Darth Bane/Legends

"I am the Dark Lord who will restore the Sith to glory. They call me Bane."

- Darth Bane

Darth Bane, born under the name of Dessel on Apatros, was one of the most pivotal Dark Lords of the Sith. By the end of the New Sith Wars, Bane was one of the last of the legitimate Sith Lords and, as the only survivor of the Last Battle of Ruusan that signified the end of the war, reinvented the Sith order after its destruction. Bane's revolution included the founding of the Rule of Two, a structure that, in limiting the number of Sith and eliminating the infighting plaguing the order, would allow Bane's eventual successor, Darth Sidious, to finally triumph over the Jedi and the Galactic Republic.

Early life
"Hurst always said you were no good. He knew there was something wrong with you... Bane."

- Gerd

Born on Apatros in 1,026 BBY to the miner Hurst, the tall and skinny Dessel was often bullied by his father and the other miners. Dessel's earliest memory was of his father hitting him. Blaming his son for the death of his wife (who had died in childbirth) for his continued life on Apatros, Hurst considered Dessel the bane of his existence, so much so that he took to calling him "Bane" when he was in his drunken rages. It seems Hurst hated the fact his son was even alive. It was a nickname that stuck with his father and his miner friends, and for the young Dessel, it had hurt more than any of the physical beatings that his father had dealt him. In 1,013 BBY, at the age of thirteen, Dessel began to work in the cortosis mines of his world.

In the face of such adversity, the young Dessel was forced to fend for himself. He learned to ignore the constant jibes, threats and insults directed his way by his father and grew ever stronger as he worked in the deep cortosis mines. Yet even at this young age, he felt the calls of the Force and its dark side, and though he would not understand the part he had played until many years later, after one last and particularly brutal beating at the hands of his father, Dessel would use its power to kill him, envisioning a giant hand sqeezing his father's dark heart, literally willing Hurst to die.

After Hurst’s death, his friends had tried to continue with their harassment of Dessel, but the young miner would have none of it, and after he handed out dozens of beatings to them in the span of a month, going so far as breaking a man's jaw, his father’s old friends decided that it would better if they just left Dessel alone... most of the time.

The final straw came one day after Dessel had worked a double shift, coincidentally the fifth anniversary of Hurst's death. One of his father's friends, Gerd, decided that he would put Dessel in his place. While drunk, he attacked him, blaming him for his father's death. After they wrestled each other into a stalemate position, Gerd further angered him by calling him Bane, using his late father's taunt to push him over the edge. After subdoing Dessel in a lock where he couldn't see and Dessel couldn't hit his face, Gerd decided to try to gouge out Dessel's eye with a thumb. With a premonition granted by The Dark Side Of The Force, Dessel turned his head and bit down, severing Gerd's thumb.

This fight got him suspended from his mining job, but luckily a Republic cargo ship had arrived that day to pick up cortosis. He met up in the mining company-run casino in Groshik's cantina and proceeded to clean out the crew of the ship in a game of sabacc. His success, mixed with the dislike he displayed for the Republic, led a group of the crew members to attack. They could not defeat him however, and when the young ensign he had beat at sabacc came at him with a vibroblade. The only reason he didn't perish in that fight was because of another gift by the Dark Side Of the Force, revealing the blade as if it had an inner light. He disarmed the ensign and used the weapon to kill him.

With few options left, he used some contacts to smuggle him off the planet and into the Sith army.

New Sith Wars
"Now you get to see firsthand how the Brotherhood of Darkness deals with mutinous soldiers!"

- Ulabore

Dessel joined the Brotherhood of Darkness as a regular soldier and was a sergeant in a Sith unit known as the Gloom Walkers, campaigning against Republic forces at such battles as Phaseera. After a mutiny against his incompetent superior Ulabore at Phaseera, Dessel was sentenced to be court-martialed under Lord Kopecz, but was saved from this fate by the Dark Lord, who offered to take him to Korriban, where he enrolled at the Sith Academy.

Training on Korriban
"I think he might be the one we've been searching for. He could be the Sith'ari."

- Kopecz

Bane arrived at the Academy and immediately began to study the ways of the Sith under such Masters as Qordis and the blademaster Kas'im. Despite his late discovery of his Force powers he began to exceed many of the students who had been trained since birth.

Bane would, however, begin to abandon the archives he studied at the beginning of his training in favor of increased focus on physical and mental exercise. He defeated a Makurth student named Fohargh, who had previously beaten him. He killed his rival with the sheer power of the Force against Kas'im's instruction. This earned him the attention of Sirak, one of the Academy's most powerful students.



