Order of the Sith Lords

"We are the select few who refuse to be carried by the Force, and who carry it instead. Thirty in a millennium, rather than the tens of thousands fit to be Jedi."

- Darth Plagueis

The Order of the Sith Lords, also known as Bane's Sith Order, Banite Sith, or simply Sith, was an ancient organization of Force practitioners skilled in the ways of the Sith and the power of the dark side. Approximately one thousand years before the Battle of Yavin, the Sith Lord Darth Bane engineered the destruction of the Brotherhood of Darkness in order to institute a rebirth of the Sith. Through the teachings of Darth Revan's Holocron, Bane developed the Rule of Two. Under this new tenet, only two Sith Lords were allowed to exist at any given time; a master and an apprentice; one embodied power while the other craved it. Hence, the Rule of Two was designed to cull the weak from the ranks of the Sith, thereby ensuring that only the strong remained.

Bane's expectations of the new Order were met with his death at the hands of his own apprentice, Darth Zannah. The tradition was carried on over the next millennium, even though many Sith who followed in Bane's lineage were appalled at the thought of being slain by their own apprentices. After centuries of operating in secrecy, the Grand Plan for revenge was initiated by the Sith Lords Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious. Sidious, who usurped his Master's position, ultimately fulfilled Darth Bane's dream: the return of Sith dominance throughout the galaxy. With the betrayal and near destruction of the Jedi Order, Sidious dissolved the Galactic Republic and replaced it with the Galactic Empire. Ruling as emperor in his public guise as "Palpatine", Sidious' tyrannical reign was prophetically ended by his own apprentice, the Chosen One Anakin Skywalker. Though he returned in the form of several clones, each inhabited in turn by the Emperor's dark spirit, Sidious' final demise in 11 ABY ended the line of Bane and Zannah.

The collapse of Darth Bane's Sith Order, however, did not bring about the final end of the Sith itself. Lumiya, a former Hand of Emperor Palpatine and the self-proclaimed Dark Lady of the Sith, formed her own Sith and incorporated the Rule of Two in its philosophy. She regarded her greatest achievement in the form of her apprentice Darth Caedus, a grandson of Anakin Skywalker and the first active Sith Lord since the reign of Darth Sidious. During the time of Lumiya and Caedus, another Sith Order had come into existence, one that was far less connected with the old Order of Darth Bane. The One Sith, founded by the former Jedi Darth Krayt, rejected the Rule of Two. Under the Rule of One, the new organization permitted the existence of many Sith Lords, all of whom ultimately answered to the authority of a single Dark Lord.

Bane's reformation
"Any master who instructs more than one apprentice in the ways of the dark side is a fool. In time the apprentices will unite their strengths and overthrow the master. It is inevitable; Axiomatic. That is why each master must have only one student."

- Darth Revan's holocron

The Order of the Sith Lords was formed approximately one thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. Its founder was a Human Sith Lord named Bane, a member of the Brotherhood of Darkness. Disillusioned with the instability and infighting within the Brotherhood, Bane journeyed to the planet Lehon where he discovered the holocron of Darth Revan. Bane was inspired by the ancient Dark Lord of the Sith. Through Revan's philosophy regarding the dark side of the Force, Bane saw the power and discipline that he felt a Sith should have; qualities which he believed had been lost under the Brotherhood of Darkness.

Upon renaming himself as Darth Bane, the new self-proclaimed Dark Lord of the Sith was convinced that&mdash;in order for the Sith to be reborn in a more powerful incarnation&mdash;the Brotherhood of Darkness had to be destroyed. In the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, the final conflict of the New Sith Wars, ended with the triumph of the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. With the exception of Bane, all members of the Brotherhood had been exterminated by the thought bomb, technique unleashed in act of desperation by the Sith's own leader, Lord Kaan.

With the Brotherhood destroyed, the galaxy at large believed the Sith to be extinct. Darth Bane did nothing to disprove this assumption. As long as the Jedi remained deceived into thinking that the Sith could never return, Bane was free to proceed with his plans to create a new Sith Order. His work began shortly after discovering a Force-sensitive Human female child on Ruusan. Sensing her potential in the Force, Bane took the orphaned Zannah as his Sith apprentice. Throughout the course of Zannah's training, Bane not only indoctrinated her with devotion to the ancient tenets of the Sith Code, but also exposed her to certain modifications of his own that were added to the new Sith philosophy. Instead of the thousands who were admitted into the former Brotherhood of Darkness, the Order of the Sith Lords only permitted the membership of two beings; a Master, the embodiment of the dark side's power; and an apprentice, the disciple who coveted said power. This creed, known as the Rule of Two, became the core tradition of Bane's Sith Order. Its main focus was&mdash;as envisioned by Bane&mdash;to prevent the Sith from becoming destabilized by the ambitions and intrigue of too many members. Furthermore, Bane also wanted the the dark side invested in only a single master and apprentice as he believed that its power had been diluted by too many members in the Brotherhood.

The Rule of Two also served another purpose; the Sith Order's survival depended on avoiding detection. By limiting membership to just two Sith Lords, Bane hoped to decrease the possibility of the Sith's presence being sensed one way or another by the Jedi Order. As powerful as the Sith were through the dark side, Bane admitted that two Sith Lords could never defeat the entire Jedi Order in a direct confrontation. Rather than openly challenging the Jedi through total war, the Dark Lord concluded that the Sith's victory relied on cunning, stealth, subterfuge and&mdash;a virtue borrowed from their worst enemy&mdash;patience.

