The Forgotten Sith Master That Gave Palpatine His True Power?
Though it was meant to close out the Skywalker saga, Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker left fans scratching their heads, as some questions remained. Viewers witnessed the return of Emperor Sheev Palpatine with very little explanation. Sure, we had a new character say, "Dark science. Cloning. Secrets only the Sith knew." It is very quick dialogue, as the movie does not seem to feel the need to pause and really explain what exactly is going on. We know thanks to Revenge of the Sith that Palpatine's master Darth Plagueis could influence the midi-chlorians to create life, as he was seeking a path to immortality. While the novel that focuses on Plagueis is considered Legends, his relationship with Sidious is still alluded to in the canon novel Tarkin. The Rise of Skywalker does not do a whole lot to connect the dots other than by reusing this iconic Palpatine line from Revenge of the Sith: "The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."
But what if it was not all just stuff that he learned from Darth Plagueis? According to a theory that has been going around, Palpatine may have learned a thing or two from a Sith Emperor who appeared in The Old Republic stories, which are considered Legends. Given that some elements from Legends have made their way into canon, it is not outside the realm of possibility that this character may become canon someday. It would be easy, seeing as he lived 5,000 years before the films in the Legends continuity. So for the sake of this theory, let us explore what we know about the character.
Born with the name Tenebrae on the planet Medriaas, he was the illegitimate son of the world's ruler, whom he later overthrew, at which point he renamed the world Nathema. With the aid of 8,000 Sith in the Ritual of Nathema, used the Force to telepathically enslave every person around the globe. Across ten days, he absorbed life from all of them. Destroying all life on Nathema, Vitiate became immortal, possessing other bodies over the next 1,300 years. Any of this sound familiar?
In The Rise of Skywalker, we saw the reborn Palpatine surrounded by chanting Sith cultists, and it is clear that he is trying to possess a new body. He says that all of the Sith live through him. He even gets to a point where he is trying to absorb life from both Rey and Ben Solo. While I do not think that those working on The Rise of Skywalker had Vitiate in mind when making the film, I could imagine Star Wars incorporating him into the lore of Palpatine's resurrection as they reverse-engineer through other stories. Lucasfilm are going a little further back in the timeline with The High Republic publishing project, and eventually the TV show The Acolyte. These respectively take place about 200 years and 50 years before the prequel trilogy. There is an opportunity for Sith lore to be touched upon without it feeling too out of place.
Whether or not Lucasfilm takes this path is yet to be seen, but there are bound to be fans of The Old Republic who might appreciate the connection. I recall a classmate speculating that Supreme Leader Snoke would turn out to be a Sith Emperor reborn, and I am pretty sure now that he was referring to Vitiate. (This was before The Last Jedi rendered Snoke obsolete, and The Rise of Skywalker revealed him to be a creation of Palpatine whom he essentially puppeteers.) Perhaps that classmate could turn out to be correct...from a certain point of view.
Source(s): Inverse