Order of the Sith Lords

"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."

- Darth Bane

The Sith Order under Darth Bane was created as a result of the devastating Seventh Battle of Ruusan, which saw the annihilation of the previous Sith Order. Bane's Sith Order was founded upon the principles of the Rule of Two, utilizing stealth and secrecy to achieve their means. It would be this Sith Order, and its principles, that would finally triumph over the Jedi and the Galactic Republic nearly 1,000 years later. This Order would eventually come to an end with the extinction of the Sith at the hands of the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker, with help from his son, Luke Skywalker, in 4 ABY.

Bane's Reformation
After surviving Seventh Battle of Ruusan, Bane headed for Onderon in his ship, Valcyn. He hoped to learn secrets from deep inside the tomb of the ancient Sith Lord Freedon Nadd, but his past returned to haunt him. The ghostly spirit of his fomer mentor, Lord Qordis, chided him for abandoning the Brotherhood. Bane insisted that he was only furthering the Sith cause, but Qordis's spirit created a malfunction in the starship controls and Bane plummeted down into the forest of the beast-infested moon of Dxun.

Bane survived the crash, but his ship was destroyed beyond hope of repair. The jungle itself seemed intent on stopping Bane, but he pushed on nonetheless. He was attacked by beasts and monsters, and cried out in frustration.



In reply, surprisingly, the spirit of Lord Kaan appeared to him, offering help. Though in life they had loathed one another, Bane followed Kaan's ghostly silhouette and eventually found himself at the ruined crypt of Freedon Nadd's tomb. He could feel the dark side in the tomb, and knew he would find what he was looking for here. Kaan lead him to a Sith holocron, where he was attacked by barnacle-like creatures called orbalisks. They attached themselves to Bane's body, causing tremendous pain as they became a part of him.

After spending days studying from the holocron, Bane exited the tomb with a new vision: not only would there be just two Lords at a time, but the armies and minions the Sith had once relied on would be done away with too; slowly and in secrecy the Sith would erode the Republic until the time was right for them to reveal themselves to the Jedi once more.

To guard against the Sith destroying themselves or losing sight of their "ideals" once again, Bane took only one apprentice, restarting the one master, one apprentice tradition Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma had adopted. He also restarted the tradition of passing the name "Darth" to each of his successors, a trend which appears to have originated with Darth Revan millennia before. Perhaps in a nod to Kaan's earlier pronouncement, both master and apprentice in Bane's Sith Order held the title "Dark Lord of the Sith", making them, nominally at least, equals. The new tenets of the sinister order would become cunning, stealth, subterfuge and most of all, a virtue borrowed from their worst enemy, patience.

Taming a flying beast using the powers of the dark side, he mounted it like the fabled Beast Riders and rode towards the edge of the atmosphere, where he planned to "nudge" the entire moon closer to its planet, Onderon, so he could cross to the inhabited world to find his apprentice.

Eventually, Bane inducted his new apprentice, giving her the name Darth Zannah, and set his new order in motion. Future Sith Lords were taught the virtues of patience, planning, and secrecy, and each was to take on the title of Darth, a tradition that had dated back to before the Jedi Civil War, nearly three millennia ago.

It would not be long, however, that Bane's fledgling order was rediscovered by the Jedi and (once again) thought eliminated. The Jedi discovered both the new Rule of Two and the identity of Darth Bane, but did not foresee that the new Sith he had founded would long survive Bane's death.

Darth Millennial
Sometime in the nearly thousand years separating the Seventh Battle of Ruusan (1,000 BBY) and the Battle of Naboo (32 BBY),Darth Millennial, heir to the lineage of Darth Bane, rejected firm adherence to Lord Bane's restrictive "Rule of Two," which mandated that there could only be two Sith Lords, master and apprentice, at any one time. Instead, Millennial believed in Lord Kaan's more martial philosophy of "Rule by the Strong," and his opposition to Bane's creed indicates he interpreted this to mean the strength of numbers. He abandoned his master and disappeared to focus on Kaan's ideas, possibly hoping to establish a second Sith order based on these concepts.

Millennial settled on Dromund Kaas, the third planet in a system that had once been part of the backwater regions of the ancient Sith Empire. There he founded a new dark side religion, later called the Dark Force, which was the faith practiced by all his successors. These practitioners, a lineage of mages who called themselves the Prophets of the Dark Side would eventually be rediscovered by Darth Sidious and incorporated into the Galactic Empire he established in 19 BBY. They became the Secret Order of the Emperor, and served as consultants for Sidious during his life and became influential power-brokers after his death.