Things would begin to change for the worse however, when Bane realized that he had in fact been responsible for the death of his father years before. This revelation caused Bane to doubt his ability, and he began to lose his connection to the dark side. Realizing that unless he acted he would fall behind the other students, he rashly challenged Sirak, who proceeded to beat Bane within an inch of his life. Later while in recovery, Bane would wish that Sirak had killed him.

After his loss, Bane was denied the right to train with the other students and was consigned to learning what he could from the archives he had abandoned. It would be while studying them that he would learn more about the Sith and Darth Revan in particular. Bane began to question the direction the Brotherhood of Darkness had taken and why none of the current Sith Lords took the title Darth.

When Githany arrived, he saw his chance to reclaim his place among the other students and she in turn saw him as someone she could use against Sirak, her only real rival at the Academy. At the same time he took up lightsaber combat instruction from Kas'im in secret from Githany. Neither teacher was aware of the other, ensuring that Bane had an edge over both.

As his training progressed, Bane learned far more from the archives at the Academy than he thought possible, supplementing his knowledge of the Force with the teachings of the ancient Sith. In one of their secret tutoring sessions, Githany was amazed at the speed at which Bane not only learned to harness Force lightning, but that in a few short hours he was able to unleash a storm none of the other students (including her) could manage. Kas'im too noted how far Bane was coming with his skill in the art of the saber and believed that soon he may surpass Sirak.

Bane once again entered the challenge ring atop the Academy but this time easily beat Sirak, although he did not kill him. Following his victory, Kas'im presented Bane with the lightsaber that belonged to his master, a Sith named Na'daz who saved the blademaster from slavery on Ryloth. Kas'im also revealed that he killed his master in a personal test of skill and took his weapon as a reminder of what his master taught him.

Once again under the gaze of the Academy Masters, Qordis summoned Bane to his chambers and revealed to the apprentice that he has been aware for some time that Githany was teaching him. Qordis then told Bane that he must stop studying the Archives, something Bane refused to do. The young apprentice then left the Academy for the Valley of the Dark Lords in search of answers.

Bane came to the conclusion that the Brotherhood was flawed. Kaan placed the greater good of the order over the dark side as a whole. Many of the Sith Lords were weaker than Bane himself and yet they carry the title regardless. Bane also learned that Kaan himself forbade any Sith from taking the title Darth as he held that and that alone responsible for the infighting and jealousy that nearly destroyed the Sith thousands of years ago.

After a fruitless two weeks in the Valley, Bane returned empty handed and feeling foolish. He arrived just in time to learn that the students were bound for Ruusan and the battle there. He also nearly fell victim to a trap set by Githany and Sirak, but when Githany saw the power Bane had she changed sides and watched as Bane slew his rival as he begged for his life.

Bane did not leave for Ruusan with the rest of the students and Masters; instead he stole the Valcyn and made his way to Lehon, hoping to find there what he seeks the most: true understanding of the dark side.

Lehon and the holocron of Darth Revan
"The dark side is strong here. Far stronger than it ever was on Korriban. This is where we will find the power to destroy the Jedi&mdash;not in Kaan's Brotherhood!"

- Darth Bane

Bane landed on Lehon and immediately began his search for the Temple of the Ancients, breaking the will of a young rancor in the process and using it as his steed. He felt a much stronger connection to the dark side here than he did on Korriban, which only reinforced his belief that the then-extinct Rakata were the first race to harness the dark side eons before the Sith rose on Korriban.

Arriving at the Temple, he found the holocron of Darth Revan, from which he learned much more about the Sith of the past, formulating a way to ensure the survival of the Order. He would learn from Revan and even from the Brotherhood, and once he had destroyed the latter he would create a new and far stronger Order of the Sith Lords that would eventually destroy the Jedi.

Kaan, fearful of Bane and his intentions, dispatched Kas'im to kill his former student. While the Twi'lek Sith was an adept swordsman, he could not match Bane's power in the Force and was killed when his old pupil brought the Temple down on him with the aid of the Force and the dark side.

Bane sent a messenger drone to Ruusan, informing Kaan of Kas'im's death and handing the Sith Lord the weapon of his eventual demise, the incantation of the thought bomb, one of the many things he learned from Revan's holocron.

Near death on Ambria
"I am Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith. I will survive. At any cost."

