Rule of Two/Legends

"When your power eclipses mine I will become expendable. This is the Rule of Two: one Master and one apprentice. When you are ready to claim the mantle of Dark Lord as your own, you must do so by eliminating me."

- Darth Bane to Darth Zannah The Rule of Two doctrine was the guiding principle of the Order of the Sith Lords after the internecine New Sith Wars. It replaced the practices of Lord Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness, which claimed equality among Sith Lords and forbade the use of the title "Darth".

The Rule of Two was instituted by Darth Bane, a former student at Kaan's Sith academy, in response to what he viewed as inevitable, self-destructive infighting within the Sith Order. The Rule of Two states that there would be only two Sith at one time, a Master and an Apprentice, guaranteeing that when the Apprentice became capable of usurping the Master, they would be worthy of the title. The former would take the latter's life and role, and begin the cycle anew. Both Master and Apprentice were considered to be Sith Lords.

The practice survived until the death of both Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, although it was later reintroduced by Lumiya's Sith until the death of Darth Caedus. After the death of Caedus, the Rule of Two was then replaced by the Rule of One doctrine of Darth Krayt and his One Sith.

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

- Darth Bane



To avoid the seemingly inevitable clash between power hungry Sith, Darth Bane sought to reinvent the Sith Order with only two members&mdash;a Sith Master, and an Apprentice.

Bane formulated the concept of the Rule of Two after discovering a holocron in the Temple of the Ancients on Lehon. The holocron belonged to the ancient Sith Lord Darth Revan, who was the first to realize the flawed logic of training more then one apprentice, and refused to train more than that, believing those who did so were fools. Bane learned from Revan's holocron that, in times past, the students would seek to destroy their master and claim the title by banding together and then destroying the master with their combined power. The students would then inevitably turn on each other and fight over the power they had joined forces to get, this would leave the order with less numbers and a less powerful master. This process would then continue, leaving an even weaker master than the previous one at the end of each cycle. Though Revan's Sith Empire did indeed include a Sith Academy and the training of multiple Warriors, Acolytes, and other practitioners, there were only two true Sith Lords: Revan and Malak. This is similar to the older Sith Empire of Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma, though the two were equals instead of Master and Apprentice and Kun trained multiple apprentices simultaneously. With this lesson from Darth Revan's Holocron in mind, Bane surmised that he could avoid further intra-Sith conflict by applying Revan's philosophy to the Sith Order as a whole, limiting the Order to only one pairing of Master and Apprentice.

His course of action decided, Bane destroyed the old Sith Order, the Brotherhood of Darkness, by tricking Lord Kaan into using a Force technique known as the Thought bomb, killing every Sith Lord in the Order but Bane. Bane then hid from the Jedi and invoked the Rule of Two. Through these actions, Bane fulfilled the prophecy of the Sith'ari and ended the New Sith Wars.

For nearly 1,000 years, the Sith watched and waited, doing their best to destabilize the Galactic Republic without revealing themselves. Around 188 BBY, during the Dark Jedi Conflict, Kibh Jeen told the Jedi that the Sith had survived and were operating under the Rule of Two, though his warnings were ignored or passed off as the rantings of a madman. Finally, one Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, under the guise of Senator Palpatine, was elected Supreme Chancellor and masterminded a devastating galactic war involving the Republic, and, as Emperor of the newly formed Galactic Empire, brought the Galaxy under the control of the Sith, bringing about their foretold revenge.

"Always two, there are. No more, no less. A master, and an apprentice."

- Yoda

It is worth noting that Sidious broke the Rule of Two at least twice: once by training Darth Maul while still under the tutelage of Darth Plagueis; and secondly, by taking on two apprentices at once, and in the form of two Jedi: Count Dooku, dubbed Darth Tyranus, and the Fosh Jedi Vergere. However, Vergere was said to be merely a candidate and not a "true" apprentice. It should also be noted that this information derives from Lumiya's account to Jacen Solo, and is the only known source. In the latter case, Vergere left Palpatine's instruction, while in the former, Sidious corrected his violation true to Sith form: by murdering his Master. It also appears that Sidious approached Tyranus prior to Maul's death, although details on the timing are vague. However, these could be considered careful precautions to ensure the continuation of the Sith, even if they did, technically, violate the Rule in its strictest form.

Sidious, Tyranus, and Vader trained and employed a number of Dark Jedi and other Force-sensitive agents such as the Dark Acolytes, the Inquisitorius and the Dark Side Elite. As these agents were not taught the secrets of the Sith and were considered merely acolytes, not apprentices, they did not consider this a violation of the Rule of Two. However, the fact that Tyranus sought to replace the Jedi Order with a Sith army, the so-called Fist of the Empire, indicated that he had envisioned the abolition of the Rule of Two once the Sith took over the galaxy. Much like Sidious had done by with Darth Maul, Vader also took on a secret apprentice of his own.

Darth Bane, however, overlooked one possibility: that one of the Sith Lords may be redeemed. When Darth Vader killed Sidious, it appeared that there were no others to carry on the Order's traditions and teachings, and the Rule of Two was veritably destroyed. Once again, the Sith had destroyed themselves&mdash;or so it seemed. Another secret apprentice of Darth Vader, Lumiya declared herself Dark Lady of the Sith and took a succession of apprentices&mdash;at least Flint, Carnor Jax and Jacen Solo (later known as Darth Caedus)&mdash;apparently following the Rule of Two, although she may also have been connected to Darth Krayt, who became a Sith during this time and abandoned the Rule of Two. She did demand that the last of her known apprentices, Darth Caedus, Vader's grandson, would take one apprentice himself, which he did, he took the Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila as his sole apprentice weeks after Lumiya was killed by Luke Skywalker.

However, after the Galactic Civil War, the New Republic and New Jedi Order were opposed by the Disciples of Ragnos, which nearly resurrected the spirit of Marka Ragnos on Korriban in the Valley of the Dark Lords. This institution broke the Rule of Two, as it had been broken by the Prophets of the Dark Side.

By the year 130 ABY a new Sith Order had risen to take the place of that of Darth Bane's Order. However, this Order has abolished the Rule of Two and replaced it with the Rule of One, with one Dark Lord of the Sith representing the Order itself, and many Lords, acolytes and minions at his service.

Behind the scenes
Chronologically, Darth Rivan predates Darth Bane, the creator of the Rule of Two, yet one of the traps in Darth Rivan's fortress, as shown in A Mon Alone, is based on the Sith adherence to the Rule of Two. However, Rivan did not pre-date Darth Revan, and in fact based his name off of the historical texts of Revan, whose teachings about apprentices inspired Darth Bane to create the Rule of Two.

Appearances

 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Jedi vs. Sith
 * Darth Bane: Rule of Two
 * Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars Purge: Seconds to Die
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Betrayal
 * Bloodlines
 * Tempest
 * Exile
 * Sacrifice
 * Inferno
 * Fury
 * Revelation
 * Invincible
 * Crosscurrent
 * Backlash
 * Star Wars: Legacy 5: Broken, Part 4
 * Star Wars: Legacy 18: Claws of the Dragon, Part 5