Together, Darth Bane and Darth Zannah steadily worked toward the ultimate goal of their organization; the Sith's revenge on the Jedi, and their return to dominance throughout the galaxy. Aside from the Jedi Order, Bane also targeted the Galactic Republic as the other victim of the Sith plot for retribution. But rather than contributing to the complete destabilization of the galactic government, the Dark Lord wanted to ensure that it remained intact throughout the coming centuries. Given that the Republic unified much of the known galaxy under one system, Bane believed that the Republic's collapse would lead to the creation of multiple, smaller and independent states. In Bane's opinion, it was less complicated to destroy one enemy as opposed to a galaxy divided into many factions. Hence, he dispatched his apprentice on missions aimed at preempting certain Anti-Republic movements, such as a Separatist movement on Serenno. Through the machinations of Bane and Zannah, the Separatists were goaded into launching their insurrection long before their movement was ready for a conflict with the Republic. As a result, the Separatists were soundly crushed and Serenno was pacified once more. At the same time, Bane and his apprentice also concentrated their attention on the study of Sith magic, and learned all but forgotten dark side techniques found in ancient scrolls.

The Order of the Sith Lords was itself nearly preempted long before its time, as Darth Bane feared, when the Jedi Johun Othone convinced the Jedi High Council to investigate the possibility of the Sith's survival. Along with Jedi Master Valenthyne Farfalla, Othone led a Jedi task force and tracked Bane and Zannah to Tython where he tried to kill them. The Sith prevailed and defeated their Jedi hunters, but Bane was severely wounded during the fight. Darth Zannah, far from being fully trained and ready to assume her Master's mantle, was not prepared to allow Darth Bane to die. Her cousin, Darovit, offered to help Zannah's Master if she agreed to surrender herself into Jedi custody. Ultimately, however, Darovit and a healer named Caleb were deceived by Zannah's feigned sincerity. Once the Dark Lord's damaged body had been healed, Zannah killed Caleb and used the dark side to drive her cousin insane. After sending an anonymous tip to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant about the whereabouts of the Sith, a Jedi team was sent to investigate. What they found was Darovit, utterly consumed by madness. The Jedi assumed that he was the Sith Lord and promptly slew him, believing the Sith menace to be truly extinct at last.

When Darth Bane recovered, his apprentice revealed how she single-handedly deceived the Jedi Order into believing that the Sith were finally destroyed. Darth Zannah also explained that, in spite of the risk of discovery and capture, she still needed her Master in order to finish her training. But when the time came, she declared her intention to kill Bane once his usefulness was over. The realization that Zannah was committed to her Master's death was met with Bane's approval, filling him with confidence that the Sith would survive through the Rule of Two.

The Apprentice becomes the Master
"This is the way of our Order. An individual may die, but the Sith are eternal."

- Darth Zannah, Dark Lord of the Sith

By 980 BBY, Bane and Zannah had assimilated into civilian lives on Ciutric IV. Posing as brother and sister&mdash;Sepp and Allia Omek&mdash;the two lived in a mansion and possessed considerable wealth, which they used to create a network of spies and contacts. By this time, however, Darth Bane's health deteriorated at an accelerated rate due to the harmful side-effects of prolonged dependence on the dark side of the Force. Though unafraid to accept his own death, Bane feared for the future of his Sith Order. In the ten years that had passed after his near death experience on Tython, Bane waited for his apprentice to kill him and become the next Dark Lord of the Sith. Yet as far as he could tell, Darth Zannah either seemed content to serve at his bidding, or was simply waiting until her Master was too feeble to pose any challenge. As a result, Bane became obsessed with discovering some way to prolong his life in order to train a new apprentice.

At the same time, however, Zannah decided that her time had finally come. She felt ready to challenge her Master in open contest, kill him and claim the title she had coveted for so long. She also decided to claim an apprentice for herself in advance. Her choice fell on the Dark Jedi Set Harth. The selection of Harth as her disciple was a rushed decision; Zannah would have preferred someone more interested in the continuation of Bane's Sith, rather than a fallen Jedi who cared only about himself. By the time Zannah and her apprentice tracked Bane's location on Doan, the Dark Lord had discovered information on how to prolong his life. Through the holocron of Darth Andeddu, Bane learned of the ability to transfer one's own spirit into another body. Their confrontation nearly ended with Bane's demise, but Zannah's Master managed to escape before the fight could be finished. During the duel, Harth abandoned Zannah and stole Andeddu's holocron.

Zannah later tracked Bane to Ambria, the planet where a decade ago she vowed to kill him one day. By then, her Master had chosen a new apprentice, a female Iktotchi who named herself Darth Cognus. Unwilling to be denied the position she had been prepared for throughout most of her life, Darth Zannah challenged the Dark Lord to a final duel, to which Darth Bane eagerly accepted. The Master and his former apprentice fought as near-equals; neither was quite able to gain the advantage for some time. Zannah's moment of triumph was realized when she utilized her knowledge of Sith magic, and unleashed a wave of dark side tendrils against the Dark Lord. Bane tried to avoid the conjured tendrils, only to have his arm grabbed and vaporized by one. Bane, on the verge of defeat, made one final attempt to thwart his apprentice. Using the knowledge he gained from Darth Andeddu's holocron, Bane released his essence from his body and transferred it into Zannah's.