Palpatine Era
In 70 BBY, Darth Sidious, heir to the lineage of Darth Bane, was infiltrating the Republic's government, carefully implementing the steps of a plan set down centuries in the past, preparing to address "wrongs" the Galaxy at large had long since forgotten with the Battle of Naboo. Though his apprentice, Darth Maul, was slain in that battle at the hands of Jedi Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, the day proved an unparalleled victory for the Sith; Darth Sidious, as Senator Palpatine of Naboo, was elected to the office of Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.

More than a decade passed, during which Palpatine manipulated the Senate into granting him more and more powers. His new apprentice, Darth Tyranus, formed the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which seceded from the Galactic Republic, thus beginning a long and bloody conflict known as the Clone Wars.



When the Clone Wars were over, the Jedi ranks had been thinned considerably. At last, the moment had come for the Sith to reclaim their former glory. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine — Darth Sidious — crowned himself Galactic Emperor, and replaced the ancient Republic with a "New Order" — the Galactic Empire — a galaxy-spanning dark side theocracy disguised as a dictatorship the likes of which had not been seen for millennia.

The Jedi Purge began, led by Palpatine's Dark Jedi underlings (including groups known respectively as the Inquisitorius, the Emperor's Hands, and the Prophets of the Dark Side) and his third and greatest apprentice, Darth Vader. The Purge ensured that what few Jedi remained became even fewer, until only a handful of the original ten thousand remained. It was a dark time for the galaxy..

Eventually, however, the Rebel Alliance arose to threaten the Empire. The Galactic Civil War drew many into its fold, perhaps the most notable of whom was Luke Skywalker, the son of Anakin Skywalker (or as he was better known, Darth Vader). Shortly after Skywalker destroyed the Empire's terrifying Death Star superweapon, the Emperor and Vader became aware of the young man's identity. Both Sith Lords hoped to corrupt Luke to the dark side, but each had a different plan for the future. Vader desired to kill the Emperor and rule the galaxy with his son, but Palpatine wished to replace Vader with the boy. Neither goal was successful, and it appeared that the Sith had finally come to an end, as originally prophesied by the Jedi. With the destruction of the second Death Star at the Battle of Endor, Darth Vader returned to the light side, slaying his master and being slain in return.

The return of Anakin Skywalker, a.k.a Darth Vader, to the light, and the death of the Emperor, who was the last true master of Darth Bane's reformed Sith Order, brought to fruition the prophecy of the Chosen One who would bring "balance to the Force."

Ranks
To ensure the continued survival of the Sith, Bane institutes the Rule of Two. In Bane's order, both Sith held the title Dark Lord of the Sith.

Sith Master

Sith Masters where Sith Lords that had an apprentice serving beneath them. Notable Sith Masters include Darth Sidious, Darth Plagueis, and Darth Bane.

Sith Apprentice

Sith Apprentices were Sith neophytes that were studying under the tutelage of a Sith Master. Notable Sith Apprentices include Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus/Count Dooku, and Darth Vader.

Palpatine Era
When Palpatine declared himself Emperor, the Sith controlled the known galaxy, in a political sense, for the first time. With this new, far-reaching authority came a need for functionaries throughout the Empire who were, to one extent or another, supporters if not adherents of the dark side. Though not Sith in any strict sense, these quasi-Sith minions were known generally as Dark Side Adepts. As Force-sensitive individuals serving the Emperor, they supported his Sith rule by working in the roles of servants, agents, intelligence operatives, military officials, etc. Dark Side Adepts were particularly important when Palpatine was reborn into his clone bodies, five years after his death.

Inquisitors

Inquisitors were the highest ranking Dark Side Adepts, members of the Inquisitorius, a special division of Imperial Intelligence.

Prophets of the Dark Side

The Dark Side Prophets were an ancient Outer Rim renegade Sith order founded by Darth Millennial. Though not Banist Sith, the Prophets were arguably a kind of true Sith. Darth Sidious rediscovered the group and brought them once again under his control, renaming them the Emperor's Mages.

Emperor's Hands

Emperor's Hands were top-secret special operatives trained in the Force by the Emperor himself. They were so secret they usually had no knowledge of each other. Mara Jade was one of the best-known Emperor's Hands.

Together with the Emperor's Mages, the Emperor's Hands were called the Dark Side Elite.

Imperial Royal Guard

These were hand-picked elite Stormtroopers assigned to protect and serve the Emperor directly. They were required to have Force sensitivity, even if undeveloped. Those with advanced talents were assigned as Sovereign Protectors, and those with even more advanced talents underwent Force training under Dark Jedi tutors.

Dark Jedi

Although the name might imply otherwise, Dark Jedi were not synonymous with Sith, although Darth Vader among others used techniques drawn from the traditions of both the Dark Jedi and the Sith. It was much more likely for Dark Jedi to return to the Light (e.g. Kam Solusar). Other notable Dark Jedi included Sora Bulq, Joruus C'baoth, Jerec, and the particularly infamous Asajj Ventress.