The election of Padme Amidala as Queen of Naboo brought a new era of hope to the Mid
Rim world following the numerous corruption scandals
of the former monarch King Veruna, which had ruined his family’s reputation and turned
the entire population of the planet against him.
However, the corruption scandals that led to King Veruna’s political downfall was
just the tip of the iceberg of his problems, as the fate that
awaited him after he left the throne was one of
nightmares.
Prior to his rise as King of Naboo, Veruna came from a powerful noble family that held
great ambition in exerting their influence on the
Mid Rim planet.
Sharing his family’s nature of desire for power, Veruna did whatever it took to
rise to the top of Naboo, including reaching out to
outsiders for help, which tended to be a frowned upon practice among the largely isolationist
lush green world.
One of his earliest allies was the Muun banker Hego Damask, who in reality was the Sith Lord
Darth Plagueis.
Plagueis along with his fellow Intergalactic Banking Clan colleagues helped
finance Veruna’s political career and laid the groundwork of the Trade Federation’s
export of Naboo’s precious plasma reserves into the
greater galactic market.
While at first the wealth brought into Naboo from its contract with the Trade Federation
raised enough support for Veruna to secure the throne,
it quickly became a thorn to the newly elected King.
Accusations of corruption within his administration became widespread, revelations that
the people were being underpaid for their share of the plasma exports caused protests,
and acknowledgments that the continued extraction
of the resource not only harmed the environment, but also risked conflict with
the native Gungans who lived over the largest deposits
of the rare material caused concerns.
As a result of all these problems within his administration, Veruna began to go out of
control as he desperately attempted to save his reputation
and position as monarch of Naboo.
This caused him to go against the wishes of his former
ally Hego Damask, and even Senator Palpatine, who
was elected to the Republic Senate during his reign.
The two Sith were setting up the groundwork of events that would eventually lead to the
conflict between Naboo and the Trade Federation, which
was to serve as a steppingstone for Palpatine to rise to the position of Supreme Chancellor.
Realizing that the King they helped elect was no longer a reliable puppet for the Sith
Lords’ plans of advancing their own agenda, they
sought to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
King Veruna soon came to realize that Hego Damask was working against him in trying to
undermine his position as ruler of Naboo.
Desperate in holding on to the throne no matter the
cost, Veruna came to ally himself with notorious underworld crime syndicates, including the
Black Sun and Hutt Cartel, in hopes of using their assets to remove Damask’s influence
over his planet.
He went as far as ordering his new shady allies in killing the Muun banker, ordering an
assassination at his personal residence.
The attack on Plagueis ultimately failed, but did result
in the destruction of his primary base of operations, which saw the annihilation of
a majority of the Sith Lord’s studies and experiments
concerning the Force.
Livid at this act of reckless betrayal, Plagueis moved swiftly in removing Veruna from the
Naboo throne and ensuring the maniac could no longer
threaten his plans.
He ordered his Sith Apprentice Sidious to find a suitable candidate
to replace Veruna, to which Palpatine came to
support the rising star Padme, viewing the young girl as a perfect replacement, one that
the Sith Lords could easily manipulate for their own
ends.
Being buried by accusations of corruption, having his opponents be funded by a rich Muun
banker, and now having the popular Senator of his planet publicly support another noble
for the throne, Veruna found himself cornered with
nowhere to turn to for help.
The King then discovered that his assassination attempt on Damask had failed and that the
powerful Muun was out for revenge.
Fearing for his life, Veruna unceremoniously stepped down
from the throne and essentially handed it to Padme, quickly disappearing into the shadows
before the 14-year-old girl could be officially crowned as Queen of Naboo.
The former King fled to an ancient castle his family owned in the outskirts of Naboo’s
civilization, closing himself inside and hoping to wait
out the public’s disdain toward him.
But Veruna’s fate was already sealed the moment he decided to
unknowingly attack a Sith Lord.
Darth Plagueis was not going to let a foolish, lowly man
such as Veruna get away with almost killing him.
While Veruna remained closed off in his castle, one-night Plagueis arrived at the isolated
estate and quietly entered its premises.
While Veruna was asleep, the revenge fueled Sith Lord calmly
sat beside his bed and gently awoke the former King.
At first Veruna was confused to see Damask before him, before having fear overtake his
emotions.
Plagueis wasted no time, revealing to the old man before him his true identity, that
he was in fact a Sith Lord and that the former
king was always a mere puppet used for a greater purpose beyond his understanding.
Upon these revelations, Plageuis came to manipulate the low amounts of Midi-chlorians within
Veruna’s body, using the knowledge from his rigorous studies of the mystical elements
to slowly and painfully drain the life out of the man’s
body, using a method that had never been done before.
As each and every living cell of Veruna was disintegrated out of existence in his body,
Plagueis let the dying man know that the dark side had chosen him to be consumed by eternal
darkness, as he slowly moved toward death’s door, where he will forever remain alone and
forgotten while the Sith continued on to advance beyond the steps the King had helped lay out
for them to walk on.
And with that, Veruna’s mind went black and his lifeless, shriveled corpse was all
that remained of him on his bed.
When Veruna’s death was discovered, Naboo’s security forces went on to increase their
measures in protecting Queen Padme and all future monarchs, including implementing the
body double decoys and expanding the amount of
overall royal guards.
Although many of the people of Naboo were shocked to hear of Veruna’s death so soon
after he stepped down from the throne, he was still
largely remembered negatively, as a King who sought to line his own pockets at the expense
of the wellbeing of the people.
Unknown to everyone however, he was just a simple pawn
among many others, whose only purpose was to
slightly advance the Sith Grand Plan to its fruition.