The upcoming Star Wars book Dark Legends will reveal the ancient secrets of Exegol - and the mystery of the Sith's quest for immortality.

George Mann's upcomingStar Wars tie-in book,Dark Legends, will reveal ancient secrets of Exegol and the Sith quest for immortality. According to Matt Stover's novelization ofStar Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, the ultimate goal of every Sith is to find a way to conquer death. As powerful as a Sith may be, though, they can never truly become a Force Ghost in the manner seen by Jedi such as Qui-Gon Jinn and Luke Skywalker, because that involves submitting yourself to the will of the Force - the very opposite of Sith philosophy.

The Sith may not technically be able to conquer death, but they can still come pretty close, as revealed inStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. There, the Emperor mysteriously returned from the dead. The film itself was silent as to just how this was possible, but tie-ins have gradually fleshed it out. It seems the Emperor's spirit survivedReturn of the Jedi, and fled to a clone body secreted on the Sith bastion of Exegol. This is a technique known as Essence Transfer, and the experience appears to have made Palpatine even more powerful in the dark side of the Force. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Essence Transfer, not least the fact a Sith spirit has previously been unable to travel cosmic distances before finding a host. But it seems some of those secrets may well be revealed in George Mann's upcomingStar Wars book,Dark Legends.

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Mann participated in the annual Lucasfilm Publishing Panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con@Home, and there he talked a little about the book. It's essentially a sequel to his previous work,Myths & Fables, and serves as a collection of in-universe legends. Like real-world myths, many of these have an element of truth to them, and apparently one of the tales inDark Legends will explore the Sith quest for immortality. As Mann explained:

"Another example is a story set on Exegol, which was great fun to do, because I was writing that just in the runup to the film coming out, and being able to hear a few of the little secrets about what was going to happen. And we're exploring in that, that kind of whole thing that the Emperor was trying to do, that whole Sith quest for immortality and this is an ancient story about a Sith who's tried before to win immortality, and the price of that - the price of immortal life, and what it does to a person who can achieve it, or get close to it. Like most of these kind of Grimm's Fairy Tales, you have a sting in the tail of most of these stories, so no one gets what they quite expect by the end of the tale."

This ancient Sith's quest for immortality appears to have been successful enough to make their way into Sith legend, so they can safely be called a forerunner of Palpatine himself. But Mann suggests things didn't turn out well; he's fashioned these stories on Grimm's Fairy Tales, meaning people don't always get what they want. Presumably that means there will be a major cost to the Sith quest, with Palpatine learning lessons from the legend but choosing not to duplicate it.The history of the Sith planet Exegol is currently shrouded in mystery. According to the junior novelization ofStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it was a once-fertile habitat that was despoiled by the Sith, who consumed the world's resources. Hidden in the depths of the Unknown Regions, it was presumably found by Sith explorers who used the Force to safely chart a path through the maelstrom. They recognized its potential as a major stronghold, although there may well have been others as well; thus when the Sith Empire was defeated millennia ago, the survivors took Exegol as their base.

Star Wars: Dark Legends will be available at your local book store on July 28th, 2020.

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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant's staff writers, and he's frankly amused that his childhood is back - and this time it's cool. Tom's focus tends to be on the various superhero franchises, as well as Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Star Trek; he's also an avid comic book reader. Over the years, Tom has built a strong relationship with aspects of the various fan communities, and is a Moderator on some of Facebook's largest MCU and X-Men groups. Previously, he's written entertainment news and articles for Movie Pilot.A graduate of Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom, Tom is still strongly connected with his alma mater; in fact, in his spare time he's a voluntary chaplain there. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will quickly learn that he's interested in British politics as well.

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Star Wars: Dark Legends Will Reveal Secrets of Sith Immortality - Screen Rant