Cosinga Palpatine was a Human male aristocrat who served as the head of House Palpatine. This house was a prominent noble family on the planet Naboo. His firstborn son considered him both grossly incompetent and excessively arrogant, and he was known for his violent nature. Cosinga dedicated a significant amount of time and credits to attempts at purchasing political power and securing his son's obedience.
He fathered at least five children with his wife, and while he detested his oldest son, he favored his other four sons and daughter. Unlike their rebellious older brother, these younger Palpatines were compliant with Cosinga's desires. This was a trait their older brother refused to display. In 65 BBY, the younger Palpatine, consumed by rage, ended his father's life. He used the dark side of the Force to kill not only his father, but also his mother, siblings, and several of the family's bodyguards. This son would later become Darth Sidious, a Dark Lord of the Sith, and eventually rise to the positions of Senator, Supreme Chancellor, and Emperor.
Cosinga Palpatine, like his ancestors before him, was born into the ancient aristocratic lineage of the Palpatines, one of the Royal Houses of the planet Naboo. During his youth, Cosinga often stood on the balcony of the family's Lake Country villa, taking pleasure in surveying the vast lands of the estate he was destined to inherit. His eldest son, Palpatine, viewed this as evidence of Cosinga's lack of ambition, as the only thing his father would ever be master of was that which he had inherited by birthright. This contrasted sharply with Cosinga's ambitious heir, who would strive for, and ultimately achieve, dominating the entire galaxy.
Cosinga's relationship with his family was strained, to say the least. His wife and younger children were completely subservient to him, lacking any independent thought. Palpatine was the only member of his family over whom he could not easily exert his will. Cosinga was constantly in conflict with his firstborn son and heir. The younger Palpatine proved to be a rebellious youth with a tendency towards troublemaking. As a result, his father spent a considerable amount of credits to shield the family from the scandals that Palpatine frequently caused through his numerous encounters with the law.
On one occasion, Cosinga acquired an expensive prototype patrol-grade Flash landspeeder, which his son interpreted as an attempt to bribe him. However, due to his love of flying, Palpatine accepted the vehicle. Despite the pride he developed for the speeder, this "gift" failed to diminish—or even soften—the hatred Palpatine felt for his father. Cosinga later forbade Palpatine from flying after the latter accidentally killed two pedestrians, only to reverse his decision due to his son's defiance of his authority. Their mutual animosity continued to intensify in the years that followed, and Cosinga refused to fly with Palpatine ever again.
Cosinga Palpatine and his eldest son attended two coronations in Theed. Years later, Palpatine the younger vividly recalled his father's envy of the monarch's power and influence. However, while Cosinga only dreamed of wielding power over Naboo in his son's estimation, Palpatine would accept nothing less than absolute power over the entire galaxy.
By 65 BBY, Cosinga Palpatine was a member of the faction that opposed Naboo's full integration into the Galactic Republic. During the upcoming election for the planet's next monarch, Cosinga and his political allies opposed Bon Tapalo, a candidate who promised to integrate the people of Naboo as full members of the Republic. However, Palpatine believed that his father's support of Tapalo's opponent was driven by personal interests rather than the best interests of Naboo. According to Palpatine the son, Cosinga was having an affair with the sister of Tapalo's rival. Therefore, Cosinga sought to gain a position of power in the government once his mistress's brother became king, a position Palpatine believed he did not deserve.
The young Palpatine developed a pro-unification stance between Naboo and the Republic as a way of further antagonizing his father. Without Cosinga's knowledge, he secretly provided valuable information to Tapalo's campaign, an act that caught the attention of Darth Plagueis, a Dark Lord of the Sith who publicly posed as Magister Hego Damask, the owner of Damask Holdings.
Cosinga disapproved of his son's friendship with Damask. However, by attempting to separate Palpatine from Damask's influence, and by confirming Palpatine's suspicions that Cosinga harbored a murderous hatred for him due to his son being "born mature" and thus superior to his father in every way, Cosinga inadvertently caused his son to tap into his hidden connection to the Force, particularly the dark side. Consumed by rage and years of suppressed patricidal feelings, Palpatine used the Force to violently smash his father's skull against the ship's bulkhead. He then proceeded to kill everyone on board.
Plagueis concealed the truth behind the deaths of Cosinga Palpatine and his family as a tragic accident, disposing of all evidence linking Palpatine to their disappearance. He then claimed the orphaned Palpatine as his Sith apprentice, secretly renaming him "Darth Sidious" after recognizing the ambition, arrogance, and insidiousness of Cosinga's heir, who showed no remorse for murdering his entire family. Cosinga's son ultimately became the Sith Lord who orchestrated the downfall of the Jedi Order and the Republic, becoming Emperor of the first Galactic Empire in 19 BBY.
Regarding Cosinga's impact on galactic history, no records of him or his lineage remained by the time of his son's final term as Supreme Chancellor. All records pertaining to Palpatine's ancestry or immediate family members had mysteriously vanished by the time of the New Order's declaration; some even speculated that the name "Palpatine" was created by Sidious to conceal his secret Sith identity and enter the political arena, posthumously denying Cosinga any of the influence he so desperately desired.
According to his eldest son, Cosinga Palpatine was an arrogant man who overestimated his own intelligence. While ambitious, Cosinga's desire for power was limited, and he showed no apparent interest in advancing beyond his status as a privileged aristocrat, although the younger Palpatine did observe that Cosinga particularly envied the power held by the Naboo monarch. Part of the younger Palpatine's resentment stemmed from his observation that his father lacked the political acumen needed to elevate House Palpatine to a position of true entitlement and greater wealth. Much to his son's disgust, Cosinga believed he already possessed all the power and influence that could be attained. In what ultimately became their final argument, Palpatine also implied that Cosinga was a prolific liar, referring to him as the "father of lies."
As a husband and father, Cosinga Palpatine was feared by his wife and younger children, but utterly despised by his eldest son. One of the few traits the elder and younger Palpatine shared, besides a thirst for violence, was a fanatical passion for speeder racing. His political views were conservative and pro-isolationist. Consequently, he agreed with then-senatorial aide Vidar Kim on the idea of maintaining Naboo's semi-independent status from the Republic to prevent corporate entities from exploiting their homeworld's plasma reserves.
Similar to his son's hatred for him, Cosinga in turn hated his eldest son, so much so that he even admitted immediately before his death that he was willing to kill his son from the start, and would have done so at Palpatine's goading had the latter not killed him first. Largely due to his hatred of his son, he also doubted their familial connection, requiring Palpatine to take a paternity test at least once to confirm his parentage. Even in the few instances where Cosinga bailed his son out of legal trouble, it was solely to protect his family from the inevitable scandal that would arise from his eldest son's misdeeds, and not out of any genuine concern for his son's well-being.
Despite being married, Cosinga engaged in an extramarital affair with his mistress. She was also the sister of Bon Tapalo's chief rival for the monarchy. His son suspected that Cosinga was exploiting his affair to gain a position of power in the government should Tapalo's opponent win the election.
Cosinga Palpatine was first introduced in the novel Darth Plagueis. The creation of his character, along with those of his wife and his other sons and daughters, provided significant detail to the previously obscure origins of Emperor Palpatine.
Cos Dashit was the original name of the Emperor (then also "Lord of [Alderaan](/article/alderaan-legends]" and "Consul to the Supreme Tribunal") in the rough draft of Star Wars. Cosingas (Greek: Κοσίγγας) is one of the generals mentioned by Polyaenus in his Stratagems.