The duel then transcended into a battle of wills; Zannah's spirit fought with all of its strength to reject and force out Bane's dark essence. The ritual vaporized the Dark Lord's entire body and after a few moments, the fight was over. Zannah's soul remained in control of her own body while Bane had been banished into the great void of the dark side. With Bane dead, leadership of his Sith Order was transferred to Darth Zannah, the new Dark Lord of the Sith. Claiming Darth Cognus as her apprentice, Zannah declared that they were both part of Darth Bane's legacy; the Order of the Sith Lords lived on through them, and so did its founder's plot for revenge against the Jedi.

The split
"Allegedly, Millennial's repeated questioning of the Rule of Two and other laws of the Sith Order prompted Cognus to end Milllennial's training; because Millennial went on to found the Prophets of the Dark Side, we can assume that it was Cognus who was a direct antecedent of those who maintained the Rule of Two."

- Investigatory report by Gannod Chant

Darth Cognus eventually took an apprentice of her own, the three-eyed Human mutant Darth Millennial. A staunch adherent to Darth Bane's Rule of Two, Cognus found herself at philosophical odds with her own disciple. Millennial believed that the Rule of Two was far too restrictive and counterproductive to the Sith's growth in power.

When it became apparent that Millennial was set on his path to heresy, Cognus disavowed her apprentice as an apostate and traitor to the Order of the Sith Lords. Millennial just barely escaped his former Master's fury and later settled on Dromund Kaas where he founded a splinter Sith group known as the Prophets of the Dark Side and their philosophy, the Dark Force religion. Centuries later, the New Jedi Order presumed that it was Cognus who carried on Bane's "lineage" by taking on a new apprentice after the disappearance of her wayward student.

Quiet times
"But there will be those who doubt the totality of the Sith extinction. There will always be whispers that the Sith survive, hints and rumors that somewhere in the galaxy a Dark Lord lives. And if the Jedi ever find proof of our existence, they will be relentless in hunting us down."

- Darth Bane

The lineage of Darth Bane and Darth Zannah continued on for a thousand years in an unbroken line, typically through the virtually endless cycle of the Rule of Two. Many of the Sith Lords who came after Cognus contributed to the Grand Plan in one way or another, usually by integrating themselves into public life or through experimenting with the dark side of the Force. Darth Vectivus was a businessman who wielded the dark side without becoming overly addicted to it by the temptations of power. One of the Sith Lords who followed after Vectivus was a philosopher named Darth Guile.

Around 550 BBY, the Sith Lord Darth Gravid rejected the dark side of the Force. He came to believe that in order for the Sith to survive, the Order had to become more like their Jedi counterparts by embracing the light. His apprentice, Darth Gean, did not share her Master's new beliefs and was appalled by his blasphemy. Gravid was ultimately killed by Gean, and thus many of his techniques&mdash;including essence transfer&mdash;were lost to future dark side practitioners. Gravid's death also contributed to the Grand Plan in more ways than he realized. By depriving his successors of essence transfer, he unintentionally eliminated centuries of obsession that long distracted the Sith from further developing the Grand Plan and exacting vengeance against the Jedi Order.

Though Darth Gean sustained severe injuries, her actions ensured that the Order of the Sith Lords remained true to its tenets and the dark side of the Force. Bane's line continued on, and eventually produced Darth Ramage, a scientist who preserved his life's work&mdash;including the procedure on how to combine the effects of pyronium and bota&mdash;in a Sith holocron, designated as SD41263.I. The line of Sith Lords proceeded on after Ramage's time, and eventually led to the reign of Darth Tenebrous around 167 BBY. His own Master was the Sith Lord who created a wound in the Force, thereby allowing the Jedi to sense the dark side for the first time in centuries. Shortly before killing his Master, Tenebrous theorized that the dark side was simply an energy source to be manipulated, as opposed to an omnipresent and malevolent mystical force.

In Darth Tenebrous's public life, he was a renowned starship designer named Rugess Nome. Through the Force, Tenebrous foresaw the birth of a powerful darksider who would become his apprentice. Hence, he was indirectly responsible for the conception of his own apprentice, the Muun Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. Born as Hego Damask, Plagueis's father and mother were manipulated into meeting each other by Darth Tenebrous, who wanted to ensure the birth of his future protégé. After serving as an apprentice for decades, Darth Plagueis murdered his Master when Tenebrous tried to kill him.

As with some of Darth Plagueis's predecessors, the new Sith Master abhorred Rule of Two. Rather than simply training an apprentice, only to eventually be killed and replaced, Plagueis wanted to end the millennium-long cycle that began with Darth Bane and Darth Zannah. Under his vision, the Sith would rely on trust and cooperation in order to see the fulfillment of the Grand Plan, although Plagueis intended to adhere to the restriction of just two Sith Lords. While searching the galaxy for an apprentice, someone cunning in mind and powerful in the Force, Plagueis operated in the public domain under his birth name as Magister Hego Damask of Damask Holdings. As the owner of a powerful corporation, Plagueis had strong political and financial connections to various companies and other industries throughout the galaxy, including the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Trade Federation.

Unknown to the Dark Lord, however, Tenebrous had trained another apprentice behind Plagueis's back. After his Master's demise, Darth Venamis confronted Plagueis in order to legitimize himself as Tenebrous's successor. Plagueis ultimately bested Venamis and experimented on him in a personal quest to learn more about the manipulation of midi-chlorians.

