Darth Zannah was a Dark Lord of the Sith and the Sith apprentice of Darth Bane. Zannah was trained to carry Bane's teachings and the Rule of Two forward after a war between the Sith and Jedi Orders.
Darth Bane, the Sith Master of Darth Zannah, reformed the Sith Order by creating the Rule of Two.
Approximately one thousand years prior to the Invasion of Naboo, the Sith Lord Darth Bane enacted the Rule of Two. This teaching mandated that there would only be two Sith at any given time; a master to embody power, and an apprentice to crave it. As part of the Rule of Two, Bane took on an apprentice, Darth Zannah, to whom he passed on his teachings.
Zannah escaped the notice of the Jedi Order. After Bane's defeat, his apprentice carried on the Rule of Two, which allowed the Sith to survive in secret while the Jedi falsely believed that the Sith had become extinct. Although the historical records were not accurate about the identity of Bane's apprentice or how Bane died, he supposedly died in a duel with Zannah on the Inner Rim world of Ambria, a pattern which would be repeated by almost all Sith thereafter.
Darth Sidious ascended to power by killing his master, Darth Plagueis, a millennium after Bane was killed by his apprentice.
Darth Sidious' book, The Secrets of the Sith recounted the history of the Sith Order, including its reformation under Darth Bane and his apprentice. Sidious praised Zannah's master as a great Sith Lord; he acknowledged Bane as the founder of a Sith line of succession that culminated in his rise to power as ruler of the Galactic Empire. Sidious also credited Bane and his apprentice for starting the Rule of Two, thereby ensuring the Sith Order's survival through a succession of Sith apprentices ascending to the power of the dark side by killing their masters, beginning with Bane's death by the hand of his own pupil. Though not all Sith apprentices were able to supplant their masters, Sidious successfully completed his apprenticeship by killing his master, Darth Plagueis.
Darth Zannah was Darth Bane's apprentice in Star Wars Legends.
Canonically, Darth Zannah was first mentioned, albeit indirectly, in the episode "Sacrifice," the thirteenth and final episode of sixth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Zannah was first identified by name in the magazine Star Wars Helmet Collection 2. In the days of Star Wars Legends, Darth Bane's apprentice was first mentioned in Terry Brooks' novelization for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. As the novelization was written before the identity of Zannah was established, it refers to Darth Bane's apprentice as "him." Brooks' novel was based on backstory notes by Star Wars creator George Lucas. The character of Darth Zannah originally appeared in the first issue of the comic series Star Wars: Jedi vs. Sith that was released on April 18, 2001.
- Star Wars Helmet Collection 2
- Star Wars: The Dark Side
- Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith