Over a century before the Battle of Yavin, the Bith male, Rugess Nome stood as Master
of the Sith Order and heir to a nearly 900 year old legacy initiated by Darth Bane.
In accordance with their Rule of Two philosophy, Darth Tenebrous was required to train an apprentice
who he might one day engage in a fight to the death, so that only the strongest would
survive.
Yet after centuries of adhering to this tradition, Tenebrous believed its usefulness was at an
end, as he’d forseen the coming of the chosen, a being of enormous potential in the force,
who would destroy the sith order so that the rule of the One Sith could emerge.
With that in mind, Tenebrous made it his goal to keep his consciousness alive long enough
to inhabit the body of the chosen one, so he might rule forever as the One Sith.
Tenebrous created his own variation of Essence Transfer to achieve immortality, injecting
himself with a retrovirus, to turn Midichlorians into Maxi-chlorian.
These altered particles were designed to survive the death of his body so he might transfer
his consciousness into a new host.
However as a side effect of this procedure, Tenebrous lost his foresight ability, which
mattered little to him, as Bith Science could also be used to predict the future.
In order to ensure that his eventual Host body was strong in the force and worthy of
a Sith Lord, Tenebrous arranged for two force sensitive muuns to mate and have a child they
named Hego Demask II.
At a young age, Tenebrous took the boy, naming him Darth Plagueis and raised him as a Dark
Lord of the Sith.
The child proved strong in the force, and demonstrated a malevolent spirit even before
he was taken away from his parents, having used his powers to convince a playmate he
disliked into committing suicide.
In order to continue to make use of the boy’s father Caar Demask, Tenerbous helped him climb
the ranks of Intergalactic Banking Clan, bringing him wealth and influence.
Meanwhile, Tenebrous trained Plagueis in the Dark Side of the force and together worked
from the shadows to destabilize the Republic, in accordance with the greater goal of the
Sith, which ultimately strove to destroy the Jedi order and rule over the galaxy.
Yet the training given to Plagueis was basic and limited as in the end he was only meant
to be a host body for his master.
However Tenebrous did encourage his natural abilities in mididchlorian manipulation and
subtly instilled in him a rampant fear of death.
In this way, the apprentice might become distracted in these pursuits, keeping him from gaining
a deeper understanding of the force.
In addition, this path would ensure that Plagueis stayed nearby his master’s body upon his
death, to study his midichlorians, thereby giving the Bith the opportunity to transfer
his consciousness into the new host.
Even the Muun’s name, reflected the greater plan, as Plagueis meant diseased one, a reference
to his unhealthy obsession with death and using midichlorians to achieve immortality.
And yet despite the master’s plan, his apprentice proved ambitious and brilliant, teaching himself
a great deal and secretly developing his force powers far beyond what Tenerbous had intended.
Throughout their time together, master and apprentice developed many differing views,
with Tenebrous seeing the force as a source of energy, and enjoyed lightsaber combat,
as well as direct confrontation.
While Plagueis, saw the force as an investment for future profits, and was bored by direct
combat, instead preferring to use cunning to manipulate events from the shadows.
After many years serving his master, Plagueis was at last ordered to commit his first assassination,
using telekentic strangulation to kill Kerred Santhe, a wealthy industrialist who made an
enemy of Tenebrous by cutting him out of a lucrative business deal.
After the death of his father, Plagueis inherited the wealth and influence of the Demask family,
using his newly acquired status to further the ambitions of the Sith by creating division
between the impoverished and neglected worlds of the outer rim, and the prosperous inner
planets where many lived in relative luxury.
Yet as the years went on, Tenebrous grew increasingly disappointed in Plagueis, who he though weak,
and unwilling to attempt killing his master, as Sith tradition demanded.
Tenebrous did not fear the death of his body, as he had prepared for the eventuality by
creating maxi-chlorians to transfer his consciousness.
And so he began training a new apprentice in secret, naming him Darth Venamis, in the
hopes he might prove stronger and more capable then Plagueis.
However Tenebrous had misjudged the situation, and in 67 BBY, while investigating a cortosis
deposit on Bal’demnic, Plagueis arranged for a gas explosion to occur and used the
distraction to bring down the roof of the cave upon his master.
Before he died, Tenebrous congratulated his apprentice for the clever plan and was soon
knocked unconscious, giving Plagueis the opportunity to study the body and observe how the midi-chlorians
left his body.
Doing exactly as expected, Tenebrous enacted his plan for immortality, using maxi-chlorians
to transfer his consciousness into his apprentice.
Yet as he entered the new host, he saw a powerful vision forseeing the eventual death of Plagueis
before he met the chosen one, thereby dashing his plans to inhabit the boy’s body.