The rise of Darth Sidious
Around the year 65 BBY, Darth Plagueis visited the planet Naboo in his public guise as Hego Damask in order to influence the outcome of the election for the people's next monarch. But what started out as a simple business trip to a Mid Rim world became what Plagueis saw as a piece of his destiny, shaped and influenced by the will of the dark side. On Naboo, the Dark Lord discovered an adolescent Human noble named Palpatine, the seventeen year-old son of Cosinga Palpatine, an aristocrat of mediocre standing. Outwardly, Palpatine appeared to others as friendly, unassuming, and guileless; an intelligent young man, somewhat shy and withdrawn, who possessed a keen sense of politics and a passion for competitive racing.

Though proud to hail from House Palpatine, one of the Royal Houses of Naboo, Palpatine was aggravated by his family's lack of wealth and prestige in comparison to some of the other aristocratic families. He blamed his father as an incompetent, self-absorbed, uninspired indolent fool with no talent for business and political maneuvering. Furthermore, he resented his mother for being too weak to challenge her husband's will, and his siblings for treating him like an interloper. His hatred for the members of his family was further intensified by fear of his father. That fear was not due to the threat of punishment through physical harm; Palpatine was afraid that his father would disown him if he ever crossed the line too far, thus cutting him off from the life of rank and privilege.

Before long, Darth Plagueis became a mentor and idol to Palpatine, who viewed the elderly Muun as a blessing. In the young noble's eyes, Plagueis embodied the wealth and power that he had coveted throughout his short life. Using the boy's own hatred to his advantage, Plagueis manipulated Palpatine into committing parricide by murdering his entire family. Once the deed was done, the Dark Lord convinced the orphaned aristocrat to learn the ways of the dark side by becoming a Sith apprentice. Henceforth, Palpatine's true identity was Darth Sidious; his family's name was simply used as part of his public disguise.

The first ten years of Darth Sidious's apprenticeship revolved around basic lessons in lightsaber combat and Force techniques, as well as an indoctrination into Sith ideology. At the same time, part of Sidious's contribution to the Grand Plan was his gradual rise as a politician. By the time he was twenty-seven years old, Sidious was publicly known as Ambassador Palpatine, a young diplomat who was part of Naboo Senator Vidar Kim's entourage. Through Darth Plagueis's influence, Sidious also gained close allies such as Kinman Doriana and Sate Pestage, both of whom played essential roles in Palpatine's rise through the galactic political hierarchy.

Once the apprentice's Master allowed him to visit certain worlds that related to the history of the Sith, Darth Sidious traveled to the world of Dathomir. Home to Mother Talzin's Nightsisters, Dathomir was also populated by the Nightbrothers, a clan of Zabrak males born and raised as warriors and slaves to the Witches of Dathomir. While touring the streets of Blue Desert City, Sidious was approached by an enigmatic Nightsister who begged him to take her child. The infant, a male Zabrak named Maul, was strong in the Force, and the Nightsister hoped that&mdash;under Sidious's care&mdash;her son would find a life better than that of a Nightbrother. After some persuasion on the woman's part, Sidious agreed to take Maul away from Dathomir, although he initially had no idea what to do with the child.

Sidious later revealed his adoption of Maul to Plagueis, pointing out how his Master told him to keep an eye out for beings who were strongly connected to the Force. Given that neither of the two Sith Lords could overly risk compromising the secrecy of their existence, Sidious proposed to train Maul in the Sith arts so that the Zabrak could be the one who was exposed to the risk of detection&mdash;or even death&mdash;when necessary. Even though the use of another apprentice technically violated the protocol of the Rule of Two, Plagueis approved of Sidious's plans for Maul, but under the strict understanding that the Zabrak's training would be limited to the role of an assassin rather than a full-fledged Sith Lord.

Over the years, the Zabrak&mdash;renamed as Darth Maul&mdash;developed into a deadly combatant, trained to be a remorseless killer who wielded the double-bladed lightsaber. But even Maul suspected that his training was far from adequate, and he sometimes wondered how he could be fit to succeed Darth Sidious when he didn't even have a basic understanding of the complexities of galactic society. He never suspected that his Master answered to another Master. Darth Plagueis oversaw Maul's training through Sidious's reports and regarded him as a capable fighter, but never a true apprentice, much less a Dark Lord of the Sith.

Unification of the splinter cults
"The future you see isn't yours. You are merely the messenger. Serve me. Become my prophet. Reveal the will of the Force as you see it and I will make your predictions come true."

- Darth Sidious, to Kadann

While still apprenticed to Plagueis, Sidious moved to eliminate certain loose ends in form of Sith-based cults that threatened the Grand Plan. More often than not, these cults were harmless and disorganized; youngsters thoughtlessly rebelling against the staid world of their parents. Many of them had no real knowledge of Sith ideology or even the power of the Force. But in some cases they were seen as dangerous, to Sidious as well as the innocent. To ensure the long-term success of the Grand Plan, these wayward cults had to be brought to heel or obliterated.

Among the factions in question was a Sith-centered mercenary band, the Thyrsian Sun Guard. Their members were not Force-sensitive, but their fighting prowess was considered phenomenal. Plagueis and Sidious eventually recruited the Sun Guard to serve as their secret bodyguards, spies and assassins. A detachment of the Guard protected Plagueis during the many years he spent in near total isolation while studying the midi-chlorians. Other members were stationed in the Dark Lord's LiMerge Power building, located in The Works on Coruscant.

