Star Wars: 10 Things You Might Not Know About Emperor Palpatine
7. The Sith Shrine On Coruscant Masked His Power
A common query among Star Wars fans is how Palpatine was able to conceal his connection to the Dark Side from the Jedi, considering he served as Chancellor and had frequent dealings with the Jedi Council and with Anakin.
Palpatine had the ability to mask his Force power to some degree and the hubris of the Jedi stopped them from being able to directly sense the Dark Side in the Chancellor until it was too late, even after being tipped off by Count Dooku during Attack of the Clones.
However in one of the earliest novels released in the new Canon, titled ‘Tarkin’, a new reason for the Jedi’s blindness to Palpatines’ affiliation to the Dark Side was revealed. While the primary plot of the novel details Wilhuff Tarkin rise from an Admiral in the Army of the Republic to being a Grand Moff in service of the Emperor, an excerpt details that long ago on Coruscant an ancient Sith Shrine had been constructed.
The Jedi had been aware of this and constructed their Temple atop the shrine to conceal its power; however Palpatine was also aware of the existence of the shrine. Palpatine was able to mask his own Dark Side energy with that of the shrines, clouding the Jedi’s ability to sense that he was the very Sith Lord they were seeking.