Brotherhood of Darkness

"The Brotherhood of Darkness was nothing but a twisted perversion of the Jedi Order, a dark parody of the very thing we stood against."

- Darth Bane

The Brotherhood of Darkness was an organization of Sith which rose to power in the last decade of the Galactic Republic's Dark Age. Founded by former Jedi Master-turned Dark Lord of the Sith Skere Kaan, the Brotherhood took the place of the fragmented Sith Empire after slaughtering many of its most powerful lords. Forming the Dark Army, a force of warriors and soldiers meant to rain fire upon Republic worlds, the Brotherhood existed under the leadership of the Sith Council of Lords, constantly warring with the Jedi Order's Army of Light until both armies were utterly decimated at the Seventh Battle of Ruusan.

Formation
"Kaan was a traitor. He led the Brotherhood away from the teachings of the ancient Sith. He turned his back on the very essence of the dark side."

- Darth Bane

For nearly a thousand years, the Sith had been organized into the Sith Empire of Darth Ruin; waging a centuries-long war against the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic, nearly toppling both. Countless Sith Lords staked their claim across the galaxy, establishing territories from the Outer Rim Territories until they began to encroach on the Galactic Core. As the Republic crumbled, members of the Jedi Order deemed themselves Jedi Lords and took control of their own territories, holding back the Sith Empire's Coreward approach.

In a naive attempt to end the war through politics, the Jedi High Council raised their protege Skere Kaan to the rank of Jedi Master. An extremist and a radical, Kaan left the Order on his belief that it had brought suffering upon the galaxy through its failure to act and rallied his followers together to form the Brotherhood of Darkness. As the schism of 1010 BBY rocked the Order, Kaan and his Brotherhood announced to the Republic and Jedi leadership that they would take control of the remaining Sith enclaves as part of a scheme to reform the Republic. Within a few brief months, Kaan and his followers had crushed the most feared Sith Lords and taken their worlds as their own.

War with the Jedi
As the Brotherhood of Darkness consolidated its newly conquered worlds, Kaan declared war on the Republic and gave himself the title Dark Lord of the Sith. Despite his apparent leadership position, Kaan was forced to cede some power to the more powerful of his followers and rivals– Qordis and Kopecz. Under the banner that "All are equal in the Brotherhood of Darkness", Kaan organized a new Sith Council and bestowed the title of Dark Lord upon each of its members. Under the "Rule of the Strong", Kaan and his followers set about to topple the Jedi and the Republic and create a dark side dictatorship.

In order to destroy the Republic and the Jedi, even at their weakened state, the Brotherhood needed to amass a huge army. At academies across the galaxy, Force-sensitives were trained to become fearsome warriors, assassins and spies, while only the best came to serve at the Sith Academy on Korriban. Under the tutelage of Headmaster Qordis, acolytes such as Githany and Bane came to know the Force and learned to unleash their hatred and passions through its use. Needing more than Force-sensitives, the Brotherhood recruited commoners to form a massive army of infantrymen that would clear the path for the Sith warriors or subjugate worlds to strike fear into the heart of the region. Over the course of nine years the Brotherhood had amassed an army of over twenty thousand Sith, and finally Lord Kaan and the Brotherhood were ready to take on the severely weakened Republic.

War with the Republic did not come without cost or opposition. As Kaan left the Jedi Order in 1,010 BBY, the weary Jedi Temple battlemaster Hoth rallied the banners of the Jedi Grand Council to form the Army of Light. Under Lord Hoth's leadership, the Army of Light harried the Brotherhood of Darkness along its edges, careful to avoid striking at Kaan or other leaders during the first few years of conflict. Making his way across the Outer Rim, Hoth and the Army of Light successfully liberated countless worlds from Sith control, weakening the Brotherhood while strengthening his own troops for a final confrontation.

The Ruusan Campaign
Marshaling all his forces on the planet Ruusan, Lord Kaan prepared to destroy Lord Hoth's forces with the full might of the Brotherhood's army. Despite his ambitious goals and the Brotherhood's once strong horde, Hoth and the Army of Light's tactics of drawing out the conflict took its toll. The Brotherhood's army had suffered major losses and the fleet was in ruins. As Sith Lords were struck down over the course of seven battles during the Ruusan campaign, the Brotherhood's numbers were reduced to only a tenth of their former number.

As the future grew dim for the Sith Council, an unlikely ally stepped forward to help. A former acolyte from Korriban named Bane arrived on Ruusan with a proposal for Kaan: unleash a wave of telekinetic energy to wipe out the Jedi's forces. Gathering behind Bane's plan, the Brotherhood's leadership met on a cliff overlooking the Jedi camp and, using Bane as a conduit, unleashed the power of the Force on the Army of Light. Working effectively, Kaan decided to end the ceremony early and defeat the Jedi and their army in a more conventional, hand-to-hand style. This decision would prove costly however; while the Sith claimed victory at the battle, in truth they wound up stalemated against the Jedi and the Army of Light.