Another potential threat that the Sith Lords turned into an advantage was the Prophets of the Dark Side, the heretical group founded by the apostate Darth Millennial centuries ago. Discovered by the Sith on Dromund Kaas, the Prophets were a collection of both able Force-users and naïve Sith enthusiasts, united under the leadership of a diminutive fallen Jedi by the name of Kadann. Sidious, intrigued by Millennial's legacy, approached Kadaan and recruited the Prophets to the Sith cause.

At Sidious's behest, Kadaan assembled a small group of Sith devotees known as Dark Force. These darksiders were gifted with particular talents for seeing portents and omens in the Force. Hence, the Prophets of the Dark Side became an extension of the Order of the Sith Lords, with Kadaan as their Supreme Prophet. Years later under the reign of the New Order, Kadann became one of Darth Sidious's most trusted&mdash;and most secret&mdash;advisors.

The Grand Plan
"At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge."

- Darth Maul

As Palpatine, Darth Sidious's political career steadily advanced through the machinations of Darth Plagueis. At the Dark Lord's personal request, King Ars Veruna appointed Palpatine to represent Naboo's interests in the Galactic Senate on Coruscant. Sidious was able to deceive many beings into believing that he was an honest and trustworthy politician whom others could easily confide in; an extremely rare individual given the blatant corruption and decadence in Coruscant politics. Even seasoned Jedi Masters such as Dooku and Ronhar Kim not only failed to sense Palpatine's true nature, but also befriended him as well.

Over the next several years, the Sith Lords gradually placed each part of the Grand Plan into effect. With Sidious acting as his proxy, Plagueis initiated the Yinchorri Uprising; he arranged for the assassination of Black Sun's leader and Vigos by Darth Maul; he helped Nute Gunray ascend to the position of Viceroy of the Trade Federation; all of which was ultimately aimed at placing Darth Sidious in a position to reach the highest executive office in the political hierarchy of the Galactic Republic.

Another key factor in the Grand Plan was the secret creation of an army that would enable two Sith Lords to systematically exterminate the thousands of Jedi. Plagueis's original goal was to create an army of Yinchorri clones, and thus he hired the cloners of Kamino to carry out his wishes. The Kaminoans found Yinchorri DNA too complicated to manipulate, however, which effectively prevented them from instilling certain traits like obedience into the clones. They suggested to Plagueis that a Human template would be easier to replicate and modify in order to meet Plagueis's exact expectations. The Grand Plan was further modified after Sidious advised his Master about how the Jedi could simply be destroyed; they also had to be demonized in the eyes of the galactic populace so that the Sith's actions would be justified and accepted. Hence, Plagueis decided that the Human clone army would not fight against the Jedi Order in the war to come. They would instead fight for the Galactic Republic, under the command of Jedi officers. Their loyalty, however, would ultimately belong to the Supreme Chancellor alone. In order to avoid any chance of the Jedi learning about the Sith's role in the creation of clone soldiers, Plagueis knew that he needed a Jedi to commission the Kaminoans to create an army for the Republic. As Hego Damask, the Dark Lord manipulated Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas into placing the order for an army with Kamino, but without the authorization or knowledge of the Jedi High Council. The exceeding cost of such an endeavor was covered by the vast wealth that Plagueis possessed through his corporation, Damask Holdings.

The next phase of the Grand Plan came in the form of the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY. By then, Viceroy Gunray had become an agent of the Order of the Sith Lords. Under Darth Sidious's instructions, the Neimoidian ordered a Trade Federation fleet to blockade the entire planet of Naboo. All proceeded according to Darth Plagueis's plan, until Chancellor Finis Valorum sent two Jedi ambassadors, Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, to negotiate an end of the blockade with the Trade Federation. This anomaly caused the Sith Lords to accelerate their plans, thus forcing Gunray to order an illegal full-scale invasion of Naboo with the use of the Federation's battle droid army.

The capture of a peaceful&mdash;and poorly defended&mdash;world like Naboo was swift and easy enough. With the entire planet under military occupation, including the capital city of Theed, the next step in the plot was to force Queen Padmé Amidala to sign a treaty that would cede Naboo's sovereignty to the Trade Federation, thereby legalizing the occupation. Amidala, the young daughter of House Naberrie who had risen to the throne with Senator Palpatine's support, refused to comply with Gunray's demands. The Grand Plan was further complicated when Jinn and Kenobi rescued the Queen and spirited her away from Naboo. Although Maul tracked Amidala and her Jedi protectors to the desert world of Tatooine in the Outer Rim Territories, he failed to prevent them from fleeing to Coruscant, where Darth Sidious greeted them as Senator Palpatine.

Although Queen Amidala's escape was not part of the Grand Plan, her arrival on Coruscant served the Sith Lords far better than her imprisonment on Naboo. It was Darth Sidious who realized that if he could persuade the Queen to propose a Vote of No Confidence in Chancellor Valorum, then he would be in a position to succeed to the executive officer much sooner than anticipated. In order to do so, he needed Amidala to see Valorum's ineffective leadership for her own eyes. As soon as she witnessed the Chancellor's inability to overcome Senate politics and bureaucratic procedures, Amidala proposed the motion that suddenly ended the controversial career of the Republic's unpopular head of state. Under the guise of Hego Damask, Darth Plagueis used all of his considerable political and financial influence to create a political coalition that would guarantee the election of Senator Palpatine as the next Supreme Chancellor.

