Darth Sidious leaned back wearily in his chair, deep within his secret hideout in one of Coruscant's industrial districts. Only here — in a special chamber constructed from materials that blocked the Force — could he relax a little and remove the mask of Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. For many years, he had been forced to remain hidden within the Force, concealing his true nature from everyone. Only on rare, rare occasions did he manage to escape to this refuge.
Darth Sidious always contemplated the future — yet he never forgot the past.
From an early age, Palpatine had been different from his peers, his brothers, and his sisters. He had felt immense power within himself and believed he could change much — not only within his family but throughout the galaxy. Intelligent and fiercely ambitious, Sheev Palpatine had wanted his family to play a greater role in Naboo's politics, thereby increasing their wealth and influence. But he soon grew disillusioned when he realized that he alone possessed such ambition.
Palpatine believed his father could never understand him — nor could the rest of his family. Disgusted by his father's weakness and enraged by his mother's willingness to accept mediocrity, Palpatine had, since childhood, harbored the desire to kill his father — a desire he kept hidden for many years.
From those same early years, Sheev Palpatine had discovered a strange power within himself that granted him extraordinary abilities. Unconsciously attempting to conceal it, he managed to evade detection by the Jedi Order's Seekers.
Eventually, however, he was found — by Darth Plagueis, the Dark Lord of the Sith. Palpatine, thirsty for both power and forbidden knowledge, agreed to become his apprentice. After an ancient initiation ritual, during which Palpatine took his new name, Darth Sidious, only one thing remained: to cross the final threshold.
And he would never admit to anyone what had driven him to embrace the dark side of the Force — what had truly pushed him over that edge. He had killed his own younger sister, the only person in his family he had ever loved and cherished. It had been necessary — the first command of his new Master. At that moment, he had hated him.
Later, he would kill his father, brothers, and mother — but that had been his own decision. They were unworthy of life.
Palpatine's apprenticeship lasted for three decades. As an apprentice, Sidious studied the history of the Sith in exhaustive detail — the deeds of the ancient Lords and their more recent descendants, such as Darth Bane. Bane's philosophy had been unique, forming the foundation of the modern Sith Order.
Plagueis' teachings were harsh and merciless — but in the end, they transformed Palpatine into one of the most powerful Sith Lords since Bane. Plagueis had done exactly as he promised: Sidious had been broken, humiliated, stripped of what he valued most, and forced to confront his deepest fears. When the vessel of his soul had been emptied, it was filled anew — this time with the creed of the Dark Side: the path from mastery of oneself to mastery over all.
"You must begin by drawing power from yourself, then from others — from a group, an order, a world… and finally, from the entire galaxy," Darth Plagueis had told him.
Yet deep down, Sheev Palpatine had remained himself.
All of this had been done in preparation for the Sith Order's ultimate revenge upon their ancient enemies, the Jedi. Apart from Plagueis, only Sidious knew the true scope of that revenge. It had first been conceived in the distant days of Lord Bane and was based on his experiences with the Sith of old.
There would be no open war. The Jedi — and the Republic they served — would not fall to weapons, but to disease. The Republic was destined to collapse under its own corruption; the Sith would merely hasten the process. They would spread war, murder, injustice, and greed wherever possible, revealing the hypocrisy of the so-called democratic system.
A secret "virus" would be introduced into the political body of the Republic, spreading from one organ to another until all vital systems failed. A broken, fragmented Republic would become easy prey for conquest. The people, weary of weakness, would gladly submit to the rule of the strong.
Being a Muun, Plagueis — once known as Hego Damask — possessed immense capital, drawn from both the Muunilinst bankers and centuries of Sith accumulation. And he devoted most of it to the Great Cause.
However… Darth Plagueis betrayed him. He betrayed the very vision they had labored toward for so many years. Plagueis became obsessed with immortality. He delved into forbidden teachings and acquired knowledge that could preserve the dying — even resurrect the dead. Both Jedi and Sith had long sought a path to eternal life, yet nearly all attempts had ended in failure.
Plagueis began his research "from the opposite direction": by attempting to create life from nothing. He performed horrific experiments on the gifted, using their flesh and blood. He killed and resurrected sentient beings. Ultimately, Plagueis confided in Sidious about his work with midi-chlorians — how he had learned to influence them directly and create life through the Force itself. The child born of this experiment, he claimed, possessed an unprecedented potential for sensitivity to the Force.
Sidious immediately began to suspect that Plagueis real intention was to "create" a new apprentice — one who might replace him. Feeling that his position had become precarious, Sidious decided he had learned all he could from his master. Plagueis, disappointed by the results of his experiments, answered his apprentice's questions with growing irritation. Soon after, Sidious struck — while Plagueis slept.
"You lost this game the day you chose to teach me — to rule the galaxy under your thumb, or rather, beneath your heel. You were my teacher — yes, and for that I am grateful. But you will never be my master."
Sidious remembered those words well, spoken to the dying Muun as he clung in vain to the remnants of life.
From then on, Darth Plagueis' "Plan" became Darth Sidious' "Plan." He united many secret Sith sects under his command, like the Sun Guards of Thyrsus and the Prophets of the Dark Side. Sidious sought to eliminate — or exploit — any gifted beings powerful enough to oppose him, though he ultimately intended to to get rid of them all.
Palpatine, however, protected the weak but talented. He needed loyal subordinates — not mere slaves, but devoted followers: intelligent executors and capable advisors. Their species did not matter; only their competence did.
Among these trusted figures were Sly Moore, his most devoted follower — an Umbaran who knew nearly all of Darth Sidious' secrets and could pierce the minds of living sentient beings and even control some of them; Vice Chancellor Mas Amedda, who passionately supported all of the Chancellor's initiatives; Sate Pestage, Palpatine's aide since his Naboo days; Kinman Doriana; and many others.
Darth Sidious considered Darth Bane's Rule of Two somewhat outdated. Two alone could not shape the destiny of the galaxy — though only two could stand at its summit. Thus, Palpatine began to act.
Sheev Palpatine's political career had begun long before. During the so-called Naboo Crisis, he already served as the planet's senator. And after this feisty girl Amidala's motion of no confidence against Chancellor Valorum, Palpatine rose to power as Chancellor of the Republic. At the same time, he encountered many who shared his vision in one way or another — Tarkin, Terrinald Screed, Kruya Vandron, and others…
After the failed invasion of Naboo — orchestrated by the late Plagueis and overseen by Sidious — a temporary lull followed. Yet now Palpatine had a new motivation to accelerate the destruction of the Jedi Order and seize control of the galaxy.
Through his close contact with the Prophets, he acquired secret knowledge that allowed him to perceive multiple versions of the future. It was not the limited foresight of the Jedi — it was something greater, allowing him to see far beyond the horizon of time.
And what he saw was… danger. A cataclysmic threat that would engulf the galaxy, drown it in blood, and threaten the very existence of the current order. Beings alien to the Force itself would come — and claim dominion. Sidious could not allow this.
Thus, he hastened the execution of The Plan. Darth Maul had failed him, so he turned his attention to a boy he had met alongside the Queen of Naboo and two Jedi — Anakin Skywalker. The child's abilities and raw connection to the Force were extraordinary. . For the first time in Sidious's memory, Plagueis showed fear. He believed himself responsible and explained Skywalker's birth as the Force's counterbalance to his own attempt to tilt it toward darkness.
Whereas he had previously boasted that he could create the Chosen One from prophecy, as his teacher had expected, it was now his priority to prevent the boy from falling into the hands of the Jedi. But alas, Skywalker became Obi-Wan Kenobi's Padawan. Soon after, Palpatine killed Plagueis. The fact that the Jedi had reached the boy first did not dismay him; he knew the day would come when Anakin would see the futility of the Order and turn willingly. Palpatine merely waited — and watched.
Meanwhile, The Plan began to unfold. Using his connections within the Trade Federation and his new apprentice, Count Dooku, whom he had seduced from the Jedi Order, Palpatine fomented separatist movements while simultaneously preparing the Republic for upheaval.
In particular, Dooku's best friend, Sifo-Dyas was brought in to create the Clone Army — a force that would, in time, come to "defend" the Republic. In addition, his faithful servant, Dooku, had found several sentients that he presented as his apprentices. These were Grievous, whom Dooku had truly "created", and the recently found Asajj Ventress. Sidious welcomed these additions — the Plan was acquiring new layers, new colors.
After the Battle of Geonosis — where many Jedi perished — the Chancellor's powers expanded dramatically. This was to facilitate the fulfillment of the Plan. Palpatine planned to gradually amend the constitution, concentrating authority in his own hands.
The die was cast. The long-planned war had begun. Darth Sidious, privy to every secret on both sides, maintained tight control over events — though he allowed for small deviations, knowing that even he was not omniscient. He would not repeat Plagueis' mistakes.
***
In the cold void between galaxies — where no starlight reached and only the distant gleam of galaxies pierced the dark — a vast fleet drifted slowly and deliberately.
The ships — if they could even be called ships — of extraordinary shapes and various sizes stretched over a great distance; however, it was impossible to determine it - there was nothing to catch the eye in this empty world, nothing to take the point of reference from.
On one of the larger vessels, within a small chamber, sat… a being unlike any known species in the galaxy: Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane, ruler of countless castes of his people and the mediator between the Yuuzhan Vong and their gods.
The Yuuzhan Vong were refugees from a distant galaxy. A bloody war that began as a conflict between two droid races—the Silentium and the Abominor—had escalated into a cataclysmic struggle that consumed almost their entire galaxy and annihilated their homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar.
Now the remnants of a once-great race, who had once wielded Immense Force, drifted through the void between galaxies in search of a new home. And soon—when their newly born reached maturity—they would arrive in a galaxy that would become their new domain.
Long before the fall of their world, autonomous probes had discovered another galaxy teeming with life. For several centuries, advance units had been secretly operating on the fringes of a region known to them as the Unknown Regions. Masters of biotechnology, the Yuuzhan Vong wove living matter into every aspect of their existence. They were adept in adaptation and deception as much as in brute strength and tactics of terror.
During their covert explorations, their scouts discovered beings capable of wielding the Force—a divine power from which the Yuuzhan Vong had been severed. And so they resolved to destroy these Force-users, just as the soulless, godless, technogenic races that inhabited this galaxy.
The conviction that their invasion was the will of the gods—and that this new galaxy rightfully belonged to them—was deeply ingrained in the minds of Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane and Warmaster Tsavong Lah, who led the crusade.
Slowly and inexorably, the vast fleet sailed through intergalactic space…