Snoke was a Force-sensitive humanoid strandcast male who ruled the First Order as Supreme Leader during the New Republic Era. Possibly unaware of his true nature, Snoke was an artificial genetic construct created on the planet Exegol by the resurrected Dark Lord of the Sith and former Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious. Though he was designed to be a proxy that the Sith Lord could manipulate, Snoke possessed an independent mind and a deep connection to the dark side of the Force, yet he himself was not a Sith.
In time, Snoke became a master of the Force and seeker of ancient lore, steeping himself in the vast knowledge of the dark side. Despite not having an outward affiliation with the Sith Order, Snoke mastered the the powers of the dark side of the force, becoming a skilled dark side adept. With his mastery over the dark side, Snoke defeated and killed several legions of adversaries over his life, and even passed on his teachings onto at least one apprentice, having for years searched for a worthy student.
With his powerful abilities and immense foresight, Snoke eventually gained control of the First Order, a hermit state in the Unknown Regions that began as a remnant of the Galactic Empire. Despite holding absolute power as Supreme Leader, Snoke allowed General Armitage Hux to lead the First Order military in his name, preferring to concentrate on spiritual matters of the Force. With the turning of Padawan Ben Solo—grandson of the Chosen One Anakin Skywalker—to the dark side, Snoke gained the heir to the powerful Skywalker bloodline as his student. Solo than adopted the persona of Kylo Ren after renouncing and destroying the Jedi Order, becoming Snoke’s most gifted apprentice.
During the last days of the Cold War, Snoke directed his apprentice to hunt and destroy Luke Skywalker, Ren’s uncle and former master, determined to complete the Great Jedi Purge with Skywalker’s death as the last Jedi. Additionally, Snoke authorized a preemptive strike against the New Republic that resulted in the destruction of the Galactic Senate and the outbreak of the First Order/Resistance War in 34 ABY. While pursuing his objectives to destroy both the Resistance and Skywalker, Snoke was assassinated by Ren, who sought to rule the galaxy as the new Supreme Leader.
Snoke was created to rule the First Order as the proxy leader for the Lord of the Sith who created him, while he was immobile on Exegol. Additionally, he was meant to be a stand in master for Kylo Ren, meant to groom and mold him into a master of attack and cunning: an heir worthy of the Sith legacy. Snoke’s conditioning was effective by the time of his death, for, in the end, the pawn fulfilled his purpose of creation by serving as the last catalyst in Ren’s training, thereby allowing Sidious to sidestep the Sith tradition that required an apprentice to kill the master to ascend to power.