Around the same time, just prior to Amidala's return to Naboo, Palpatine learned from Master Dooku that the supposed Chosen One had been found by Qui-Gon Jinn. Anakin Skywalker, a young Human boy formerly enslaved along with his mother, possessed the highest count of midi-chlorians&mdash;more than twenty thousand per cell&mdash;than any other Force-sensitive lifeform in galactic history. Furthermore, he was conception occurred without a natural father. According to Jedi prophecy, the Chosen One would be created by the will of the Force in order to destroy the Sith, thus restoring the Force back into balance. Sidious was amazed by the revelation of this discovery, but not nearly was he as surprised as his Master. Upon learning of Skywalker's existence and the nature behind it, Darth Plagueis was struck with a mixture of shock, awe, outrage and even fear. Although he had made great strides in the manipulation of midi-chlorians, he admittedly had nothing to do with the extraordinary birth of Anakin Skywalker. The Dark Lord then suspected that the Force had purposely done this to undermine&mdash;and ultimately undo&mdash;the Sith Grand Plan. At that moment, it seemed to Plagueis as though the centuries of planning and waiting patiently on the Sith's part was all for nothing.

Regardless of whether Skywalker was the Chosen One or not, Darth Plagueis refused to turn away from his plot, decades in the making by then. While Amidala led an alliance of Naboo resistance fighters and the Gungan Grand Army against the Trade Federation, the Senate voted Palpatine as its new leader. With his apprentice finally at the highest level in the Republic's government, Plagueis intended to share in the control of the executive branch once Palpatine proclaimed him Co-Chancellor. But Darth Sidious—who had subtly manipulated Plagueis into setting the stage for the Clone Wars—would have no such thing. Shortly before being sworn into office, Sidious manipulated Plagueis into becoming overly intoxicated. Once the Dark Lord was too incapacitated to defend himself, the apprentice tortured his Master with Force lightning before ultimately killing him, thus ending his long stint as a Sith apprentice.

The new Sith Master soon found himself without an apprentice. Darth Maul had been defeated during the Battle of Naboo. Although the Zabrak Sith assassin slew Qui-Gon Jinn, Maul's overconfidence led to his fall at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi. With Maul lost and apparently dead, Sidious traveled to his homeworld where he was welcomed by the victorious Naboo and Gungan forces. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine promised Queen Amidala that his term would usher in the restoration of the Republic's honorable principles; as Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith continued to carry out the Grand Plan that would eventually lead to his ascension as Galactic Emperor.

Regarding Darth Maul's replacement, Sidious was determined to ensure that Anakin Skywalker became his apprentice one day. For the time being, however, he was content to allow the Jedi Order to train the boy. Aside from his fascination with the Chosen One's unique potential, Sidious was reminded of his own youth by Skywalker's personality. The child&mdash;much like a young Palpatine from years ago&mdash;yearned for adventure and a life of significance, but resented authority and was rather skilled at hiding his anger. In the meantime, Sidious decided that the former Jedi Master Dooku would be a sufficient placeholder as an apprentice until Skywalker's fall to the dark side of the Force was completed.

The Clone Wars
Darth Tyranus, formerly Jedi Master Dooku, succeeded Darth Maul as Sidious's new apprentice. Shortly after pledging his allegiance to the Sith, Tyranus was tasked by his new Master with selecting an ideal candidate to become the template of the clone army. Tyranus's choice fell on a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. Throughout the decade that followed, while Fett oversaw the training of his clones on Kamino, Tyranus led a growing movement of disillusioned star systems on the path to secession from the Galactic Republic. Known as Count Dooku of Serenno, the Sith Lord's insurrection eventually included major corporations such as the Trade Federation, the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Techno Union.

In 22 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was entrusted with near dictatorial authority&mdash;reserved only for moments of crises&mdash;by the Senate in order to effectively counter the insurrection of the newly-created Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Chancellor then commissioned the clone troopers on Kamino as the Grand Army of the Republic. Furthermore, the members of the Jedi Order became high-ranking officers in the new military. After the first battle of the Clone Wars concluded in a victory for the Republic, Sidious assured Tyranus that everything proceeded on schedule, according to the Grand Plan.

In three years, the Clone Wars virtually engulfed the galaxy in conflict as Jedi-led clone forces fought against the Separatist Droid Army on countless fronts. At the same time, the Chancellor's political authority and public support increased along with the Republic's desperation to bring end to the war. By 19 BBY, the final phase of the Grand Plan came into effect. It began when Palpatine orchestrated his own kidnapping during a Separatist surprise attack on Coruscant itself. The Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker successfully liberated the Chancellor, but not before Skywalker killed Tyranus in cold blood at Palpatine's urging.

With Darth Tyranus dead and the Separatists on the verge of defeat, Palpatine subtly guided Anakin Skywalker further into the dark side of the Force. He eventually revealed his secret identity as Darth Sidious to Skywalker, knowing that the young Jedi would report the revelation to the Jedi High Council. Masters Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, Saesee Tiin and Agen Kolar confronted the Dark Lord of the Sith, but ultimately failed to arrest him. Their failure not only cost them their lives, but also led to Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side. Embracing his new role as a Sith, Skywalker was initiated into the Order of the Sith Lords by his new Master. Henceforth, the fallen Jedi Knight ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader.

Order 66 and the Great Jedi Purge
"Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy, and we shall have peace."

