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Originally posted by: buddy-x-wing
I think the whole point of The Emperor/Sidious is that he deliberately hides his true self and his powers, and manipulates things behind the scenes and gets others namely Vader to do his dirty work for him, Outside of the Jedi council I'd be surprised if anyone else knew of the existence of the Sith or what a Sith lord was, he became Emperor by discrediting the Jedi and ending the Clone Wars, by the time he ascended to power he would have been seen as the Hero who ended the war and bought Peace to the Galaxy which opened the floodgates to corruption, after all it did take take 20 years for a small band of rebels to make any sort of effective stance towards the Empire.
I totally agree. When Tarkin says to Vader "You, My Friend, are all that's left of that religion." I think he makes it clear he has no knowledge of the Emperor's powers. He doesn't say, "You and the Emperor..."
He does however, probably know that Vader was once the reknowned Jedi war hero Anakin Skywalker, hence the "religion" remark, and is known to possess unusual powers. Why he is so loyal to Palpatine is anyone's guess. He doesn't really strike me as the kind of guy who thinks what he is doing is "right". But, rather the kind of person who takes pleasure in doing what is wrong.
In any case, Tarkin is a complicated character, and I was hoping the prequels would eventually offer some answers to these questions, but sadly, one of the greatest disappointments of the Prequels is that he was never mentioned and only served as window dressing in the background of the last shot of the saga.
