Thanks to Imperial Project Necromancer,Emperor Palpatinecheated death and returned to plague the galaxy, but anotherStar Warscharacter achieved this 1,000 years earlier. Both inthe official canon and the originalStar WarsExpanded Universe, now known as “Legends,” Palpatine survived his apparent death and waged war against the New Republic.Star Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerandStar Wars: Dark Empireby Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy have many more things in common, including the secret Force power and dark science that kept him alive.
Unlike the Legends timeline,The Rise of Skywalkerdidn’t give many details on how Palpatine returned, except in the film novelization.The Mandalorianseason 3 teased something called “Project Necromancer,” which returned inStar Wars: The Bad Batchseason 3 and was heavily implied as the Imperial initiative that helped Palpatine cheat death. While this may seem incredible, a Dark Jedi in the Legends timeline used a nearly identical technique to gain immortality a millennium before Palpatine, living longer than the Emperor could have dreamed.
Set Harth Used The Same Technique As Palpatine To Survive For 1,000 Years
A secret passed on to worthy Sith pupils
Set Harth was a Jedi Padawan who fell to the dark side following the New With Warsand became obsessed with Sith artifacts. His search led him to the Sith Lord Darth Zannah, who had recently fallen out with her master, Darth Bane. Zannah planned to kill Bane and claim the title of Dark Lord of the SIth, so she spared Set and took him as her apprentice. The two tracked Bane and Zannah ordered Set to guard their ship, but he instead snuck off and stole a holocron that had belonged to Darth Andeddu.
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Set may not have become a true Sith Lord, but consulting with the Sith holocron allowed him to learn a technique called essence transfer. This meantSet could transfer his spirit into another body, so he created clones of himself to stay alive, just as Palpatine did in canon and Legends. Unlike Palpatine, Set used this technique to live for at least 1,000 years, as he was still alive approximately 20 years afterReturn of the Jedi. Given that length of time, Set creating so many clones of himself raises an interesting question about this form of immortality.
After A Thousand Years, Was He Still Really Set Harth At All?
That’s a lot of clones after all
Palpatine’s cloning only gave him another 30 years in canon, but that was enough for some fans to debate whether he was still the same Palpatine. IfSet transferred his mind to a new clone every 30 years, it’s worth considering if he was really the same man by the end, as many people can change drastically in just one lifetime. Of course, Set stayed committed to hunting dark-side artifacts, so perhaps the process actually kept him from changing. Either way, it’s fascinating that anotherStar Warscharacter accomplished this long beforeEmperor Palpatineand Project Necromancer.
Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious
The senator for Naboo, Palpatine rose to power and influence during the dying days of the Republic. In reality, his public persona was just a mask; he was really Darth Sidious, greatest of the Sith Lords, and he used his political skills and Machiavellian cunning to bring down both the Republic and the Jedi. Palpatine ruled his Galactic Empire for decades, until he was betrayed by his apprentice, Darth Vader. Even this wasn’t enough to stop the Emperor, however, as he was resurrected by his followers - only to be defeated once again.
