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Just how many people knew that Palpatine was a Sith Lord up to ROTS? We do know from the Journal of Whillis that the Emperor was viewed as a gentle old man manipulated by capitalists and other senators, in Rebel Dawn, Bria stated that there were rumours that the Emperor was not what he seemed.

But just who knew that Palpatine was a Sith Lord in ROTS? The identity of Sidious was no doubt highly secret, those who stumbled on the secret no doubt rapidly died, just like the clone in LoE. Alternative, there were also those who probably knew, such as the Speaker of the Senate, as he didn't raise an eyebrow when Yoda came to challenge Palpatine.
Did the CIS leadership even realise that Palpatine was Sidious? Grevious?

speculation on my part, but here goes:

Mas Amedda - IIRC Appeared alongside Palpatine as Yoda entered his chambers prior to their RoTS duel. At that point I think he would have known something. (He's the Speaker of the Senate you're referring to.)

Sly Moore - Possibility exists due to her connection to Palp's inner circle.

Sate Pestage - Longtime advisor to Palpatine. The Palpatine Wookiepedia entry cites the New Essential Guide to Characters as a source for this, which means Pestage's knowledge of the Sidious/Palpatine connection is canon. Unfortunately I don't have the Essential Guide so I can't independently confirm.

Ars Dangor/Janus Greejatus - same as Pestage

Crueya Vandron - became head of COMPNOR after the founding of the Galactic Empire, a possibility exists but there's no evidence to suggest this aside from the close ties which secured the COMPNOR position.

Dooku - But he didn't last very long did he.

Hope that helps.

Sly Moore not only knows, she's a Force-Sensitive according to some WOTC source. And she ran the early indoctrination program for potential Inquisitors.

Mas Amedda appears alongside Palpatine after the duel with Yoda in ROTS, demanding the clones search harder for him. He also refers to Palpatine as "Master", so he's either a Force-Sensitive as well, or a member of a Sith cult.

Sim Aloo and Janus Greejatus were both trained as Adepts by Palpatine on Byss, following the rise of the Empire. They must have been protected from Jedi scrutiny while working for him in the Republic.

I don't think that the Jedi Order's recruitment program is actually mandatory, considering the low number of full members and the well-attributed existence of Force sensitives who were not and had never been members. I suspect most of what the Inquisitorius did was hunt down non-affiliated Force sensitives; an actual full-fledged Jedi fugitive case was probably a big deal.

Anyway, in Death Star its implied Wilhuff Grand Moff Tarkin was unaware (or at least he did not have it confirmed) of even Vader's identity as a Dark Lord of the Sith - he did find it odd that although "the Sith and the Jedi were both extinct," that he still used a lightsaber. The inner circle definitely knew - Grand Moff Trachta, after all, called the Empire a "theocracy of two" - and lamented the domination by the Sith.

I think it's pretty obvious from the movie that Tarkin believed Vader to be a Jedi, which is true for those rather uninformed of the distinctions between Jedi and Sith.

Palpatine's closest would know, men like Pestage and Vader, as well as minions like Jade and Sedriss, but knowledge of Palpatine's Force powers was very rare.

Out of curiousity, did Xizor even know?

No, I don't think so. He at the very least totally did not understand Palpatine's Sith status and the Sith Order, because he plausibly believed he could replace Vader at Palpatine's side.

PainRack wrote:? Grevious?

If I remember the RoTS novelization correctly, Grievous did not know. According to my memory he was very bothered by the whole setup of the kidnapping/rescue part of the story. He wanted to just leave but Dooku (IIRC) made him stay by Coruscant. When I get home I'll look up the right passages to properly answer the question.

You're right, Grevious didn't know. If he was at command, he simply broadcasted the captured Palpatine to all Republic, and maybe killed him to literally crush the Loyalist's morale, assuming he wouldn't BDZed the entire planet.

Out of curiousity, did Xizor even know?

I am not aware if Prince Xizor was aware of the fact that Emperor Palpatine was the reigning Sith Master in the Sith Order, but he was aware that the Emperor was Force-sensitive, and understood that his mastery was greater than Vader's own.

Bevel Lemelisk most likely figured it out at one point or another.

lord Martiya wrote:You're right, Grevious didn't know. If he was at command, he simply broadcasted the captured Palpatine to all Republic, and maybe killed him to literally crush the Loyalist's morale, assuming he wouldn't BDZed the entire planet.

Grevious didn't know Palpatine was Sidious but he knew Sidious was a Sith Lord since he refered to him as Lord Sidious much like the Viceroy of the Trade Federation did ten years prior.

It would seem that some of the CIS leadership were very much aware that they were being led by a Sith Lord, they just didn't realize that Lord was Palpatine.

On the Vader front, Dark Lord Rising explained the initial acceptence of Darth Vader as Palpatines own version of General Grevious by the fugitive Jedi running from him. At the end of the book, one of the Jedi fugitives was rather shocked at the truth that the Sith Lord was Palpatine and his minion Vader was the Choosen One.

