Warning! This article contains spoilers for Star Wars #42 Palpatine did more than rule the Star Wars galaxy as the Emperor, as he also formed a Sith cult called the Acolytes of the Beyond that rose to prominence immediately following his apparent death in Return of the Jedi. The Acolytes were part of Emperor Palpatine’s contingency plan, and now it seems the true extent of the cult’s purpose has finally been revealed.
The Acolytes of the Beyond were a group of people unable to access the Force, but who worshiped the dark side, as well as those who could manipulate it. However, that isn’t to say they had no connection with the Force at all (indeed, all living things do), as many believed they could commune with dead Sith. Mostly, this was done not through any skills of their own, but through Sith artifacts that had been corrupted by wielders of the dark side.
The Acolytes had ample exposure to such artifacts, as their primary objective was to travel the galaxy collecting Sith artifacts, and then ceremoniously destroying them. The Acolytes believed doing so would return the artifacts to the nether afterlife known as the Beyond, where they believed all Sith ended up upon their deaths. The Acolytes would destroy most anything touched by the Sith in service of their great cause, and that includes bled kyber crystals.
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Sith Spirits Existed Within the Very Kyber Crystals Star Wars’ Acolytes Were Told to Destroy
In Star Wars #42 by Charles Soule and Steve Cummings, Luke Skywalker is trying to purify the red kyber crystal he obtained from a kyber expert a few issues prior. He takes the crystal to a member of the Fallanassi race named Greta, where he also encounters her aunt, Auntie Feez. The Fallanassi are kyber experts themselves, and they used to purify red crystals often. Feez is as close to an expert on the subject as one could be in this era, so she agrees to help Luke.
Before Luke merges his mind with the kyber crystal, Auntie Feez warns him that a piece of the Sith who bled the crystal still exists within it, as do a collective of fragments from their past that has metaphysically cemented itself as a perpetual moment in time inside the crystal. The red kyber crystal is the last remaining fragment of the Sith’s spirit, which is very much alive in its own right, as it has the ability to influence the living in the present day through the Force.
The Acolytes of the Beyond Were Unwittingly Hurting The Sith To Help Palpatine
This Star Wars issue confirms that the spirits of deceased Sith lived on within their kyber crystals, and it’s presented as something that anyone with knowledge of the Sith would assuredly know – including Palpatine. This means his order to the Acolytes of the Beyond to destroy Sith artifacts is particularly alarming. Palpatine doesn’t do anything for no reason, including and especially forming a galactic dark side cult with a very specific mission. It seems Palpatine wanted the spirits of ancient Sith snuffed out forever during his absence – as he should have. The lingering spirits of dead Sith have been known to possess people through ‘cursed’ objects (including a member of the Acolytes, Kiza). That means other Sith – through possessed flesh puppets – could have risen to prominence and taken over the galaxy before Palpatine had the chance to return.
Palpatine always planned to return from the grave upon his ‘death’, and he needed to make sure that another Sith didn’t try to take his place while he was gone. While this is just a theory, it’s one that makes a lot of sense given what Star Wars fans now know about the nature of Sith artifacts, leading one to wonder if Palpatine did, indeed, trick his sequel-era cult into wiping out any lingering Sith who might rival his power.
Star Wars #42 by Marvel Comics is available now.