Enraged at the frailty of the Brotherhood's leadership, Bane moved quickly to ensure the ultimate destruction of the Brotherhood. Contacting the Sith's fleet in orbit, he ordered it to engage the Jedi reinforcements despite knowing that they would then be able to slip dropships past the blockade. When Kaan returned to his camp, Bane confronted him and offered him yet more advice: unleash a thought bomb and annihilate the Jedi Order once and for all. On the brink of insanity, Kaan agreed and together with the Sith Council, began to plan his masterstroke which would end the war.

During the seventh battle of the campaign, Kaan's forces marched into a cave system to produce the bomb. With all of his army inside, Kaan and his Council of Lords prepared the weapon while his loyal troops defended them from the Army of Light, which had followed them inside. As the bomb took form, the Sith Lords lost control of the monstrous weapon which they had created and were unable to prevent it from detonating before their escape. In a terrific detonation, the thought bomb's vicious energy was unleashed, draining the Force essence from all within the caves and sealing it within a void for all eternity. In one instant, the entire Brotherhood of the Sith and the majority of the Army of Light's forces were vanquished.

Legacy
Darth Bane's Rule of Two would succeed the Brotherhood, and would last far longer, until 4 ABY when it was overthrown by a redeemed Anakin Skywalker and a victorious Rebel Alliance in the Battle of Endor of the Galactic Civil War against the Galactic Empire. Jerec, a former Emperor's Hand tried unsuccessfully to use the Valley of the Jedi (the former Ruusan battlefield) for his own gain and was killed by Kyle Katarn a year after. Though the Brotherhood was gone, others such as Darth Millennial and perhaps even the One Sith of Darth Krayt would imitate its policy, though the One Sith had just one Dark Lord. Also a former member of the Brotherhood, Vulta Daanat created a cult called the Blackguard and passed down the teachings of the Brotherhood to its members.

Government
"Aren't we all equal in the Brotherhood of Darkness?"

- Kopecz

Created by Dark Lord of the Sith Skere Kaan, the Brotherhood of Darkness was created to replace the failing structure of the New Sith Empire. Where feudal warlords waged wars across the galaxy, Kaan sought to organize the Sith into a single army capable of destroying the Jedi and the Republic in short order and finally ending the war. To accomplish this, Kaan appointed his rivals and closest allies as Dark Lords and assembled a Sith Council to direct the movements of the army and train new Sith in the ways of the dark side of the Force.

In addition to this makeshift Council, the Brotherhood leadership afforded the title of Sith Lord to a number of other high ranking Sith who were tasked with leading the armies and fighting the Army of Light. Having trained at the Sith academy on Korriban, these Sith Lords had demonstrated their potential early on, lest they be dispatched to a lesser academy elsewhere in the galaxy. After achieving their rank, Sith Lords would siege star systems and claim them for the Brotherhood and themselves. Collectively they were considered by Lord Kaan to be the greatest asset of the Brotherhood in its war against the Jedi.

Military
Like most armies, the Brotherhood of Darkness had a very clear and defined structure, ranging from powerful Sith Lords to the lowliest infantryman. In the leadership position, Sith Lords commanded various parts of the army, assisted by specialized Sith adepts who received training at various academies across Sith-controlled space.

Sith adepts and acolytes were apprentices who had only just begun to receive instruction in the ways of the dark side. They trained under more experienced Sith at the Dathomir Academy and the Iridonia Academy. Sith assassins and spies, whose primary purpose was to kill or capture Jedi, turned over their captives to high-ranking Sith Lord's who would torture them until they either died or fell to the dark side and joined the Brotherhood. The assassins and spies were trained at the academies on Ryloth, Umbara, and Nar Shaddaa.

In the field, Sith Warriors and Marauders focused on combat and led infantrymen into battle. They were trained to fight the Jedi on Honoghr, Gentes, and Gamorr.

The infantry was made up of non-Forceful beings and formed the bulk of the army. They were divided into units composed of four squads, each containing a TC-17-equipped sniper and an interference box. They had their own officers in charge, however, they came under the overall command of a Sith Lord. One such unit was the Gloom Walkers who came under the jurisdiction of Sith Lord Kopecz.

Appearances

 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Star Wars: Jedi vs. Sith
 * Bane of the Sith
 * Darth Bane: Rule of Two
 * Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil
 * Darth Plagueis
 * Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul
 * Echoes of the Jedi
 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent
 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent audio drama
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight
 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent audio drama
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight
 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent audio drama