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Darth Hoth wrote:I guess I am still influenced by Thrawn's ideas on cloning...

Think of it the other way - Thrawn only fingered C'baoth for his darksider cloning project. Why is this? He knew of the original C'baoth had the same egomaniac personality. If it was as simple as throwing any Jedi's genome into the vat, why stick with the problematic C'baoth? Consider the fact that perhaps C'baoth was uniquely adaptive to the process, and his genome and flash-imprint would yield successful results where others perhaps did not. Consider that Palpatine never directly duplicated one of his fallen underlings to replace them, but he did duplicate C'baoth.

Darth Hoth wrote:Would that perhaps mean that Force sensitivity would be only partially transferred to a clone? That could perhaps tie into the idea that Palpatine's clone bodies degenerated faster than his original body, even before the sabotage; it "used up" some Force reserve of the body more quickly or whatnots.

I do think it is partially connected to genetics. What I mean is if you created millions of Anakin Skywalker clones, each individual clone would not be anywhere near as potentially powerful (if at all) as the original Anakin Skywalker. My personal theory is that the Force blocks out this kind of "cheating."

Furthermore, I have my own theory regarding Palpatine's bodies. I think he was maxing out his old body, given how intensely it decayed him (apart from the ROTS lightening/alchemical mask failure damage). But once he had essentially unlimited clone bodies, he really cut loose in his power use and burnt out each successive one much faster as he had no reason to preserve them. Essentially, I think the clones served as both a bridge to quasi-immortality and to remove some of the physical personal constraints on his use of the Force.

That is certainly some interesting reasoning on the cloning/spirit thing. Do you also have a theory on disembodied Sith spirits, how they are affected by the lack of a host body? That has puzzled me somewhat.

The ancient Jen'ari are rarely seen outside their necropolis on Korriban, to the extent that Darth Sidious physically travels there to confer with them in Empire's End. This is probably a side effect of the Sithian magic that preserves them, possibly by anchoring them to a particular talisman or artifact ("The Sith Compendium" describes the established technique of "transferring the essence of a living being into a sarcophagus," and notes that it is possible for such a ghost to possess a living being who unwisely lay within the sarcophagus).

This appears likely. It does, however, make Freedon Nadd a curious exception.

Darth Hoth wrote:This appears likely. It does, however, make Freedon Nadd a curious exception.

In point of fact, it does not. Nadd's soul lingered around his sarcophagus for generations, and "The Sith Compendium" specifically cites him as an example of a Sithian sarcophagus being the final resting place of a Sith Lord's spirit. The removal of his sarcophagus to Dxun was done specifically to break his influence on the ruling house of Onderon, and the tomb remained a nexus of dark side miasma for thousands of years, mutating flora and fauna in its vicinity.

The fact that Nadd's ghost followed Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun is not unusual (Obi-Wan Kenobi's and Yoda's ghosts did the same thing with Luke Skywalker). Perhaps significantly, they were appearing to people whom they had already encountered. Exar Kun himself would go on to mimic the technique, anchoring his own soul to the Massassi temples on Yavin IV.

A far more unusual case is that of Palpatine, who was able to "transmigrate" his soul without the benefit of an existing metaphysical anchor on at least four occasions; it is noteworthy that at least one of these nearly resulted in failure. One might conclude that the dark side's persistence after death is a great deal more unreliable than the light side's (Obi-Wan Kenobi had no difficulties at all).

I was not aware of such information, but as presented, it makes sense. Again, point conceded.

Publius wrote:A far more unusual case is that of Palpatine, who was able to "transmigrate" his soul without the benefit of an existing metaphysical anchor on at least four occasions; it is noteworthy that at least one of these nearly resulted in failure. One might conclude that the dark side's persistence after death is a great deal more unreliable than the light side's (Obi-Wan Kenobi had no difficulties at all).

Perhaps that is because of the very nature of the dark side. Considering that the dark side encompasses the more turbulent emotions, a specter's immersion in the Force may leave him vulnerable to long term emotional trauma. Lacking a physical body, a specter's sense of self and mental faculties are likely all that prevent passing on, so to speak. Emotional contamination from the Force may degrade that.

Of course, this is all speculation.