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| "What is thy bidding, my Master..." |
We have seen the Sith Master/Apprentice relationship between Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and Darth Tyrannus with Palpatine (Darth Sideous) but now for the first time we get to see a young Palpatine in the role as Sith Apprentice. Little is known at this point about the story or Palpatine's Master, other then his name, species and the time setting for the book. Darth Plagueis is a Muun, natives of the planet Muunilinst and home of the InterGalactic Banking Clan.
In Episode III, at the Opera, Chancellor Palpatine relates a Sith "legend" to Anakin Skywalker as part of Palpatine's seduction of the young man to the Dark Side. Playing on Anakin's fear of losing those he loves, in particular his wife Padme, Palpatine tells Anakin of a Sith Lord so powerful he could effect midi-chlorians to create life and stave off death.
According to the publisher the book will be set 67 years before A New Hope. In Star Wars time everything is related to the Battle of Yavin (concluding battle of ANH) by the acronym BBY. For perspective the first Prequel movie, The Phantom Menace is set at 32 BBY and Palpatine's approximate birth year is 82 BBY according to Leland Chee. So that means we are looking at an a teenage(15-16 year old) Palpatine unless they will be canonizing a new birth year for Palpatine."Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?..Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying....He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew. Then, his apprentice killed him in his sleep...Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself."
The cover itself looks gorgeous and I cannot wait to see the finished book in person, I love the coloring of what looks like green and burgundy robes for Darth Plagueis.
SOURCES: StarWars.com, Star Wars Books on Facebook, and Wookieepedia
Loved this side story and I'm not a huge fan of the EU, but think I might give this a go.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that always got me thinking about this story was the fact that Palpatine asked Anakin did he ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis, like it should be part of the Jedi teachings, but then others act like the Sith have been extinct for ages. This made me believe that Palpatine would be a hell of a lot older than 82 at the Battle of Yavin. With that in mind I would think that he took Plagueis' teachings and is hundreds of years old....