- Darth Sidious

Shortly after his anointment as a Sith Lord, Darth Vader returned to the Jedi Temple at the head of the 501st Legion, a famed unit noted for its elite clone troopers. While Sidious's new apprentice carried out Operation: Knightfall, the mission to exterminate all Jedi inside of the Temple, the Dark Lord issued Order 66&mdash;a contingency directive issued in the event of a Jedi Rebellion&mdash;to the clone commanders. Failing to foresee imminent betrayal, countless Jedi officers were ruthlessly gunned down by the clone troopers. Although a few Jedi survived, including Grand Master Yoda and General Kenobi, much of the rest of the Order was destroyed on Coruscant and various other locations throughout the galaxy.

By sunrise on Coruscant, Darth Sidious called for a special session of congress. Inside the Grand Convocation Chamber of the Senate Building, the Chancellor accused the Jedi Order of committing acts of rebellion, including an attempt on his own life. Hence, he labeled the Order's surviving members as enemies of the state, subject to summary execution upon discovery. What followed next was the Declaration of a New Order, which outlined the Republic's transition into the first Galactic Empire; a New Order ruled by the self-appointed Emperor Palpatine. After a thousand years of plots and patience, the Order of the Sith Lords achieved its two primary goals: the systematic purge of the Jedi Order and the rebirth of Sith galactic hegemony.

Though the Sith exacted their vengeance on the Jedi, the victory was somewhat hollow for Darth Sidious due to the near death of his apprentice. Darth Vader was confronted by his former Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, on Mustafar. Blinded by overconfidence in his own abilities, Vader sustained severe injuries that diminished much of his potential in the Force. The Emperor retrieved Vader and rebuilt his body, but the process ultimately turned Vader into a cyborg; a being more machine than man. Furthermore, he was forced to spend the rest of his life encased within an fully-concealing suit of armor&mdash;outfitted with life support technology&mdash;just to stay alive.

In spite of Darth Vader's weakened state, he still became the Emperor's chief enforcer and a much feared symbol throughout the Galactic Empire. Even still, however, Darth Sidious no longer felt that Vader was capable of developing into a powerful apprentice who was worthy to stand at a Sith Master's side. As such, Sidious was forced to tolerate his hobbled disciple as just another placeholder, like Tyranus before Vader, at least until another individual with exceptional abilities was discovered.

Galactic Empire
"In order to ensure our continuing security and stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire for a safe and secure society."

- Emperor Palpatine, Declaration of a New Order

Through the Galactic Empire, the Order of the Sith Lords controlled the known galaxy through military force and state-sponsored terror. Planets that resisted the New Order's policies were swiftly made examples of by the Empire's clone soldiers, newly dubbed Imperial stormtroopers. For more than two decades, Emperor Palpatine ruled the galaxy by imposing peace through oppression, and order through fear. The few remaining members of the Jedi Order disappeared into hiding; others were hunted down and exterminated.

But while Palpatine continued to impose his tyrannical regime on the citizens of the galaxy, the Order of the Sith Lords itself was once again undermined by the dynamic of the Rule of Two. Although seemingly loyal to the Emperor, Darth Vader harbored much anger at his Master and sought to overthrow his rule. For years, the Dark Lord personally trained a young Human orphan as his own Sith apprentice, effectively violating the Rule of Two in the process. The apprentice, codenamed Starkiller, was kidnapped by Vader shortly after his Jedi father was killed on Kashyyyk. Afterward, Starkiller spent years preparing for the day when he and his Master would overthrow Darth Sidious, thus allowing him to become a true Sith Lord.

However, Darth Vader proved unwilling to challenge his own Master's authority, at least not with Starkiller at his side. Once the apprentice fulfilled his purpose by bringing rebellious senators together in one location on Corellia, Vader betrayed Starkiller and apprehended the rebel leaders. In act of redemption for his former life as a Sith assassin, Starkiller defeated Darth Vader and rescued the senators, but ultimately fell during a struggle with Darth Sidious in the process. The apprentice's sacrifice resulted in the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, a galactic insurrection aimed at the overthrow of Palpatine and the restoration of democracy. Sidious, frustrated by the setback of Starkiller's demise, was also concerned that the Rebel Alliance&mdash;secretly created by himself and Vader through Starkiller's actions&mdash;would eventually destroy the Order of the Sith Lords unless every rebel was exterminated first.

The Galactic Civil War
Eventually, however, the Alliance to Restore the Republic arose to overthrow the Empire two years before the Battle of Yavin. The 21-year Galactic Civil War drew many into its fold, perhaps the most notable of whom were Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo, Vader's own children.

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 as his fourth apprentice. Neither goal was successful; on board the second Death Star at the Battle of Endor, Luke succeeded in redeeming his father, who turned on Palpatine and killed him by throwing him down the Death Star's reactor shaft.

The return of Anakin Skywalker, formerly Darth Vader, to the light side, 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."

Palpatine's return
But even death was not the end for Palpatine. Unlike his Sith predecessors, Palpatine had never intended to be replaced by an apprentice, expecting his Empire to rule the galaxy eternally, with only himself as its true leader. At an unknown point in time prior to his death at the Battle of Endor, Palpatine had found a way to cheat death by preserving his spirit after the death of his body. He arranged for a series of clones of himself to be created for his spirit to possess, in the event that he would perish. His primary supply of clones was kept on Byss, guarded by loyal Dark Jedi and immense genetically-altered guards, and maintained by a trusted private physician. After the destruction of the second Death Star, Palpatine's spirit was forced to journey in the maddening, bodiless existence of the void, eventually taking possession of the body of Emperor's Hand Jeng Droga. Though Droga went mad in the process, he was able to journey to Byss, where Palpatine was able to take possession of a clone of himself. There, on Byss, he would remain for years and would rebuild his strength and Empire.