- Darth Bane

By then, Kaan believed that victory was certain; with Pernicar dead there was nothing to blunt the antipathy that Hoth and Valenthyne Farfalla felt toward each other, while Farfalla and his reinforcements were sitting in orbit. Kaan received a message from a seemingly guilt-ridden Bane who wanted to join the Brotherhood. However, Githany believed that the Brotherhood no longer needed Bane and offered to kill him. Kaan agreed and she left to meet with Bane. What Kaan didn't share with Githany was the small package Bane sent as a peace offering, a piece of parchment with the ritual for the thought bomb written upon it.



Bane chose the barren world of Ambria to meet Kaan's envoy. Lake Natth, a body of black and poisonous water, had become the focus for the dark side energy on the planet, and Bane made his camp right on its shores. While Bane waited for Githany he considered a question he still could not answer: once he rid the galaxy of the Brotherhood, where would he find an apprentice worthy of the knowledge he had to impart? When Githany arrived they shared a passionate kiss, but Bane tasted the poison on her lips and realized that Kaan sent her to Ambria to kill him, although he didn't give that away. Seeing that Githany understood what makes the dark side strong, Bane wondered if she could become his apprentice.

He realized, though, that she believed too strongly in Kaan and the Brotherhood to accept his knowledge. What Bane didn't know was that Githany used a lesser poison to cover a far more powerful toxin, synox, used by many assassins throughout the galaxy. Weakened by the poison, Bane was unable to heal himself and traveled across one of the battlefields located on Ambria trying to drink in the suffering of those who died there. But the dark side was too faint and even Lake Natth was of no use, its dark side power locked in its cold, black depths by the Jedi. Falling into unconsciousness, Bane collapsed, close to death. A small boy named Mikki, along with his father and brothers scavenging the battlefield, found Bane's lightsaber. Seeing his chance, Bane used the Force to control the lightsaber and killed the boys one by one. In so doing, he drank in their father's horror and anguish, using it to cleanse the poison from his body and buy him time to find a permanent cure. Saving the father for last, Bane struck him down.

Bane eventually fought off the effects of the poison long enough to find a cure. Finding the healer, Caleb, on Ambria, Bane was at first confounded by his refusal to help him. Caleb had no fear of Bane, and was unafraid of any pain he could inflict. But when Bane found his daughter and threatened to kill her, Caleb relented and gave Bane his cure. Once healed, Bane decided not to kill Caleb or his child. Instead, he left Ambria more determined than ever to wipe out Kaan and his followers.

Ruusan and the destruction of the Sith
"The Brotherhood must be purged. The Sith must be destroyed and rebuilt."

- Darth Bane

Shocked by Bane's return, Kaan agreed to follow Bane's instructions to defeat the Jedi through the power of the dark side. Before the Sixth Battle of Ruusan, the Sith joined together in meditation&mdash;and Darth Bane unleashed a wave of destruction upon the unsuspecting Jedi. Sensing the smothering darkness in Bane's heart, however, Lord Kaan broke the circle, intending to finish off the Jedi with more conventional tactics.

Bane traveled back to the Sith camp to continue his plan to wipe the Sith out. Arriving back in the deserted camp, Bane was confronted by Qordis who offered to help him overthrow Kaan and seize control of the Brotherhood. Disgusted that Qordis did not understand that the Brotherhood had to be destroyed for the survival for the Sith, Bane used the dark side to choke his former teacher to death, then ordered the Sith fleet to quit their blockade and engage the Jedi.

Lord Hoth and his army ran in almost blind fear of the inferno that followed at their heels. As they emerged from the forest they were met by the Sith, the first ones through simply being cut down by a torrent of blaster fire. As the Jedi rallied and fought back, Hoth knew that the real trap had yet to be sprung, as the Dark Lords were absent from the battle. At that very moment they arrived in their fliers and began to blast the Jedi with heavy cannons, as the Jedi fell back Hoth resolved to make a worthy last stand.

Just as Kaan prepared to kill Hoth with a volley of cannon fire, Farfalla and his gunships arrived and forced the Sith to withdraw. On the ground the last remnants of the Sith army were pinned down and forced to surrender, while Farfalla himself landed and was taken by surprise as Hoth embraced him in a great hug. Bane openly admitted that he ordered the Sith fleet to attack the Jedi and break their blockade; in their confrontation Bane actually made Kaan believe that he was manipulating his mind just as Kaan had manipulated the other Sith Lords. Believing that Bane now answered to him, Kaan led the Sith into the caves of Ruusan where he intended to lure the Jedi into them and unleash the thought bomb. Hoth and Farfalla discovered where Kaan was heading, but not the reason why and rallied their troops to follow.