Panicked, the Bith’s consciousness fled the host, becoming trapped within the walls
of the cave, repeating his last moments in an unending loop.
As this occurred, Tenebrous came to the realization, that by using this method to transfer his
consciousness, he infected his apprentice with maxi-chlorians, thereby eliminating his
ability to see into the future.
This in turn would contribute the future failure of Plagueis to forsee betrayal by his own
apprentice, meaning the ultimate defeat of Bith Dark Lord was of his own making.
With his ship partially destroyed in the explosion, Plagueis made his way to a nearby city and
snuck aboard the woebegone, where he killed the crew but sparred their 11-4d Droid, who
served him from that day forward.
As the new Master of the Sith, Plagueis soon faced a challenge from Darth Venamis, defeating
the potential dark lord and capturing him for experimentations.
From Venamis he acquired a list of force sensitive individuals being consideed for apprenticeship,
and so Plagueis went out to find and eliminate these potential rivals.
Secure in his status, the Sith Lord continued his efforts to destabilize the galaxy, focusing
on the midrim planet of Naboo, where their recently discovered plasma reserve had divided
the government, with some conservatives wanting to keep this resource for themselves, while
the more liberal faction wished to use it to attract investors and join the interstellar
community.
During his time on Naboo, where all knew him as Hego Demask, the Sith Lord met and befriended
a young force sensative man named Sheev Palpatine, who served as a spy for the liberal faction,
acting against his own family who were allied with the conservatives.
As Plagueis got to know the young man, he was impressed by his intelligence, ambition
and ruthlessness; and decided to take him on as an apprentice.
Manipulating events to further estrange him from his parents, the Sith Master told Palpatine
a story about how he killed his own half brothers and sisters in order to inherit his father’s
fortune.
Although this story was only partially true, it helped convince the apprentice to murder
his entire family after a heated argument with his father.
Having proven his commitment, Plagueis accepted Palpatine into the Sith Order and named him
Darth Sidious.
Yet much like his predecessor, Plagueis did not intend to train his replacement, and informed
the young sith that the Rule of Two tradition was over, and that their new goal was to complete
the destruction of the Jedi so they might rule the galaxy together.
Though he did not reveal the entirety of his plan with his apprentice, Plagueis intended
to achieve immortality, not through the transfer of consciousness as other Sith had achieved,
but through direct midi-chlorian manipulation, in order to preserve both his body and mind
indefinitely.
Over the next few years, Plagueis trained Sidious in the Dark Side, making him earn
his abilities through pain, suffering and intensive study, sharing with him a collection
of holocrons from sith lords of the past.
Meanwhile, Plagueis helped him rise through the political ranks, until 52 BBY, when the
apprentice was ordered to arrange the death of Vidar Kim, so he might be elected as his
replacement in the galactic senate.
With both Sith Lords in positions of power and influence they worked together to undermine
the republic, furthering the grand plan of destroying the jedi and ruling the galaxy.
After making contact with the Kaminoans, Plagueis inquired about their cloning facilities before
attended a meeting on Serenno, where he spoke to Count Dooku and Sifo Dyas of the Jedi Order,
suggesting that the growing rift between inner and outer planets might one day lead to civil
war.
Although his original goal was to create a clone army to fight his enemies, Plagueis
soon realized they should instead fight alongside the Jedi to gain their trust, in order to
one day betray them and bring down the entire order.
During a vote to add a number of senate seats for client worlds of the Trade Federation,
Palpatine was ordered to abstain on behalf of naboo, tipping the scales in favour of
their Sith allies.
However when Senator Pax Teem, who opposed the bill, learned of Palpatine’s connection
to Hego Demask, he sent a team to kidnap the apprentice.
Plagueis, aware of his these plans, sent his own people to rescue Sidious, but he failed
to anticipate a second team of maladian assassins sent against him directly, which left the
leadership of Demask holdings all dead, save for the Dark Lord who was badly injured.
Having felt through the dark side that his master was in pain, Sidious rushed to his
side before going on a rampage in retribution, killing Senator Teem and all those nearby.
Now wearing a transpirator to help him breath, Plagueis was disturbed by the attempt on his
life and decided to retreat from public life, calling a meeting with Sidious where he at
last divulged the true nature of his research, and his plan to use midi chlorian manipulation
to preserve their bodies and minds to achieve immortality.
And so while Palpatine was left with the responsibility of manipulating galactic events towards the
destruction of the Jedi, Plagueis spent the next 20 years in relative solitude, studying
midichlorians intensely.
His obsession then yielded significant results, as he learned much about the force, gaining
insight into extending life, reviving the dead, and even learned of essence Transfer,
the same technique Darth Bane had used to try and send his consciousness into his apprentice
Darth Zannah.
