a worthy endeavor, and gave rise to one of the most intellectual and powerful Sith Lords ever.

To further address Darth Plagueis’ power, I have decided to write this addendum to address, in particular, how much Plagueis was weakened during the Maladian attack and how much his power increased during his exile. First I will address the Maladian Attack.

First, we should address the physical trauma Plagueis was experiencing.

Plagueis pressed his right hand to the right side of his neck to discover that a disk had made off with a considerable hunk of his jawbone and neck, and in its cruel passing had severed his trachea and several blood vessels.

Slumped on his right side, knees drawn up to his chest, eyes open but unmoving, Plagueis watched the second Echani succumb to multiple stabs from the assassins’ vibroblades. With blood welling out from Plagueis’s cupped right hand and glistening in a pool on the floor beneath his neck, they had taken him for dead.

Not a meter away stood 11-4D, five decapitator disks protruding from his alloy body and telltale lights blinking, in the midst of a self-diagnosis routine. Having run himself through a similar test, Plagueis knew that he had lost a great deal of blood, and that one of his subsidiary hearts was in fibrillation.

Obviously, Plagueis had lost a great deal of blood in the onset of the fight and one of his hearts was ‘malfunctioning’ (for lack of a better word). Later in the fight:

His second subsidiary heart failed, paralyzing him with pain and nearly plunging him into unconsciousness.

His second heart fails.

With these three pieces of evidence, we can make inferences as to how much he was weakened, and to how much energy he needed to use to keep himself from dying during the fight. However, before we do that, we should first address where he was putting his power and in what ways.

Sith techniques had helped him perform chemical cardioversions on his other two hearts, but one of them was working so hard to compensate that it, too, was in danger of becoming arrhythmic.

Before going into battle, Darth Plagueis used the Force to manage his bodily functions so that they do not fail him. However, at the same time, we see one of his other hearts in danger of becoming arrhythmic. Plagueis likely continued to put power into this area in order to maintain his bodily functions. Of course the second failure of his hearts could imply the opposite. However, it is also possible that the energy he expended by that point detracted from his ability to preserve his bodily functions, resulting in the failure of his second heart.

Despite the failure of his second heart, however, he was able to quickly deploy a Force shield to defend himself from attack and use a Force scream to strike back:

The assassins wasted not a moment, throwing themselves at him in groups, though in a vain attempt to penetrate the Force shield he raised. Again he rallied, this time with a ragged sound dredged from deep inside that erupted from him like a sonic weapon, shattering the eardrums of those within ten meters and compelling the rest to bring their hands to their ears.

Immediately afterwards, Plagueis leaps into action with a flurry of unarmed attacks and then the ‘atomizing’ Force wave:

In blinding motion his hands and feet smashed skulls and windpipes. He stopped once to conjure a Force wave that all but atomized the bodies of six Maladians. He spun through a turn, dragging the wave halfway around the room to kill half a dozen more.

However, the assassins eventually managed to get in close and stab him in the arms and shoulders:

They flew against him, making the most of his momentary weakness to open gashes on his arms and shoulders.

Despite further injury, Plagueis was capable of further feats of telekinesis.

Down on one knee, he levitated a Sun Guard blaster and called it toward him; but one of the assassins succeeded in altering its trajectory by hurling himself into the path of the airborne weapon.

 

With nothing more than the Force of his mind, Plagueis rattled the floor, knocking some of the assassins off their feet, but others rushed in to take their places, slashing at him with their vibroblades from every angle.

And, again, Plagueis takes continued injury, but that wouldn’t be enough to put him down.

He knew he had life enough to conjure one final counteroffensive. He was a moment from loosing hell on the Maladians when he sensed Sidious enter the room.

Unfortunately, before he could make any further attacks, Sidious and Sate Pestage arrived. However, Plagueis was able to join Sidious in finishing the Maladians off.

So, with the injuries Plagueis took and the responses he made revealed, we can begin to address how weakened Plagueis had been.

Plagueis sustained two failed hearts, massive blood loss, a severed trachea, and multiple stab wounds. Despite these injuries, Plagueis was able to fight off some two dozen assassins single-handedly using incredible strength to smash skulls and bodies with his bare hands, powerful Force waves that did enough damage to replicate that which would be done with explosions, and other powerful uses of telekinesis. Considering that several times the pain of the attacks against him nearly plunged him into unconsciousness, I believe most of his energy went to physical augmentation abilities and self-preservation abilities such as Force Valor. Thus, I believe the telekinetic attacks he made were not at their full strength in the slightest, and that he would be capable of even greater telekinetic destruction.

The issue of how weakened he actually was, is still difficult to judge. However, it can be said that the massive amounts of energy he would have to devote to simply keeping himself alive and combat capable would be debilitating enough. However weakened he was, we can be sure that his Force attacks would certainly be far more powerful if not for those debilitating injuries.

However, his capacity for destruction could be dramatically increased after his self-imposed exile. So, now we must focus on the effects midi-chlorian manipulation had on his power.

As was stated before, Plagueis was able to increase his own midi-chlorian count.

The evidence was in his own increased midi-chlorian count

Since midi-chlorians act as biological vectors for the Force and the more you have the more powerful you can be, it is obvious that any increase to his count would increase his power. The question is: by how much? The answer lies in how the count is increased:

After much experimentation, I succeeded in prodding the midi-chlorians to replicate themselves through the asexual fission. Though in most cases, this process increased the numbers uncontrollably and killed the host.

This is going to require a little science. Unfortunately, science is not my expertise, so I had to do a little internet research.

Plagueis notes that midi-chlorians replicate via asexual fission. According to what I could find on the internet, asexual fission is the division of a single cell into two cells. Assuming that is the case here, if Plagueis applied this to all of his midi-chlorians then his count would have, if I’m right, doubled. Of course, I won’t be so bold as to say that Plagueis doubled in strength at the end of his exile as that is entirely theoretical. However, we can certainly say that Plagueis’ power most definitely did increase.

The only issue is that the degree to which it did increase is unknown.

However, this particular addendum is not intended to say what level Plagueis’ power increased to. The intention was to further clarify Plagueis’ weakened position during the Maladian attack and highlight his increase in power during his exile. I will leave it to the readers and my fellow nerds to discuss just how powerful Plagueis is.