Star Wars Reveals What Rise Of Skywalker’s Sith Eternal Look Like

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker introduced Palpatine’s Sith Eternal into canon but viewers didn’t know what they looked like until now. Palpatine’s return from the dead was one of great mystery and something the final installment in the Skywalker saga failed to explain. Instead, Palpatine’s resurrection was waved away by him quoting Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, implying that he harnessed the power of the dark side to retain his life force. And the people responsible for making all of that happen was the Sith Eternal.

As the Empire collapsed at the Battle of Jakku and the First Order rose from the ashes years later, with Supreme Leader Snoke and later Kylo Ren at the helm, the Sith Eternal remained on Exegol in the galaxy’s Unknown Regions and continued to work on cloning Palpatine’s DNA, attempting to form a vessel that would allow him to return to his true form. Furthermore, the Sith Eternal was responsible for creating Palpatine’s Final Order, including the Xyston-class Star Destroyers that were capable of destroying entire planets with Death Star-like laser beams.

Viewers were treated only to distance or wide shots of the Sith Eternal in The Rise of Skywalker, and the Star Wars comics provided readers with only hooded versions of the characters. However, now the book Secrets of the Sith has revealed what the Sith Eternal looks like up close. In a similar mummy-like fashion, the Sith Eternal appear wrapped completely in a linen cloth, with their faces also covered. Although a specific reason hasn’t been given for the identities being hidden, covering one’s self certainly fits the themes of the Star Wars franchise.

Most dark side users hide under cloaks or behind masks; the notable exception being Count Dooku, who freely showed his face and made his identity known during the Star Wars prequels. Since the Sith Eternal are fervently devoted to Palpatine, it makes sense that they would forego their identities in dedication to their Emperor. Furthermore, there’s an interesting thematic connection between them being wrapped like mummies and attempting to resurrect their leader who had died quite unceremoniously years before.

In addition to their unwavering loyalty to Palpatine, the Sith Eternal also believed in the Doctrine of the Dyad, which stated that two Force users could form a bond that would grant them unimaginable power; it’s a concept that preceded the Rule of Two and governed much of what Palpatine had done throughout the entire Skywalker saga, according to the new canon, so it also fell in line with the Sith Eternal’s beliefs.