However Plagueis chose not to employ this method, as he believed midichlorian manipulation
was superior as it could preserve his physical form as well as his consciousness.
When Plagueis travelled to Korriban to try and communicate with Sith spirits, he found
nothing until the very end, when he was confronted by Marka Ragnos, who admonished him for abandoning
the traditions of Korriban.
By 42 BBY, Plagueis was ready to demonstrate his new abilities, and so both Sidious and
11-4D were present when the Dark Side Master selected his still living test subject Venamis
for one last experiment, using the force to kill the creature and then revive him a number
of times before he permanently passed away.
Believing he was ready to take the next step, Plagueis then combined his powers with those
of Sidious and together they successfully reached out to the force and shifted the balance
towards the dark side, taking one more great step towards having the Sith rule over the
galaxy.
Confident in his new abilities, Plagueis then attempted another great project, reaching
out to create a being of his own design out of pure force energy.
However, not only did he fail in his purpose, but his actions seemed to trigger a counter-strike,
leaving plagueis to believed that the force itself was pushing back against his efforts.
During his time absent from galactic events, Plagueis allowed Sidious to take on an apprentice
of his own to help him conduct his affairs, training a Zabrak as a sith assassin, and
even naming him Darth Maul after passing a final test.
By 33 BBY, the Sith were entering the final stages of their plan to control of the galaxy,
orchestrating a war on Yinchorr designed to tarnish the reputation of Chancellor Velorum
and undermine his support in the galactic senate.
And while events were largely unfolding as he desired, Plagueis soon faced another attack
against him, when King Ars Veruna of Naboo, a former ally turned enemy, attempted to assassinate
him on Sojourn.
But Plagueis survived and tracked down Veruna, providing him a slow and painful death, by
eradicating his life force, one midichlorian at a time.
In 32 BBY Hego Damask made a rare public appearance, attending a meeting on Coruscant, where he
once again spoke to the Jedi Sifo Dyas, continuing the conversation started decades earlier to
discuss the possibility of galactic war.
But this time the Sith Lord was sure to mention the cloning facility on Kamino, manipulating
Sifo Dyas into contacting the Kaminoan and ordering the creation of a clone army.
When all the pieces were in place, the Sith Lords at last triggered the Naboo Crisis,
convincing their allies in the Trade Federation to blockade the planet of Naboo in protest
of the recent taxes imposed upon Free Trade zones.
During the ensuing crisis, the chosen one Anakin Skywalker was found on the planet of
tatooine, and taken in by the Jedi, tested to have an extraordinarily high midichlorian
count of 20000.
Plagueis soon concluded that this child may be the result of the Force pushing back against
the Sith Lord’s attempt to create life 9 years earlier.
Fearing that the boy may represent the undoing of the Sith grand plan Plagueis could not
allow him to be trained by the Jedi, sending Darth Maul to kill the child’s potential
masters Qui gon Jinn and Obi wan Kenobi.
In the end, the Naboo crisis had been a great political victory for the Sith, as it allowed
Senator Palpatine to bring down Chancelor Finis Valorum, and set himself up to be chosen
as his replacement.
On the night before the election, when Palpatine’s victory was guaranteed, Plagueis met with
his apprentice in a private meeting to celebrate their achievement.
With Sidious as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic and Plagueis soon to be named as
co-chancellor, the Sith would rule the galaxy and be in a position to finally destroy the
Jedi Order.
However, like many dark side apprentices before him, Darth Sidious never had any intention
of sharing power, and so got his master drunk and launched a savage force lightening attack
upon him while he slept.
As Plagueis died, Sidious went on a tirade, revealing that he was the true Master of the
Sith who had been enacting his own plan from the very beginning, listing out all of his
master’s weaknesses and failures, pointing out that he his death was assured the moment
he chose Palpatine as his apprentice.
Plagueis quickly became aware of what was happening, but had grown so arrogant concerning
his powers that made no attempt to defend himself, instead trying to use Midi-chlorian
manipulation to reverse the damage being done too his body.
But he was too weak and could not keep pace, eventually succumbing to the attack and losing
his life.
Though Sidious was elated with his success, at the same time he felt a disturbance in
the dark side, later learning that while he was claiming the mantle of Master, his own
apprentice Darth Maul was killed in battle with the Jedi.
The next day, Sheev palpatine was elected as supreme chancellor of the galactic republic.
Although he believed Plagueis had outlived his usefulness, Sidious had a certain respect
for his sith master that stayed with him throughout his life, including his name in the book of
the Sith, as one of the Dark Lords to have played a pivotal role in advancing the grand
plan.
He even used the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise, to help lure the chosen one Anakin Skywalker
to the darkside, by revealing that his master had actually gained the ability to control
life and death through his studies of the force.