Knife wrote:

lord Martiya wrote:You're right, Grevious didn't know. If he was at command, he simply broadcasted the captured Palpatine to all Republic, and maybe killed him to literally crush the Loyalist's morale, assuming he wouldn't BDZed the entire planet.

Grevious didn't know Palpatine was Sidious but he knew Sidious was a Sith Lord since he refered to him as Lord Sidious much like the Viceroy of the Trade Federation did ten years prior.

It would seem that some of the CIS leadership were very much aware that they were being led by a Sith Lord, they just didn't realize that Lord was Palpatine.

Appears that I failed to say this (it was my intention, but I forgot this ). Thanks for integration.

Alexian Cale wrote:

Out of curiousity, did Xizor even know?

I am not aware if Prince Xizor was aware of the fact that Emperor Palpatine was the reigning Sith Master in the Sith Order, but he was aware that the Emperor was Force-sensitive, and understood that his mastery was greater than Vader's own.

That's right at the beginning of Shadows of the Empire, if I recall correctly, and he even mentions that "Palpatine looks as if the dark side is eating away at him." However, I can't recall if Xizor refers to him as a Sith Lord or not. He refers to Vader as Dark Lord of the Sith, so it's certainly possible that he knows Palpatine's secret as well.

There's also Grand Moff Trachta in the SW:Rebellion comics, who explicitly names both Palpatine and Darth Vader as Sith Lords. If Trachta had some sort of reason to suspect that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, than Tarkin stands a good chance of doing so himself.

^ Agreed. It's far from unreasonable that a guy like Tarkin considers Sith and evil Jedi to be essentially the same. Let's face it, he's not far off.

TC Pilot wrote:I think it's pretty obvious from the movie that Tarkin believed Vader to be a Jedi, which is true for those rather uninformed of the distinctions between Jedi and Sith.

The prologue to Death Star expands on this. Tarkin is indeed certain that Vader was formerly a Jedi and while he has no way to confirm it, has a pretty good suspicion of Vader's true identity.

I would imagine Thrawn would, one way or another, given what he knows of the Force which seemed quite adequate.

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:I would imagine Thrawn would, one way or another, given what he knows of the Force which seemed quite adequate.

A good point, Thrawn realized the significance of the loss of Palpatine at the Battle of Endor, and that's a big reason why he brought in Joruus C'baoth.

Here's something for fun. Did Quinlin Vos or Asajj Ventress' ever realise that Sidious was Palpatine?

Heir to the Empire is a long-standing testament to Grand Admiral Thrawn's knowledge that Emperor Palpatine was Force-sensitive; while there is no actual basis to conclude that he ascertained that the Emperor was also a Sith Lord, one must also take into consideration that Thrawn did interact with Darth Sidious via hologram in Outbound Flight, and was subsequently informed by Jorus C'Boath and Kinman Doriana on what a "Sith Lord" is. Whether or not he ever managed to deduce that the two were one in the same remains uncertain, though it's very likely, given the scope of Thrawn's powers of observation and deduction.

PainRack wrote:Here's something for fun. Did Quinlin Vos or Asajj Ventress' ever realise that Sidious was Palpatine?

I never knew that Vos was able to confirm the identity of Darth Sidious, much less that he was Palpatine. Ventress likely never knew, though she had met Sidious via hologram as well and spoke accurately of his persona to Count Dooku in Dark Rendezvous.[/i]

Kadann and the Darkside Prophets certainly knew. After all, Palpatine had been in contact with them well before Naboo, if I'm remembering my facts straight.

PainRack wrote:Here's something for fun. Did Quinlin Vos or Asajj Ventress' ever realise that Sidious was Palpatine?

Maybe Asajj deduced it after the proclamation of the Empire, but in no way she can know that before the Empire.

Alexian Cale wrote: I never knew that Vos was able to confirm the identity of Darth Sidious, much less that he was Palpatine. Ventress likely never knew, though she had met Sidious via hologram as well and spoke accurately of his persona to Count Dooku in Dark Rendezvous.[/i]

I was under the assumption that Count Dooku revealed to Vos the presence of a Sith Lord?

PainRack wrote:I was under the assumption that Count Dooku revealed to Vos the presence of a Sith Lord?

During the battle of Saleucami (sp?), one of Dooku's Dark Jedi who had some kind of feud with Vos, claimed that the story of the second Sith had been a fairy tale that Dooku had used to mess with Vos' mind (whose obsession with the second Sith Lord was well known to Dooku).

EDIT: So he might have had his doubts for a while, but it is a very good bet that he more or less put two and two together following GO66.

How wide are we casting the net here, exactly?

I ask because I'm thinking of Tyber Zann (not connected to the Empire, but a farily major crimelord, and therefore likely better informed than the average citizen) comments at one point that Darth Vader may be the only Sith Lord in existance, implying that he isn't aware of Palpatine.

it's also an intresting question is, how many of those who knew who Palpatine was could that to their own advantace.