Taking stock of his situation, Kaan gathered the remaining Sith Lords and prepared to unleash the thought bomb on the pursuing Jedi. Only Githany suspected that something was amiss with the entire situation, but she took part in the ritual nonetheless. As she began to chant with the rest of the Sith, she wrenched her mind free and was at last able to realize that something was terribly wrong and fled the cave.

The Sith troops guarding the cave entrance offered only token resistance and instead surrendered in mass to the Jedi. Kopecz, wounded and dying, told Farfalla of Kaan's plan after demanding a quick death at the hands of the Jedi Master. When Hoth arrived, Farfalla told him what he had discovered. Hoth believed that he would never leave Ruusan alive and asked for volunteers to undertake a suicide mission into the cave to force Kaan to detonate the thought bomb and wipe themselves out. Choosing exactly ninety nine others to accompany him, Hoth led them into the tunnels and certain death.

Hoth found Kaan, but was unable to prevent him from actually detonating the thought bomb. The wave of destruction killed Hoth, Kaan, the Jedi in the cave, Githany and every Sith Lord still there. Many miles away, Farfalla and the other Jedi felt Hoth's death and assembled a team to finish off any Sith survivors.

Bane, also many miles away, now knew his plan had worked, with the Jedi unaware of his existence they would think the Sith wiped out, when in fact he would carry on the Order in his own fashion. Still, one question troubled him: where would he find an apprentice to pass on what he had learned?

In the aftermath of the battle, a small girl named Rain who somehow survived was awakened by her bouncer companion, Laa. Her peace was cut short when two Jedi killed the Bouncer in front of her. Consumed with anger, she used the Force to kill both of them. Bane found her sometime later and knew that in her he had found an apprentice worthy of his knowledge.

Bane survived along with Rain—who revealed her true name Zannah—and they stumbled across her cousin Darovit, who tried to stop Bane. Zannah caused Darovit's hand to explode, and Bane questioned her on why she allowed him to live; she replied that she was still young. As a final test, Bane told Zannah to find her own way off Ruusan. They would meet on Onderon, and then, and only then, would she be worthy of joining the Sith.

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

- Darth Bane



After leaving 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 former 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 led 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 Galactic Republic until the time was right for them to reveal themselves to the Jedi once more.

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.

At some point in his life, he made a holocron that eventually fell into the hands of Darth Krayt. In 137 ABY, his holocron was accessed (along with those of Darth Nihilus and Darth Andeddu) on Korriban by Krayt, so Krayt could learn from Bane's experience with the parasitic orbalisks how to survive his own infection by Yuuzhan Vong organisms. Bane chastised Krayt for not following the Rule of Two, telling Krayt his "Rule of One" would be the very undoing of the Sith itself.

Contradiction
In Path of Destruction, Bane's lightsaber is described as being "hooked" similar to that of Count Dooku's. However, in almost every illustration, Darth Bane seems to carry a standard-hilt lightsaber.

Behind the scenes

 * The character of Darth Bane, and his creation of the Rule of Two, were created by George Lucas as part of his backstory of the Sith he developed for the prequel trilogy. Bane's history and other details were elaborated upon by further expanded universe writers, especially Kevin J. Anderson, Darko Macan, and Drew Karpyshyn and also tied in with the battle of Ruusan known from the Dark Forces saga.
 * It is also important to note that Darth Bane is a good candidate to be the Sith'ari, because he destroyed the Brotherhood of Darkness and the generic Sith Order, and replaced it with the Rule of Two, an event, which, eventually, led to the rise of the Empire under the rule of Darth Sidious and the near-extermination of the Jedi.
 * Darth Bane was a practioner of Djem So.
 * The mention of the Vaapad Lightsaber combat form is a continuity error, since that form was created by Jedi Master Mace Windu a millennium later. It was later stated by the author Drew Karpyshyn that he meant Juyo. He was up late when he wrote Vaapad; he didn't realize his mistake until it was too late.

Appearances

 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Jedi vs. Sith
 * Bane of the Sith
 * All for You
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace novelization
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novelization
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Resurrection
 * Star Wars: Galaxies
 * Star Wars Legacy 5: Broken, Part 4