Palpatine's apparent death at the Battle of Endor fragmented the Galactic Empire. Without an heir, opportunistic Moffs and other officers turned into warlords and set out to carve their own kingdoms wherever they could. This worked to the advantage of the New Republic, which succeeded in reclaiming much of the galaxy.

After Thrawn's death, the resurrected Emperor struck. Using his dark powers to create a powerful Force Storm, he swept Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to Byss. There, he revealed himself to Luke, and revealed the power of the dark side. Faced with an immortal foe, Skywalker did the unthinkable&mdash;in order to defeat the dark side from within, he knelt before Palpatine, and submitted himself as the Emperor's new Sith apprentice. Resurrected, Palpatine planned to replace the Galactic Empire with a "Dark Empire", a universe-spanning magocracy ruled through the dark side of the Force alone, without the need for regional governors or technological domination.

Though he and his loyal Imperial forces managed to briefly retake the galactic capital of Coruscant and wreak havoc on the galaxy for a year, the resurrected Palpatine's bodies started dying&mdash;for the treacherous Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax tampered with their genetic material. Palpatine died a final death on the planet Onderon, when dying Jedi Knight Empatajayos Brand, a survivor of the Jedi Purge, bound Emperor Palpatine's departing life essence to his own, taking the spirit with him as he became one with the Force. With Palpatine's death came the end of the Order of the Sith Lords.

Post-Palpatine Sith
Bane's Order died with Sidious on Onderon, though the Sith tradition continued with three separate self-proclaimed successors, each whom built their own successor-cult - Lumiya's Sith, which was founded by the former Emperor's Hand Lumiya, One Sith, which was founded by Darth Krayt, and the Lost Tribe of the Sith, which was descended from shipwrecked members of the Sith Empire. However, only Lumiya's Sith continued to use the Rule of Two.

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

- Darth Bane

In order to ensure the survival of the Sith, Darth Bane instituted the Rule of Two. Hence, only two Sith Lords were allowed to exist at any given time; the master and an apprentice. This new tenet was also meant to inspire the apprentice to murder the master, thus culling the weak from the Order and guaranteeing that only the strongest were fit to be Sith Lords. Both members of the Order held the title Dark Lord of the Sith and were required to adopt a Sith name, beginning with the title of Darth.

Sith Master

Sith Masters were the head of the Order. Only one master could exist at a time, and each was supposed to have only one apprentice to serve them. Notable Sith Masters included Darth Bane, Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious.

Sith apprentice

Sith apprentices were neophytes in the ways of the dark side of the Force. Although they were taught to embrace absolute submission during their training, apprentices also had a tendency to become utterly fixated on the power that the Master embodied as the senior Dark Lord of the Sith. A dynamic designed by Darth Bane led to a tradition in which the apprentice eventually killed the Master and usurped the role of leadership. Upon appointing an apprentice of their own, the cycle would be renewed as the new apprentice waited until his or her power eclipsed the Master.

Notable Sith apprentices included Darth Zannah and Darth Vader.

Sith Masters
"Choose someone as successor and you will inevitably be succeeded. Choose someone hungrier and you will be devoured. Choose someone quicker and you won't dodge the blade at your back. Choose someone with more patience and you won't block the blade at your throat. Choose someone more devious and you'll hold the blade that kills you. Choose someone more clever and you'll never know your end. Despite these cautions, an apprentice is essential. A Master without an apprentice is a Master of nothing."

- Darth Sidious, as a gatekeeper of the Telos Holocron

Members of the Order who attained the rank of Sith Master:
 * Darth Bane
 * Darth Zannah
 * Darth Cognus
 * Darth Vectivus
 * Darth Guile
 * Darth Gravid
 * Darth Gean
 * Darth Ramage
 * Darth Tenebrous's Master
 * Darth Tenebrous
 * Darth Plagueis
 * Darth Sidious

Sith Apprentices
"The urge to kill one’s superior is intrinsic to the nature of our enterprise. My unassailable strength gives rise to your envy; my wisdom fuels your desire; my achievements incite your craving....you must strive; you must demonstrate your worthiness, not merely to me but to the dark side. You must take the hatred you feel for me and transform it into power—the power to overcome, to forbid anything from standing in your path, to surmount whatever obstacle the dark side designs to test you."

- Darth Plagueis


 * Darth Zannah
 * Darth Cognus
 * Darth Gean
 * Darth Tenebrous
 * Darth Plagueis
 * Darth Sidious

Member of the Order who resigned or died before obtaining the rank of Master:
 * Darth Millennial
 * Darth Tyranus
 * Darth Vader

Secret Apprentices
Different from a Dark Jedi acolyte or a formal Sith apprentice, a secret apprentice was an individual who was introduced into the Order and trained by a Master to replace a failed apprentice, or by an apprentice in order to overthrow the Master. With the exception of Darth Maul, whom Darth Plagueis was aware of, the following apprentices were trained in absolute secrecy.
 * Darth Venamis
 * Darth Maul
 * Savage Opress
 * Starkiller
 * Starkiller (clone)
 * Dark Apprentice (clone)